more sketches and cardoard

new version for the 7 strings, back to a round cutaway, with smoother edges to avoid the teenager pointy feeling... feel closer to the right thing now, but it starts to look like the Ovation Breawinner limited - very rare guitar indeed but my point was to make an original design... gotta think about this...

more sketches

hmm, what I feared happened: though I tried to stop thinking of guitar designs, couldn't help having my brain work and my fingers sketch some more guitars, and now I reach this last model, more ergonomic, more original, more pure, more radical... but more difficult to achieve since it requires to be really balanced and not only look like it ; so it would have to be made out of wood several times before being worth making for good.
still quite influenced by the Ovation Breadwinner - well one the best designs and best guitars to me - with something also from the famous Klein ergonomic guitar but with more concern for style - a little bit like the Teuffel Tesla but more rock.
it might seem that there is too much wood, that would make it too heavy, but like my other projects, I think of it chambered - with an aluminium front -, and the upper part would be chamfered front under the right arm and back under the ribcage.
and last thing, I found out that if I make several quick drawings, I can with the different approximations create a lot of details that I wouldn't find just with brain work, hence the many different versions - will probably make much more before I go to real size - if I do.

7 string in process

before making the guitar out of OSB, I spent some time looking at it and wasn't completely happy so I made a new model with a modified cutaway - still not quite satisfied though...

... so I've made this one, but still it wasn't OK...

... so now i'm working on this one...

how they should look like...

a little bit of paint and alu foil and I have now a rough idea of how these guitars are going to look...

next step will be now to build the seven string (on the right) out of OSB.

you probably noticed that since the last post the 7-string has been reshaped, it's now more compact and closer to the original sketch ; still it's a quite special design, a good combination I think of ergonomic and aesthetic, with inputs from 'modern tradition' (Japanese style long lower horn, like the prodigious Tokai Humminbird reissued by Eastwood Guitars) and innovation.
the OSB model will show if this design is as comfortable as expected.

more cardboard

more cardboard guitars, on the left and down, the two models I've decided to build (with bridges and pickups), and on the right, two new models I intend to develop later: a 14 string (2 x 7) baritone with effects included (fuzz, trem, chorus) - my very own ultra deluxe model - and an experimental neckless guitar.

This one should be both cheap and easy to build as I just avoid to make a neck and can cut it out of a 100 x 30 planck. No idea if this is a complete dead-end (well it's upseting that it doesn't exist already and I can't imagine that nobody had the idea before) but the concept is to make it thin enough to keep it light, but that there is enough wood for good acoustic, to keep the work on the neck minimal (it will still be round - and it fits to my playing style since I studied first classical guitar and kept the thumb-behind technic since).
the only real difficullty is to fret the fingerboard (why don't they sell pre-fretted boards? - anyway I at least found some precut), then tuners, string-through-body bridge, one splitable humbercker, a push-pull knob, a jack-socket and that's it! I'll work on it when I'm finished with the first projects...

more sketches

5 cardboard guitar designs

designed many guitar shapes in the last weeks and made my favorites out of cardboard to try them out... now my choice is 90% sure - but I keep a slow pace to let time work on my side, so far this method did me right...

click on the pictures to enlarge them.

Modulus Graphite Fight 6

In the book Totally Guitar: The Definitive Guide by Tony Bacon / Dave Hunter (Thunder Bay Press 2004), there is this beautifully designed guitar, a 1983 Modulus Graphite Fight 6 Monocoque made of carbon graphite. 

Strangely I was unable to find any information or even picture of it on the Internet, though the Modulus Guitars company still exists, producing only basses designed without dare or imagination like 95% of current guitars. 

So in the hope that someone will enjoy it as much as I do, here it is!

more sketches

of course I keep reading and searching and drawing so I have more sketches - and that's fortunate because my mind is now setting itself on something more radical - esthetically and ergonomically, as you can see...

more concrete stuff

This is the raw material for the two guitars project - one cheap one to try out - doesn't mean it will be bad, and also if it works I will upgrade what is upgradable - then the main project.
So number one will be a seven string guitar with a second hand Ibanez imitation neck (no brand), a glued birch chambered body with aluminium front, one brandless splitable humbucker (first to be replaced) in bridge position and strings-through-body bridge.
Number two will be a baritone guitar with a beautiful brand new 30' scale Danelectro neck, one piece chambered mahogany body with aluminium front, one double humbucker Kent Armstrong Motherbucker in bridge position, spitable twice (I hope), strings-through-body bridge.
Though I've been studying a lot in the last weeks, I feel like I'm travelling blind but it's the thrill of it. I almost decided the design - I'm currently working on templates, to be shown in the next post.

more sketches

the previous post was showing a model that I was quite confident with, but since I gathered the material and the tools, but also spent a lot of time making research and drawings... I have to admit that it's worth taking time to reach a good design (the first one seems so clumsy after a few weeks) - also there is so much to invent in this field too... that's good because I have several projects to build in the coming times.
The top drawings are my current favorites but I wouldn't bet on them yet!