A photo of a completed guitar hung on the wall in the workshop, showing a body with birds-eye maple cap stained bright yellow, and black sides, with a maple neck and a rosewood fretboard. It has a chrome covered P90 in the neck position and a chrome covered humbucker in the bridge position.

Verkstaden is a guitar built as a test piece for me to try out new processes and techniques: the name is Swedish for “The Workshop”, as its first purpose was to help me test I had everything I needed after I moved from a maker-space into a dedicated workshop for the first time.

Beyond that this guitar has a number of new techniques practiced on it: the first time I’d built a body with a figured cap on the front, the first guitar I made with a lacquer finish, the first guitar I designed to use a string ferrule-block. The design of the body evolved as built it, as I refined what I think of as my style of guitar. It’s also been a place where I have honed my skills on things like fretwork, using custom 3D-printed carbon-fibre parts, and working on better electronics.

As an maker I look at this and see a lot of firsts for me as a builder, but as a player this is a guitar that I reach for to rock out in the workshop now and enjoy just as an instrument.

Gallery

A guitar body mounted on a drill press with a laser-cut acrylic guide taped to the front to let me line up all the holes I need to drill.
The end result of all this work: a picture of the metal ferrule block showing the body and lip, next to the cavity that it'll sit in.
A shot of the body still in the clamp, but showing the yellow stained front, and then about 5mm of natural wood colour as you go down the side, and the rest of the side is black paint.
A photo of a work-in-progress guitar on the workbench, surrounded by tools and sanding pads. The guitar has a maple neck with a rosewood fretboard and 21 frets, and the body is a bright yellow stain on birds-eye maple on the front, with black and natural wood sides. There are holes in the body for components, but all are missing.
A photo of a completed guitar hung on the wall in the workshop, showing a body with birds-eye maple cap stained bright yellow, and black sides, with a maple neck and a rosewood fretboard. It has a chrome covered P90 in the neck position and a chrome covered humbucker in the bridge position.

Appearances in the build blog