Making is a combination of skills - wood technology, cabinet making, engineering, art and so many others. I come from a teaching background that covered 4 disciplines, 8 years cabinet making and designing and you know the rest. Before I left for vacation I was using my engineering skills to taper turn a new location pin for my LMII fretting template. I have to make a drill jig when I get back which will mean some precision metal turning, heat treatment, template routing and precision boring. All this so I can accurately drill 4 holes in a headstock without the use of a pillar drill. You don't learn this stuff overnight. I also have a new set of bending forms to make which will require template routing technology - engineering wood - a skill that is got in foundry 'pattern making'. And still I had to watch Allen,s video of grainfilling about 6 times to get any confidence to approach it - I had previously used a rubber squeegee to press the epoxy into the grain and was nervous of the credit card approach even though I had known about it for ages. This business is a never ending learning curve and most of it isn't found in books - in fact, I think most luthiery books are really unhelpful and very quirky. The best I ever read was by a guy called Mcleod - it's now out of print. The American ones have very 'unique' processes and design ideas which I find very odd. Can I suggest you go to YouTube and look up every building video for stringed instruments you can - I regularly do and there are some great nuggets to be had there.
..and I've just finished the 1st uke of this year..and it turned out pretty good.
