Gallery

Paul Hudson used to be a professional sound engineer and session bass guitarist. He’s currently learning to play (and more recently, build) six strings. Dragondreams is the name of Paul's project studio.

Project 3 – Dragondreams DD2. Axetec parts:IronGear Steam Hammer pickups,Speed knobs
4 x 2 machineheads, Graphite nut, Switched 500K pots, Mono jack socket, T-style jack plate, Scratchplate screws, Strap, buttons and felts, Neck screws, String trees

The sustain is awesome. If I needed longer sustain, I'd have to take up playing the organ! The Steam Hammers compliment the heavy body perfectly, in both single and twin-coil mode. It's a joy to play.

Website:

Email:

http://www.dragondreams.org.uk/

paul@dragondreams.org.uk

This is my second build project. For this one, I wanted something that would give me a range of sounds, but all of them "rocky". It's a mahogany body and (set) neck, with Amazique top and ebony fingerboard. Pickups are 2 Jailhouse Rails and a Platinum 90. The Jailhouse Rails are both coil-tapped via a push-pull tone pot. Standard 5-way selector switch. The guitar weighs in at 9lbs! This is a heavy guitar, and the Jailhouse Rails give it a really powerful strong sound. Plenty of clarity, but there's no mistaking that it's a rock guitar. Even in single-coil mode, the sound is still a long way from a Strat-twang. The P90 adds another set of sounds, mid way between the two modes of the Jailhouse Rails with plenty of cut-through bite, but still plenty of substance and body to the sound.

Website:

Email:

http://www.tonysguitars.blogspot.com/

tonysguitarblog@googlemail.com

At the early beginning (I was 15 in 1962) my father refuse to pay my first 6 strings … but he accept I do it by myself … he is also a good mechanics. She was made with ordinary wood and material … a really poor guitar, but she’s like my first girl … never forgot. This year, during the rainy winter I begin to draw a new AutoCAD project and step by step I realize all the mechanical defects of the second guitar … And I decide to build a new one. I buy the Maple in Holland, the Ebony and the Zebra-coils in France, the bridge in England (to you Keith), the Machine-heads and the Strings at the corner of my Belgian street … a really European guitar : A little bit heavy but with a super long sustain ! When I’m 64 … perhaps a third one ?

Website:

Email:

n/a

guy.detilloux@skynet.be

This is/was my first build, completed under the brilliant tuition of Mark Bailey (see details of Mark's course and more pics on my blog). It has a solid ash body, maple neck and ebony fingerboard. The pickups are Iron Gear Hot Slags - a name that everyone seems to remember! Both are coil-tapped through push/pull vol controls to give a good range of sounds. This guitar produces quite a "raw" sound with plenty of power and detail. In single-coil mode, the sound is almost Tele-ish, very sharp with great attack, coupled with long sustain. So this one will do most rock sounds, but don't expect anything too jazzy!

Website:

Email:

http://www.tonysguitars.blogspot.com/

tonysguitarblog@googlemail.com

"I couldn't find a guitar with the paint design I wanted, so I stripped down an old stagg telecaster, put IronGear Steel Twin (bridge and neck) pickups into, as well
as all new hardware, and then got creative with the spray paint!! A very girly guitar but I love it!! The pickups give the exact sound I was aiming for as I play a lot of Brian May/ Queen stuff!"

Website:

Email:

n/a

emily_van_gemeren@hotmail.com

Quatermass: She’s my “street sleeper”.
This guitar started life as a standard Squier Tele, but I wasn’t keen on the sound. I thought the original body was too light, so I hunted around until I got my hands on an unfinished alder body blank.
When I put it all together, it was better – but still not “right”. Changing the bridge from a top-loader and stringing through the body helped a little. Then I decided to look for some hot pickups.
Hearing the soundclips on the Axetec site, combined with the fantastic price, helped me make up my mind and two nights later she was powered by IronGear Steel Twins.
This is the guitar I dig out when I want to shock my friends. She looks bog-standard – but the sound is out of this world. Definitely more than meets the eye.
The track “Not dead yet” shows what she can do when teamed up with my old Orange bass amp ;-)

Email:

Send us your description and we'll post it here.

Your pictures can be any shape or size - we'll edit them. Just make them as clear as possible

Include materials & parts used, Sound, Next project plans etc.

175 words maximum

Website:

Email:

Your web address (Optional)

Your email address (Optional)

paul@dragondreams.org.uk

http://www.dragondreams.org.uk/music/not dead yet.mp3

This was a sorry old Tokai FB45 that was in a terrible state - paint scratched to buggery, knackered microphonic pickups, scatchy electrics, loose machine heads and missing knobs.
Cleaned it up, tusq nut, copper shielding and new Iron Gear Rolling Mill 2 pickups. The pickups are really top quality (including the packaging & delivery materials) - I've just had the Firebird on a test run (cranked through an AC30) whilst the house was empty - It made a scarecrow in the opposite field turn around and shout 'Johnny Winter' - mystic!
Fantastic guitar now. Mid position is that swampy (but not muddy) Chuck Berry sound that Chuck gets on 'Maybelline' - bridge pickup is like the bastard son of Roy Buchanan & Steve Jones, on drugs.

Website:

Email:

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/NickBrownPhoto/

nickbrown@btinternet.com

This is the second guitar i've built. The first was on Mark Bailey's excellent BYOG course which inspired me to have a go at home. The body is Walnut with a maple neck and birds eye maple fingerboard. The machines are Schaller locking with staggered posts and the vibrato is a Wilkinson V50. I put a couple of cheap humbuckers on when I first completed it and it sounded awful. Hunting around for pickups is a minefield. There's plent of people willing to sell you pickups at very high prices but can you hear them before you buy? Then I found Irongears site, listened to the sound clips, liked what I heard, ordered two Rolling Mills on Sunday and had them in the guitar by Tuesday lunchtime. The guitar now sounds tremendous. The Rolling Mills sound fat and soulful with just the right amount of bite.

Website:

Email:

n/a

ianchad@googlemail.com

Hello Keith,

I thought you might like to see what I did with those two Hot Slags you sent me on Thursday "ooh err".
This was a very old and extremely sad sunburst les Paul that would squeal if you so much as took it near an amp.

Two days later, sand paper, solder and two hot slags - it`s now my main gig guitar.

I will be having some more when the time comes.

Thanks Richard.

Website:

Email:

n/a

margerisonr@margerisonr.karoo.co.uk

I have been building & refurbishing guitars for a few years now,concentrating mainly on Strats & Teles
going for old school finishes & using mainly genuine parts.

Axetec have been invaluable in supplying components
quickly & competitively priced.

Rock on !!

Website:

Email:

http://www.myspace.com/gavsguitargarage

gavinswadel@blueyonder.co.uk

I've been missing having a Strat for a while, there's something about that sound!! I've had a couple of American Strats and loved the sound but hated the radius of the frets, so I decided to put one together myself.
I picked up an Allparts maple neck (20" radius) off Ebay with locking Klugsons for £35 (steal) and a poplar maple drop top body from the States for £40.
I re-finished the neck in matt nitro (logo courtesy of "Decal Joe") and the body in clear nitro. The set-up is spot on with 1.14mm at the 12th top E. Everything you see apart from the neck, body and tuners is sourced from Axetec and it sounds absolutely jaw droppingly brilliant. I'd put this guitar up against any passive Strat, I just can't believe these pups.

Website:

Email:

Your web address (Optional)

graeme.matthews@btconnect.com