A Few Interesting Luthier Links

For those of you that are interested in building Ukulele, or are just interested in the process of building, I have two links that you might find interesting.

The first is a blog by a man named P J Murray.
Pj took the Hana Lima Ia summer intensive coarse about 3 or 4 years ago, and he made a pretty detailed blog about it.
Start close to the bottom of the page, and work you way up the posts to the top.
Here it is:
http://mistermurray.blogspot.com/

The second is a site about a lady named Kathy Matsushita.
She calls herself an amature Luthier, but she is pretty good. On her site she walks you through her process of building
Guitars, Violins, Ukuleles, Cigar Box Ukuleles, and more.
Check out her site at:
http://home.comcast.net/~kathymatsushita/

Hope everyone found these links interesting.
Aloha
Bob

Kathy is a total inspiration for anyone who wants to build... or for thaqt matter professional builders. She is meticulous and has some great ideas. Watch this over and over again to see how shee makes in a small space.

Thanks guys. The more I read and see here and elsewhere the more I want to try building some day when time and space permit. Looks like a lot of fun, challenging and satisfying.

Kathy's site is packed with good stuff and I'd have to say that she is way, way better than pretty good.

Kathy's work looks just amazing. I am extremely excited to learn this skill. I know that power tools make things easier but I want to learn to build exclusively by hand. Maybe one of these days I will be good enough to do a custom for a friend. Just amazing....thanks for sharing this. It's an inspiration.

Making by hand isn't necessarily better than by machine - I have cut binding channels by hand but boy do I love my routers for this job (I have 13 dedicated routers that each do one single operation - consistency ). I have also hand planed backs, fronts and sides and oh my, I certainly enjoy using my thickness sander. I used to hand bend until I built a machine to do it! I think if you want to build by hand it would be for reasons of a spiritual journey, not for pleasure:rofl:

Kathy rocks!

Yes, Kathy is such a great luthier and her site is so helpful. I have emailed her a few times with my uke building project. I am just building my ukulele whenever I have time to spare and that's not very much sometimes when I do my other job of housekeeper, driver, cook, shopping, laundry, etc for my family!! I gave myself at least 5 months and I am slowly plodding along!

What inspires me as a professional builder about stories like this is how persistent and dogged all of you amateur luthiers are. I tip my hat to your perseverence and am really uplifted by your enthusiasm and sense of achievement.

Pete Howlett said:

What inspires me as a professional builder about stories like this is how persistent and dogged all of you amateur luthiers are. I tip my hat to your perseverence and am really uplifted by your enthusiasm and sense of achievement.

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kinda reminds me of when i teach kids. when their face lights up when they get something, it just feels good haha. maybe a sticky with other luthier links (including these ones) for easy access.