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Custom paint jobs
Build Your Own Custom Guitar – 27 Aug to 4 Sept – BYO-295
Nov 9th
Kevin pushes the boundaries with his first guitar made on our Build Your Own Custom Guitar Course.
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- BYO-295
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- neck thru body construction
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- Carved top
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- Chrome hardware
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- Flame orange – custom colour
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- Cream P90 in the neck position
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- Rear view of thru neck
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- 3 a side chrome tuners
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- Custom inlay
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- Custom fretboard inlay
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- Close up of pearl inlay
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- Kevin made his own guitar
Kevin made his first guitar on a recent build your own custom course here at the Bailey Workshop. It took seven days to create this instrument from raw blocks of wood which shows you just what is possible on our course. He wanted a neck thru, carved top, electric guitar with ‘flame orange’ maple cap and custom girl inlay on the headstock and custom lettering on the 12th fret, so his design really pushed the boundaries of what is possible, but he was a very fast worker!
He chose to have a humbucker (with a coil cut built into the tone control) at the bridge, and a P90 in the neck position. This gives a wide range of tones at the flick of a switch.
To save time the inlays were made by our good friends at Small Wonder, so all Kevin had to do was inlay the ready made ‘girl’ shape into the headstock and the letters into the fretboard. Incidentaly we asked for just mother of pearl but Mike at Small wonder couldn’t help himself from making the shoes red!
Thankfully Kevin liked it like that, and I had to agree Mike was right…
Check prices and availability | more courses
Bailey Custom Electric – Manuel – P3
Oct 11th
Manuel’s ‘new wife’ is a stunner!
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- Manuel’s ‘new wife’
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- Rear view
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- Side on…
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- Lying down…
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- Sunburst UV Gloss
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- Flame maple cap
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- Meranti back
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- Custom headstock
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- ‘all access’ neck joint
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- custom wiring
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- Custom jack socket
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- White Bailey Logo
This is a milestone for Bailey Guitars- Our first guitar to be finished with UV lacquer! As you can see it looks fantastic but there is more to it than just appearances.
This guitar is based on Manuel’s first guitar – he got it when he was nineteen and it is now just about played to destruction. I measured it very carefully so it should feel exactly the same if he closes his eyes, until he goes up the high end, as this new one has a modified neck joint to allow better access to the higher frets. Of course the super smooth feel of the new UV finish will give it away but I’m sure he’ll get used to that.
The wiring was customised to Manuel’s requirements: one volume, one tone control, a five way pickup selector switch and a mini switch. The tone control is also a push/pull switch which turns off one of the coils in the humbucker and the mini switch activates the neck pickup whatever position the 5 way selector is in. This enables neck and bridge single coils to be on at the same time. The fancy jack socket plate definitely adds a touch of class and was supplied along with all the other parts by Manuel himself.
Manuel is a great player and has become a great friend also, so it was a pleasure to build this instrument for him. I look forward to seeing him play it soon and I hope he finds with his ‘new wife’ another long and happy relationship!
Interested in having your own custom guitar made?
New UV Lacquer System
Oct 5th
Introducing our new UV lacquer system
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- The crate
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- A big crate
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- Opening the crate
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- It’s all here including the safety gear
The future ? It’s here at Bailey Guitars!
The crate turned up a while ago and we have been working hard ever since perfecting our technique. It has not been easy and there have been a few pitfalls along the way but the results we are getting now are truly spectacular. I will write a full list of ‘UV’ instructions in a future blog but first I wanted to explain a few things:
Why use UV lacquer?
Conventional lacquer needs time to dry- it contains solvents and these need time to evaporate leaving behind the hard shiny finish which is then flatted and polished to the mirror like surface we are used to seeing on guitars. The problem is it takes so long!
A cellulose finish takes up to 3 months curing time- even then solvents will continue to evaporate causing the lacquer to ‘sink’ into the grain of the wood. At the same time it will be getting thinner and become more brittle, eventually wearing off completely. Look at any really old guitar and you will see what I mean. This is fine for musical instruments, and part of the reason why old guitars sound ‘better’ than new ones, so we will continue to offer a cellulose finish for those traditionalists who are prepared to wait.
There are many alternatives to cellulose for example ‘two pack’ lacquer which dries by a chemical process – a catalyst or hardener is added to the lacquer hence the name. These do dry faster but tend to be thicker and still suffer from sinkage over time.
Our new UV Cure system has many advantages:
UV lacquer can be sprayed brushed or wiped on and is dried or ‘cured’ in minutes with UV light. It still needs flatting and polishing, so roughly the same amount of work goes into each spray job, but:
- It’s faster- there is virtually no drying time so this speeds up the finishing process dramatically.
- It’s thinner- this is great for musical instruments. Thick coatings can dull the sound of a guitar so the thinner it is the better.
- It’s harder- more scratch resistant and durable than other conventional finishes. It is also impervious to chemicals like alcohols and solvents and even itself once dry.
- It’s ‘greener’- better for the environment (and for us). There are no solvents- that’s zero VOC content.
- No sinkage- It won’t sink into the grain because there are no solvents to evaporate- when it’s dry, it’s dry!
Tomorrow never knows…
Our first UV guitar will be assembled tomorrow – Manuel’s. Billy polished it today and it is looking fantastic. I will post pics of the finished guitar ASAP…Looking forward to hearing what you all think.
Build your own custom guitar- Dave Fletcher- spray job
Jul 13th
Caramel burst- colour test
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- The cap before colouring
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- First the amber is applied
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- Ready for the burst
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- Spraying the burst
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- A perfect match?
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- It’s a custom colour
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- Inside under flourescent light
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- outside close up
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- Outside full body shot
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- Mahogany test piece
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- Antique fake binding test piece
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- With a natural piece for comparison
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- inside colour test A
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- Inside colour test B
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- Outside colour test A
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- Outside colour test B
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- Outside colour test C
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- Colout tests for the back
Dave made this guitar recently on the build your own custom guitar course. He wanted a gloss finish which means leaving it with us to spray. He left a picture which we used for colour comparison and I think Billy did a great job matching it. The rest of the guitar will be tinted with just a drop of amber to give it a slightly aged look- I will post more pics when we have done this but first we need confirmation from Dave that the colour is good before we will continue.
Update: 14 July 2011
Billy did the colour tests today for the fake binding and the mahogany for the rest of the guitar…We also took the guitar outside for a picture as the colour looks slightly different.
Update: 15July 2011
Added some more pics of the guitar inside and outside and the first colour test for the back.
Custom Bailey for Skerryvore- completed pictures
Jun 18th
Here it is… Skerryvore custom from the Bailey workshop
Alec from Skerryvore came on Thursday to collect his new shiny custom guitar
He will be using this guitar in large venues so the EMG’s will be excellent- very loud and clear sounding with really extremely low noise when not being played. The sustainer lets him command one of the most beautiful sounds in the world- controlled feedback. As if that wasn’t enough there is the wilkinson whammy bar to play with.
Alec left a happy man heading straight for the studio to lay down some tracks on the new album- can’t wait to hear what he does with it! Hope you enjoy the pictures.
