Michael Winston Dales 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!

A photo of me stood in a library behind a table with several guitars, including one where the body is 3D printed.

A Month Out the Shop

21 Jul 2024 - älgen, delfinen, emf, liverpool, makefest, sweden, verkstaden

A summer summary: I've presented at two major events where I showed off the guitars, I went on holiday and bumped into some interesting guitars, and I went to a non-guitar event where I made some design observations I can apply to guitars!

A photo of a work-in-progress solid-body electric guitar laid on a workbench in a workshop. The guitar has a body painted light blue with just a bridge installed and no electronics or pick-guard yet, showing the internal cavities lined with copper tape. The neck is made from birds-eye maple. Most importantly the guitar has strings on it.

A Month in and Out the Shop: Hästen

10 Jun 2024 - hästen, pick-guard

This time we catch up with Hästen, the last of the old mustang-style builds, which finally hits its "strings on" milestone!

A photo of me stood in the workshop playing a solid-bodied electric guitar that has a bright yellow wood stained body, a rosewood fretboard and a maple neck. I appear to be playing an A barre chord.

A month in and out the shop: Verkstaden

8 Jun 2024 - 3D-printing, electronics, verkstaden

Another guitar finally makes it over the line! This week it's Verkstaden's go, and we take a look at what it took to get it over the finishing line, including some last minute custom 3D-printed parts.

A photo of a yellow and black finished guitar body on a workbench, on top of which is a palm-router and everything is covered in wood-dust from some cutting.

A Week in the Shop

10 May 2024 - cleaning, hästen, nut carving, verkstaden

An exciting week in the shop as a new guitar gets strings for the first time, I tidy up a neck on another build, and I find out how dirty old rosewood fretboards can really get.

A photo of a blue-painted mustang-style guitar body is sat on the workbench showing a string-ferrule block in place on the rear.

A Week in the Shop

2 May 2024 - hästen, measure, measure, cut, routing, verkstaden

A week of highs and lows in the workshop, as I try to push forward again with two stalled builds.

A photo of a pickguard from a stratocaster style guitar on a workbench surrounded by electronics parts and a notebook with a wiring diagram hand draw in it.

A Week in the Shop

26 Apr 2024 -

After a few hectic weeks, a quiet one this time with getting one guitar properly set up, and another a bit of a fix up.

A screenshot of the SVTplay website, showing a program called 'Den Engelska Älggitarren', with a thumbnail of me holding my hybrid 3d-printed guitar and a moose stood in a forest.

Älgen Catchup

18 Apr 2024 - 3d-printing, älgen, markforged, svt

Catching up with Älgen: I end up on Swedish Public Broadcasting with the story of Älgen, and I go one level further into custom parts enabled by 3D-printing.

A still from a video showing Michael sat in front of the camera holding a guitar, showing the headstock of it to the camera. On the headstock it says "MWDales" in script and "Delfinen" under that.

A month in the shop: wrapping up Delfinen

8 Apr 2024 - action, delfinen, electronics, fretwork, nut, setup

Going through the final stages of wrapping up Delfinen: getting the setup just right, and soldering up the electronics.

A mostly assembled guitar sits on the workbench! It is missing all the electronics, but otherwise looks like a guitar. Importantly it has strings on it! It has a vivid orange-stained wood body with white binding and white pickup mounts, and a maple neck with a rosewood fretboard.

Workshop weeknotes: Delfinen becomes an instrument at last.

1 Mar 2024 - binding, delfinen, finishing, laser-cutting

Is this a guitar I see before me? Another weeknotes catching up with all that's happened to Delfinen since we last saw it, including it getting strung up for the first time.

A photo of a work-in-progress guitar on the workbench, surrounded by tools and sanding pads. The guitar has a maple neck with a rosewood fretboard and 21 frets, and the body is a bright yellow stain on birds-eye maple on the front, with black and natural wood sides. There are holes in the body for components, but all are missing.

Workshop Catch-up: Verkstaden

15 Feb 2024 - painting, spraying, verkstaden

Continuing the catch-up series: Verkstaden goes through the process of getting a gloss finish, and I end up making some costly mistakes along the way.