Intro to Building Stringed Instruments
Learn about building guitars, violins, ukuleles and potentially other stringed instruments at BARN in this free session.
Details
- Clay Levit, who has taught violin building.
- Neil Miller, who has taught acoustic guitar building.
- Doug Salot, who assisted with those classes and is ready to teach ukulele building.
Class Policies
- Students 14 and older are welcome.
- Wear closed-toe shoes.
Instructor
Clay Levit owned and operated Fiddler’s Green Music Shop, a stringed instrument store in Austin, Tex., for 15 years. He began learning violin building at the Violin Craftsmanship Institute in New Hampshire and studied varnishing with Joe Robson in Ohio. He loves the combination of art and science inherent in the craft of building violins or fiddles. Clay makes fiddles and does repairs in his workshop on Bainbridge Island. When he’s not making fiddles, you might find him playing Irish fiddle music in a pub session!
Instructor
Some 40 years ago, Neil’s fascination was captured by a “taterbug” mandolin hanging on the wall of his college professor. And, as he put it, he was powerless to resist copying it. Soon to follow were several “flatiron” mandolins and other instruments. He was hooked. In 2001, he built his first carved instrument and became possessed. After studying and playing mandolins, from the classic Gibson oval holes and Loars to their modern copies, he fell in awe of the beauty and complexity of the art form begun by Orville Gibson in the late 1800s — the arch-top A and F-style mandolin. Over the years, Neil has built many other instruments on request, including acoustic steel-string guitars, electric guitars, resophonic guitars and ukuleles. He has used local woods and collaborated with local luthiers wherever he has lived — Indiana, Uganda, Michigan, Texas, and Tanzania. He and his wife, Christy, moved to Tacoma in 2024 to be near their two children and two granddaughters. Neil was introduced to BARN by a customer, and it has led to a number of great collaborations! Check out his website: MillerAcoustics.com
Instructor
Doug will happily talk your ear off about CNC routers, Fusion 360, Arduino, little robots, guitars, ukuleles, and CBGs. He has taught classes at BARN on most of these subjects, but these days he prefers to simply make stuff.
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