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South Park Middle School Applied Engineering Technology

SPMS student Carlos Trinidad holds a block of wood which he eventually will shape into a new guitar

SPMS student Carlos Trinidad uses a saw to start shaping and customizing his guitar

A photo of a guitar “under construction”

A finished guitar designed with yellow ‘Pittsburgh Bridges’

SPMS students Carlos Trinidad (left) and Joey Maffei (right) with their finished guitars.

During the past several months, two large, plain wood rectangles have been magnificently transformed by a pair of South Park Middle School students in Applied Engineering Technology (AET) class.

Eighth grade students Carlos Trinidad and Joey Maffei used what they’ve learned in Alex Whittington's AET course and took a deep dive into applied math, science, engineering, manufacturing, and music as they built custom electric guitars.

Whittington has built his own guitars and last year assisted a student Nick Bove finish building one.  The two students approached Whittington late last year about building guitars this year. 

“Let’s do it,” he recalled. “You buy the parts and I’ll help you build it. I will get you started and do what I can to help you.”

Whittington and the students said that a starter guitar costs in the $300 - $500 range, while a signature guitar would be $1,500 or more. Whittington had a couple of extra guitar necks at home which he gave to the students and they bought all the other necessary parts at a combined cost below what buying one would cost. 

“They did research on their own; they came in during lunch and during some homeroom periods to work on the guitars,” Whittington said. “They designed them and bought all the parts.”

“We helped each other. We came in and worked on them literally anytime we could, maybe an extra 90 minutes some days (in addition to the AET class),” Carlos stated of the production process that began in November and ended early this Spring.

“My dad helped me with the (Pittsburgh) bridges design and stripes,” Joey said (the stripes are patterned after an Eddie Van Halen guitar).

 “I wasn’t sure about what colors I wanted, then someone said they had never seen pink and yellow on anything, so that’s when I decided,” said Carlos. 

Whittington, who also teaches Manufacturing Foundations I & II and Automation and Robotics at SPMS, said the students used a bandsaw, router, miter saw, planer, table saw, wood jointer, drills, hand tools and files during the production of their guitars. 

There were times when the students faced some challenges. “Carlos had to install the frets (on  the neck); there’s fine details involved and it took him a couple of weeks.” 

“It took me 2-3 weeks to put the frets on the base, that was probably the most challenging part,” Carlos stated.

“When I was using the router, it was vibrating,” Joey recalled as a challenging moment.

But, once the students got to the point in the process where they were painting and staining their guitars, they could see that their vision and all their hard work was becoming a reality. 

Once Carlos’ guitar came back from being sprayed with polyurethane by high school teacher David Bailey, they were ready for their public debut. Both students are members of the SPMS Concert and Jazz Bands. They play trumpet in the concert band and guitar in the jazz band. 

Both students have the same guitar teacher, who has helped place them in bands. Joey is in a metal band and Carlos is in a Rock band, Sin 62, with some SPHS students. So keep an eye out for the students and their hand-made, visually striking musical instruments this Summer and as they enroll at SPHS in the Fall.

What’s the reaction been from their fellow AET classmates and other students? “Some of them are pretty mesmerized,” Carlos smiled.

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