Michael Winston Dales Guitars: Hästen

Workshop photography 101

3 Aug 2024 - älgen, hästen, photography

A look at how I've been trying to take some "proper" photos of the guitars for marketing purposes, and some tips on how to do this on a budget with limited talent (or why you might also want to pay someone to do it).

A Week in the Shop

30 Jul 2024 - electronics, hästen, laser-cutting, laser-etching, pick-guard

This week Hästen gets close to complete! We take a look at the evolution of a pick-guard design and a look at what makes the electronic circuit in this guitar unusual.

A photo of an electric guitar sat in a case on a workbench in a workshop. The guitar is an offset design, with a pale blue painted body, a black pickguard, with two chrome humbucker pickups on it. The neck is a birds-eye maple.

A Month in and Out the Shop: Hästen

10 Jun 2024 - hästen, pick-guard

This time we catch up with Hästen, the last of the old mustang-style builds, which finally hits its "strings on" milestone!

A photo of a work-in-progress solid-body electric guitar laid on a workbench in a workshop. The guitar has a body painted light blue with just a bridge installed and no electronics or pick-guard yet, showing the internal cavities lined with copper tape. The neck is made from birds-eye maple. Most importantly the guitar has strings on it.

A Week in the Shop

10 May 2024 - cleaning, hästen, nut carving, verkstaden

An exciting week in the shop as a new guitar gets strings for the first time, I tidy up a neck on another build, and I find out how dirty old rosewood fretboards can really get.

A photo of a yellow and black finished guitar body on a workbench, on top of which is a palm-router and everything is covered in wood-dust from some cutting.

A Week in the Shop

2 May 2024 - hästen, measure, measure, cut, routing, verkstaden

A week of highs and lows in the workshop, as I try to push forward again with two stalled builds.

A photo of a blue-painted mustang-style guitar body is sat on the workbench showing a string-ferrule block in place on the rear.

Workshop Catch-Up: Hästen

9 Feb 2024 - hästen, painting, spraying

Continuing the catch-up series: this week a look at the trials and progress in the first guitar I've painted rather than stained, and how it's all finally starting to come together.

On the workbench sits a work-in-progress guitar, with just the painted-body and neck in position. The body is in the style of a Fender Mustang offset guitar and is painted a pale blue, and the neck is made from birds-eye maple and finished in oil.

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.

Tags > Hästen