Spencer  Acoustics

About 20 years ago I was in the same spot as you are right now.  I began to think about the possibility of building hand made guitars from scratch.  At first it seemed like a ridiculous thought.  But after reading my first lutherie book on making a hand made guitar, I found the whole process fascinating.   To think that I could be cutting, carving and shaping wood into what would become a usable guitar was a really cool thought.  At the same time, it felt almost as if I was holding 3 magic beans in my hand.  I wasn't convinced that I could really build a guitar that sounded good or even looked good.   But the dream would not die.  I began researching, buying books, buying guitar parts, watching videos, and reading all the ridiculous debates in the lutherie forums but I DID nothing.

 

I thought about it for years.  I bought more parts, pieces and tone wood.  I read a lot more books.  I watched videos, I debated on the forums, but I still DID nothing.  Well, I put together "kits" but that isn't really building, at least not what I considered to be true lutherie work.

 

What I finally realized is that building a hand made guitar would be so much easier with some sort of guidance.  I wished that there was someone to take me step-by-step through the building process.  Someone that would explain potential problems.  I wanted someone to show me how to fix my mistakes.  Someone that could show me the little tricks that only an experienced builder would know.  I wanted to build a guitar that not only looked good but sounded great.  I was looking for perfection.  After all, who wants to put in all that time and effort only to end up with a wall hanger?

 

Well, back then there was not anyone around to help.  So I finally just started building.  I built my first guitar (and it is still one of my favorite guitars to play!!) and found out that guitar building was really not that tough!  So I built another, and another, and another....

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Over the years I have learned the guitar building process.  I have discovered the potential problems.  I have learned how to fix my mistakes.  My students eagerly taught me many more mistakes.  Their mistakes were usually quite creative and much different than my mistakes.  That has really been very helpful in learning different ways to do things to prevent those same mistakes from happening again.  Now I know most of the tricks experienced builders know (I still learn all the time).  I can now build guitars that not only look better than factory guitars but they sound far better as well.  You can do it as well.  What are you waiting for?

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My videos and my classes are designed to show you all the tricks I have learned.  I'll help you avoid potential problems, fix mistakes, show you alternative ways to do most tasks, show you tricks to save you time AND money, tell you what tools you need to have now vs the tools that are nice to have someday and tons of other helpful things. 

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You can do this.  It is not rocket scientology or some medical voodoo, it is simply woodworking.