Hand Woodwork
I had minimal experience using saws and doing hand woodwork. Through this process, I learned about how to cut the headstock of a guitar and work on designs using only a coping saw, a pencil, and sandpaper. I also learned a ton about sanding in the hand woodworking process. From how to go with the grain from the varieties of sandpaper, although yes I’ve used sandpaper throughout the years for various projects. I found myself familiarizing and getting to know sandpaper better. Working in a maker space from time to time, knowing about woodworking is very important. I’ve done a lot of work with laser cutters, and I’m now thinking more for example, about how to feed materials into the laser cutter or CNC and about finishing those projects.
Patience and Repetition
A lot of guitar building is actually about patience and persistence or repetition. I have experience in this having been a video editor and a student who is used to studying and practicing (I have two masters). Over time I have build considerable patience to be able to complete projects. I have a strong competency with repetition and patience. I think part of the learning process is about FAILing (or First Attempt in Learning) i.e. not everything will go to plan. I learned this acronym at a training with the Raspberry Pi Foundation and I’ve kept it to heart ever since.
Electronics Work
Soldering and general electronics work I had some experience with, but I simply didn’t have all of the additional tools to do it as precisely as this project required (even with only three wires to solder). Again I had general knowledge and basic experience, but this got me more hands on practical experience soldering for the purposes of building something working (besides a little flashlight, which was the last thing I soldered). I think this project gave me experience soldering on a working product which was interesting, and the product itself was much larger than what I had soldered previously. I hope to continue to do electronics work, and teach especially other women the basics of soldering, as I think there is still equality opportunities on this front (I don’t see a whole lot of women doing soldering videos for electronics).
Design Thinking
One of my favorite parts of the beginning exercise was the headstock exercise, because in that exercise we thought about how to translate a word into something we would put into a design on the guitar body. This kind of design thinking always leaves me inspired and excited and I loved the creative energy of that particular exercise. I’ve had design thinking implemented into other courses I’ve taken, so as I’m thinking about design iteration especially on implementing any kind of CNC aspects to the course I would hope to involve more design thinking into the processes of how I am teaching.
Guitar Specific Skills and Tools
There was a lot to learn about the specific tools included in the kit that are used only for guitar/luthier work. I had no experience working with these tools outside of installing tuning machines and violin strings on a 3D printed violin. This gave me additional experience understanding how these tools are used and their special nature. Certainly in guitar building I will be using these tools if I am able to teach guitar building (which I very much hope to do so).
