Build a mandolin with Rick Turner

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From Mandolin Cafe

Workshops
Build a Mandolin In Four Days with Rick Turner
By Mandolin Cafe
January 1, 2009 - 9:30 am

Build a Mandolin In Four Days with Rick Turner
Oakland, Calif. — The Crucible, a non-profit educational facility that fosters a collaboration of the Arts, Industry and Community, is proud to present a "Build a Mandolin In Four Days" workshop with veteran luthier Rick Turner.

The class consists of four sessions held Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on January 31, February 1, 7, 8.

In four days, participants will build a flat top and back mandolin patterned after the Gibson Army/Navy model of 1918 using techniques both old and new. The mandolins are built with fine tone woods: western red cedar for tops, maple or other hardwoods for the backs and sides, rosewood for fingerboards, and mahogany for the necks.

The mandolins built will surprise with their volume and tone, and attendees will have built an instrument worth well more than the cost of the course.

Over the four days there are numerous "jumping off points" for discussions of the theories of musical instrument construction, wood working techniques, guitar and mandolin history, fine food and wine and just about anything else a group of people focused in on a goal might want to chat about!

This course has been designed for all ages and skill levels; no previous experience in woodworking is required. We start from a kit of parts prepared by Rick in his shop in Santa Cruz, California, and all assembly operations are done by the end of the third day. On the last day we string up the mandolins "in the white" and hear the miracle of how the wood makes the strings sing in the air.

Rick Turner has been repairing, restoring, and building stringed instruments since his high school days in the early 1960s. He formally apprenticed as a luthier in Boston in 1963, played guitar professionally for several years, and then committed to production guitar making in the early 1970s. He has built and repaired instruments for members of Fleetwood Mac, the Grateful Dead, the Police, the Jefferson Airplane, the Who, Led Zeppelin, the Doobie Brothers, the Youngbloods, Men at Work, Van Morrison, Ry Cooder, David Lindley, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Joni Mitchell, the Beach Boys, Ricki Lee Jones, Bela Fleck, and many others. Rick currently runs a small guitar factory in Santa Cruz, California, called "Rick Turner/Renaissance Guitars" and he is a partner in "D-TAR" which specializes in acoustic instrument amplification.

Cost: $415.00 (Tuition: $300.00, Materials: $115.00). Class size, 8 participants maximum. Discounts available for Crucible members.