…Another day in the Bailey workshop…

Day1, Day 2

Day 3

10am till 7:30pm

David and Kevin are making custom electric guitars. They started two days ago with rough blocks of wood and will be playing them by day 7. Nick is here to finish his acoustic which was started a few months ago. Acoustics generally take about 12 days so his course was spread over several visits but we fully expect a performance from the three of them on Saturday night. We still have Sun morning for tweaking time if necessary.

The fourth place on the course will be taken by a different person every day. These will all be students who are building acoustic guitars, spreading the 12 days over a longer period, and are all at various stages of construction.

David (acoustic) took over from Duncan today. Last time he glued on his flamed maple binding which had a few small gaps so he spent most of the morning touching up the binding. We used a hair dryer to soften the glue and straighten it out, then glued it back down. He made a truss rod and finished his neck angle, so next time he comes he can glue the fretboard.

Everybody works at their own pace and is doing something completely different so I certainly have my work cut out making sure they are all busy and making good progress. We are on schedule as long as nothing goes badly wrong.

Dave (set neck) had to re-saw all his fret slots by hand because of the double style of binding he wanted.  He glued the first strips on yesterday and after re-slotting glued on the second outside strip of rosewood. While that was drying he made the headstock. It takes a while to mark out a custom headstock shape- it is critical that the tuners end up in the right place so the strings don’t catch on the wrong posts and the tuner button must have space to turn freely.  Dave is also planning a custom inlay on the headstock so he had to make sure it all fitted ok. He is just about ready to glue the fretboard tomorrow after profiling the side of his neck with the router and installing his truss rod.

Kevin (bolt on) made his own truss rod and finished installing it into his neck before dinner, and then spent the afternoon making a grand job of carving it. He also had to glue on an extra ‘wing’ onto the headstock to make it wide enough for his shape so we did that last thing so it didn’t hold us up. Kevin has a birds eye fretboard which will must be sprayed tomorrow so it has enough time to dry before the frets are installed.

Nick (acoustic) had a flying start and finished gluing his binding on by first break, then while the glue dried he worked on marking out his neck. He made good progress today marking his custom headstock then drilling the tuner holes, cutting out the neck shape, and somehow found time to install his amazing home made inlays- because they are (lets say) unconventional we are doing them before the fretboard is glued on which is not the normal procedure (more on this to come). Last thing he removed the tape holding the binding and we found a few small gaps so again applied the hair dryer method I described earlier to fix them.

So all this time I am buzzing around telling everyone what to do, what order to do it in, and when to stop. When I am not making my own guitars, that’s my job and I love it! More tomorrow…

Today we will mostly be making necks…

Day 2 of 7

10am – 7pm

Back to Day 1

For Dave and Kevin, our new starters, yesterday was all about fixing their designs and choosing wood etc, so today we could get stuck into building. We had also managed to make fret boards which gave us a bit of head start today. An interesting day- 3 different truss rod designs kept me on my toes…Duncan who has already fitted his, joined Nick to continue working on their acoustics.

Duncan (acoustic)

Duncan got his fretboard glued on early so he could begin carving his neck in the afternoon. While it was drying he started to make an ebony bridge. He got the pin holes and saddle slot cut which are the tricky bits. Before he left he fitted his newly carved neck back on to check the feel. Next time he comes he will be mostly inlaying gold mother of pearl crown inlays into his fretboard.

Nick (acoustic)

Nick will make his own truss rod which fits into a straight slot but he will use a round bottomed cutter. After he routed his truss rod slot he cut the headstock angle into his neck blank before gluing on the heel block as it is easier to work with a square lump of wood. He was ready to rough out his neck in the afternoon and it will now settle overnight before gluing on the fretboard tomorrow. The rest of the day was spend cutting the channels for the binding around the edges of his body. He managed to get the first pieces glued in place before we packed up for the day and will finish the rest in the morning.

Dave (set neck)

Dave’s set neck design has an angled back headstock which requires a thicker piece of wood than a bolt on, parallel headstock design like Kevins (below). His truss rod is fitted under the fretboard into a simple straight slot. He roughed out his neck on the band-saw and then cut the binding strips from the sheet he glued yesterday. They came out looking great so we glued them on. Tomorrow the fret slots will need to be re-cut through the ‘black white black’ before the outside strips of rosewood can be glued into place, then he can get his fretboard glued on.

Kevin (bolt on)

Kevin has a more difficult task as the truss rod goes into the back of the neck and will be hidden with a fillet of wood or ‘skunk stripe’. He has band-sawn his neck out, drilled his tuner holes, glued his fretboard on and routed his truss rod slot.  He also took a tracing from his drawing to use for marking out the body. Tomorrow he will finish installing his truss rod, carve the neck and possibly make a start on the body.

That is a pretty good day all round I reckon…hope you are enjoying reading about the course and watching these guitars take shape over the next week….more tomorrow!

…Design session and making the fret boards…

Day 1 of 7:

2pm till 6pm

Dave and Kevin are starting on the build your own custom guitar course today while Nick continues on his acoustic he started last time– we normally have four builders so it was an especially easy half day to get us going. We’ll be joined by a different person every day starting tomorrow with Duncan who is also making an acoustic.

Dave brought his own drawing of a les paul he wants to make. He decided to make some binding for the fretboard and around the headstock by gluing together a boxwood veneer between two sheets of ebony. We certainly have our work cut out as it will not only have crown inlays on the fretboard but he will also be inlaying the headstock with a design he made at home and brought along with him.

Kevin designed his own guitar completely from scratch so it was necessary to do a drawing. He is making a bolt on style guitar with a parallel headstock. It will have a maple neck with a birds eye maple fret board. The body is ash with a flamed maple cap and for hardware he chose a Schaller roller bridge and two humbuckers. His guitar will also have sound chambers and and f-hole.

Nick is on the second part of his Build your own acoustic course and is aiming to finish by the end of this visit. Today he made the binding to go around the edge of the guitar which is rosewood to match the body and fitted the end graft so tomorrow he can cut the binding channels and hopefully get it all glued on by the end of the day. He also glued up the mahogany and maple laminates for the neck  which also has two black pinstripes.

All three worked on their fret boards today- Nick and Kevin’s are now slotted, radiused and cut out ready to glue on tomorrow. Dave’s will take a bit longer as it will be radiused after the binding is glued on. More tomorrow!