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Some Time in the Shop

Picking up a story of a neck build from a little while ago. This neck is actually a new neck for the second guitar I built, The Chuncaster. That build I made for my brother, and is the first guitar body I made myself rather than buying, but I still bought the neck, which is ...

Blog on Michael Winston Dales Guitars
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Liverpool Makefest 2025

This year was the tenth birthday for Liverpool Makefest, and I was delighted to be able to return as an exhibitor once more and attempt to explain guitar building to the people of Liverpool. I started exhibiting at Liverpool Makefest in 2017, having only just started buildin...

Fret Science
Text • Keith

Every scale, everywhere, all at once

I've been working on the idea for this video for a few months. It started as a reaction to one of Rick Beato's livestreamed "the ultimate guitar fretboard…

Fret Science
Text • Keith

How to improvise over chord changes by finding only one note by name

Improvising solos over chord changes can be intimidating—but it doesn't have to be! If you can find one note by name, anywhere on the fretboard, you can…

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Torres hommage in Romanian spruce and maple from the Carpathian mountains

Torres hommage in Romanian spruce and maple from the Carpathian mountains
Torres hommage in Romanian spruce and maple from the Carpathian mountains
Torres hommage in Romanian spruce and maple from the Carpathian mountains
Torres hommage in Romanian spruce and maple from the Carpathian mountains
Torres hommage in Romanian spruce and maple from the Carpathian mountains
Torres hommage in Romanian spruce and maple from the Carpathian mountains
Torres hommage in Romanian spruce and maple from the Carpathian mountains
Torres hommage in Romanian spruce and maple from the Carpathian mountains
Torres hommage in Romanian spruce and maple from the Carpathian mountains
Torres hommage in Romanian spruce and maple from the Carpathian mountains
Torres hommage in Romanian spruce and maple from the Carpathian mountains

Torres homage with Romanian spruce and maple, brass tornavoz, 640 scale. Figured Spanish cedar neck, Malaysian blackwood fingerboard, Madagascar rosewood headplate, bridge and binding, Gotoh premium aluminium tuners. Video recorded raw, without polish. Nylon strings, no reverb.

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Text • chitaremarian

Hauser hommage in Italian bearclaw spruce and Amazon rosewood

Hauser hommage in Italian bearclaw spruce and Amazon rosewood
Hauser hommage in Italian bearclaw spruce and Amazon rosewood
Hauser hommage in Italian bearclaw spruce and Amazon rosewood
Hauser hommage in Italian bearclaw spruce and Amazon rosewood
Hauser hommage in Italian bearclaw spruce and Amazon rosewood
Hauser hommage in Italian bearclaw spruce and Amazon rosewood
Hauser hommage in Italian bearclaw spruce and Amazon rosewood
Hauser hommage in Italian bearclaw spruce and Amazon rosewood
Hauser hommage in Italian bearclaw spruce and Amazon rosewood
Hauser hommage in Italian bearclaw spruce and Amazon rosewood
Hauser hommage in Italian bearclaw spruce and Amazon rosewood

A Hauser hommage built with a highly rare figured Amazon rosewood body and Italian bearclaw spruce soundboard. Elevated neck of figured Sipo, African blackwood, Macassar headplate, stainless frets; wenge binding, NOS Fustero tuners. This guitar produced one of my most … Continue reading →

Fret Science
Text • Keith

Pentatonic gear shifts

This technique was an epiphany. Once I figured out that you could shift pentatonic scale shapes up or down in response to chord changes, my melodic soloing…

Blog on Michael Winston Dales Guitars
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Workshop diary: trying a new approach to headstock shaping

In addition to the bass-guitar build I’ve been writing about, I’ve got a couple of electric-guitar necks I’m building at the same time. Both of these are regular (to me) 25.5" scale-length guitar necks, so in theory nothing new here. But I know that for the bass-guitar’s nec...

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Audio • chitaremarian

Romanillos hommage in Carpathian spruce and Indian rosewood

This is the first time I try a more parallel fan with all harmonic bars open, resembling the famous 1973 Romanillos used by Julian Bream. The plantilla is my typical medium/small I also use for Torres type builds. I can … Continue reading →

Blog on Michael Winston Dales Guitars
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Workshop catchup: Bass edition

In the previous update I talked about the process of designing my first bass guitar, my Delfinen Bass, looking at how it differs from a regular electric guitar design. This set of notes will catch us up on how the build of that has got going. Refinement Before we start in th...

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SOLD! An Enjoyable Distraction

I had some spare time recently as I waiting for the lacquer I'd sprayed on my current batch of acoustic guitars to cure in readiness for polishing, and as I'm becoming a big fan of headless guitars, I put the guitar pictured together while I had the opportunity to do so. I'...

Blog on Michael Winston Dales Guitars
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Designing a Bass Guitar

It’s been a couple of months since I’ve been able to get into the workshop, which has happened before, but it’s always a little hard to get back into the swing of things. Mostly I’ve been dragging my heels on getting back into doing design work, of which I have a bunch to do...

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Dry Sanding With Super Assilex and Super Buflex Abrasive Sheets

I put this East Indian rosewood/European spruce guitar to one side as I proceeded with my usual process of wet sanding and buffing four other guitar bodies, the motivation being that I wanted to compare wet sanding with the dry sanding alternative. There was an unavoidable ...

Fret Science
Text • Keith

Fret Science: Improv 101

A high level overview and detailed syllabus for the Fret Science: Improv 101 course

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Some Silent Sanding


 Cheers, Pete

Blog on Michael Winston Dales Guitars
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Workshop catch-up: Maintenance and Repair Edition

This set of week-notes is a bit of a catch-up on one guitar I’ve been fixing up, and another I started reworking a little. Whilst it’s easier to get people excited about new builds, every luthier I’ve met does work to maintain, repair or restore old guitars. Even the best gu...

Blog on Michael Winston Dales Guitars
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Workshop photography 101

There’s an easy assumption to be made that because I’m always taking photos for this blog of the guitars I build, and because photography is another hobby of mine, then I must have lots of nice photos of the guitars I build. Alas, that’s not really the case. Whilst I enjoy p...

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Sanding and Buffing Tips

I'm definitely not the most experienced finisher around, and thought it wise recently to undertake something of a personal refresher course by sifting through some relevant forums and Facebook groups with a view to improving the quality of my finishes. Here's a collection ...

Blog on Michael Winston Dales Guitars
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A Week in the Shop

Being back in the workshop last week for the first time in a month, I was keen to press on with the nearly completed Hästen. It got so close last month, so I was keen to see if I could get it playable this week. Pick-guards R us When I last wrote about progress on Hästen I’d...

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On the Home Stretch

It's a fact of life that events and circumstances can conspire to delay and reshape our plans, and this has certainly been the case where the instrument pictured is concerned. Given that building guitars is such as passion for me, it's amazing - and even a little embarrassi...