Bailey Guitars – Big in Holland!

According to guitar builder Mark Bailey building a guitar is not at all difficult. `You don’t really need to be rocket scientist to be able to build a guitar. If you but weet what you must do. The aim of the course is to teach the few bass -players who would want to build their own bass what they need to know. The bass player sent Marcel Besselink to Scotland to see if it is indeed not that difficult.

nope
translated it mate…

Mark Bailey started his career as a guitar builder in Coventry at Patrick Eggle, where he learned the profession from the age of 18. Patrick Eggle is the birthplace of such talents as Trevor Wilkinson, Gary Levinson, Rob Williams and naturally Patrick Eggle himself.
In 1998, he started, with its partner Carol Davies, his own company Bailey Guitars, with which he organised build your own guitar courses. In the early years a double-decker bus served as a workshop, later part of a shed was rented. In those years the course was given, for lack of available housing for the course participants, only at the week ends. In 2003, this changed and Mark and Carol moved to Scotland , where they set up home in a cottage in the splendid hillocks of Ayrshire. Since then they have had the possibility to offer course participants lodging and the courses cacn now be given in periods of five unbroken days.

Soup with bread
During the course every type of guitar or bass can be built: electric, acoustic, archtop, neck screwed , glued neck or passing through neck. Of course the duration (and the costs) depends on the type of course and the type and construction on the guitar or bass that you want make. An electric (bass) guitar with screwed or glued neck can be made in five days, but if you want it passing through the neck, then make it eight days. And if it is an acoustic guitar or archtop you want to make, you must count on fifteen and twenty days respectively.

What is a passing through the neck….? Not sure about that bit….