Michael Winston Dales Guitars: Verkstaden

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.

A close-up of three headstocks, with my signature and guitar's name laser etched into the headstock.

A Brief Week in the Shop

20 Aug 2023 - delfinen, hästen, painting, spray-booth, verkstaden

Making some scary holes in one guitar body, getting two more further along the spray-painting process, and getting very excited about how one of them in particular looks.

A shot of a guitar body still in a clamp in a spray-booth, showing a yellow stained birds-eye maple 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 Week in the Shop

13 Aug 2023 - älgen, delfinen, hästen, OSHCamp, painting, spray-booth, templates, toothbrush, verkstaden, wuthering bytes

A busy day in the workshop, including finally learning how to spray paint bodies using the booth and spray-gun, and prepping my talk for OSHCamp at the end of the month.

Two guitar bodies are mounted on a rack in the wall of the workshop, the lower one is painted in white primer, and the upper one has black primer around the sides, the top being covered with a cardboard screen.

A Week in the Shop

5 Aug 2023 - bass, design, fretwork, Fusion 360, grain filler, hästen, verkstaden

This week I had both the highs and lows as my neck building exceeds my expectations before I'm knocked down a peg or two on the next stage. I also prep two guitar bodies ready for the stray-booth, and I do some CAD work on bass guitar work.

Two guitar bodies sit on the workbench, ready to go to the spray booth for painting. Both have a stick screwed into the neck pocket to be held in the clamp during spraying, and one has a cardboard mask on one side as only the rear will be painted.

A Week in the Shop

22 Jul 2023 - hästen, neck, offset, routing, verkstaden

Making headway on a client build, as it starts to get close to finishing time, and some tidying up of one of my prototypes before it heads to the spray booth.

A close up of an in-progress neck carve, showing the transition between the headstock and the back of the neck. The neck is made from bird's eye maple.

A Week in the Shop

17 Jun 2023 - älgen, carving, hästen, laser-cutting, neck, spraying, verkstaden

The race is on to get Älgen ready for Liverpool Makefest, I dodge a knot as I carve Hästens neck, and I say who needs scissors if you have a laser-cutter?

A view of the 3D-printed lattice-work guitar body in the spray booth ready to be sprayed.

A Week in the Shop

4 Jun 2023 - finishing, hästen, makefest, neck, staining, vertstaden, yellow

More progress, setbacks, and progress this week as I push on with the neck I'm building, and I make the most wonderful yellow guitar top.

A guitar body sits on the workbench. It has a maple cap, and is stained a deep yellow colour.

A Week in the Shop

27 May 2023 - andy powers, grain filler, hästen, joe cocker, mistakes, neck, verkstaden

A long write-up this week, as I make progress, make a significant mistake, make a recovery from my mistake, and make more progress.

A work-in-progress guitar neck sits on the workbench, surrounded by sawdust on the floor.

A Week in the Shop

5 May 2023 - delfinen, emily hopkins, harp, hästen, jigs, routing, templates, verkstaden

A quick review of all the in-progress guitar builds, a bunch of progress on the offset build, putting an excessively complicated jig to use, and finally some fun facts about harps.

Three work in progress guitars sit on a workbench, each a body with a neck beside it. All are raw wood and unfinished. The left body has pickup cavities and a neck pocket cut, and the neck is just roughly shaped with a template on top. The middle one is the most complete, with the neck fretted and all the body holes cut. The right body has only a neck pocket but no other holes init, but the neck is fretted and otherwise complete.

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.

Guitars > Verkstaden