GUITAR CRAFT ACADEMY BLOG
Graduate Profile: Benny Burrows
Benny Burrows, 27, is GCA Nashville’s first international student, having grown up in the Australian city of Brisbane. He started playing guitar at age 10 and got interested in luthiery — “that dream of building that sound that’s in your head” — a couple of years...
Tech Tip: Refretting a Guitar
When I do a guitar neck refret job, I create this tool to confirm proper fret slot depth before installing the new frets. I bend a small piece of the fret wire into an ‘L’ shape and lightly file down the burrs on the smaller part of the ‘L.’ It’s never a pleasant...
How to Properly Sand a guitar
Brian Nutter is the founder of Nutter Guitars and a Guitar Craft Academy faculty member. So, you’ve spent loads of time making the perfect guitar. But before you can buff it to a high gloss, you have to level the finish with sandpaper. Your finish at this...
Learning to Fly
Bruce Buckingham (Left) with a guitar student. If you want to build a guitar well, it helps to also know how to play a guitar well — and that’s where Bruce Buckingham comes in. All Guitar Craft Academy Nashville students take a weekly guitar performance class...
Faculty Spotlight: Marty Lanham
Guitar Craft Academy instructor Marty Lanham and his wife, Charmaine Lanham, were recently honored for their dedication to Tennessee bluegrass by the Uncle Jimmy Thompson Bluegrass Festival in historic Granville, Tennessee. Marty’s history with...
Tech Tip: Filling and Recutting the Nut Slot
For this month’s tech tip, I will show you a quick way to fill and recut a nut slot in order to raise it up. A slot that is cut correctly should hold the string in place at a height that clears the first fret. Sometimes a guitar nut slot will wear down over time and...
Jailhouse Rock
Bill Lee's guitar before restoration. The restored guitar. Check out this amazing restoration that new GCA instructor Dave Johnson, owner of Scale Model Guitars in Nashville, recently finished for a customer! This guitar was built by the customer’s...
Faculty Spotlight: Steven Mather
GCA Nashville Head Instructor Steven Mather, 31, is a San Francisco Bay area native who moved to Nashville two years ago. He’s been playing music since his teens, and he started doing minor repair work in high school while working in a local guitar shop. After...