Surfing the internet without direction can be a dangerous thing. The least that can happen is a wasted 10-minutes watching someone make a fool of themselves. The worst — raised blood pressure after reading about some atrocity or incompetent politician. On too many occasions, aimless mouse-clicking results in a useless purchase. Whether what you read on the web is true, false, deliberately misleading, or the result of sloppy journalism, your heart, gut and mind cannot tell the difference, and they react the same. Surfing the net can be dangerous to your health as well as your pocket! Emotions arise over something which, only minutes before you were blissfully unaware. All too often I am a willing victim of this digital, dance of distraction!

So, there I was, one day, bored with work, and I found myself checking out guitar auctions on ebay. One thing led to another — “what’s the best wood” — “what’s the best construction” — Amazon Books: “how to build a guitar” — “guitar self-build kits for sale”. Fortunately, this time, it was no dead-end waste of time. Waiting for me at the end of this rabbit hole was a golden thread — “Luthier courses” — I followed that thread, and before long I’d made a decision. I will build my own guitar! It didn’t matter that I hadn’t built anything from wood since I was 15 years old. (By the way, it was a tea tray and my parents still use it; despite some wonky dovetail joints it’s pretty solid.)

I had discovered Chris Horton, a professional luthier, providing just what I wanted: knowledge, wisdom, a workshop, tools and close supervision; and all just 3-minutes from a beach rimmed with palm trees. Jungle Guitars is run by Chris from Baga in Goa. It will take me 3 to 4 weeks to turn the ideas running through my mind into a unique and playable acoustic steel string guitar. Using basic hand tools, working with a small team, and all the time enjoying the beauty of this Indian hippy hotspot — what a great way to start 2015. I will acquire a practical object with real personal value, and I will aso acquire some useful skills. Skills that I could put to further use — more guitars, bookshelves, or some chair bodging? Oh, and did I mention, a suntan?

If you found this page after 10-minutes of aimless surfing, perhaps you want to “see” where this golden thread continues to lead me and learn how I built a guitar from scratch with absolutely no experience. Selecting the wood. Sketching designs. Bending the sides. Carving the neck. Inlaying abalone. Marquetry. Gluing, clamping and spraying. And, finally (if I’m not too shy) knocking out a tune. Come back soon.

What are you doing in 2015 that you have never done before?