Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery 50th anniversary celebration

A luthiery school teaches the art and craft of building, repairing, and restoring stringed instruments, primarily guitars. Roberto-Venn is the longest-running luthiery in North America and is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

To honor the school and its longtime commitment to excellence and creativity, 50 of the world’s most accomplished guitar builders were challenged to design and craft an all-new instrument.

The challenge involved crafting the all-new instrument from the same supply of rare Nicaraguan rosewood and mahogany that helped launch the Phoenix-based guitar-building and repair school back in 1975. Those instruments are now on display at the Musical Instrument Museum.

William Eaton, Director and Founder of the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery, joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss more about the school.

“We are awe inspired by these instruments,” Eaton said.

Luthiers are people who repair and build string instruments, a trade that is taught at the Roberto-Venn school. The institution has overseen over 3,000 graduates, who often go on to work at notable companies within the industry.

“You get an intimate relationship with the wood,” Eaton said. “You understand all the different properties of what different woods will do to an instrument, and make the selection according to what type of instrument you want to make.”

When constructing an acoustic guitar, the top pieces of wood are the most important and the type of wood greatly impacts the sound of the instrument. Students at the school are tasked with creating their own guitars as a part of their final projects. Many graduates go on to sell custom guitars for thousands of dollars.

“All these major companies are making these guitars, but mostly our graduates did the work. They hire our graduates,” Eaton said. “That’s our primary mission as a school is to prepare these students to go into the profession so they get jobs with these major companies.”