About

This class has been canceled.

Build a tenor ukulele in this six-week class — a great first luthier project or an ideal opportunity to sharpen luthier skills you already have.

This class will meet two evenings a week. At the first session, you will practice hand tool skills needed for making instruments. Then you and your fellow students will spend one session making jigs and cam clamps for use by this and later luthier classes at BARN. The remaining five weeks will be devoted to building the instruments. The instructor will guide you through fabricating the parts, bending the sides, cutting the sound hole, adding stringing, and assembling and finishing your ukulele. The class will use pre-made neck and fretboards, and a BARN member will cut the bridges on a CNC router.

Details:

• A $65 materials fee will be added when you register and pay. This covers all the wood and other parts needed for your ukulele, as well as shop supplies. Tops will be AA-grade Sitka spruce.
• Open to beginners 14+ years old. However, some hand tool experience is definitely a plus.
• The instructor will distribute a schedule showing the steps to be covered at each session. To stay on schedule, you are likely to need to spend additional time working on your ukulele during the woodshop's open studio times. The instructor estimates that most students will need to devote two to four hours a week to this, in addition to the class hours.
  

Instructors: Mike Morgan, a member of the Woodworking Studio's steering committee, will teach the first two sessions. Alan Simcoe will teach the remaining sessions. Simcoe is a maker of guitars, ukuleles and other stringed instruments. He and his wife, Debby, own Village Music on Bainbridge Island. Besides showcasing his custom instruments, the shop offers music lessons and instrument repairs. Simcoe also performs with his Latin jazz band, The Cuban Heels. He was named an Island Treasure in 2009.