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Build Your Own Acoustic Guitar – BYOA 27 – John Graham

Build Your Own Acoustic Guitar – BYOA 27 – John Graham

by | Dec 7, 2015 | ,

…Build Your Own Acoustic Guitar – The Finishing Touch.

This guitar was made on our workshop course here at Bailey Guitars – John’s 3rd instrument made under my guidance. John’s first guitar was a real beauty with cocobolo rosette – this time he wantd to make something similar but slightly different. I had an awesome piece of Ziricote on hand so John snapped that up to use for his binding and rosette.

The design is based on the Bailey Bootlegger Standard Acoustic Guitar. It has a mahogany back and sides paired with a Sitka Spruce soundboard – the neck is also mahogany lovingly adorned with a rosewood fretboard by John himself. This is all included in the price of the course except the extra custom options he chose to have.

Custom options:

  • Ziricote Rosette
  • Ziricote Binding on body and headstock
  • Rosewood headstock veneer
  • Custom headstock inlay
  • Black tuners
  • UV Gloss

Interested building your own acoustic guitar? If the idea fills you with horror don’t worry – I can build it for you…any questions? Don’t hesitate to contact us  – thanks for reading!

Build Your Own Acoustic Guitar – BYOA – 23

Build Your Own Acoustic Guitar – BYOA – 23

by | Dec 1, 2015 | , ,

…Kevin McKeown…

Want to Build Your Own Guitar ?

So did Kevin – A veteran here at Bailey World – this is his 4th guitar build on our workshop courses.

Previously he made a four string bass and his last build was a spectacular bolt on electric guitar with wine red gloss finish.

The guitar he made this time was based on the standard Bailey Bootlegger but with quite a few custom options which added to the build time and cost.

The guitar has a Sitka Spruce top, Rosewood back and sides with snakewood binding. The neck is mahogany with an ebony fretboard which is also bound with snakewood, as is the headstock and the rosette and headstock inlay are abalone.

As if that wasn’t enough Kevin also made a backstrip and heel cap from snakewood – which has to make this one of the most beautiful instruments we that has been made here – although it is getting very hard to judge nowadays as there have been some really stunning instruments coming from the course – even I am amazed sometimes at the results – Watch this space!

David Johnson – Build Your Own Guitar Online – Part 1

David Johnson – Build Your Own Guitar Online – Part 1

by | Nov 25, 2015 | , , ,

…David is keeping a photo blog of his build…

Build your Own Guitar – Online

David Johnson enrolled on my online Build Your Own Guitar course which also includes Design Your Own Guitar – together they form a step by step guide to creating your own working drawing, making patterns, and finally building your own guitar from scratch.

A Great Start

He sent us these pics recently to update us on his progress – He has completed the first part of the course and now has a drawing to work from. Using my instructions he then used the drawing to make his own set of patterns – this is one of the secrets of guitarmaking that I share on the course – you can use these patterns over and over again to make as many instruments as you like.

Top Job!

Looks like he is doing a fine job to me. It is very exciting for me to see someone progressing with the course – I am really looking forward to the next update… David is ready to start building his guitar… fingers crossed!

Great course

A really informative course, can’t wait to start the build your own guitar course. Highly recommended.
David Johnson

Build Your Own Guitar ONLINE – UPDATE

Build Your Own Guitar ONLINE – UPDATE

by | Nov 22, 2015 | , ,

GuitarMaking.co.uk – The Academy of Guitar Making

by Mark Julian Bailey

guitarmaking.co.uk - the online academy of guitar making

guitarmaking.co.uk – the online academy of guitar making

Hi Folks – Important announcement

We have a new website!

I have called the new site ‘GuitarMaking.co.uk – The Online Guitar Making Academy‘

As you can probably guess from the name – this will be the new home for my online guitar making courses:

Please let me know what you think – if you have any q’s don’t hesitate to ask!
Note: All other Bailey sites will remain the same – for now – but we are working on the next edition.
Cheers –

Mark

Ps. Remember – the price includes Lifetime access – ask me any q direct or start a course discussion

Over 200 students have already enrolled on my online courses – here are some of their comments:

Greatest course on building guitars
This is simply the best course on building guitars. Mark really shares all the informations, camera shots are great as well. I’m really happy with the course, as I’m planning to build guitar for a long time.
by Feda Ratkovic

Great Course & Teacher
im loving this course, theres so much too learn regards to the building aspect of the guitar world aswell as setting up the guitar. With mark’s knowledge you cannot go wrong with this course. The course is all set out nicely and mark explains it all in simple terms which is a good, just like the design course by mark. Mark is always on hand to give any advice if you run into probs which is handy.
i highly recommend this course to anyone who is interested in guitar making.
by Ross Brady

Design and Build Your Own
The course is an excellent pairing with the “Design Your Own” course also by Mark Bailey. The quality of instruction of excellent. They are really just two halves of one big course.
by Christian

Custom Acoustic Guitar – Bailey Bootlegger with Cutaway for Sam Winston – Part 2

Custom Acoustic Guitar – Bailey Bootlegger with Cutaway for Sam Winston – Part 2

by | Nov 19, 2015 | , , , , ,

…Sam’s Guitar is now ready for polishing

This is a custom instrument I am making for Sam Winston – you can read Part 1 here

Lantern Inlay

The main part of the lantern was made by our good friend Mike at Small Wonder – he is the UK master at this.

I thought it looked a bit sad without a flame so I added that and a couple of other details – the flame is made from Red Heathergem – the first guitar in the universe with this material.

Now the final coats of UV Gloss have been applied the guitar is ready for polishing.

Polishing

The guitar might seem shiny enough but if you look closely there are small defects in the finish. This is usually where tiny particles of dust have landed before the surface dried. Also the finish tends to pool around certian areas preventing it from lying perfectly mirror flat.

The Polishing process

After the polishing process the end result should be a perfectly mirror flat finish – of course wood is wood and it is never quite as easy as that but the procedure goes like this:

Flat Sanding

After the guitar has been sprayed with enough coats of lacquer, and this is dry, then the entire surface is sanded using 400-800g wet and dry sandpaper – a little white spirit can be used for lubrication.

Sanding Through the Grits

Once the surface is perfectly flat and all defects are removed then the surface can be polished. This entails sanding with finer and finer ‘grit’ sandpaper. Each time the surface is sanded until all the scratches are removed from the previous grit.

We go through all the grits until we reach 2000g.

Buffing

– at this point the surface has a dull sheen and can finally be polished to a high gloss on the buffing wheel.

Hand Glaze

A final Hand Glaze is applied to complete the job.

Next Job…

After polishing the neck will be glued on and a day later the guitar can be strung up – look out for another blog very soon with pictures of the completed instrument!

Contact Us with your requirements and it could be your guitar featured here on the blog!

Sam

Sam

by | Nov 17, 2015 | , ,

…Dude…

Sam is a young player from Cambridgeshire, studying music at college in Manchester, and he has been looking for a guitar. At the start of the summer he arranged to come on a workshop tour with his family, and after seeing the place where the magic happens, he sat and tried a selection of acoustic and electrics

He kept going back to the Copper Special electric….

… then it was time to leave, and as he was applying for musical instrument grants, and had other places to look… he left it with us

BUT… it didnt leave him… and he had to have it,…and when the EMI Music Sound Foundation grant was approved, he was back…. here’s what he said

My Bailey guitar is just something else entirely. I’ve played loads of guitars including really high end ones in loads of shops. None of them come close to my Special Stock Copper Bailey electric. Also it was amazing to go and get my guitar from the workshop where it was made and from the people who made it.

Like many of our new players tell us, the new Bailey has brought out “new sides in his playing”.

Sam is fast becoming a brilliant jazz guitarist and has already been entered into this years Young Jazz Musician of the Year competition. As one of the youngest entrants in his category, he has his work cut out for him, but he’s entering with his Bailey Special and we’ll be behind him all the way. They are MADE TO BE PLAYED

I’ve got to do my video for BBC young jazz musician on the 14th November and I should hear something back around January 🙂  btw I took my Bailey along to a marshall amp show in Cambridge and it was much admired.

Custom Thru Neck Guitar for Graham Taylor

Custom Thru Neck Guitar for Graham Taylor

by | Nov 12, 2015 | , ,

Custom Thru Neck Guitar for Graham Taylor

Custom Thru Neck Guitar for Graham Taylor –

Graham is a veteran here at Bailey Guitars – he first came on our course back in 2013 to make his first guitar. He then came back and made this spectacular bolt on neck guitar with Tasmanian Blackwood cap followed by this acoustic guitar. Graham thought it was about time he had ‘A real Bailey’ to add to the collection. It has been on the bench for a while now, as you can see the woodwork is virtually finished.

Custom Options

The guitar is based on the Bailey Exotica with some custom options including

  • Custom body shape
  • Drop Top
  • Hannes Bridge with Piezo
  • Custom Electrics
  • Custom Inlays

Custom Body Shape

The shape is based on the exotica with slightly fatter horns – to me this makes it appear a little less angry and a little more mellow.

Drop Top

If you look carefully at the first picture you can see the body has been shaped to create the elbow carve. The top you can see it the second picture is quite thin (4mm) – this is so it can flex over the elbow carve when it is glued on. This is called a drop top: The top has been bent over the body blank to create the elbow carve.

Hannes Bridge

Graham specified a Hannes bridge for this guitar – these are really great bridges but they are a little tricky to fit. This one has a piezo pickup built into each saddle – this is so each string can have its own dedicated output which is essential for tracking individual notes for MIDI control.

Custom Electrics

This guitar will have a Ghost Acoustiphonic and MIDI Hexaphonic system fitted. Somehow I have to cram all that gubbins into that there control cavity – wish me luck!

Custom Inlays

Graham has a few guitars that he made on our Build Your Own courses and each one has a special inlay with his initials. He wanted the same on this one – as I am making it for him this time, it also needs the Bailey Logo on there. Graham decided not to have any inlays on the front of the fretboard so his custom inlay appears on the headstock.

Nearly there…

I just have to make sure everything fits OK before handing over to Billy for the sprayjob. This will be the next guitar to leave the workshop  after Sam Winston’s Custom Acoustic

Coming Up Next?

Contact us with your requirements and maybe it will be your custom guitar taking shape right here on the Bailey Blog! Meanwhile… have a look around the Bailey Shop – All our instruments are individually HANDMADE in the Bailey Workshop.

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