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Build Your Own Custom Guitar – Charlie – BYO – 308
…This could be the start of something beautiful…
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- ‘Serpent’ Decal closeup
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- Mango headstock veneer
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- Charlie’s own body shape
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- Top carve
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- Belly carve
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- Set neck style construction
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- Rear view of headstock with serial number 308
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- Rear view
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- Mango madness
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- Charlie Christian jazz pickup
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- Mango cap
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- Build your own custom guitar
Charlie made this, his first guitar, in seven days on our build your own custom guitar course. He chose every detail and even designed his own shape during the design session on day 1.
All the guitars are made completely from scratch, there are no kits here, we start with rough blocks of wood.
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Yikes…
We don’t just run courses here! We also make our own unique range of Bailey guitars – If we can do this in seven days 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.
Build Your Own Custom Guitar – Kevin – BYO – 307
…Kevin’s second guitar made here in the Bailey work shop on our build your own custom guitar course…
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- Headstock with serial number BYOG-307
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- Chrome tuners and hardware
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- Recessed neck anchor washers
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- Rear view
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- Custom headstock inlay
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- Rosewood cap
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- Bridge and pickup layout
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- BYO-307
Kevin came on the course back in and made his first, a through neck custom guitar with ‘Naked Lady’ inlay. This time he wanted something less provocative and came up with this design during the first session on day one of the course.
Seven days later this is the result.
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cuh…
We don’t just run courses here! We also make our own unique range of Bailey guitars – If we can do this in seven days 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.
Usman Riaz and Preston Reed: A young guitarist meets his hero
Preston is getting some use out of his Signature Bailey Baritone!
This is awesome! It really kicks off about half way through when they both play together – then the jam at the end is met with a standing ovation.
From ted.com:
Usman Riaz is a 21-year-old whiz at the percussive guitar, a style he learned to play by watching his heroes on YouTube. The TED Fellow plays onstage at TEDGlobal 2012 — followed by a jaw dropping solo from the master of percussive guitar, Preston Reed. And watch these two guitarists take on a very spur-of-the-moment improv.
Preston Reed’s hands have an otherworldly coordination. The fingers, nails, thumbs, and palms of both left and right dance, pluck, strum, and slap his guitar, which bursts with a full sound. Full bio »
Young guitarist Usman Riaz pulls a rich, swirling sound out of the acoustic guitar. Full bio »
Build Your Own Custom Guitar – Course in Progress – Conclusion
…I aint got time to bleed…
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- Build Your Own Custom Guitar
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- Charlie with his finished guitar
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- Phil with his finished guitar
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- Mark play tests his guitar
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- Kevin with his two BYO guitars
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- Tuning up
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- Stringing up
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- Re-crowning the frets
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- Working on the frets
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- Installing the frets
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- Cutting out the body
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- Cutting out the body shape
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- Carving the thru neck heel
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- Preparing the body wings
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- Carving a maple neck
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- Checking the fretboard for straightness
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- Gluing on the fretboard
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- Charlie is making a set neck guitar
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- Kevin is making a bolt on guitar
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- Phil is making a thru neck guitar
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- custom course day 1
This is our Build Your Own ‘Custom’ Guitar course, so these instruments represent the highest end of course guitars. We have other courses for those who would like to start with something more basic and you can even build an acoustic if you want to invest a little more time.
This course was great fun with a top bunch of guys, but it is hard work making four guitars in eight days. As time was short, I thought it would be better to run the last few days together into one post (and I ran out of daft quotes for the titles!)
Sat 2pm – 6pm
Day 1 starts late to give people have a chance to travel from wherever they are coming from. This session is spent finalising the design by completing the working drawing which we use to build the guitar from.
Sun, Mon, Tue 10am – 6:30pm (approx)
Build days…we start with a load of wood and start cutting off all the bits of that don’t look like guitars…we aim to finish around 6:30 but there are targets to achieve each day so we carry on until these are met.
A day off
Wednesday…
…the guys go off and have fun around the local area. It gives us a chance to do any last minute ordering or make any patterns I may need for the last few days. I did actually find a little time to do some bleeding, but I also had a couple of guitars to check over before they could be sent out to their new homes after being sold in our online shop.
Day 5 and 6
Thurs, Fri 10am – 6:30pm (approx)
We continue to build, aiming by the end of day 6 to have the guitars ready for spraying. At this point Billy takes over and does the twilight shift to make sure the guitars are ready for assembling the next day.
Day 7
Assembly and setup! This is it, they are done. Four new tasty toys fresh from the Bailey workshop – Isn’t it amazing what can be achieved in a week?
Day 8
Tinkering Time! We have added an extra half day (or as long as it takes) to give us time to thoroughly check over the set up and put any little problems right that may have arisen. It also gives me a chance to take some pictures of the finished instruments (to follow!)
Build Your Own Custom Guitar – Course in Progress – Day 4
…Sometimes…there’s so much beauty in the world…I feel like I can’t take it. (cough)
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- End of Day 4
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- After the dust has settled
Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3
Day 4 – 10am till 8:30pm
Half way there!
Four days ago these were just piles of rough-sawn timber – in another four these guys will be stringing up and playing their guitars for the first time.
Mark has glued on the wings for his body but it is not cut out yet. He managed to get his shape drawn on and remove the clamps just before he left at about 6:30pm. The others stayed a while longer – Phil had to get his fretboard glued on to be on target for finishing in time. While he was busy doing that Kevin squeezed in an extra inlay on his headstock and Charlie made a good start on his body.
You…Yes, You!
You could build your own guitar on one of our courses, but if that is not for you why not check out our unique range of guitars, all handmade in the UK using ONLY renewably energy.
Build Your Own Custom Guitar – Course in Progress – Day 3
Five out of four people have trouble with fractions.
End of day 3
Day 1 | Day 2
Day 3 – 10am till 6-30pm
Great progress today…Priority is still the neck, but there was time to start prep on the bodies. Kevin, Mark, and Charlie all have carved their necks and are ready for fretting tomorrow.
Phil’s build is quite complicated – he still cannot glue on his fretboard yet as he is making a neck thru body with a spalted maple cap which will go right across the front of the body. In this case we glue the cap on first so it goes underneath the fretboard.
Tomorrow our attention will switch to the bodies so by the end of the day everyone should have something roughly resembling a guitar…practice your rock poses now folks…
Check prices and availability | more courses
Resistance is futile…
Check out our unique range of guitars, all handmade using only renewable energy.
Our DVD – ‘Guitar Magic‘ is a great introduction to guitarmaking and an incredibly useful visual guide to the processes involved in building a guitar by hand.
Build Your Own Custom Guitar – Course in Progress – Day 2
…The world needs a wake up call…and were phoning it in…
End of Day 2
Day 2 – 10am till 6pm
Phil, Mark, Kevin, and Charlie are all on our course building their own custom guitars.
On day 1 we made drawings, chose wood, and firmed up the details… now the build really begins…
We also started the fretboards yesterday so all that was left to do was radius them before commencing work on the neck blanks. The priority for the first few days will be the neck.
We always begin by routing the truss rod slot, before cutting out the neck. Then the headstock is routed to thickness and the tuner holes are drilled. After that, Kevin and Charlie were ready to glue their fretboards on, which was their last job today..
Mark and Phil are making thru neck instruments so they have some extra jobs to do tomorrow before they can glue theirs. While the others were gluing their fretboards Phil jointed his Spalted Maple cap and Mark played around with the design for his 12th fret inlay…more tomorrow!
Check prices and availability | more courses
Go on, go on, go on, go on…
Check out our unique range of guitars, all handmade using only renewable energy.
Our DVD – ‘Guitar Magic‘ is a great introduction to guitarmaking and an incredibly useful visual guide to the processes involved in building a guitar by hand.
Build Your Own Custom Guitar – Course in Progress – Day 1
…We’re here to chew bubblegum and kick ass…and we’re all out of bubblegum.
L-R: Phil, Mark, Kevin, Charlie
DAY 1.
Day 1 starts at 2pm- It is all about finalising the designs by making a drawing, and choosing wood, getting parts together etc
Phil is having a laminated thru neck so we also glued up his neck blank and it will be ready to work on tomorrow. His guitar is inspired by the Bailey Exotica so he chose Spalted Maple for the cap.
Mark is also making a thru neck, but his neck will be made from a single piece of Maple. The body will also be maple.
Kevin has been before…this will be his second guitar- a bolt on neck with parallel headstock. After a good rummage through the wood room he chose a piece of Rosewood for the cap.
Charlie is making a mahogany set neck design with a Meranti body and Mango Cap. We have not used Mango before but it looks beautiful – can’t wait to see how it comes up.
Daily Updates!
I will try to make daily blogs showing their progress so keep an eye on the blog to see how we are getting on.
I am also making a time-lapse film of the whole course which should last about 4 or 5 mins and be available to view at the end of it all.
Check prices and availability | more courses
Don’t forget:
Check out our unique range of guitars, all handmade using only renewable energy.
Our DVD – ‘Guitar Magic‘ is a great introduction to guitarmaking and an incredibly useful visual guide.