1. Building acoustic guitars will be a "doable" thing at my school

• We have the interest and support from the departmental faculty who champion guitar building (me, the chair, and others) and from across the academy, especially from faculty in the Bluegrass, Old Time and Country Music Studies whose students have a real need for instruction in instrument setup and repair and access to affordable instruments early in their academic careers.
• We have (or can make) appropriate laboratory space (i.e., the Wood Technologies Lab in Wilson-Wallis) for building activities and specialized tooling storage for 4 to 6 full stations (radiused bases, gobar decks and rods, sanding stations, routers and bases of different sizes, etc.).

2. Implementation will require a good bit of funding from numerous sources

• We will be pursuing funding from internal sources (i.e., ETSU Instructional Development Committee grant—$5K max; departmental fee expenditures; etc.) and external sources (STEM Guitar/guitarbuilding.org Acoustic "Implementation Plan" (primarily for specialized tooling and fixtures); the ETSU Foundation; College of Business and Technology fund-raising; local industry, etc.).
• We will target a minimum number of four (4) workstations to a maximum of six (6) workstations to accommodate efficient class sizes and curricular flow. We currently envision offering three (3) one (1) credit classes for Acoustic Guitar Building offered at the 1xxx or 2xxx level that would last five (5) weeks (i.e., three (3) sections per semester). Class size would then be limited by the number of workstations that can be used simultaneously (i.e., 4 or 6) for total semester enrollment (for FTE) of 12 to 18 students).
• If we can create a multidisciplinary class offering (a "cross listed course") in conjunction with the BOTCMS program (or, for that matter, the ETSU Dept. of Music), we can expand the course offering to a full three (3) credit hour course to include both guitar building and instruction (theory and instruction). This will generate revenue for the programs sending students to the course as well as offer students across the academy exposure to the various engineering technology program offerings (majors and minors).

3. With our various CAD/CAM/CNC assets and experience gained in offering over eight (8) years of designing and building electric guitars within the Engineering Technology (ET) curriculum , we will have both the infrastructure and an avenue for growth to expand or efforts into other stringed instruments (e.g., mandolins, banjos, ukuleles, etc.).

• The fist phase will be to (a) accumulate the necessary tooling for building acoustic instruments and (b) gain experience by building NCME Storefront-provided BBT Acoustic Guitar kits, until we achieve an appropriate level of comfort with numerous faculty in different disciplines.
• Then we can expand into new areas as appropriate.

Extra Takeaway:

The competence and experience of our instructors; the tooling/individualized workstations provided by the NSF grant, and the excellent Pennridge woodworking lab facilities and infrastructure were all vital in our ability to pull this thing off in the limited time we had available.

Just as important, the behind the scenes work in preparation for this Acoustic Build workshop—specifically (a) Doug Hunt's design and continuing optimization of laser cut bracing; (b) the Sinclair technicians' design and production of specialized fixtures and jigs for neck pocket routing and bridge location and drill; and (c) the ready-to-assemble Acoustic Guitar Kit parts provided by the grant's production partner, Taylor Guitars—was just phenomenal and much appreciated.

<- Back to Acoustic Build Home Back to Skills Page Continue to Bill's Big Problem ->