I’ve wanted to do luthiery for a few years. I’ve built one kit ukulele, which was fun, but didn’t come out as nicely as I’d like. I’m not doing anything currently, but I’d like to get more involved in building instruments. Among other things, I have a broken Kamaka soprano ukulele I was given by a friend that I’d like to repair.
I ran across Kathy Matsushita’s amateur luthiery page some years ago, then lost the link. I found it again recently, and there are some new things on it.
Another option is classes; at least one of the local luthiers has run classes in which you build a guitar from scratch over the course of a few months. Too bad I can’t afford to do that.
There are many songs out there that are easy songs to play on your guitar as a beginner. Many of these songs do not have more than a few chords for you to play. In addition, you will find that many of these easy guitar songs are by classic artists like The Rolling Stones, The Grateful Dead and The Beatles.
That’s true, and I collect old songbooks, some of which limit themselves to three-chord songs. Actually, it’s more like I accumulate them, because there’s no real organization to them. They’re mostly 60s and 70s pop/rock and bluegrass/folk songbooks. I play uke and a little banjo, for the most part. I can form about half-a-dozen or so guitar chords, but I’ve never achieved enough facility with them to be able to claim that I play the guitar.
If you look at the “Music” category in my sidebar, you’ll find links to a number of sites that have chords and lyrics for music, as well as some ukulele-specific links.