Workshop Evolution

by Kent Everett

from his 2011 GAL Convention lecture

Originally published in American Lutherie #108, 2011



Evolution doesn’t necessarily mean that you get better and better. It can mean that you evolve to fit the situation you find yourself in, such as changes in the market or your living conditions.

One basic way to set up a workshop is to have a master work bench in the middle of the room and the power tools around the edges. It’s basically a circular idea. This is very common in Spain and I think most of our small garage workshops are set up this way. In a bigger workshop, you might want to set it up so the wood goes in one end, it goes through the various operations, and it comes out the other end as a guitar. This is a more linear plan.

For five years prior to getting into the first shop I’m going to show you, I went everywhere trying to find a job as a guitar builder. I built my first guitar in Victoria, BC in a little workshop right down the street from Larrivée. I walked into his place one day and I was blown away. He had eleven employees and I could not believe it. I wanted to be part of that. I stayed in Victoria for a year trying to get on with Jean, but that was around 1980 and the acoustic guitar market was dying and he was shrinking his shop. I built four guitars in a cabinet shop while I was in Victoria. I would bring them to Jean and he would encourage me and I’d go back and do it over again.