Hi Sean & Dane,

Safely back home after a long drive back to Victoria. Just wanted to make sure I sat down and sent of a few words about your Guitar Building Course (they didn’t ask me to do this), but I just wanted to thank you both for the joy I had in making my own Acoustic Guitar. The 2 weeks went so quickly, each day a new challenge (for someone who’s previous definition of woodwork involved a chainsaw and axe), the fact that we got down and into the building from day one, and had plenty of opportunity for questions, was hands down the best course I have been on.

You guys didn’t hover over us, but were there when a question needed answering, and having the other participants to bounce ideas and see how someone else’s Guitar Build was progressing was great. And I finally did it after 12 days, strung it up and played it, what a buzz. I have played guitar for 40+years so to finally play one I built was sensational.

Would recommend this course to anyone, and please feel free to use my testimonial as you want. PS they even bought me pizza on my birthday. Will definitely be building another one back at my workshop, now I have the basic skills under my belt.

⁠Regards, Martin Jones

Dane and Sean,

Thank you for a fantastic two weeks! Your course exceeded my expectations. Never did I expect that a guitar built for the most part by someone with zero experience could sound so good. It certainly lives up to the “better than a factory Martin” promise. Your lutherie expertise is without doubt. I enjoyed the laid-back atmosphere, working in the Georgian Room (what a perfect setting) and had a great time.

I was particularly impressed by your personal and professional approach. The time and energy that you gave to the two of us has definitely made a impact in our new-found skills and ultimately the quality of the guitars we built. Surely no other guitar making course in the world could offer students such personal attention!

You’ve inspired me to take this up as a serious hobby in the future and I look forward to coming back someday if you hold Master Courses — hopefully to work with some of those beautiful Australian timbers you showed us.

Kind regards,

Eugene

Since completing the course, I’ve continued to build guitars with continued support from Sean whenever I’ve needed it. I’m forever grateful for the journey the guitar making course has set me on.

Thanks,

I originally enrolled in the course to see whether I could actually make a ‘playable instrument’. With the help of Sean & Dane, I was able to achieve a far better result than just a playable instrument. Thank you for establishing a desire to make more instruments.

I would like to thank you for your tutoring and practical assistance during my participation in the guitar making course.

I was most impressed with your depth of knowledge, professionalism and commitment to making the course successful. Thank you for the courtesy and camaraderie shown at all times which ultimately led to the quality of our workmanship.

I am very pleased with the guitar and will have no hesitation in recommending Hancock Guitars to my contacts. I know one day I will see the Hancock Guitar brand in all good quality reference books. The world needs committed artisans like you both to keep the art of luthiery alive.

Originally I had no intention of doing a guitar building course. However, one day I was poking around on the net looking for guitar suppliers, and I remember being blown-away by your guitar making course site that I had to immediately enrol.

The instructions from Sean & Dane were extremely professional, helpful and done with a lot of patience. You took the time to answer questions and showed, in very practical ways, how to solve the problems I had while building my guitar. I calculated that amongst the three of you there is almost 100 years of luthier experience and knowledge which explained the care and attention to detail you took in ensuring that the student learnt these essentials and applied them in every aspect of guitar building.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Hancock Guitars! And I would also like to thank you very much for such an awesome experience. In Fijian we would say VINAKA VAKA LEVU for making me feel part of the family.

I am happy to enthusiastically recommend the Hancock Guitar Making course or if you are looking for an exceptional guitar, go view some of their extraordinary guitars and ukuleles, which I had the pleasure of playing.

Richard Fiu

I looked around on the web at different courses from all over the world. I chose to do a course with Hancock Guitars because they looked like they had had a lot of experience and the course is in a beautiful part of Australia.

The course itself was interesting. I learned a lot of the theory of guitar making and a few techniques not widely known or used. I was also very impressed with my guitar.

Since then I’ve started my second guitar with the help of a woodworking teacher. Sean and Dane have been very helpful answering my questions over the phone.

For the price and quality of the finished product, I am happy to recommend a Hancock guitar making course to those who want to get started in lutherie, or those that just want to have a guitar they can say they built themselves.

Thank you,