…Made for Steve McKeand of the Highland Hotclub…
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- Steve play testing his new guitar
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- The end of an epic journey
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- Lights On…
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- Possibly the most attractive guitar on the planet?
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- Delta style F-holes
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- Blue LED’s!
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- Stereo endpin jack
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- …and the tail piece
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- Steve designed the headstock
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- ..and midnight blue burst with glitter
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- …blessed by angels…
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- The thumbwheel controls are discreetly mounted under the finger rest
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- Based on the Bailey Kithara Archtop Guitar
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- Designed by Steve McKeand…
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- Custom ‘Art Deco’ Style Archtop Guitar
How to design your own guitar by Mark Bailey
Steve commissioned this guitar a while ago and has been paying monthly for about as long as any of us can remember! It is roughly based on the Bailey Kithara Archtop Guitar but with quite a few custom options including ‘Art Deco’ style headstock, finger rest, and tailpiece, midnight blue burst finish with (glitter!), stainless steel frets, piezo and magnetic pickups with stereo output, and many more, not least of course the internal blue LED’s!
I originally named this guitar ‘The SpaceShip’ as Steve wanted it to look like his version of a 50’s UFO. I had a lot of fun making it and writing blogs about the construction. He visited a few times during the build to make tweaks to the drawings and check on progress, but this time it was to collect his completed instrument.
Steve spent about five hours sitting in the workshop playing away, in the end I just left him to it. He said that it had far exceeded his expectations which were very high…Steve is a great player so that means a lot to me. I had to agree the guitar sounded really beautiful – Job DONE! The original mission was to boldly go where no Jazz guitar had gone before and I think we did that too. Thanks to Billy for giving it the starry night effect.
Contact us with ideas for your own custom Bailey guitar or check out these instruments in our online shop.