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Custom guitars
Bailey Custom Guitar Build – Part 1 – Exotica Left Handed
Apr 25th
Simon’s custom Exotica – ‘thru neck’ style.
Simon came to visit in March to design his guitar and choose his wood, parts, etc. Since then I have been making very good progress – it is almost starting to look like a guitar. I have taken so many pictures that it was difficult to choose just a few for the blog so I had an idea to make a slideshow- a new format for keeping you updated with my custom builds…why did I not think of that before? Now you can hear one of my guitars being played while you watch another one taking shape – How fantastic is that. (Please feel free to make a comment.)
It took a little longer to put the slideshow together but I hope you will agree it is a better way of showing more of what goes on in the Bailey workshop.
In case you are wondering- it is a left handed guitar but it has a right handed headstock, very cool…next job is to glue the wings on – can’t wait to see it myself!
The music is from ‘Paligap‘ a great Scottish band with an outstanding guitar player who goes by the name of Anderson Council. Recorded ‘live’ on his own Bailey custom, it is their tribute to one of the founding fathers of electric guitar, Jimi Hendrix – enjoy!
If you are interested in having your own custom guitar made especially for you – contact us with your requirements or have a look at some guitars in our online shop.
Bailey Custom Bandsman Build – Norwegian Wood – Part 5
Apr 10th
Tobacco Burst Custom Bandsman Spray Job
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- Ready for spraying
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- Applying the first colour
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- Sealing the colour coat
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- Spraying the ‘burst’
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- Full Frontal
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- The back
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- Full length at an angle
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- A close up of the body
This guitar has taken slightly longer than expected- The ebony pickup covers held us up for a week or so, and Kristian also specified an Electro Socket Jack which was out of stock at all our suppliers. I didn’t want to go ahead and spray the guitar just in case there was a problem so it was delayed another week. We finally tracked one down and it has arrived so work can now continue.
Kristian specified Tobaco Burst like the original bandsman his guitar is based on- but with a couple of subtle changes. That is the beauty of having a custom guitar made especially for you…
How we spray Tobacco Burst
After sanding, the guitar was stained all over with the first colour. The amber stain was mixed with water and applied with a rag.
After it had dried thoroughly this was then sealed in by spraying it with a coat of sanding sealer.
Next the burst was applied using the spray gun. We used tobacco brown stain mixed with thinners to make the burst by spraying around the edges. Kristian has aksed for a ‘softer transition’ so that is what we are aiming for here – we will widen the spray pattern on the gun slightly to achieve this. He didn’t want the burst on the back of the neck so we left that.
The burst was then sealed with a coat of sanding sealer.
Finally the top coats were applied, in this case two coats of cellulose matt finish.
The guitar will be left to hang for a while…it will be ready for assembly end of next week!
The Bailey Collection | How to order your custom Bailey | Bailey Shop
New Hannes Bridge
Apr 2nd
New Hannes Bridges available now for custom Bailey electric guitars and BYO’ers
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- Hannes bridge nickel
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- Hannes bridge chrome
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- Hannes bridge satin chrome
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- Hannes bridge black chrome
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- Hannes bridge gold
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- Hannes bridge ruthenium
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- Hannes bridge satin pearl
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- Hannes bridge vintage copper
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- Hannes bridge with piezo
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- Flagship preamp
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- john pollock’s BYO guitar
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- John with his bailey BYO guitar
Hannes Bridge
The Hannes bridge is billed as the most comfortable bridge in the world. I was a bit skeptical about that, but ordered a couple. One was requested by John Pollock on one of our Build Your Own Custom Guitar courses and I also wanted to try one for myself. They are a little expensive but you get what you pay for… John also had a nanomag pickup inset into the end of the fretboard for a more ‘acoustic’ tone – This was the best solution at the time as there were few options. John’s guitar was the co-star of the Bailey Promo film made by course mate Mark Screeton. The end result was pretty good, I hope you will agree, and the bridge worked out great.
The Hannes came about by a collaboration between designer Roland Hannes and Graph Tech, whose nuts and saddles we have used for many years, and is distributed by Schaller. The saddles are made from the familiar Graph Tech material that has served us so well in the past providing great tone, sustain, durability and consistancy in abundance. You can read all the blurb about it on the Schaller website but here are my thoughts as a guitar maker:
I love the design. It’s about time someone came up with something different – I wouldn’t say futuristic but it looks right bang up to date. The metal parts are available in the normal chrome, black or gold coating so it will match any normal hardware- tuners, jack socket plate etc. The bridge is very functional – it has a large amount of adjustment for saddle height and intonation and it is indeed very comfortable ‘in use’. When used in combination with a Graphtec nut the sound is maximised – noticibly loader and longer sustian.
On the downside it was a little tricky to fit but I have since made a simple router jig to make it a bit easier. The two bolts that go through the body have to be drilled very precisely as they have to line up exacly with the corresponding holes on the bridge and determine where it sits on the front. Luckily there are downloadable instructions and patterns to help get it in the right place. There is also a slot to route for the string retainer which is not recommended for the faint hearted – Hannes recommends finding a luthier to fit it for you – that’s what were here for!
I doubt it would ‘retro-fit’ on your old guitar but if you were making one yourself, or having one made for you, this bridge would be an excellent choice.
Hannes with Piezo Saddles
Ian is currently on the course building a single cut style guitar with a chambered body. He also chose a Hannes bridge and wanted an acoustic sound as well. Thankfully, the Hannes bridge is now also available with Piezo saddles built in – Graphtec happen to make one of the best piezo systems in the world so I have high hopes for this. The preamp is made by Schaller – they call it the Flagship so we’ll see if it lives up to it’s name. Ian is due to finish his guitar some time in June so I will keep you posted.
You can specify a Hannes bridge on any Bailey electric guitar
The Hannes bridge appears to have been accepted by (known for our fussyness and reluctance to try anything new) players and seems to be becoming quite popular. Overall it is a winner which is why we have added it to the list of options for all Bailey electric guitars. If you would like a custom guitar with (or without) a Hannes bridge contact us with your requirements.
Coming Soon…
I am currently making 3 new guitars all with stunning quilted maple caps. They will be finished soon, so have I decided to put the spare Hannes on one of these.
These guitars will all be brand new colours so watch out for that in a few weeks time…
Left Handed Custom Bailey Exotica – Part 1
Mar 30th
Design session and wood selection
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- Simon works on his drawing
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- Laminates for custom exotica
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- ‘Brown’ Maple for the body wings
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- Spalted Maple Cap
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- Body Laminates
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- Neck Laminates
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- neck laminates assembled dry
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- Body laminates assembled dry
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- So good I photographed it twice
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- You want to touch it don’t you
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- Neck and body wood
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- The piece for the Body wings
Simon found us by trawling the internet and fell in love with the Exotica in our online shop.
The only problem was he plays left handed so we arranged a visit to the workshop for a design session and we drew out the guitar to confirm all the details.
It turned out that he really did like the Exotica- his spec was virtually identical apart from a few extra custom options.
Simon chose some Spalted Maple for the Cap while he was here but I have some more on order so I will post pictures when it arrives and he can choose which one he likes.
It will be a while before I am ready to glue on the Cap so there is no rush just yet, I will start by gluing up the neck laminates anyway…
The rest of the wood for the neck laminates and the body wings came from our friends at David Dyke.
We got lucky with the body wings (Thanks David) – we specified ‘Brown’ Maple, as used on the original.
Brown Maple is just plain maple with dark marks in the wood- it works great with a Spalted Maple Cap.
The only Brown Maple David had also has some really nice flame in it so that is a bonus (As long as Simon likes it of course).
Personally I think it is going to look amazing – no colour just a natural satin finish to bring out the figure in the wood.
There are quite a few extra laminations which will make gluing up the blanks a little tricky but the effect of the additional Black pinstripes will be spectacular.
Simon’s choice of custom hardware includes an original Floyd Rose bridge with a tungsten sustain block.
Contact us with your own custom guitar requirements.
Custom Left Hand Exotica Spec
Scale Length - 25 1/2″
Number of Frets – 24 correction – 22
Neck Style – Thru
Body wood – Brown Maple body wings
Cap – Laminated: Black pinstripe 3mm (1/8″) |Mahogany, Back pinstripe, 12mm (1/2″) Spalted Maple
Neck Wood – Laminated: 32mm (1.25″) Flame maple,black pinstripe, 3mm (1/8″) mahogany, black pinstripe, 9mm (3/8″) plain maple, black pinstripe, 3mm (1/8″) mahogany, black pinstripe, 32mm (1.25″)flame maple
Fretboard – Ebony
Hardware Colour – Gold
Bridge – Floyd Rose Original with L3 Locking Nut and Tungsten Block
Pickups – Bareknuckle PG Blues humbuckers with gold covers
Tuners – LSR tuners
Bailey Logo – Black
Custom Guitar – Rohan – Build Part 2
Mar 23rd
It is starting to look like a guitar now
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- Routing the body chambers
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- The finished body chambers
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- Gluing the cap
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- The glue is wiped clear of the body chambers
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- Gluing the cap
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- The fret press
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- Installing the frets into a compound radius fretboard
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- Now the side dots are installed
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- Routing the pickup slots
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- The pickup slots are routed
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- The body shape is cut out
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- Routing the neck slot
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- The finished neck slot
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- The neck is fitted into the body
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- Closeup of unfinished neck joint
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- It looks like a guitar!
Rohan came a few weeks ago for a design session which was made into a two minute timelapse film when he chose very detail of the build and even designed his own body and headstock shapes.
I started to make it last week, I am now well into the build and everything is going well.
The body is made from Meranti which is very light weight and the chambers routed into it will make it even lighter. I have to be very careful when gluing the cap on not to leave any dust or chips in the holes or they will rattle about for eternity as there will be no f-holes to vacuum it out from. If the glue runs down into the hole or beads form around the top edge of the hole when the cap is put on, these may one day break free and drive us crazy, so I run my finger around the top of each hole which prevents this from happening.
After the cap is glued there is nothing to stop me making the body. After routing the pickup slots I cut out the body shape with the bandsaw and then profiled the body with the router. I used the same pattern as when I made the chambers, fixing it with double sided tape before copying the shape with the router.
After that I made the slot in the body for the neck to fit into. There are still some jobs to do on the body and the neck angle still needs to be set but I am waiting till the bridge arrives before I do that, and there is always the headstock logo to keep me busy. Rohan has also asked for a custom inlay on the truss rod cover but there is no rush for that just yet.
Now the neck has been fretted and the side dots are installed, apart from the headstock inlay, I cannot do anymore work on the neck until Rohan has visited, as he opted to be here when I carve it.
I have done a little carving just to remove most of the excess bulk but I will wait until he is here before I go any further.
Contact us if you would like to commission your own custom guitar or have a look in our online shop for guitars ready to ship | The Bailey Collection
