Michael Winston Dales Guitars: 3d Printing

Workshop diary: trying a new approach to headstock shaping

23 Feb 2025 - 3d printing, jigs

A look at trying a new waj of making jigs for guitar building: 3D-printing them!

A photo of a 3D-printed jig that has a recess for holding the headstock end of a guitar neck, sat on a workbench next to the work-in-progress guitar-neck made from birds-eye-maple.

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 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.

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 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.

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 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 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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

19 Feb 2023 - 3d printing, älgen, bhm, delfinen, 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.

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

12 Feb 2023 - 3D printing, älgen, bhm, blues deluxe, delfinen, 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.

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

A Week Out the Shop

4 Feb 2023 - 3d printing, bhm, blues deluxe, ef1, freecad, generative art, gibson, laser-cutting, sister rosetta tharpe

I have some fun 3D printing a prototype of my new bridge design and fitting it to my daily player for testing, I start learning FreeCAD, and I spent some time listening to Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the under-appreciated inventor of rock-and-roll.

The 3D printed bridge mounted on the guitar with strings running over it. In the background you can see the floor and my pedal board, telling you that this is now being used!

Tags > 3d Printing