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Build Your Own Custom Guitar July 2013 – Live Web Cam
Live from the Bailey Workshop – meet the cast
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- Mark
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- Steve
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- Arabian Paul
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- Tom
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- Mark’s Drawing
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- Steve’s Drawing
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- Paul’s Drawing
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- Tom’s Drawing
It’s that time of year again –Custom BYO and the sun is out finally
We have two first timers, Paul from the Midlands, and Tom from Essex, with Steve from Aberdeen and Mark from Germany here for the second year-but all here to design and build some awesome original guitars. Two through necks, a bolt-on and a set neck but all six stringers this time.
Unusually everyone opted for some kind of maple neck and ebony fretboard, but apart from that detail they couldn’t be more different. The wood selection is high class and we are going to be making some stunners – high grade flame & quilted maple, and a touch of spalted beech for caps. Some with coloured spray jobs, and some natural.
Intrigued ? Can’t wait for the final day photos ? You don’t have to…
We will be broadcasting live once more from the Bailey Workshop for the duration of this course (internet permitting!) all day from around 10 in the morning till we finish early evening – but NOT Wed as that is the day of rest. No audio (probably just as well) but we will turn the sound up late on Sat afternoon as the finished guitars start to burst into life
You probably have other things to do for the next 7 days (not inc. WED!) but we’ll be here so keep dropping by and catch up with their progress… (did we mention we aren’t in on Wed?).
Watch the Live Stream below: (expired)
Update: Watch video highlights of the course
Keep Music Live? You can make a world tour happen
Preston Reed NEW ALBUM & TOUR
Preston Reed has just recorded his first album in 7 years!
We at Bailey Guitars are buzzing with excitement as most of the compositions (Preston told me 90%) have been written and recorded using his own Signature Series guitars made here in the Bailey Workshop.
If you don’t already know the story, Preston came to the workshop in 2010 because he needed a new custom baritone guitar and had decided that a Bailey was the way to go. We loved his thinking – as a well established American composer and touring pro acoustic player , Preston could have approached the big names in guitar manufacture for an endorsement and a free guitar …but he came to us because he wanted to support an “local artisan craftsman” now he has made his home here in Ayrshire, he wanted to create as green and environmentally friendly guitar as possible (reclaimed wood, no shell , and of course our renewable energy) and that support extended to paying for it – he put his money where his principles were!
Preston is a truly independent artist, and like many great composers and musicians has chosen to own, manage and control his own music. The price for artistic and creative freedom is a tough one – it also means paying for everything yourself – the time needed for the inspiration to write and of course ALL the expenses associated with recording, promoting and sharing the music.
Preston has been working for some time to create this new body of work and is almost ready to release and tour – but has turned to a new method of 21st century funding as a way of getting his music out there – crowd funding- which is the ultimate in people power support – by using Indiegogo any project can reach out and ask for financial help. Its not charity or free money – the idea is you pledge support for an amount that you can afford and you get something real in return (apart from the pleasure of saying you helped make the thing happen) from a cd to a personal gig at your house.
Preston’s project is simple – help to make his new music live and on tour– watch the video to see how it works and why:
Preston’s Indiegogo Campaign
Its easy to say we like to see artists being independent and true to their art/music but the way the music industry works it is hard for musicians to stay true to their principles – Preston Reed has worked hard to do that, and for us his support of what we do buy choosing to commission, compose & record with, and gig two signature Baileys says all we need to know about his support of independent craft.
We cannot wait to hear the new album and see his Baileys in action around the world – and for us in our 15th year it is a fantastic milestone also.
Please share this with anyone who likes acoustic guitar, original music and the idea of people making music happen themselves. Even if you have no money to spare you can help by liking and sharing Preston’s campaign. Check out his videos and website.
If you want to keep up to date with what goes on here, sign up to the newsletter through our shop and if you are interested in guitar making go to Marks news blog for more information.
Thank you
Steve McKeand talks about his Bailey custom archtop guitar
First play and review of Steve’s custom archtop
Steve plays guitar professionally in his band ‘The Highland Hotclub‘. He first commissioned this custom Bailey Kithara Archtop guitar about five years ago and paid for it on a monthly basis. Now it is finished, all paid for and in his hands for the first time!
Build Your Own First Guitar – May 2013
Build Your Own First Guitar – May 2013
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- The ‘May’-Team
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- James – BYO 334
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- Gavin – BYO 335
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- Rene – BYO 336
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- Neil – BYO 337
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- My work here is done…
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- James took this!
We are constantly surprising ourselves how much Bailey Guitars are really reaching out across the world nowadays…Rene came all the way from Tasmania, to our little corner of the world we like to call Bailey Land, just to build his own guitar on our course, beating Luis who came from Brazil last time (Luis has since rightly pointed out that at least he got here first!)
It was very hard work as usual but we got there in the end, as we always do…with another four great ‘first’ guitars from the Bailey Workshop and once again we were ‘live streaming‘ to the world!
This is the most basic ‘build’ course we run, basically you make a Bailey Bandsman style guitar, but as you can see there is still some scope for customisation…Gavin chose to have a P90 in the neck position and a chrome cover on his bridge humbucker. Neil and James chose native ash and spalted maple respectively from our multitudinous selection of caps, two of the guys opted for thinner bodies. James also went for a tunamatic bridge with stop tailpiece in place of the standard Wilkinson Bridge. Rene’s guitar is probably the most ‘standard’ as he didn’t opt for any of the extras, but it is still a very lovely guitar as you will have heard if you tuned in to the livestream.
I will leave you with the words from the guys written in the ‘magic book’:
‘Amazing experience, with such fantastic people! Mark has patience like no other. The coffee breaks were made 1000x morerelaxing by laughing at Rene’s stories and Fiona’s biscuits & cakes! Impressed with the high level of which all our guitars came out. Mark is an outstanding teacher. I will be coming back! I’m rambling now. Tired. Dirty. Very sad to be going home. I will miss you all! Oh and yummy soup!’ – James BYO-334 ‘The team have been welcoming, helpful and friendly – I feel as if we have been a family for the past week. Mark is a generous teacher with admirable patience. Carol and Fiona are great hosts. To sum up, I have had a memorable few days with great company and am about to leave with a *really* sweet guitar.’ -Gavin BYO-335 ‘I CAME, I MADE IT & WENT BACK TO TASMANIA. GREAT TIME & THE REST OF THE GROUP WERE “FORMIDABLE”. BEST FIVE DAYS. THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR MAKING ME WELCOME. HASTA LA VISTA, MARK’- Rene BYO-336 ‘I had a great time. Mark made guitar building really easy for us. Everyone made us feel really welcome. Great bunch of enthusiasts. GOOD SOUP! Thanks for the knowledge and a great 6 days! – Neil BYO-337
Build Your Own Guitar – Live from the Bailey Workshop
Build Your Own First Guitar – Live From the Bailey Workshop
2pm Thur 23rd – 6pm Tues 28th May
We will be broadcasting via ustream for the duration of this course – please feel free to comment!
Live steam
(now expired)
Yikes…
We don’t just run courses here! We also make our own unique range of Bailey guitars – If we can do this in five days, just imagine what we could build for you… or to put it another way – if you can imagine it, we can build it.
Contact us with your requirements or have a look at some guitars in our online shop.
Livestream Update
Luis finishes his guitar!
Last time we tried live streaming from the workshop we had problems with the audio…I promised I would upload a clip of the finished guitar so here it is!
Luis built his guitar in 5 days on our Build Your Own First Guitar course which takes place here in the Bailey Workshop. The spec of the guitar is s follows:
Body : Cedrella
Neck : Mahogany
Fretboard: Rosewood
Pickups :Wilkinson
Bridge : Wilkinson Wrapover
Tuners : Gotoh
Well done Luis – and thanks for coming all the way from Brazil to our little corner of the world to make your guitar.
Update:
Luis made his own video of the finished guitar on his return to Brazil. As he is really a bass player he enlisted his friend to play it for us – enjoy…(I did!)
Lordy…
We don’t just run courses here! We also make our own range of Bailey guitars – If we can do this in on a course, just imagine what we could build for you… or to put it another way – if you can imagine it, we can build it.
Contact us with your requirements or have a look at some guitars in our online shop.
International Marketing Guru joins Bailey Guitars
Welcome Margaux – Our first international work placement student
Our very own International Marketing Guru!
We are very exited and grateful to have her here – Thanks for choosing us for your project!
Margaux will be with us for 8 weeks as part of her BTS Commerce International Course at the Lycee de Metiers in St Malo, Brittany. It is a prestigious course in France and Margaux is one of only a few students that get a place each year.
Amazingly some of her fellow students are now in Australia, the US and other countries across the globe doing their placements – Margaux wanted to come to Scotland and work here at Baileys.
Her project involves market research, identifying our competition, strengths and weaknesses, and hopefully finding a niche in the market before approaching potential interested customers on our behalf and with a bit of luck launching Bailey Guitars into Europe!
She will be targeting Netherlands for her project as we know we already have a big following there.
If you are a shop or guitar dealer and would be interested in stocking Bailey Guitars please get in touch – if you are one of our many Dutch customers and have some suggestions and would be willing to take part in her research, we would be delighted to hear from you.
Bailey Guitars at the Scottish Music Show
The Scottish Music Show – 2013
Bailey Guitars exhibited at the Scottish Music Show -Venue: New Lanark Mills World Heritage Centre – What a beautiful place!
Date: 27/28th April 2013 – Weather sunny! (with a few minor showers – it was the Scottish Guitar Show after all!)
New Lanark Mills is a world heritage centre and the venue for the first Scottish Music Show. As our workshop is just 1hr down the road we had to be there of course, displaying our range of hand crafted instruments and even a few ‘Build your Owners’ brought theirs along to show off – including Moyra’s fine ‘Forget Me Not‘ BYO Custom acoustic.
We also had an open stage where anyone was welcome to try one of our guitars ‘live’. I managed to video a little of Mike McDonald playing his Moonshiner (see below) before the batteries ran out, so unfortunately you will not see Laura played her Bailey Ukulele, or the entire Stranraer Guitar Club doing their thing. The club was set up and run by Mandy Green who has done an amazing job encouraging and teaching the young ‘uns! Great singing and 9 players-young Lewis Mcleod gave us a blast of rock on his Bailey Curve – people stayed to watch their set and loved it. Check out video of Jennifer McMaster and Jocelyn on Mandy’s page – the future looks bright for acoustic music,
We also got a rare acoustic set from Sneaky Pete, on a couple of Baileys, and from the enchanting singer songwriter Todi, who played a few of her own tunes-another young performer to watch out for. Thanks to them all-will upload some bits of film at a later date
On Sunday I did a 1hr talk about how I make guitars which seemed to go down pretty well, at least nobody walked out. It seemed to last about 20mins to me! I was asked questions all the way through so there was a lot of interest especially around the BYO stuff.
Duncan and Colin were also there displaying their own handmade guitars – Duncan came five times on our course and now is making under the name of ‘Earn Guitars’-it was good to see them again
BIG THANKS to our supporters and players who came along including Steve McCann who lent us his amazing bass for our display. Also to all the Bailey Team for the least stressful show set up yet, and everyone who came to support us – A final thanks and thumbs up go to the all the really helpful NLM staff and of course Jim Duncan who had this great idea and made it come alive – see you next year?
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- The Big Man
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- Laura with Uke
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- The Stranraer Guitar Club
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- Guitar making demonstration
Here is a little video I put together. I took the camera around the Bailey Stand before the show opened…and mixed it with a few outside shots of the venue…Thanks to Mike McDonald for the tune and great speech(@2:40)!