Michael Winston Dales Guitars: Delfinen

A Month Out the Shop

21 Jul 2024 - älgen, delfinen, emf, liverpool, makefest, sweden, verkstaden

A summer summary: I've presented at two major events where I showed off the guitars, I went on holiday and bumped into some interesting guitars, and I went to a non-guitar event where I made some design observations I can apply to guitars!

A photo of me stood in a library behind a table with several guitars, including one where the body is 3D printed.

A month in the shop: wrapping up Delfinen

8 Apr 2024 - action, delfinen, electronics, fretwork, nut, setup

Going through the final stages of wrapping up Delfinen: getting the setup just right, and soldering up the electronics.

A still from a video showing Michael sat in front of the camera holding a guitar, showing the headstock of it to the camera. On the headstock it says "MWDales" in script and "Delfinen" under that.

Workshop weeknotes: Delfinen becomes an instrument at last.

1 Mar 2024 - binding, delfinen, finishing, laser-cutting

Is this a guitar I see before me? Another weeknotes catching up with all that's happened to Delfinen since we last saw it, including it getting strung up for the first time.

A mostly assembled guitar sits on the workbench! It is missing all the electronics, but otherwise looks like a guitar. Importantly it has strings on it! It has a vivid orange-stained wood body with white binding and white pickup mounts, and a maple neck with a rosewood fretboard.

Workshop Catch-Up: Delfinen

1 Feb 2024 - binding, delfinen, drills

Catching up with the last couple of months in the workshop, we're going to look at each build in turn. This week, it's the splash of orange that is Delfinen!

A work in progress guitar sits on the workbench: it has a orange stained swamp-ash body with pockets cut for humbucker sized pickups, it has a maple neck, with a rosewood fretboard and 22 frets. The body shape is a slightly pointy offset style.

A Couple of Weeks in the Shop

14 Nov 2023 - action, älgen, delfinen, hästen, painting, staining, truss-rod, verkstaden

Another couple of frustrating weeks in the shop as my current trio of builds seek to put me in my place.

A photo of the light-blue offset body mounted up in the spray-booth ready to get another coat of paint.

A Week in the Shop

31 Oct 2023 - delfinen, finishing, fretwork, hästen, verkstaden

Putting in the time: nothing new this week, just a week of getting on with the jobs I started previously in the workshop, with more staining, more oiling, and more fret-dressing and polishing.

A photo of two guitar necks hung up on rack in room otherwise filled with wood on shelves. Both necks are made from maple: one is hung so you can see the back, showing the birds-eye figuring, and the other is hung so you can see the fretbaord is covered in masking tape.

A Week in the Shop

22 Oct 2023 - delfinen, finishing, fretwork, hästen, oiling, painting, staining, verkstaden

Lots going on in the workshop this week as I push three guitars, body and neck, through the finishing process.

A photo of a guitar body being held over a workbench, caught in the sunlight coming through an unseen window. The face of the body is yellow stained birds-eye maple, and the top 5mm of the side is natural unfinished birds-eye maple, and then the back of the guitar is painted gloss black.

A Week in the Shop

15 Oct 2023 - correcting, delfinen, glue, hästen, staining, verkstaden

Last week we had a failed attempt to stain a guitar body, and this week we get to work saving the instrument from the rework pile.

An orange-stained guitar body sits mounted on a jig in a spray booth.

A Week in and Out the Shop

8 Oct 2023 - delfinen, makespace, staining, talks, westfield

Troubles with staining guitar bodies, sperlunking an old guitar's electronics, and I give a talk to on guitar design and 3D-printing to a local CAD user group.

A photo of me holding my Älgen wood and 3D-printed guitar in a cluster of onlookers. I look like I've escaped from a 70s edition of the open university programs.

A Couple of Weeks in the Shop

1 Oct 2023 - Delfinen, Hästen, Laser-etching, Logo, Painting, Verkstaden, Westfield

A lot going on in the workshop as I try to push the three ongoing guitar builds towards finishing, and I get re-united with the instrument that is somewhat responsible for all this.

Guitars > Delfinen