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Ray & Michael Tuckey
 Ray Tuckey
My early working life was in metal fabrication, having lectured at Wembley & Thornlie TAFE campuses in Perth, then moving south to lecture at Great Southern TAFE in the late 1980's.
For the last 12 years I've worked in various management roles, and more recently have coordinated the Professional Development program at GS TAFE that aims to up-skill our staff in many aspects of their jobs.
My first and only wood working project was in middle high school in 1969 when I built a coffee table ... I've still got it, complete with it's original sticker underneath with my name on it! Working in metals over the years I've come to accept working tolerances of up to 1/8th of an inch ... perfectly acceptable as you could always fill a gap with a weld. Lutherie, on the other hand, is a whole different ball game where I know now that slight errors can quickly snowball into major stuff-ups.
My wife Janene has worked in the WA education sector with local maker, Alan Warburton, and it was this contact that helped me track Alan down in 2005 to see if he'd teach a group of colleagues to make our first instruments ... we were off & running! I also invited my son Michael, who was 18 at the time, to join us and it's been great to have been working alongside him, and to see his bass guitar and wood skills develop.
 It's been a very positive thing for all of us involved in Great Southern Lutherie; the sense of achievement, the strong friendships we're forging, and the ways our building skills are being enhanced - it's all good.
By late 2006 I'd finished my first steel-string acoustic and it has brought a lot of joy ... not only in the making, but my playing improves all the time - I pick it up every day ... I just really like holding it!
 Michael Tuckey
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
We're waiting on a few words from our
youngest founding member, Mike ... stay tuned!
(I know he used a lot of Maple! - Ed.)
Email Ray | Email Michael
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