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!

Three work in progress guitars sit on a workbench, each a body with a neck beside it. All are raw wood and unfinished. The left body has pickup cavities and a neck pocket cut, and the neck is just roughly shaped with a template on top. The middle one is the most complete, with the neck fretted and all the body holes cut. The right body has only a neck pocket but no other holes init, but the neck is fretted and otherwise complete.

A Week in the Shop

5 May 2023 - delfinen, emily hopkins, harp, hästen, jigs, routing, templates, verkstaden

A quick review of all the in-progress guitar builds, a bunch of progress on the offset build, putting an excessively complicated jig to use, and finally some fun facts about harps.

A close up of älgen guitar being held by me, showing the chrome pickups and rosewood fretboard.

A Week Out the Shop

30 Apr 2023 - älgen, mighty beast, plectrums

A quiet week workshop wise is an excuse to have a loud week at home turning the amp up and trying out älgen properly for the first time.

A rack of guitars sits next to an amp and pedalboard. The most obvious guitar on the rack is Älgen, which is part 3D-printed, making it stand out from all the other guitars.

A Week in the Shop

22 Apr 2023 - fretwork, necks, paintstik, plectrums

The Älgen guitar is now something I get to live with for a little, two necks get some work done, I worry about how to promote myself at shows, and I explore some guitar music outside my usual listening.

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, verkstaden

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.