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BTW, love your site--all the information, pictures and sound clips. I know you build guitars and think it would be great if you shared pictures and sound clips of your own creations on the Foro.

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I'm finishing my latest guitar and I'll be posting a photo diary of it's construction soon.

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-Started building electric guitar bodies in high school shop class grades 11-12
-1st year of Douglas College musical instrument construction course1989-90, 2nd year 90-91, under the guidance of Micheal Dunn who taught traditional Spanish building techniques
-while at Douglas College he fell in love with the different body shapes and was introduced to the artistry of inlay work and lute building.
-Being an avid woodworker in highschool, thought the idea of being able to earn a living from working exotic woods by hand instead of having to build particle board cabinates with machines was a gift from heaven.
-After 20 months of Douglas College he worked at Lee Valley Tools for 1 year, a prestigeous tool store,taking advantage of his staff discount purchased as many guitar building tools as he could also using the small shop space in the back after hours.
-In 1992 began working at Larrivee guitar factory, considered small as compared to today there were only 18-20 employees
- Started working in body assembly where he learnt to shape the braces by hand from rough stock to gluing he assembled 4-6 bodies a day
-As well as doing binding & purfling he took advantage of the off hours to work in the shop on his own projects.
-After 2 years of body building he was taught final neck fit, handfitting the finished neck to the finished body, a very demanding job utilizing all the skill he had amassed from his experience at Douglas College. he did this job for 6 years
-Jeff quit working at Larrivee and began building his own guitars in 1999and has never looked back.
- Around the time Jeff started working at Larrivee Guitars in 1992 he also used to visit the shop of Geza Burghardt a well known Hungarian luthier, although never getting any any official training from him, he studied as much information as such as the fine art of French Polish and the V-joint(a traditional neckshaft to headstock joint)
-Today with the traditional Spanish building techniques he learnt from Micheal Dunn he builds flamenco and classical guitars, and the experience from Jean Larrivee builds steel string guitars that are destined for the recording studio and stage

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I realize that some people might think that the cold hard and lifeless world of science is in stark contrast to the realm of ‘Ye Olde Worlde’ romanticism, but at least having a grasp on the principles of guitar construction can't hurt.