🎸 Baxendale Guitar Making Course

Build Your Own Custom Acoustic Guitar in 6 Weeks
Taught by Scott Baxendale & Staff – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Course Overview

Join master luthier Scott Baxendale and his skilled team for a hands-on, in-depth 6-week guitar making course, where you’ll design and build your own premium, vintage-style acoustic guitar from scratch.

Each student will build either a Dreadnought or OOO-size guitar using high-quality tonewoods and traditional hand-building techniques. This is a rare opportunity to learn from a legendary builder and walk away with an heirloom-quality instrument built by your own hands.

📅 Schedule

Three Days Per Week
Mondays, Wednesdays & Thursdays
10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Optional bench access: Tuesdays & Fridays (open studio time)

Upcoming Sessions
• Fall 2025 Session 1: September 15 – October 24, 2025
• Fall 2025 Session 2: November 3 – December 11, 2025
• Winter 2026 Session: February 2 – March 12, 2026

🎯 What You’ll Build
• Your choice: Dreadnought or OOO-size acoustic guitar
• Woods used:
◦ Indian Rosewood (Back & Sides)
◦ Adirondack Spruce (Top)
◦ Mahogany (Neck)
◦ Rosewood (Fingerboard & Bridge)
• Vintage-style lacquer finish
• Clean and classic trim and inlays
• Includes all fretting, finishing, and final setup

👨🔧 What’s Included
• Personalized instruction from Scott Baxendale
• All premium woods and parts ($900 value)
• Individual bench space for the entire course
• Use of shop machines, jigs, and shared tools

🧰 What You Need to Bring
Please bring the following hand tools:
• Guitar tuner (Recommended: $10 Peterson Strobe Tuner App)
• One high-quality 3/4” woodworking chisel (e.g., Marples Blue Chip)
• Variable speed electric drill
• (2) 10” Nicholson single-cut mill bastard files
• Set of small screwdrivers (flat and Phillips)
• 5” diagonal cutters
• One bottle of Original Titebond wood glue

💵 Tuition & Materials
• Course Fee: $5,000
• Materials Fee: $900 (includes all wood, gears, frets, glue, finish, etc.)
Total Cost: $5,900

👥 Class Size
• Only 4 students per session
• One-on-one guidance from Baxendale and staff
• Personalized bench space for every builder

📍 Location
Baxendale Guitar Shop
Santa Fe, New Mexico

📝 Sign Up for the Course
Please fill out the form below to reserve your spot. A deposit of $500 is required to hold your space. We will contact you via email to confirm details and provide payment options.

💬 Questions?

For more information, email us at [your email] or call [your phone number].

We’re happy to help you prepare for an unforgettable guitar-making journey.

Baxendale Internship Program

Baxendale Guitar gets many requests to teach the art of practical instrument repair and with much thought we have decided to take applications for a single intern to learn the art and business of guitar construction, repair and vintage restoration. We are looking for an intern who intends on making a living at this profession, has a natural aptitude for this type of work, and who already knows how to play the guitar at an intermediate or better level. We want someone who is focused and relates with others well. They should be dependable, observant, patient, and have the drive to finish everything they start. This is not your typical school where one instructor will teach a generalized overview of the basics to several students. The one intern we will select will have instructors with over 50 years experience, to teach every detail of earning a living at repairing and restoring guitars and other related instruments.

If you are selected you will have your own bench space and will be thrust into the workings of a full blown, professional repair shop. Once you begin you will immediately start with basic set up and fret work and by the end of the course you should be skilled at things like professional re fretting, neck resets, finish repairs and full refinishing. Other skills you will be mastering are: guitar electronics, trouble shooting and rewiring, all structural repairs, headstock fractures, cracks, binding, bridges, etc. You will also learn much about vintage instruments such as when it is appropriate to refinish a collectible guitar and when it is not. What you can do to improve its value and what not to do. Many times what you don’t do to a guitar is as important as what you do. One aspect that is not usually covered in many of the schools, that is very important to the luthier who is making a living at instrument repair, is how to estimate a job and how to communicate that to the customer. This is something that takes time to learn and can make or break you on a given job. By the end of this course you should be comfortable looking at a guitar and making a fair and correct estimate of the time and cost to perform the required
repairs or restoration. After completing this course the intern selected could start their own shop, go right to work in a shop or music store or perhaps go on tour with a national act as a guitar tech and easily earn $30-$60 per hour or more.

This course is designed for someone who seriously wants to make a profession of repairing and restoring guitars.

The cost of this course is $13,500 for a 6 month course, with payments made on the schedule below. Since this is an intensive course designed for someone who wants to make this their livelihood we have a list of required basic tools and supplies that must be purchased before the course starts. There may be a few small things that you would need to pick up during the course as necessary. This list just covers the basic hand tools needed to do instrument repairs and does not cover some of the specialty tools, clamps, fixtures, etc that will be needed eventually but are available in house to use during the internship

Below is an example of an Internship Agreement:
INTERNSHIP AGREEMENT
This is an internship agreement between Scott Baxendale, doing business as Baxendale Guitar, and __________________, intern, for Baxendale Guitar to teach the skills of luthiery as described above. This luthier internship session will begin ________. Session will end __________. Schedule will be 5 days per week with holidays to be scheduled mutually by Baxendale Guitar and the intern. Payments will be $3500.00 deposit prior to beginning of session, with 5 additional payments of $2000 monthly, due on the first business day of each
month, beginning ______________________________.
I, ___________________, agree to the terms of this agreement on this date:
Signature:______________
Date: ________
I, Scott Baxendale, doing business as Baxendale Conversions,
agree to the terms of this agreement on this date: Signature:______________ Date:______________

Please fill out the form below to indicate your interest in the internship program and we will be in touch.