Woodshop rocks

The students in Duane Calkins' woodshop class aren't making shelves or clipboards; they aren't building stools or carving their names. The kids in Calkins' class at Buljan Middle School have a different woodshop project. They are building electric guitars."This is the coolest elective by far … you actually get to use the tools and it's in a safe environment," said Laurel Stokes, an eighth-grade peer tutor for one of Calkins' woodshop classes.Calkins said building guitars in woodshop began from a request by a student 14 years ago. Not one to disappoint his students, Calkins set out to learn the art of building the different types of electric guitars. What followed was nearly eight years of apprenticeships and parks and recreation classes to begin teaching guitar building. Four years ago, Buljan gave Calkins a year-round woodshop class. Calkins decided to make it a guitar building class. "That was an absolutely special group of kids, they were just really hard working and it gave me the confidence to keep going with the program," Calkins said. "Plus I got such great feedback from the community, I had to keep it going."Noah Podbielski, now a junior at Roseville High School, was one of the students in Calkins' first guitar building classes. That year he built a red and orange Stratocaster guitar that he entered into the 2007 California State Fair. He took home second place."I think I would have gotten first but I don't think they (the judges) believed I made it by myself … Mr.Calkins would be proud," Podbielski said. That first year Calkins had 37 students and 68 guitars were built as some students wanted to build two. The following year Buljan had two classes of guitar building and 98 guitars were built. Last year with three classes, 127 guitars were built. The program continues to grow each year and Calkins has taught other teachers his program to mirror at their own schools. In the 14 years of teaching guitar building, Calkins has seen more than 1,200 guitars come out of his program.This past summer, Cody Hutchinson, a woodshop teacher in Lyman, Wyo., was searching for guitar parts on the Internet and became interested in the program. Calkins spent a week teaching him how to build guitars, providing him with all the information, templates, photos and video clips of the process. Hutchinson will begin the guitar-building program in six weeks."As a woodshop teacher one of the challenges is that there's a threat of losing your program due to a lack of interest, " Hutchinson said. "I was trying to find something that the kids relate to … and I came across Dwayne's program."The students have complete freedom when it comes to building their guitars. First they choose what kind of guitar they want to make. There's Les Paul, the most difficult type of guitar to build because of its hollow interior. There's also the Stratocaster, Flying V and Warlock. The students can also come up with designs of their own, which many do to make custom guitars. They then choose between a variety of woods, from alder and rosewood to mahogany. The students take part in all of the building of their guitars although Calkins helps with the more advanced tools such as the table saw and the router."It's amazing, at the beginning of the year, you just have this chunk of wood and by the end of the year you see it turn into a beautiful six-string guitar," said eigthth-grader Grant Jansen. According to Calkins, the program would not be successful without the help of donations from local businesses including Skip's Music, Mac's Distributing Co., TAP Plastic, Aura Hardwoods and Walker Pickups.