Michael Winston Dales Guitars: Blog

I've learned a lot from other guitar builders over the years, and so this blog is a way for me to share my own build experiences and hopefully let others learn from my success and mistakes!

An electric guitar sits on a concrete background. It has a crimson red body, a pearloid white pickguard, and a maple neck with a rosewood fretboard.

The Red Rocker: a fully custom classic rock voiced t-style guitar

4 Feb 2018 - red rocker

I made a short video to show off the first guitar that I fully made myself, The Red Rocker.

An A3 sheet of paper on a workbench next to a Mac laptop. On the paper is a crude circuit diagram of the amp circuit.

A pick and mix sort of week in the shop

27 Jan 2018 - amp, blues deluxe, form 1, formlabs, fusion 360, red rocker

One of those weeks where you do lots of little things which keep you busy but don't feel like they add up to much progress to show.

Getting started on a build: Somebody has set up us the BoM

25 Jan 2018 -

A screenshot of Fusion 360 showing a textured 3D model of a guitar neck.

A week out of the shop

20 Jan 2018 - form 1, formlabs, oshug

A week outside the workshop, seeing some talks on open source electronics mixed with music, and I design my new guitar headstock.

A photo of me in the workshop holding a finished guitar wearing an apron that has printed upon it 'Don't Fret - I'm a Trained Luthier'

A late xmas gift

14 Jan 2018 - christmas, PPE

A kind gift from a friend to help protect me in the workshop.

A photo of an unfinished amp combo cabinet that has been built. The speaker and metal component chassis are in place, but the body is just raw MDF and needs painting.

Another week in the shop

13 Jan 2018 - amp, blues deluxe, control panel, red rocker

We reach that magic moment where the CAD model and real life match up for the amplifer build, and we do a little finishing work on the neck for build number 3.