Students put skills to use in guitar-building courses

Mark French, assistant professor of mechanical engineering technology, has taken his love for guitars and turned it into a research interest, a class, and a summer workshop.

“It’s a great way to relate to students,” French says. “They connect with it almost instinctively because it allows them to apply what they learn about physics and acoustics toward the design of a product they are interested in and familiar with. It really cuts through.”

The academic-year class, called Stringed Instrument Manufacturing and Testing, combines a once-a-week lecture with two lab sessions per week in the Mechanical Engineering Technology Acoustics Lab (METAL), located in the basement of the Michael Golden Laboratories. The class focuses on guitar manufacturing and testing and builds on the research that French has done on guitar acoustics and build variation.

His connections at Taylor Guitars helped him bring experts from that company and others to campus for a weeklong summer electric guitar workshop, July 16-20. Music lovers of all ages and experience levels from around the country came to Purdue to learn how to craft, engineer, and customize their own solid-body electric guitar.

Brad Harriger, professor of manufacturing engineering technology, offered insights on advanced manufacturing processes. Richard Couch, director of engagement at Purdue’s Center for Advanced Manufacturing, drew on his years of experience in large-scale manufacturing and is also a skilled guitarist, having played in bands for 30 years.

Guitar industry companies — Taylor, and sponsors Fender Guitars and Stewart-MacDonald — offered their expertise during the summer program. Seymour Duncan was also a sponsor.

Tim Shaw, a principal engineer from Fender, traveled from Nashville, Tennessee, to teach at the workshop, which he referred to as a “guitar maker’s fantasy camp.”

West Lafayette, Ind., resident and Purdue alumna Cathy Hayt, an artist with a chemical engineering background, took part in the workshop because she wanted to learn something she had never done before.

“This workshop is fascinating because it teaches the whole process,” she says. “What I’ve discovered is that building a guitar is as much of an art as it is a science.”

Register for the 2008 summer guitar workshop, July 14-18, on the Purdue Conferences Web site www.conf.purdue.edu/guitar. French is also planning two summer workshops specifically for high school students.

For more information on the course and workshop, visit metalsound.tech.purdue.edu.

- Kim Medaris