AdamCHAN Guitars

Make a guitar by your hands

Guitar Making Classes

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18 Days

Make your guitar in 18 days, guided approach plus hands-on.

Activities

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Dennis Ng, Class #191205

The class helped me to understand the structure of the guitar, learning to build it step by step carefully, taking note of the crucial aspects in the making, the tone and the looks. It has given me an overall understanding in setting up my guitar especially in making guitar nut and saddles. Inadvertently, I learned to think out of the box and learn to fix problems. The learnings are applicable to how I live my life as well.

I am no handy man but in the class I have learned to saw, operated a drill press and more. The class exposed me to handling wood in heating, banding and gluing which required practices and skills. I find the finishing process most challenging. I am still unable to do it but at least I got to try it!

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These are some best moments that I had,

• the full hands-on woodworking experiences, building the guitar from scratch, wood selection and to playing the completed guitar. 

• selected a set of beautiful guitar wood set which not available in retail shops.

• learned to set up my own guitar, crafted guitar nuts and saddles. I can perform guitar set up on my own guitars without having to pay for such services.

• This is the best sounding guitar I ever own. And looks freaking cool.

• The best moments were affixing a fresh set of strings on it, strumming the first chord and hearing its tone for the first time. Not forgetting that I would be bringing it back home. It feels like getting your final year result after all the hard work! 

I cannot express how grateful and thankful for Adam for imparting, sharing and guiding me through the whole process. It was not easy for me as I am not good at hands-on chores. While contents on internet of guitar making were in abundance they were not all reliable and helpful. Moreover very few trained people in this trade are willing to teach and share. Adam is patience and responsive. He made sure I was able to comprehend the things thought. Given my unpredictable work schedule, he coordinated the classes around my work activities which was very helpful. For what I have gained from the class, the amount of value packed into it was difficult to match. I would have to spend $5k and above for a guitar like this! Thanks Adam for offering this service in Singapore! I am looking forward to my 2nd hand build guitar!

Jabez Leong, Class #191203

There is no one “holy grail” formula that can assure us the best guitar; not even the recommended “action” or wood combination that we all read from forums. In Adam’s guitar making course, I have learnt more than just building a "dream" guitar. I have learnt to appreciate guitars. It could be a factory-made guitar or it could be a handmade guitar from various brands and luthiers, the fundamental principles of a guitar never changes. However there can be many different guitar design philosophy, various amount of guitar making experience and level of woodworking skills one can have that produces varying end results. This guitar making course will let you explore these aspects of a guitar beyond the guitar itself.

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Throughout the 8 years of playing the acoustic guitar, there are moments when I am tempted to search for the best sounding guitar, some calls it “GAS” - Guitar Acquisition Syndrome. I never had a chance to purchase these guitars because they are expensive. In December 2019, it was my last “GAS” moment, I went guitar window shopping and tried out many guitars. Then I thought to myself, if I love a good sounding guitar, why now learn about it (if given the chance, try building one)?

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Since then, I got to know about Adam’s class and got an insight into what makes a good sounding guitar. The overarching concept shared during Adam’s class, that is the most insightful to me, is the pursuit of the balance between flexibility and stiffness which can potentially produce a responsive guitar. As we go through this course, building with Adam's guitar design, you will be able to have a glimpse of this concept guiding some of his design choices from the unique reinforced sound-hole, to the stiffer back and sides, and to the top board and his unique set of braces.

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In order to make a guitar, woodworking skills are essential. Everything regarding woodworking, that you will learn in this course, are the skills I did not have before. I have done some work on metal and acrylic before but wood is a new domain to conquer. It is different and in my honest opinion, less forgiving, which is what makes it challenging and fun at the same time! My most humbling encounters during the course was when dealing with, one of the most common woodworking skill, sanding. In the beginning, in many of the sanding exercises I could not sand evenly. I would sand them out of dimension and there is nothing I can do about it. You will think you got the sanding right but no, you don't. The truss rod cover in Adam's guitar design is also an area that you will use mainly sanding to make it. I failed multiple times. My very last and successful attempt took me 4 hours to visualise the design (I had a great time also learning about design, proportions, a very subjective topic of what is nice to our eyes) and sand the shape out. Definitely, I have improved and was also introduced to other skills like sawing, routing, chiseling and more.

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I am writing this 2 months after I have completed the course and I am still missing going for class at Adam's workshop. Some of the best moments I had were the conversations with Adam and Dennis(friend and also student of Adam) about their perspectives about life, guitar, design, etc. The very best moment is when I heard the guitar came alive for the first time.