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 week in the shop

20 Sep 2021 - carving, inlays, neck

Swapping theory back for practice to remind myself why I build guitars.

Pushing forward the design of the new guitar

2 Sep 2021 - 3d printing, älgen, dying, fusion 360

Pushing forward with the new guitar design: sweating the details of how to put it together, and getting help from the maker community with how to dye 3D printed parts.

Catching up in the shop

22 Aug 2021 -

Catching up in the shop

1 Aug 2021 -

Refining the design of my new guitar model

25 Jul 2021 -

Catching up in the shop

12 Jul 2021 -

Catch-up notes: Taking it to the bridge

1 Jul 2021 -

An in-progress pointy-offset style guitar build sits on the workbench surrounded by bags of parts. The neck, which maple with a purpleheart fretboard, is mostly completed but un-oiled, and the body is shaped and sanded, but is yet to have holes put in it for pickups and controls. On top of the body sit a bunch of parts placed to give an idea of how it'll look when finished.

Getting back into the workshop

21 Jun 2021 -

Taking stock as I move workshop yet again, and getting back into the swing of things by making a lot of dust as I flesh out the body for my Corvette build.

Investigating 3D printed parts for the new guitar design

14 Jun 2021 -

A crude render of a blocky guitar design. There's a core bit of wood that runs the length of the guitar from where the headstock would be to the tail, with a fretboard glued on, and the sides of the body are a plastic lattice-work.

Mapping out a new path to getting back into the workshop

3 Jun 2021 - 3D-printing, concepts, design

A look at how to define what it is I do as a luthier as a way to motivate me to pickup my tools again.