Michael Winston Dales Guitars: Älgen

A Week in the Shop

22 Apr 2023 - fretwork, necks, paintstik, plectrums

The Älgen guitar is now something I get to live with for a little, two necks get some work done, I worry about how to promote myself at shows, and I explore some guitar music outside my usual listening.

A rack of guitars sits next to an amp and pedalboard. The most obvious guitar on the rack is Älgen, which is part 3D-printed, making it stand out from all the other guitars.

A Week in the Shop

9 Apr 2023 - älgen, harley benton, staining, verkstaden

A trip to Wales, where I get to play guitars in some amazing scenery, more practicing with wood stains, and some frustrating string breakages.

Me standing holding a guitar in the Snowdia landscape, with a hill to my left and a lake to my right.

A Week in the Shop

26 Mar 2023 - älgen, design, ESP32, pickups, verkstaden

Fixing up the details on my älgen guitar build, remodeling an in-progress older build to have a fresh new look, and I curse generally about letting electronics back into my life.

The bottom end of the wooden core of älgen has a copper-tape covered cavity with all the wiring in. To close this off, there is a laser-cut cover made from frosted-translucent orange acrylic. The cover has my initials, MWD, etched into it, along with 'Älgen Prototype 1'

A Week in the Shop

12 Mar 2023 - älgen, amp, dalarna, design, fusion 360, hästen, website

A busy week, with lots of progress: älgen guitar finally becomes an instrument, I design a new guitar, and I do some work to upgrade my old amp.

A Week in the Shop

6 Mar 2023 - 3D-printing, älgen, birthday, laser-cutting, telecaster, templates

Rushed weeknotes for a rushed week: I make some progress on älgen, meet the real version of what it's named after, and spend far too long nursing a laser-cutter.

The pub sign for The Duke of Cumberland which shows a painting of a 17 or 18th century duke playing a Fender Telecaster with a jazz ensemble behind him.

A Week in the Shop

19 Feb 2023 - 3d printing, älgen, bhm, delfinen, fretwork, memphis minnie

A shorter weeknotes this week, as I've been heads down on slow tasks: fretwork and 3D print iterations. I also learned about the person who wrote one of my favourite Led Zepplin songs back in 1929.

A work in progress guitar neck, shaped and fretted, sat on a workbench. Beside the neck is a black sharpie pen, and closer inspection reveals all the frets have been drawn on with the sharpie ready for fret shaping work.

A Week in the Shop

12 Feb 2023 - 3D printing, älgen, bhm, blues deluxe, delfinen, grant green, neck, orca, sanding

A bit of everything this week: more neck carving, inspirational jazz performers, 3D-printing with carbon-fibre, finding odd imperial sized screws, and having fun with obtuse seeming digital music tools.

An unfinished guitar neck sits fretboard down on a workbench, surrounded with sanding disks.

A Week in the Shop

29 Jan 2023 - älgen, carving, coffee, delfinen, generative art, screws

Why go to the gym when you can carve a guitar neck? This week we get a bit of a work out, and then fail to finish a guitar due to some stripped screws, before playing with some generative art.

The neck is on the trestle stand still, with the rasp resting on top of it. You can see that what was a squared off edge now has a flat angled edge cut into it along the length of the neck on one side.

Getting back to the Shop

16 Jan 2023 - älgen, delfinen, jigs, laser-cutting

Getting back into the workshop after a brief hiatus, and starting out with finding a great new way to radius my fretboards.

The rear body of the guitar on a carpet mat on a workbench, showing the copper covered inside of the electronics cavity. To the side you can see a scalpel and bits of tape, and on the body to one side you can see the translucent orange acrylic cover for the cavity that will let the shiny copper inside be visible once the cover is on.

A Week in the Shop

1 Oct 2022 - 3d printing, älgen, delfinen, sanding, templates

Lots of sanding and tidying on my Älgen guitar build as it gets ready for finishing, some last minute template redesigns, and I learn how to use a new 3D printed.

Guitars > Älgen