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Start them building young

Hi all, in the recent thread of Jonno's "Where is your work space" there was discussion about involving our kids in our passion. I mentioned there that I had done that in the past for my kids, and not so recently my grandkids and my mates son.

I cant find all the photos but I thought I'd post some I found in the mean time.

The young lady with the Dulcimer was around 10 years old when she built this prize winning instrument. She is now very grown up with her own flat, a car and a good profession. The dulcimer was entered in a local craft competition and won a first prize. The organisers thought that a person that age could not have built it so they put in the adult section, thinking I had entered it, and it still won first prize. Courtney asked me not to say anything as the adult prize money was far more than she would have got. She did all the work, cutting, sanding, fretting etc. she even designed the soundholes.

The biscuit tin banjo was built by her sister, aged 5 years at the time, and did all the work. She is the manager of a jewellery store now, but on my last visit she showed me she still had the banjo.

Cheers Taff

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on July 31, 2016 at 11:26am

Hi again, here are some photos of the building of a solid body guitar by my then 9 year old grandson Jake.

He did all the hands on work himself, and he still has his hands [and fingers], from machining, fretting, and setting up to applying the finish.

It turned out to be a very playable guitar. I love to see young folks challenged and watch how they work through the different stages. I do at times modify jigs and machines to make the tasks safer and to get a good result without too much intervention from me. I will ask them how they might tackle a job before I show them how I would do it.

You can see a bit of the guitar in the photo of the dulcimer above, notice the Show Champion sash awarded to this guitar in a craft show.

Thanks for looking Taff

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Permalink Reply by Scott W on July 31, 2016 at 3:35pm

Nice! I have been fortunate that one of my twin daughters has really enjoyed making instruments with me (they both play various instruments). We've made guitars, a fantastic gas can banjo of her design, and now that she is on college, a plethora of ukes on her summer break. Money can't that :)

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on July 31, 2016 at 5:52pm

Hey Scott, its great having young folk in the workshop, looks like your young ladies are using some good skills there.

I hoped this thread might bring some young budding luthiers out of the woodwork [no pun intended] keep them coming, it might inspire others to give young folks a go.

Because the show judges did not believe my granddaughter built that dulcimer we videoed the second build.

Taff