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Build Your Own Guitar – BYO-304 – Graham

Build Your Own Guitar – BYO-304 – Graham

by | Jun 15, 2012 | ,

…Made in six days here in the Bailey workshop on our build your own guitar course…

This guitar was made in two visits on our split weekend course, which started with 3 days in May, and finished with another 3 days last week.

Graham chose some nice custom touches including a Figured Walnut (oops..my mistake) Tasmanian Blackwood cap for his ‘Drop top’ and a Hannes bridge with piezo. The neck is Birds Eye Maple with an ebony fretboard and is inlaid with mother of pearl position marker dots.

The Hannes piezo was a little tricky to fit but not as hard as working out exactly how many different sounds we could get out of it.  There is a five way slider with peizo/magnetic switching options and a piezo volume control. The magnetic (normal) pickups are controlled by a 5 way rotary selector, volume, and a tone control with a push pull switch to activate a coil cut. If anyone could let me know how many that is- please let me know – I ran out of time to count them!

Yet another beautiful guitar from the Bailey workshop – nice work Graham! More to come…

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Doh…

We don’t just run courses here! We also make our own unique range of Bailey guitars – If we can do this in six 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 GUITAR Part 2- continued from May

BUILD YOUR OWN GUITAR Part 2- continued from May

by | Jun 14, 2012 | , ,

…Continuation of May Build Your Own Guitar split weekend course…

Martin, Graham, and Jon return to complete their instruments, joined by David who is just starting his.

David was with us for two days, by which time he had his fretboard glued on and his neck carved, so he is well on schedule. Next time he comes he will install his inlays and frets and start work on the body.

The others had already been for three days in May and stayed three days making a total of six to complete the course.

Martin made a chambered body, single cut style guitar with a Bigsby vibrato arm.

Graham’s was a bolt on style with walnut ‘drop top’ on an ash body with birds eye maple and ebony for the neck.

Jon went to town on his Thru neck fretless bass – I kept finding him trying to count how many pieces of wood went into it!

All three are excellent examples of what can be done on the course – watch out for individual blog posts on each guitar coming up!

Guitar making courses | Check prices | The Bailey Collection

Build Your Own First Guitar – Graham (left handed) BYOF – 302

Build Your Own First Guitar – Graham (left handed) BYOF – 302

by | Jun 1, 2012 | , ,

…Number 302 – The third guitar of four made on the May Build Your Own First Guitar course.

Graham (left hand) made the standard version of the Bailey Bandsman.

There is no extra charge for left handers. As the guitars are individual made by hand it makes no difference to how long it takes, we simply turn the patterns over!

He chose not to uprade any of the parts, so this is a great example of what we make on the build your own first guitar course. Even though it is our most basic version we only use top quality hardware and materials.

Spec

Body: Mahogany

Neck: Mahogany

Fretboard: Rosewood

Hardware: Chrome

Bridge: Gotoh 510

Tuners: Gotoh

Pickups: Wilkinson humbuckers

Check dates and prices | Bailey Guitars

Build Your Own First Guitar – May 2012 – The Movie

Build Your Own First Guitar – May 2012 – The Movie

by | Jun 1, 2012 | ,

Bailey Guitars make a unique range of high quality instruments, each one individually hand crafted in the rolling hills of Ayrshire, using only wind and solar energy.

We also run several different guitar making courses, enabling anybody to build their own with no previous experience necessary – This video shows an overview of our course ‘Build Your Own First Guitar‘ which takes place here at the Bailey workshop.

Morgan became our 300th electric guitar builder and was joined by Graeme (Right Hand), Graham (Left Hand), and Toby, who also built their first guitars with us.

Toby chose to have a full gloss finish so had to stay an extra day. While Billy sprayed Toby’s guitar the others all finished setting theirs up – Toby stayed on for his extra day to assemble and set up his guitar.

When Toby had finished he sat down and played this song which I was lucky enough to catch on video. The sound quality is not too great as it was recorded on a camcorder mike but that doesn’t take anything away from a great song performance. The mood of the song seems to suit the video perfectly – hope you enjoy it!

Thanks to everyone involved in making the May 2012 course a success.

Build Your Own First Guitar – Toby BYOF – 303

Build Your Own First Guitar – Toby BYOF – 303

by | Jun 1, 2012 | ,

…Number 303 – The last guitar to be finished on the May Build Your Own First Guitar course.

Toby made his own custom version of the Bailey Bandsman and because he chose a full gloss finish he had to stay an extra day while Billy sprayed and polished it for him, so he was inevitably the last to finish.

Toby is the first to have a full gloss spray and build his guitar in just one visit…This was made possible with our new UV laquer system, it simply is not feasable with tradition cellulose due to time.

He upgraded most of the parts, including adding a very highly figured piece of quilted maple for the cap, a tunamatic bridge with stop tailpiece, Bareknuckle pickups and took the option of 24 frets instead of the usual 22.

This is a great example of what is now achievable on the build your own first guitar course.

Spec

Body: Meranti body with Quilted Maple cap

Neck: Mahogany

Fretboard: Ebony

Hardware: Chrome

Bridge: Tunamatic with stop tailpiece

Tuners: Gotoh

Pickups: Bareknuckle humbuckers

Check dates and prices | Bailey Guitars

Build Your Own First Guitar – Graeme (right handed) – BYOF – 301

Build Your Own First Guitar – Graeme (right handed) – BYOF – 301

by | May 31, 2012 | ,

…Number 301 – The second guitar of four made on the May Build Your Own First Guitar course.

Graeme (right hand)  made his own custom version of the Bailey Bandsman.

He chose a really beautiful piece of figured Ash for the cap which came uplovely with the natural oiled finish. He also chose to use P90 pickups but apart from that it is pretty much standard.

Spec

Body: Mahogany with native ash cap

Neck: Mahogany

Fretboard: Ebony

Hardware: Chrome

Bridge: Gotoh 510

Tuners: Gotoh 510

Pickups: Wilkinson P90’s

Check dates and prices | Bailey Guitars

Build Your Own First Guitar – Morgan BYOF – 300

Build Your Own First Guitar – Morgan BYOF – 300

by | May 24, 2012 | , ,

Morgan just became our 300th electric guitar builder!

BYOF-300 made by Morgan in 5 days on our May build your own first guitar course.

Morgan joined Toby, Graeme (right hand) and Graham (left hand) on the last course and made this, his own custom version of the Bailey Bandsman.

He chose a really beautiful piece of figured maple for the body which was large enough for it to be made in one piece, with a satin finish. He also upgraded his hardware to gold but apart from that it is pretty much standard.

Well done Morgan – nicely done.

I will follow up with individual posts for each guitar so keep an eye on the blog if you are interested to see what the others made.

Spec

Body: 1 piece Flamed ‘Brown’ Maple

Neck: Mahogany

Fretboard: Rosewood

Hardware: Gold

Bridge: Gotoh 510

Tuners: Gotoh 510

Pickups: Wilkinson Humbuckers

Check dates and prices | Bailey Guitars

Build Your Own First Guitar – May 2012

Build Your Own First Guitar – May 2012

by | May 21, 2012 | , ,

Over 300 ‘Build Your Own’ Electric guitars made here in the Bailey workshop!

Thanks to everyone who has helped us reach this amazing milestone including Morgan who now has the magic number 300!

Build your own first guitar is aimed at new builders who want to give it a try without over-complicating the design. If you would like to give it a try without spending the earth or investing huge amounts of time then this may be the one for you. This course also suits those who would like to continue building at home as it is the easiest style of construction to master.

On this course everybody makes roughly the same guitar – a set neck, flat top, based on the Bailey Bandsman. There are four places available for each course which lasts 5 days.

This is the best introduction to guitar making we can concieve of. The beauty is in the simplicity of the design. The emphasis here is on learning the methods used to make guitars by hand, my job is to make sure every student leaves here with a high quality instrument to be proud of. We have other courses for those who require totally custom specific instruments, have more time and a larger budget.

It is not possible to have a trem system or carve top due to the nature of the course but there is still plenty of scope for customization.

You can choose your own wood, parts and pickups and even customize the shape. There is also the option of a 21, 22, or 24 fret version and choice of inlays- As you can see all four we made this time are a little different.

Check dates and prices | Bailey Guitars

BYOF 300: Morgan

“Never thought I’d ever build a guitar if it had not been for Mark & Carol. You both have seriously inspired me. This course is one of the best experiences of my life and I can’t thank you enough…can’t wait for the next build!!!!”

BYOF 301: Graeme

“First new guitar ever… Made the best thing I have ever made. Mark is an inspiration. Had a great time- thankyou both.”

BYOF 302: Graham

“First guitar I have built… I had a great week… Mark knows his stuff. Hospitality was great, soup was fantastic… thanks for a great week.”

BYOF 303: Toby

“First guitar build. Best Experience of my life & most beautiful guitar I’ve seen & to play. Mark and |Carol are fantastic and Fiona’s soup is amazing. Thank you so much! (P.S. Billy made a beautiful job of spraying!)

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