Taking a Course at Crimson Guitars

In August of 2024, I had the opportunity to travel to the UK and take a 6-day course at Crimson Guitars, the largest guitar building school in the world.

I am home, and rested, and wanted to share some thoughts about my course at Crimson Guitars.

First off, yes I won this course through Daily Guitar Draw, but I wasn't asked by Crimson or anyone else to make a review or anything.

I have to give a massive shout out to James Van Nguyen. He is the student coordinator, and was invaluable in not only making sure my course was a success, but getting me to Crimson in terms of travel from Canada and actually driving me to the shop each day. He preped the wood for each student (gluing up body blanks and tops before we got there) and gathered materials for us. He worked with me to plan my build and I spent pretty much every evening hanging out with him. Amazing guy. Whatever he is being paid, it isn't enough.

The instructors were fantastic. Dom was the main instructor that I worked with most, and he was incredible at helping each student, explaining things to them, but also letting them learn on their own and experience building a guitar. Friendly, knowledgeable, and an excellent teacher. Sean and Matt did some instructing as well, but Sean had some person stuff, so was away most of the week, and Matt was doing custom shop stuff, so Dom was the main one I worked with.

The student house was super cool. Located in Sherborne, about 20min from Crimson, it was amazing to get to spend a week living with other guitar nerds from around the world and just hang out with them. It's also right next to where mast luthier Ben Crowe lives, so we got to hang out with him and chat a lot. On that note, Ben was super friendly, very open about things, willing to give advice, and just a wonderful host. He came into the Crimson the last day to check out everyone's builds, and had some really nice things to say about mine.

As someone who had built a dozen guitars before coming, a lot of stuff wasn't new to me. I did get to see some new processes that I will adopt at home, and get some targetted instruction on things I've always struggled with, like making tight neck pockets, fretwork, and final setup. Dom even took some time to show me how to sharpen tools on wet stones, a skill that has eluded me for some time.

Things were hectic the last few days. There were 5 of us 6-day students trying to finish up. Two of us were done with time to spare, but it was a scramble to get the other builds done. I think some of this came down to Dom being the only instructor there and being spread very thin. The builds varied a lot in terms of difficulty as well, and the students were very spread in terms of experience with woodworking and electronics. This really stretched out the time it took some students to do some tasks that others finished really quickly.

This brings me to my only real suggestion. It would be interesting to see courses split into "beginner" and "intermediate" levels. I think some students would have benefitted from extra focus on how to use the tools and each process, while other students might have benefitted from a little more freedom to go through the simple steps but really drilling down and focusing on steps they need more help with. I wouldn't even say this is a critique, but just a thought.

Ultimately, I am beyond happy with my experience at Crimson. The course was absolutely worth it, even as a moderately experienced guitar builder. I learned a lot that I will take back home to future builds and met some amazing people. Shout out to my week long roommates Brandon, Steven, Michael, and Caleb, as well as my fellow students Doug, Andrew, and Packer. I know many of them are planning to return to Crimson next year for another course, and I can't wait to see what they build.

Huge thank you to Daily Guitar Draw for putting up this prize and giving me the opportunity to experience this.