USA Guitar Making Courses

NEWS: II EDITION - 2019

It is official now! In 2019 I will have the pleasure again to give the Spanish Flamenco Guitar Making Cours at Parker Co, in Robert O'Brien's workshop. We are already working to repeat last year's success and make the students live an unforgetable experience one more time. Should you like to read the full story, just scroll down. See you in USA!

If you are interested in being part of this 2019 edition, just click on the image below or click next link: https://obrienguitars.com/teaching/#flamenco

Traditional Flamenco guitar making course

In this 7 day class we will build a true flamenco guitar using the traditional Spanish method with solera mold. We will assemble a traditional 5+T bracing system guitar with wooden pegs as used on old school 50's "tablao guitars". Traditional Spanish techniques including hide glue, hand carved neck, "muñequilla" finish etc., and many more surprises! All the history and cultural issues behind the flamenco guitar will be covered also. All plans, both of the guitar and jigs included. True Spanish cypress and all other materials included, directly imported from Spain, provided by Madinter and personally hand selected by Paco.

Live the true Flamenco experience at the O’Brien Guitars workshop in this course given by Paco Chorobo. Want more? After completing the course you will get the Online Flamenco Guitar Making course for free!! It doesn’t get any better than this. This class is limited to a maximum of 4 students and will fill quickly!

If you are interested in attending this course, please click on the image below to contact Robert O'Brien

Guitarra, culture and art

Hard to sum up in just a few word this exciting project not only for me, but also for master O'Brien. Working with Robert is a privilege only a few can enjoy... and I has lucky to record with him the DVD Flamenco Guitar Making in 2015. Again a call from Robert bring me the opportunity to give this international guitar making course at his workshop and share my little knowledge about this craft. Guitar making is my passion, as it is to proudly share the Spanish guitar making job and my homeland culture with the rest of the world

5 flamenco guitars

4 seats available for this course, plus master O'Brien who will build one, to make a total of 5 pure Spanish style guitars, 5 pure flamenco Tablao traditional guitars. I feel a huge responsibility and I really want to thank every single person making this course possible, and those who are interested in sharing and participating in this experience. I have no doubt that I will be the one who will learn the most by far!

España · Ubeda - USA · Parker

Sharing as much as I can about my experience as a guitar making is my obsession in this course, but also offer to the attendees the most complete experience and quality content. I would like to show them also the cultural key aspects that surround the Spanish guitar making as a whole, and the flamenco in particular. Provide them with the widest sight possible, to understand that everything goes as a whole unit, not possible to be broken apart. I will bring in my suitcase a piece of my daily work, my daily lifestyle and some history and culture from my country and my town. Just a small bit of Spain, Andalucia and my home town and world heritage city: Ubeda.

Time flies! It is only two month to go, but we haven't stop working and preparing this event. During the past month Robbie and me were working hard to prepare up to very little detail. I travelled to Madinter warehouse in Cerceda - Madrid to personally hand select every single piece of wood that will be converted into 5 beautiful flamenco traditional Spanish guitars.

The course got full very quickly and I really want to thank the students, (in which I include my self, hoping that I will be the one that will learn the most), the great effort to attend this course. To make their life easier, we have prepared a special custom made power sander hahahaha!!

02-AUG

We are almost there... just a few weeks to start! Extra virgin olive oil from our land is ready to be shipped thanks to our friend and oil expert Juan Molina. We will bring the "liquid gold" as we call it so the student can enjoy it, no only during the shellac process, but also tasting one of our traditional bread breakfast with oil and tomato as we do daily here. Guitar making is hard my friends!

Puro oilve juice, natural and eco friendly, made with love and care... a gift from our "olives sea" here in the provice of Jaén.

13-AUG

My friend Miguel Cardone is a cool Brazilian guy... not only he is a funny man, but also a genius when making custom tools. The ones who custom make things really appreciate to have hand made tools for us, designed and enginereed by and for luthiers. Since I started I have been using gear from MUSIC TOOLS, specially designed for very specific tasks. In my Youtube channel, I have a few videos showing some of them, and of course if I bought all of them is because they really work. I don't endors things that I don't use, so when I recommend something is because I use it on a daily basis. Let me share a video using one of my favourite tool: the action ruler. Despite the fact it has a specific function, I use it for so many things you will never imagine! To Miguel and Ana Claudia, to all the MT team, thanks a million for beeing part of this proyect¡. Students will roll their eyes with the gift we have ready for them.... Stay tuned and we will reveal during the course. Abraço grande amigos!!! Mandaaaa braaasaaaaaaa!!! [Hugs! Let's go!!]

14-AUG

Well... ICESUR is my local music store. I have been purchasing there since I started playing, and to be honest, I always had a great experience. There is always a musician serving you, and a professional musician, and that's cool, very cool. Since I became a luthier, I buy there strings, nuts and saddles, instrument care products, cases... in a world where we use to buy online trying to save time and money, I love going into a local store, talking to other people... sadly trying to save some pennies make you loose the personal interaction which is very valuable. And if the store is in your town, even better! So, since I appreciate them, I will take many of the materials for the course. I won't reveal the tap plates we got for the students but... there are really FLAMENCOS! You will see! Thanks all of you guys, David, you are an artist and you know it haha!!

24-AUG

Today the course starts... there is so much work after this project, so many hours of planning, design, so much effort... In front of us, a whole week sharing and enjoying what we love: GUITAR MAKING. There is no way to tell this story, you have to live it.

Let me share a handful of pictures, just trying to illustrate what we lived here.