Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery
Twice a year, I'm a guest instructor at the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery in Phoenix, Arizona. The business was founded more than 20 years ago by Juan Roberto (John Roberts.)
Until his passing in 1999, John was on hand to observe the day-to-day activities of the teachers and students.
Gracing the doorway between two rooms in the shop we see his original sign:
Now, of course the main sign is on the Web. So, do check out their fine website at roberto-venn.com
It's a real thrill for me to be in the midst of such an enthusiastic group of young luthiers. Roberto-Venn is an accredited trade school and the vast majority of their graduates go on to self-employment or jobs in the guitar industry:
Aki Kawahori exudes the kind of enthusiasm that's typical of the students at Roberto-Venn.
Collings Guitars, Santa Cruz Guitar Co., Fender, Gibson and many others recruit their graduates.
In this photograph, William Eaton (right) and I are working on a repair project for the students. William, his music and his instruments were featured recently in Acoustic Guitar Magazine. He is the director of the Roberto-Venn School, and a fine luthier himself. The instrument is the original double neck guitar made by John Roberts 25 years ago. It suffered a small crack and several dents in a fall while being photographed the day before my lecture. Not the best coincidence, but a good subject of conversation and instruction!
Here I am, doing a lecture/demo on refretting:
In January 1999, we had a visit from Frank Koonce, who brought along an instrument reputed to be the world's oldest guitar:
That's the school's director, Bill Eaton, looking on from the back.
More about that 400 year old guitar.
John Reuter(green shirt) is the head instructor at Roberto-Venn.
Here he's discussing the procedure for routing pickup cavities in a solid body electric guitar. Check out the well equipped machine tool department. One advantage of having a shop in the desert is that you can keep your power tools outside with only a roof overhead. There's no need for a dust collection system in this area!
Inside the students are hard at work putting the finishing details on their projects:
Shigeru Ambiru zooms in for a close-up view.
Here's Doug Truman "detailing" the fingerboard of an electric guitar before installing the frets:
Glenn Dunney's rosette design gives us a clue to what part of the country he's from:
Jonathan Riemer chases down a tiny detail on the face of his acoustic guitar.
Here's Patrick Bunn with two electric guitar bodies fresh from the spray booth:
Oscar Rivera and school founder, John Roberts:
A quick "D" chord from Daniel Rausch and his 12-string.
That's some fancy grain on the face of Anders Eschelman's solid body electric!
Glen Dunney shows off his acoustic
Matt Guarino gives us a view of contemporary solid body design.
It's Ben Barnes and his new axe.
Sen Kitabayashi playing some fine classical music between class activities.
Phil Pajak at the bench, demonstrating his recently completed guitar.