DIY Guitar Shop Blog: What's happening at DIYGuitarShop.co.uk

Workshop Services: We're here to help!

2009-10-07T09:08:00.019+01:00

Folks,

Many of our customers choose to have us cut the headstoks, drill for bridge mounting, or customise their DK bodies. We are here to help! I know that it's not always practical or possible to bring the jig saw into the dining room or the router into the front reception!

Here are a few examples of some recent Workshop Services performed for our good customers. I took these pics with my camera phone in the Workshop so they aren't beauty shots by any stretch of the imagination! (click to the images to enlarge)

I'm happy to help, so if you have ANY questions, please don't hesitate to let me know!

Best regards,

SFT

Culli's Teak DKJ01A Build

2009-04-27T14:30:00.007+01:00

From rural France comes the story and pics of Culli's DKJ01A alder body 'Jazz' style build.

"I used one coat of Rustins light teak wood dye on the body followed by 8 coats of Rustins Danish oil. I rubbed down between the later coats with 00 wirewool but left the final coat untouched to give a bit of sheen. The neck is just Danish oil but rubbed down lightly after the final coat with wirewool to give a super satin finish. It's lovely to play.

Well - I had a practice with the guys last night and it knocked them dead!

I'm using a Hartke Kickback 15 120 watt combo and with the guitar it just sounded the business. We weren't at much volume of course but the gigs the boys play are pretty small. Lovely smooth bass tone - just what I like. It has plenty of treble too if you're that way inclined - but I'm not. New pick ups are definitely moving on to the back burner - I love what I've got!

Top Draw

There is something deeply satisfying about playing a guitar you made a contribution to building.

So all in all Steve I am a very, very happy customer. I'm fear addiction is on the way and a Tele is just over the horizon. Get my self up to speed with all the bass lines I've got to learn (coming in to an established band on a new instrument is a bit of a learning curve!) and I'll be back."

Thanks for sharing your build story. It's a beautiful bass and we're especially happy that you love playing it!

Tom's Tobacco Sunburst DKL03F Build

2009-04-27T14:17:00.005+01:00

Tom purchased one of our popular DKL03F Flamed Maple Top LP style kits and finished it using the brilliant lacquers from Manchester Guitar Tech. Speaking of brilliant, just look at this guitar! Here's some of what Tom had to say about his kit:

"I’ve attached a couple of pictures of progress so far. The body & neck are now done, lacquered & polished. The back of the neck uses am antique transparent lacquer to give it an aged look. The tobacco sunburst I did following info from Manchester Guitar. Their aerosol lacquers are really good. The back is black. I carved the top of the headstock as you can see & have fitted Tonepros & Kluson hardware. I also replaced the nut with a Graphtec one."

Great job, Tom. Thanks for sharing your build with us!

Finally! DIY Guitar Shop Customer Builds and Stories. (yes, I know it's about time...)

2009-04-27T13:09:00.003+01:00

Hi Folks,

As the title says, we are finally going to post a selection of our customer's instrument builds. You see, we've been rather busy keeping up with orders and making sure that all of the good folks who placed their orders with us are satisfied with their kits and parts, and the service supplied. We've done pretty well, we hear, and are striving to do even better in the coming months as summer project time approaches. Expect great things, as they say.

More news to follow about new kits and parts. But first, here's what our good customers have been up to...

Best regards,

SFT

New DIY Guitar Builder Kits and Parts Available 15 Feb

2009-01-08T12:57:00.008Z

Hi Folks,

We are putting together our new offerings of DIY guitar builder kits and parts, many of which are new products for us. Here's a bit of a heads up on what will be available on or about 15 Feb:

New DIY Guitar Builder Kits for 2009:

DKL03F Mahogany Body "LP" style builder kit with Flamed Maple Top
DKL03S Mahogany Body "LP" style builder kit with Spalted Maple Top
DKJ01A Alder Body "Jazz" style bass builder kit

Popular DIY Guitar Kits back by request:

DKT02A Black Bound Ash Body "Tele" Style Builder Kit
DKT03A White Bound Ash Body "Tele" Style Builder Kit
DKT04A Unound Ash Body "Tele" Style Builder Kit
DKS02A Ash body "Strat" Style Builder Kit

New Parts:

LP Jr style Stop Tailpieces (complete)
T-O-M style Roller Bridges (complete)
Vintage style Tele Bridges (complete)
Oval and LP style output jack assemblies (complete)
Kluson Style 6/0 and 3/3 Tuning Machines
All Black Loaded Strat Scratchplates with screws
Mounting screws of every kind

We are updating our website daily so check in there (and here, of course) for updates. If you'd like more information, please shoot us an email at info@diyguitarshop.co.uk.

We thank you for your custom in 2008, and we look forward to serving you in 2009.

Best regards always,

SFT

Howie Coleman's '83 Epiphone Emperor Tailpiece Refit

2008-11-04T22:53:00.000Z

Rockabilly guitarist Howie Coleman (Class of '58) gives his beloved axe some love after 25 rockin' years on the road! Here's a note from Howie:

Hi Steve,

We bought a tailpiece off you recently and as promised here's the photos of the guitar with it on! We really loved the fast and co-operative service provided, we apologise for not being as quick as you, in replying!!

The guitar is a 1983 Epiphone Emperor and has had a hard working life. She has been on the road consistently for the last 25 years. I originally changed the synchromatic tailpiece virtually straight away, mainly for 2 reasons.The first being, that with the long headstock and the short length of the split tailpiece on the bass strings, at the time getting strings long enough was a real pain! And the second reason was that I wanted a tailpiece like a Gibson L5 (like Elvis' guitarist Scotty Moore, in the early days) - the real reason if I'm totally honest with myself was probably mainly the second reason!!!! She started life with a block inlay on the fingerboard but after a bad re-fret, which ruined the fingerboard, I had to get the fingerboard replaced, and it was cheaper to have dots rather than block inlay. The L5 style tailpiece never really seemed to fit and as I suffer from real acidic sweat (too much information, I know!!) a lot of the metal parts got severely wrecked. In real life, it's a hell of a lot worse than you can tell in the photo I've sent. All of a sudden I'm middle- aged and realise she deserves better and decided to put her back closer to her original state, hence the trapeze tailpiece, which I suppose is a cross between the two - clean lines without the metal. Actually, the wolf-tones are not as bad as they were before, either. I suppose the bottom line is, although not vintage, she's possibly one of a kind - being a cross between a 330 and an L5. No matter, she's all mine - and I wouldn't get rid of her, anyway!!!

Hope I don't sound too much like an anorak!!

Catcha' Later,

Howie Coleman

The Class of '58 (50's Rock 'n' Roll band)

Peter Bower's Daphne Blue "Tele" project

2008-11-04T22:35:00.000Z

DIY Guitar Shop customer Peter Bower based his beautiful Daphne Blue Tele Project on a Saga ST-10 he purchased from us.

Read more about it on Guitar Attack.com.

Simon Young's B-Bender "Esquire" project

2008-11-04T22:11:00.000Z

Simon Young, singer from the London-based band Sonny, built a B-Bender Esquire-style guitar using the DIY Guitar Shop DKT01-A Ash Body Guitar Builder Kit. Here's what Simon wrote about his project:

"The inspiration behind the B-Bender Esquire was, no surprise, the ex-Byrds, amongst others, guitarist Clarence White who used the Parsons-White B-Bender to great effect on his Telecaster. Two significant moves though were to build a one pickup Esquire (because I don't use the neck pickup on the Tele) and rather than use the very expensive Parsons-White B-Bender, use the Higgins Peg-Bender - which also does the job rather well at a fraction of the price.

I bought one of the ash bodied Tele kits from DIY Guitar Shop – and very well constructed they are too. Ash, I believe, was used for early Fenders before they switched to alder and other woods. Even the current American Standard Tele's are alder still, but the custom shop bodies are often ash – which says something. To make it an Esquire I bought a new pickguard, a vintage style bridge, and also upgraded the pickup (no doubt the original would have been fine, but my brother who would use the guitar most has a custom-shop Fender Nocaster so is used to the very best!).

The first thing I did was to varnish the body. Steve at DIY Guitar Shop gave me some advice on guitar finishes and I decided to give the varnished look a go as it would prove to be the easiest and cheapest option. I sanded the body first and then varnished it with Ronseal Diamond Gloss Walnut Varnish. I did three coats on back, front and sides and lightly sanded between each. Finally I put a couple of coats of Ronseal Ultra Clear Varnish to finish it off. The result is a nice warm colour and you can see and feel the texture of the wood. It may not be the traditional guitar finish but I like it a lot and would do it again. For the neck I just used two coats of the Ronseal Ultra Clear Varnish. Though applied with a brush, you hardly notice the strokes on the finish which is really very good indeed.

Before final construction I drilled holes for the string ferrules as I decided to go with a string through body. This is not difficult as long as you prepare properly. Construction was straightforward and took little time, and after setting-up and installing the Higgins Peg-Bender it turned out to be a really great looking, playing and sounding guitar.

I couldn't recommend one of these kits more highly if you're interested in making your own custom guitar – and it's easy too with a bit of forethought and care. I'm already planning the second – a Tele with coil-tapped humbuckers and a Bigsby!"

Visit the Sonny MySpace page at

www.myspace.com/popgroup

Welcome!

2008-10-30T23:00:00.000Z

We're glad you made it! We set up this blog mainly as a quick way of showing off your work, and letting you know what's happening at www.diyguitarshop.co.uk. We have had great response to our DIY guitar builder kits (DKT01A, DKS01A, etc) and have been happy to receive many great emails and pictures of builds. As quickly as we can, we'll post what you've sent in. I'm excited to see all of the great work in one place. I'm sure you'll be as impressed as we are.

In addition, we'll be letting you know about new products and info to help you build the guitar in your imagination. Stay tuned!

Best regards,

S F Thompson