Electric Flapjack Guitars: Blog

I've learned a lot from other guitar builders over the years, and so this blog is a way for me to share my own build experiences and hopefully let others learn from my success and mistakes!

I'm stood next to the workbench with a blue guitar amp on it, and I have a guitar plugged into the amp for testing purposes. I'm staring at the amp as I play.

A Week in the Shop

15 Apr 2023 - 3D printing, amp, esp32, fret work, motor, pickups, staining

The old amp I built gets a new lease of life, I spend some quality time doing fret-work on a new neck, a bit looking at wood stains, and baby steps are made on my pickup winder.

Me standing holding a guitar in the Snowdia landscape, with a hill to my left and a lake to my right.

A Week in the Shop

9 Apr 2023 - älgen, harley benton, staining, verkstaden

A trip to Wales, where I get to play guitars in some amazing scenery, more practicing with wood stains, and some frustrating string breakages.

A set of four postcard-sized rectangles of maple on a workbench, each with a different stain blend being tested: first is just straight yello, the second is orange over yellow, the third is red over yellow, and then the last is yellow, orange, and red.

A Week in the Shop

2 Apr 2023 - 3D-printing, amp, colour, form 3, formlabs, fusion 360, stain, verkstaden

A grab bag of bits this week: 3D printing a custom control for one guitar, testing out staining options for another, fitting a new transformer to my practice amp, and doing a little bit of electronics on my pickup winder.

The bottom end of the wooden core of älgen has a copper-tape covered cavity with all the wiring in. To close this off, there is a laser-cut cover made from frosted-translucent orange acrylic. The cover has my initials, MWD, etched into it, along with 'Älgen Prototype 1'

A Week in the Shop

26 Mar 2023 - älgen, design, ESP32, pickups, verstaden

Fixing up the details on my älgen guitar build, remodeling an in-progress older build to have a fresh new look, and I curse generally about letting electronics back into my life.

My brother on stage at King Tut's Wah Wah hut singing into a mic whilst holding a PRS guitar

A Week in sources of inspiration

19 Mar 2023 - chuncaster, inspiration, jazz, paul reed smith, pickups, podcasts, prs, straps, wuthering bytes

Pausing my regular workshop updates this week to look at something that's been on my mind of late: sources of inspiration and motivation, and how to channel that into my guitar building.

A Week in the Shop

12 Mar 2023 - älgen, amp, dalarna, design, fusion 360, hästen, website

A busy week, with lots of progress: älgen guitar finally becomes an instrument, I design a new guitar, and I do some work to upgrade my old amp.

The pub sign for The Duke of Cumberland which shows a painting of a 17 or 18th century duke playing a Fender Telecaster with a jazz ensemble behind him.

A Week in the Shop

6 Mar 2023 - 3D-printing, älgen, birthday, laser-cutting, telecaster, templates

Rushed weeknotes for a rushed week: I make some progress on älgen, meet the real version of what it's named after, and spend far too long nursing a laser-cutter.

A 3D render of my älgen guitar design, which has a central wooden core that starts as the neck and continues the full length of the body, and then has a 3D printed latice either side where the guitar body would usually be.

A Week Out the Shop

26 Feb 2023 - archtop, bhm, cad, delfin, fusion 360, rendering, templates, verkstaden

A week spent paying off some CAD debt to fuel the workshop time, and a look at another builder of some amazing archtop guitars.

A work in progress guitar neck, shaped and fretted, sat on a workbench. Beside the neck is a black sharpie pen, and closer inspection reveals all the frets have been drawn on with the sharpie ready for fret shaping work.

A Week in the Shop

19 Feb 2023 - 3d printing, älgen, bhm, delfin, fretwork, memphis minnie

A shorter weeknotes this week, as I've been heads down on slow tasks: fretwork and 3D print iterations. I also learned about the person who wrote one of my favourite Led Zepplin songs back in 1929.

An unfinished guitar neck sits fretboard down on a workbench, surrounded with sanding disks.

A Week in the Shop

12 Feb 2023 - 3D printing, älgen, bhm, blues deluxe, delfin, grant green, neck, orca, sanding

A bit of everything this week: more neck carving, inspirational jazz performers, 3D-printing with carbon-fibre, finding odd imperial sized screws, and having fun with obtuse seeming digital music tools.