An adventure in lutherie by Ciaran McNally | Youth
Ciaran McNally is a lutherie student orginally from Armagh, N.Ireland. He started playing guitar at the age of 13 and began to look into lutherie around the age of 15/16, first through electric guitar kits, then moving on to acoustic kits. At 17 he enrolled in an evening course in Belfast with Sam Irwin, where he began making guitars from scratch. After a year of the course in Belfast, and having just finished school, he decided to attend university in London where the only instrument making degreee in Europe runs. He is now 20 years old, reading a BSC Musical Instruments at London Metrolpolitan University. where he spends most of the time either in the workshop or teaching guitar. Apart from required projects, he makes 2/3 other instruments per year. After the degree finishes in 2012, he is hoping to work for another Luthier for a few years to hone his skills and develop personal designs before starting his own brand!
It’s quite interesting when any Luthier tells someone what they do. It’s even more interesting when your 16 years old and telling a school career advisor that it’s what you want to do in university. I say ‘interesting,’ but I’ve found the conversation can generally go two ways – that is after you have explained what the word means. The first and I find most common reaction is that people question the very possibility of such a vocation. The most extreme of side of this reaction usually features the phrases, “are you mad?…is that a real thing?.” The second, least common, but most preferred reaction is that of genuine intrigue…and quite often a little bit of envy.
My name is Ciaran McNally and I first ventured into guitar making when I was 16 with some Kit Builds. After a few of those I spent a year on a guitar making evening course in Belfast with Sam Irwin, one of Ireland’s foremost luthiers. I stayed at school during the course but when it came to deciding my university choices for the following year, there was nothing other than guitar making that I was interested in. Luckily, London Metropolitan University has a course which about 2/3rd’s hands on guitar making and 1/3rd academic (e.g. physics, instruments history etc.) I’m now in the second year of their BSC in Musical Instruments.
As a young person studying Lutherie and hoping to make a career out of it, I’ve made some personal observations about the industry over the past few years. Before really knowing anything about Lutherie, the whole craft seemed to have this mystical air about it. The independent Luthier was the master craftsman with the seemingly unattainable career. I had a view of guitar makers being incredibly talented. The kind of talent that was inherent or non- existent.
Since becoming more involved in the industry and having made a few instruments and studied with different luthiers, my view of the industry and its people has very much changed. I no longer see the mystical cloak over the industry but something much clearer. I now see Lutherie not as one craft but a wide range of talents. It seems to me that the most successful luthiers must have the following…
- Impeccable Woodwork (quite important this one)
- An eye for Design
- A good musical ear
- A grasp of Musical Acoustics
- A solid view of Music and Culture.
I do have preferred styles and designs of guitar but I can always find an appreciation for any instrument that shows me the Luthier displayed the above talents. The latter of these talents seems quite important to me. Put simply, there’s no point in making a guitar that has no place in musical culture. Luthiers must respond to the music that is to be played on their products. This may seem like I am condemning traditional or historical instruments but quite the opposite. If there is a market for traditional or historical music, then the counterpart instruments can and should be made.
Some images of my own projects are shown, and although I’m not claiming to exhibit all those talents I’ve mentioned – I hoping every guitar has a little bit more of them than the previous.
In my second post I’ll have information and images on my current project – a spruce/mahogany, nylon strung parlour guitar.
©Ciaran McNally
Pictures courtesy of Ciaran McNally ©
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