Ukulele Building & Lutherie Schools and Classes

Vermont Instruments is a teaching lutherie begun in 1983 offering private and small group tutorials by appointment. Students design and build their own instruments from raw materials. Acoustic and structural design, jig-making, inlay and repair are woven into a personalized course of study to accommodate each person’s interest, skill level, and experience. Courses are designed to minimize the need for expensive equipment and specialized jiggery. It is expected that a student can continue their own creative work using small-scale power tools and common hand tools.

Folk Schools have been operating in Scandinavia since the middle of the 19th century. Folk schools developed in during a period of economic and political changes in Europe. The aim of these schools was to give people an opportunity to develop new skills as their agricultural opportunities dwindled and moved to the cities.

DaSilva Ukulele Co. in Berkeley, California is the workshop of Michael DaSilva where he makes high-quality , handcrafted ukuleles. You will also find the full-line of RISA Solid and Electric instruments and inexpensive beginner ukes. The shop is also host to house concerts, ukulele lessons and workshops, the occasional jam session and meetings of the Berkeley Ukulele Club. Check the Calendar for events.

We are a school for the teaching of Ukulele making to those who have both the interest and desire to build handmade ‘ukuleles.

A prophetic photograph of me age 4 used to form the background, Bowman style, to my labels. Clutching my plastic Woolworth‘s ukulele, standing in the tartan kilt of my mother’s Scottish clan, in front of the wall my dad built, is a constant reminder that I really was born to do this job! My whole philosophy is one of care in the selection of materials and attention to detail. I learned these qualities from my toolmaker father whose exacting eye taught me to take notice of the small things. I remember when our neighbors painted their houses; it took a couple of days with a gallon can of Dulux. It always needed re-doing a couple of years later. Dad took a week applying 3 coats of Mangers lead based oil paint over 2 coats of red lead primer. He only did it once. It lasted years.

The company’s founder and instrument designer, Wolfgang Kater, began building guitars at the age of 12, and soon branched out to lutes, viola da gambas and other small, historical keyboard instruments. At the inquisitive age of six he had apprenticed an elderly gentleman who taught him cabinet-making, machining, and the use and fabrication of tools. The Wolfelele ukeleles are the results of the combination of the precision required for each of these trades, his natural artistic abilities, and his engineering mind.

The premise of the Four Hour Day is real simple - we all are working too hard. We are giving up our one wild and precious life in to chase economic success, only to find that our large TVs and new vehicles really aren’t making us happy. We take our own busyness as evidence that we are being productive and useful, when too often we’re just tiring ourselves out enough to ignore those gnawing doubts.

Join the growing movement of home and project guitar builders and start making sawdust! Blues Creek Guitars will help you build acoustic guitars step by step. Our wide selection of acoustic guitar kits will help streamline your project, and our equipment and knowledge base will get you across the finish line.

Crimson Guitars makers of boutique guitars, luthiery tools, jigs and training.