It was in Tugaske, Sask. –  a little town of maybe 150 people with no cell phone service, no Internet (even with the ‘Sasktel stick I bought) no T.V. (others had  satellite) etc… but that makes for no distractions. I learned about the Luthiery course from Ken Hayes who attended previously… and David Freeman is the instructor.

I was one of seven students… ranging in age from 19 to nearly 60 (ya, I was the ‘old guy’ there). One student was from Israel  but the rest were from the three western-most provinces. We each had access to very good instruction as well as use of the shop from 7 AM to 10 PM and each student built a guitar of their own design with targeted parameters. Mine is light (3.5 lbs) and has Western Red Cedar for the top, Spanish Cedar for the neck and heel block, Cucumber Magnolia for the back and sides with a backstrip of Paduak. Ebony fretboard and rosewood bridge with ebony and holly binding and purfling. I had a great time there and as I mentioned earlier I was so impressed at the people there. The hospitality and generosity of the rural Saskatchewan folk is incredible to say the least (not that it wasn’t great to get back to Oliver).

Story and pictures supplied by Terry Schafer