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Posts tagged skerryvore
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.
Custom Bailey for Skerryvore- Wine red burst
May 8th
…Finishing…
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- The maple cap is first stained black
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- After sanding a red stain is applied
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- A sealer coat brings the colour to life
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- Some black dye is added to the colour to spray the burst
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- The colour is sanded from the edge to make a natural wood binding effect
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- A close-up of the natural edge, ‘faux’ or ‘fake’ binding effect
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- The body has now had five coats of clear gloss lacquer
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- The neck is finished with matt lacquer
Billy wrote a full explanation of how we do this colour if you are interested in reading about it. The only difference is that this one only has the face of the body coloured, not the back or the sides.
We now need to wait at least 3 weeks for the lacquer to cure before it can be polished. Next time I work on this it will be final assembly day. I will be fitting a Fernandez sustainer and two EMG’s. The guitar will also have a trem.
Custom Bailey for Skerryvore- working on the body
Apr 27th
…Getting the feel of it……
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- I bolted the neck on so Alec could test it before I go any further
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- The ‘Fernandez sustainer’ comes with a pattern- I fixed it with double sided tape and used it as a guide to drill the control holes
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- The ‘trem hole’ completes routing work on the front of the body
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- Routing for the trem springs, controls, and battery box
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- The belly carve is done by and with a rasp
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- After fitting the trem I decided to assemble the guitar for a test before final sanding
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- I dropped the wiring loom in to check everything fitted Ok including plugging in the jack
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- Disassembled and ready for spraying
Alec from Skerryvore popped in to see how his custom job was going and finalise a few outstanding issues. The main point was to check the feel of the neck before it gets finished- after this it becomes more difficult. I bolted the neck on so he could try it and he was pleased enough that I didn’t have to make any adjustments to it at all. I checked he was happy with the position of the controls- not a lot of room for choice so we went with the recommended layout. Alec also confirmed the colour of the body which will be wine red.
That just about covered everything, so after he left I spent the rest of the afternoon and the next day working on the body. This included routing for the tremolo and the control cavity, drilling all the holes: jack socket and pick-up link holes, and all the mounting holes for the hardware that is going on this guitar. It is best to drill all the holes before it gets sprayed to help prevent damaging the finish.
Just to make sure everything fitted and worked how it should, I strung it up for a test. As a result, I decided to change the neck angle slightly, a few small adjustments to the trem route and it all checked out brilliantly. After this the guitar was disassembled and then sanded ready for spraying.
Custom Bailey for Skerryvore- Inlays and water decal logo
Apr 20th
Bailey inlays and Alec logo
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- Alec decided to have the Bailey logo on the 12th fret and the headstock
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- Bailey logo at the 12th fret
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- A scribe is used to mark the outline
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- A mini router makes the slot for each piece to fit into
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- The inlay should stick up just a fraction from the surface
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- A paste is made from wood dust and glue
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- the area is masked of to prevent glue from going all over the place
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- The same goes for the headstock…after the glue is dry they are sanded to look like this
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- I made a paper pattern to help place the custom ‘Alec’ decal
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- The logo is printed onto special laser transfer paper
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- This is a water decal just like old ‘airfix’ kits
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- The paper backing slides away to leave the logo…you have a minute or so to move it into position
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- It is carefully padded with tissue to soak up excess water
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- This is what it looks like wet…
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- It dries with a white background…
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- After the finish is applied the background goes clear again
About Inlays and water decals:
The Bailey logos are made from Black Tahiti Pearl as are the fret position marker dots. This is what we call an ‘inlay’. These are carefully cut out by hand using a jewellers coping saw then a slot is cut for the piece to fit into using a mini router. Inlaying by hand is very labour intensive and can be quite an expensive procedure. It is very hard to inlay light coloured wood as the glue is usually visible, although you may have to look pretty close! Darker coloured woods are much easier, especially Ebony which is black. With Ebony I use black glue and the join is virtually invisible. For this guitar I mixed up a paste of wood dust from an off-cut of the fretboard, and epoxy, to try to match the colour. After the glue has dried the inlay is sanded flush to the surface.
The ‘Alec’ logo was too fine to be made like this, it would just break, so we made a water decal instead. These are much cheaper and sometimes they can look better. The ‘laser transfer’ paper requires a laser printer but means anything that can be printed can be easily used as a logo. It works just like the old ‘airfix’ kits: soak in water for 1 minute and then paper backing slides away to leave the transfer in place. When dry it is buried under 4-5 coats of lacquer to seal it in.
Custom Bailey for Skerryvore…Design Session
Mar 16th
…Choosing the wood and making the blanks…
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- Alec drawing his headstock design
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- The finished drawing
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- Checking over the wood
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- Alec taking a picture of the wood for his custom guitar
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- The fretboard and neck blank for Alec’s guitar
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- The fretboard is being glued on to the neck and the ‘drop top’ is glued to the body
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- After removing the clamps
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- The body with it’s ‘drop top’ maple cap
Alec is the front man (guitars and voice) for West coast band Skerryvore. He visited at the weekend to finalise the drawing and spec for his new Bailey Custom. He drew his own headstock shape it will be a unique one off custom and requested that the guitar have a ‘sustainer unit’ built in and probably EMG pickups (still to confirm).
After seeing Steve’s guitar made on our build your own guitar course, he has decided to have it sprayed with the same red wine burst so it will be a stunner.
Alec brought his favourite old guitar for me to copy the neck, so I took all the dimensions.
While he was here I got out the wood I had selected for him to check over. It will have a maple neck with a birds eye fretboard. The body is ash with a 4mm highly flamed maple ‘drop top’ cap. This means that the ‘elbow carve’ is cut into the ash body blank before the cap is bent and glued on top.
I took him back to the train station with some homework. He is going to work on an inlay design for the 12th fret and decide for sure which pickups he wants.
When I got back from dropping him off I got started straight away gluing up the body blank. I also made the fretboard, roughed out the neck, and glued the fretboard on before calling it a day. Next job is to put the truss rod in.
