Bass guitars

Shona starts building a guitar for her son, Stevie continues with his 5-string fretless archtop bass, and Marvin finishes his fathers ‘Colt’ guitar started 30 years ago!

A busy weekend at the bailey workshop

Shona and her son Neil came for a visit during the last course to chose some wood and finalise design for a double birthday treat. She is doing the course as a present to herself but making the guitar for Neil who celebrates his 30th this year. Shona recently spent 9 months on a furniture making course in the States, and is using the course to ‘keep her hand in’ until she gets her own workshop space. By the end of the two days she had successfully turned her rough wooden blanks into something resembling a neck. Next time she will make the body and start putting it all together.

Stevie continued working on his masterpiece. He managed to cut out his f-holes and glued the bracing onto the top plate. He then spent the rest of the time he was with us carving out the inside of his back plate. We reckon he’s had about 10 days so far- it takes 20-30 days to make an archtop so he is doing very well. With a bit of luck he will start to glue the body together next time.

You may remember last month we finished Jim Cairnes last guitar after he became too ill and finally passed over to the great workshop in the sky. When the family were looking through Jim’s workshop they found the body for this ‘Colt’ Guitar started 35 years ago and a neck which was meant for another guitar.  Marvin’s idea was to put the two together to complete the work his father had started-although they knew of several in existence none of them belonged to the family, so it it was both an honour and a pleasure to play my part in helping to make it happen.