Mark Bailey
My name is Mark Bailey and I run my own guitar making workshop - Bailey Guitars. I have devoted my life to building guitars and I’ve taught over 400 people how to do it. In my youth I worked in a guitar factory alongside some of the best guitar makers on the planet, including Patrick Eggle who makes some of the finest acoustic guitars in the world, Gary Levinson and Rob Williams who make some of the best electrics and Trevor Wilkinson of ‘Fret-King’ who also invented the Roller Nut. I did my very best to learn from them and eventually set up my own company producing a range of my own designs. The information presented here is based on the ‘Build Your Own Guitar’ course which normally takes place in my workshop here in the glorious hills of South Ayrshire Scotland. Although aimed at complete novices, many with more experience have found our courses very useful including guitar repair technicians from shops all over the UK who want to enhance their skills, and schools and colleges with students interested in building. I have had many requests from all over the world from folk who are unable to get here in person so it is with great pride and thanks to a great team I am now able to provide this information online and hopefully help out a lot more people - I have seen the lights go on in many people’s eyes as they discover just how do-able it is. I always say that most guitars are made in factories and they are not populated by genius luthiers (ask me how I know). They are just normal people who turn up at nine and go home at five. Most of the jobs are quite easy and I believe anyone can do it with the right tools and a little guidance. Some of my students have gone on make many more guitars at home and some have even started their own guitar making business. I’m not saying it is going to be easy, nothing worthwhile ever is, but my aim is to show you what I think is the easiest, quickest and cheapest way to go about building your own electric guitar at home. “if something is too difficult you are probably doing it wrong...” - Mark Bailey
