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Our Six month course picks up where our eleven week certification
program ends. You will learn everything that is included in the eleven week program and have the time to gain additional experience
in all areas. You will also be challenged quite a bit more during this additional time and have the freedom to make your own
designs. While you may make your own designs in our eleven week course, now you will have the time to really concentrate on
different neck joints such as a single-cut Gibson style, however Gibson did not design the long tenon style neck joint they
are the most recognized manufacturer using it. Also the wide tenon style as offered by PRS and many other companies. Each
of these tenons offer their own set of diffuculty and should be considered a MAJOR challenge. While you are here you will
want to make your own templates and this is the time to do it. Exploring a neck through Guitar or Bass design would
also be a good challenge and a good build at this time. Each of the previous mentioned designs pose other difficulties and
challenges such as putting a finish on and buffing them, not an easy task at all. That brings me to finish work. The rule
of thumb in our industry is that however long it takes to build a Guitar or Bass, you can estimate it taking 2 - 3 times longer
to put a professional finish on it. Well that is mostly true, but we'll show you the way, so to speak, to expedite this process
so that all your hard work has paid off! As you can see in our industry everything you do affects something else. While building
Guitars and Basses is a wonderful occupation, let's not overlook how very important learning repair is. The repair industry
is booming especially with the on-set of all the Chinese and Korean cookie cutter Guitar manufactures popping up. Well guess
what, yep, you get what you pay for and quite frankly most of those instruments are made with less than quality parts and
electronics which will need repair or replaced quite a bit. So you see repairs is a booming business. Quite frankly the economy
has very little to do with this occupation. When the economy is up your guitars will sell faster than you can build them and
when the economy slides a bit then we see a rise in repairs. Win/Win, and thats the way its always been! Your additional
time spent here will most certainly allow you time to gain more experience in Repairs as well as Building. Remember that every
build you do you will have to fret it, make a nut, wire it, sand it, put a finish on it and make it a player. The extra
experience and time spent here will allow you to achieve all those things much faster and more efficiently too! Everything
I have mentioned so far is very accurate but there are so many more things that pop up in the course of just one day working
in the shop that there is absolutely no way to prioritize them or put them in a chronological order. It's just impossible
to list them all so when seeking an education in my field remember this, everything that I have mentioned here can probably
be doubled. And the extra experience and time, while not required, is without a doubt "Priceless". John Marshall
You can expect to achieve more experience in the following areas: - Guitar or Bass Building
- Fretwork
- Wiring
- Finish work
- Nuts
& Saddles
- Marketing yourself
- Template making
- Repairs
- Jigs and Fixtures
- Tools
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