28 March 2013
Unique Ukulele Building Workshop on Offer in Auckland
Local guitar and ukulele making business GOLDBEARD GUITARS has teamed up with Rutherford College’s CEC (Community
Education Centre) to offer a unique one week workshop in ukulele making next month (28 April – 4 May).
A rare opportunity to learn more about one of New Zealand’s favourite instruments, the workshop is the first of its kind
offered by Rutherford College and is designed to suit anyone game enough to give it a go. With woodworking and safety
skills taught on-site students will be taken through the instrument-making process step-by-step, leading to the
production of their own hand-made ukulele to take home with them at the end.
“Ukuleles are a lot of fun and I’m chuffed to be able to share the art of building them with other people,” says Dave
Gilberd, GOLDBEARD GUITAR’S ‘Head Tinkerer’. “I still remember the first instrument I made… it was quite a life
changer.”
An aircraft engineer by trade and musician by heart, Dave’s instrument-making career first kicked off after he, himself,
attended a short course in guitar-making in 2003. “Immediately after I strung up that first guitar I knew this was the
life for me,” he says. After years of tinkering with musical instruments and an intense course of related study in the
UK, he established GOLDBEARD GUITARS – a now three-year-old guitar and ukulele making and repair company based in
Wellington.
“Dave’s a classic example of the many students who experience significant learning through a short course offered by
organisations like us,” says Rutherford College’s CEC Director Andrea Cameron. “You never really know where learning
will take you, but you can guarantee it will be in a positive direction.”
While the undoubted highlight for students on this workshop will be the first strum on their new ukuleles, they’ll be
led through a series of achievements along the way – from learning how to work from a technical plan to hand-crafting
small wooden components, bending sides, assembling parts and professional finishing. Bragging rights, of course, come as
an added bonus – and are well deserved, for as Dave says: “Music is a gift, but creating a music-maker is something
else.”
The Ukulele Making Workshop runs daily from 9am to 5pm, Monday 28 April to Sunday 4 May. The workshop costs $595 per
person plus $70 materials (including GST) and is limited to 12 places. Find out more and book a space.
GOLDBEARD GUITARS is an acoustic guitar and ukulele manufacturing and repair company based in Owhiro Bay – Wellington,
New Zealand. Media are warmly invited to contact Dave for background information, and a full suite of brand images are
available on request. Find out more at goldbeard.co.nz
Rutherford College’s CEC (Community Education Centre) offers a full range of short-term courses from Art and Crafts to
Professional Development. Every year, CEC brings learning opportunities to over 5000 adult students. Find out more at rutherfordcomed.co.nz
ENDS