Acoustic Guitar Project at SLHS

Jan 08, 2009

Students Adam Smith and Troy Clelland with Geoffrey Murray (centre).

High school students aren’t commonly known to continue their school work over the holidays, but some at Sharbot Lake HS did just that this past Christmas.

Students in the construction technology class under the instruction of Geoff Murray are building acoustic guitars and many are eager to get their projects finished so that they can…yes… play them.

The challenging project is being offered to students from grade 9-12 and was developed by Geoff Murray with the help of music teacher Claudio Valentini.

Recognizing the popularity of guitar playing in the student population (it’s by far the largest of Valentini’s music classes in the school), Murray and Valentini thought the acoustic guitar project would be a way to engage the students by giving them a technical construction experience while simultaneously providing them with a finished, usable object that they can take home, be proud of, and grow with.

Valentini explains, “For some people playing a guitar that they themselves have built is a very personal kind of experience and they can fine tune it the way they like it.”

Murray added, “Local guitar maker Bob Miller has been cheering us on all of the way. He’s lent us books and blades, has supplied some of the fretting materials, and advised us about certain production techniques. Miller also visited the school, giving advice and encouragement.”

Students can choose the acoustic guitar project in lieu of writing the final theoretical exam, since the project constitutes an in depth study. It teaches them hands- on construction processes, finishing skills and requires a concrete understanding of various related materials, design practices and terminology.

Unlike guitar projects that exist in other schools, Murray’s project is based on the design of a standard Yamaha C40 style acoustic guitar. The students are constructing their guitars from door skin mahogany, an affordable material that keeps the cost down to $30, whereas other guitar projects can cost $300 - $400.

The students begin with the tricky technique of shaping the thin pieces of mahogany to form the sides of the guitar body using the hot post technique. Thin strips of mahogany are dampened with water and bent over a hot cylindrical container that has been heated up with a propane blowtorch. The process must be slow and steady so that the wood does not crack.

Once shaped the pieces are lined with purling and glued up. Top and bottom body pieces are cut and then glued together. The neck is constructed and attached and later the frets are drawn in, grooved out and mounted in place along with strings, and tuning pegs.

Once construction is complete the guitar can be painted and finished. On the first day back at class, Murray demonstrated air brush painting to his students as a finishing technique that they can apply to their guitars. The students’ projects are all at various stages of production and they immediately took up where they left off before the Christmas break.

Grade 12 student Troy Leland, who plays the guitar and is in his second year in the shop program, began chiseling out the neck of his guitar prior to gluing it up to the body. “You want to make sure it [the neck] fits properly and is really straight. It has to be all one piece so that it sounds nice,” he said

I asked Troy what he likes about this project.

“It’s something that I can play that I made,” he said. “Playing guitar is like a passion to me. So just being able to say I made this myself and to be able to play it is great.”. He also said that this would not be the last guitar that he makes.

Grade 11 student Kris Newlove worked over the holidays on his guitar at home, making the inner supports and gluing them up and shaping the neck. He took extra precaution in building the neck to ensure its stability. “I placed the grains two different ways to prevent warping. I’ve worked on it so far for 10 hours but I am working very slowly and carefully and trying to be very precise and to get everything just right.”

Adam Smith similarly is at a critical point in construction and is gluing on the purling, the flexible band of notched pieces that the top and bottom pieces of the guitar body are glued to.

Once constructed and finished the project does not end there. Students can also design and make cases or bags for their guitars in Geoffrey Murray’s fabric course, “Anything Fabric.”

Like all good ideas, the project is taking on a life of its own and plans are in the works to continue the guitar project into other areas of the school.

Science teacher David Gervais is planning a coffee house at the school at a later date that will feature students playing on the acoustic guitars they made themselves.