Vermont Instruments School of Lutherie

Tuition: $2000

• December 5 – December 18, 2010

• December 4 - December 17, 2011

Students work daily with Adam Buchwald, an experienced builder/repairman most recently from Brooklyn, NY. Adam will build an instrument along with everyone else during the course. We follow the hand-building tradition, not the factory model. We wish to further the craft by incorporating useful modern techniques with traditional wisdom.

Students learn general woodworking skills such as using and sharpening chisels and planes, routers and saws. Most work is done by hand but we do use a few power tools to make some jobs easier. The course is tailored to do two things: produce a very fine instrument and, more importantly, prepare students to continue their own work as soon as possible without having to invest in expensive equipment.

The tuition of $2000 includes all materials, and living and cooking accommodations. Please contact the school or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for more information. This promises to be a very popular course so sign up early.

Special guest Joel Ekhaus to lecture, lead workshop and give concert during December 2010 Ukulele Building Course

• Workshop Price $25. Free to students of the Ukulele Building Course
• Concert price $10. Free to students.

On December 10, Joel will give an afternoon lecture on modern ukulele construction- creating unusual shaped acoustic instruments with solid body construction techniques, as well as thoughts and theories on traditional ukulele design and construction. In the evening Joel "Ukulele Eck" Eckhaus will perform novelty songs and pop stadards from the teens to the 60's.

Joel will lead a Ukulele workshop on December 11, from 12 - 2 pm. He will address Chord melody a la Smeck- playing chords and melody together in the style of the "Wizard of the Strings" Roy Smeck. He will also demonstrate left hand chord positions and right hand strums and techniques- for advanced beginners and intermediate players. No music reading knowledge required.

JOEL ECKHAUS began building instruments in 1973. He studied woodworking at the Shelburne Craft School and at Rochester Institute of Technology with noted cabinetmaker, James Krenov. He apprenticed at the Tourin Musica, in Duxbury, VT, with harpsichord and viol maker, Peter Tourin, and built his first EARNEST mandolin at the Augusta Heritage Arts Workshop, in Elkins, WV, under the instruction of Paul Reisler. He opened a shop in 1976, and has been playing, teaching, designing, building, and repairing string instruments ever since. His woodworking experience also includes sailboat repair and construction, home renovation, nickelodeon construction, whirligig design and production, fine furniture and cabinetmaking, and production lutherie with Dana Bourgeois Guitars. Joel has a BS degree in vocational education and currently teaches woodworking and instrument making at Maine College of Art.

In addition to being a luthier, Joel also plays the mandolin, tenor guitar and banjo, ukulele, and musical saw. He studied uke and banjo with former vaudevillian, Roy Smeck, the "Wizard of the Strings", and studied mandolin with former Texas Playboy, Tiny Moore. He was a founding member of the Arm and Hammer String Band, and has performed with the New York Banjo Ensemble, the Howitzer Mandolin Orchestra, the Neverly Brothers, the Blue Sky Serenaders, the New England New Vaudeville Review and the Pinetones. He currently plays with the ukabilly duo Dos Eckies; a ukulele/tap dance duo, Ham & Legs; and his own group, Ukulele Eck and the Fabulous Lacklusters.