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!

Two guitar bodies are mounted on a rack in the wall of the workshop, the lower one is painted in white primer, and the upper one has black primer around the sides, the top being covered with a cardboard screen.

A Week in the Shop

13 Aug 2023 - älgen, delfinen, hästen, OSHCamp, painting, spray-booth, templates, toothbrush, verkstaden, wuthering bytes

A busy day in the workshop, including finally learning how to spray paint bodies using the booth and spray-gun, and prepping my talk for OSHCamp at the end of the month.

Two guitar bodies sit on the workbench, ready to go to the spray booth for painting. Both have a stick screwed into the neck pocket to be held in the clamp during spraying, and one has a cardboard mask on one side as only the rear will be painted.

A Week in the Shop

5 Aug 2023 - bass, design, fretwork, Fusion 360, grain filler, hästen, verkstaden

This week I had both the highs and lows as my neck building exceeds my expectations before I'm knocked down a peg or two on the next stage. I also prep two guitar bodies ready for the stray-booth, and I do some CAD work on bass guitar work.

A shaped but unpainted guitar body sits on a workbench surrounded by sanding disk.

A Week in the Shop

30 Jul 2023 - fretwork, grain filler, hästen

I move the Hästen guitar build forward slowly, moving both the body and the neck forward with generous application of elbow grease.

A close up of an in-progress neck carve, showing the transition between the headstock and the back of the neck. The neck is made from bird's eye maple.

A Week in the Shop

22 Jul 2023 - hästen, neck, offset, routing, verkstaden

Making headway on a client build, as it starts to get close to finishing time, and some tidying up of one of my prototypes before it heads to the spray booth.

A photo of a set of tables made up to display my Älgen hybrid built guitar (part wood, part 3D-printed), with examples of prototype parts, wood off cuts, and an amplified ready to let people try it out.

A Month in and Out the Shop

17 Jul 2023 - 3d-printing, älgen, amsterdam, carving, hästen, liverpool makefest, spraying

A catch-up on the work leading up to Liverpool Makefest, and how the event itself went, plus I find the largest 3D-print I've ever seen in Amsterdam afterward.

A view of the 3D-printed lattice-work guitar body in the spray booth ready to be sprayed.

A Week in the Shop

17 Jun 2023 - älgen, carving, hästen, laser-cutting, neck, spraying, verkstaden

The race is on to get Älgen ready for Liverpool Makefest, I dodge a knot as I carve Hästens neck, and I say who needs scissors if you have a laser-cutter?

A selfie of me in the spray booth, wearing all my PPE (respirator, eye-protectors, goggles), and behind is the over-exposed 3D-printed body of a guitar ready for spraying with lacquer.

A Week in the Shop

10 Jun 2023 - älgen, blues deluxe, electronics, fretwork, hästen, inlays, lacquer, noel gallagher, spraying

A busy week in the shop: getting ready to spray a 3D-printed guitar body; learning to use metal rods for dot-inlays on a neck; and when copper insulation goes rogue inside a guitar.