Profession guitar maker

Guitar makers create and assemble parts to build guitars according to specified instructions or diagrams. They work wood, measure and attach strings, test quality of strings and inspect the finished instrument.

Personality Type

• Enterprising / Conventional
• Realistic / Artistic

Knowledge

• Wood cuts

  Different ways of cutting wood, across the grain or parallel with it, and radial or tangential to the core. The behaviour of cuts of wood under different circumstances and the optimal cut for a given purpose. Influence of special attributes of the wood, like knots or defects.

• Metalworking

  The process of working with metals to create individual parts, assemblies, or large-scale structures.

• Types of guitars

  There are two main guitar categories, namely electric and acoustic. This last category contains a large number of subcategories such as classical, flat-topped, steel string or flamenco guitars. Electric guitars can have hollow, solid or semi-hollow bodies and the vibration of the steel strings is converted into signals that are then fed to an amplifier.

• Types of strings

  Vibrating elements that generate sounds in string instruments. They can be classified into two categories, namely the decorative and the wound strings, and they can be made of different materials such as steel, gut, silk or nylon. Winding materials include aluminium, chrome steel, silver, gold and copper.

• Tuning techniques

  Tuning pitches and techniques and musical temperaments for the various instruments.

• Musical instruments materials

  The characteristics of composite materials, felts, glues, leathers and skins, metals and precious metals, woods and wood derivatives to create musical instruments.

• Musical instruments

  The different musical instruments, their ranges, timbre, and possible combinations.

Skills

• Produce guitar components

  Choose the appropriate tonewood, materials and tools, and build the different guitar components such as the sound board, fretboard, headstock, neck and bridge.

• Create smooth wood surface

  Shave, plane and sand wood manually or automatically to produce a smooth surface.

• Decorate musical instruments

  Create designs on musical instruments by using methods such as embossing, piercing, painting, woodworking, weaving, and other methods.

• Sand wood

  Use sanding machines or hand tools to remove paint or other substances from the surface of the wood, or to smoothen and finish the wood.

• Manipulate wood

  Manipulate the properties, shape and size of wood.

• Create musical instrument parts

  Design and create parts such as keys, reeds, bows, and others for musical instruments.

• Maintain musical instruments

  Check and maintain musical instruments.

• Tune stringed musical instruments

  Tune any parts of stringed musical instruments that are off-key, by using various tuning techniques.

• Apply a protective layer

  Apply a layer of protective solutions such as permethrine to protect the product from damage such as corrosion, fire or parasites, using a spray gun or paintbrush.

• Join wood elements

  Bind wooden materials together using a variety of techniques and materials. Determine the optimal technique to join the elements, like stapling, nail, gluing or screwing. Determine the correct work order and make the joint.

• Repair musical instruments

  Attach new strings, fix frames or replace broken parts of musical instruments.

• Assemble musical instrument parts

  Assemble parts together such as the body, strings, buttons, keys, and others to create the final musical instrument.

Optional knowledge and skills

Source: Sisyphus ODB