Purpose of this Blog

My name is Matt Haskins and my son Elias is in Jacqui Canfield’s Room 10 at Sycamore Elementary. I build guitars as a hobby and was planning to make one for the annual school auction in the spring. It occurred to me last month, however, that it might be both fun and educational for the kids in Room 10 to help me with some of the build. I discussed the idea with Jacqui and we decided to turned this into a class project.

When I discussed the project with the children I explained that I was going to do some of the work on the guitar in my shop at home. There are both safety and practical reasons for my decision to do this. Some of the tools and machines I use to build guitars are quite dangerous if used improperly so it’s best if the kids are not around when I use them. Some aspects of guitar building also take time and practice to master. I don’t want to frustrate the kids with tasks beyond their abilities nor take up too much class time with this project. So I’ll have the kids do as many things as they can and the rest I’ll do at home. I’ve created this blog for Room 10 kids, their parents, and anyone one else interested to see the building process that goes on inside and outside of class. Please feel free to post any comments or questions you have about the project.  

(One note--there are other pages following the posts on this main page. Click the "Older Posts" link at the bottom of this page to see them).  

Build Teams

I decided to break the kids into teams to work on different parts of the guitar. I did this to help keep things manageable and to also guarantee that every child would get an opportunity to help with the guitar if she or he so wished. I'm happy to say that every student in Room 10 has volunteered to participate in the project. And so far things are going great with this team concept. When I come to class I ask the appropriate team to come help and we get to work. By the time the guitar is completed every team and every child will get to play their important role in bring this instrument to life.

The Build Teams are:

1. Design Team

2. Paint Team

3. Electronics Team

4. Truss Rod Team

5. Pickups Team

6. Assembly Team

The Project

The guitar we are building is replica of a Fender Telecaster. The “Tele” is a classic design and one of my favorite guitars. And since we hope to sell this guitar at the school auction I wanted to pick a design that is popular with guitarists.

The first assignment for the Paint Team was to decide on three potential colors for the guitar. I had the Paint Team look at traditional Fender Guitar colors on the class computer. After some debate the kids on the Paint Team selected "Sonic Blue,” “Sherwood Green,” and “Fiesta Red.” All three are great colors and anyone of them would have looked beautiful. With the three potential colors selected, the rest of the class and Jacqui voted on the color they liked best. The class picked “Fiesta Red” by a fairly wide margin. Red with a little bit of orange mixed in, “Fiesta” is a beautiful color and looks great on a Telecaster. Here are some pictures of a 1959 Fender Telecaster in Fiesta Red. The guitar is a little beat up but that’s what an electric guitar looks like after it’s been played for over 50 years.

 

 

More to come soon!