more sketches

more sketches

more sketches

guitarz blog

I've published a few posts on the excellent Guitarz blog - the "oldest English language guitar blog". It's good for me because my on-going research on guitars gives me access to many information and anecdotes that I won't publish here to keep this blog coherent. So check me there!

headstocks and stuff

So here I am with my DIY telecaster... First the mate transparent black finish I want is not something you can just get from a shop apparently... It seems that I have to combine a pigment and a varnish - so I will meet an art carpenter in the coming days who should explain me how to do it... Also I realized that since I'm not a telecaster fan - I don't despise the old lady of course but have no hero playing on it - I'm quite free to let my fantasy loose - in the frame on what I can do... So I will exhaust my bad taste by making it dark psychedelic, with a baroque headstock (I'm trying to avoid the can opener curse, it's very hard) and an engraved aluminium pick-guard if I can make one (I found out that there is an engraver in my neighborhood and will pay him a visit soon). Like this I can be sober on my real projects - and still make this telecaster a special guitar...

Hey, if anybody has a tip, an advice, an essential information, please don't hesitate to leave a comment!

more sketches

more sketches

OK, serious stuff now

So I've been postponing the making of my guitar projects probably also because, well, I just have to start from zero... Drawing and designing I can do easily but about guitar technics, the further I've been so far is restringing - and not as often as I should I must confess... But I want these guitars made, and more later if it works, so I decided to give myself a good teaching by getting a Telecaster kit from DIY Guitar Shop and observe carefully all the elements apart (I did it 6 months ago when I customized my Aquarius but I learned much since and also the Tele is simpler - and I have a user's manual together with it!) and assemble and disassemble until I'm filled with guitar sapience (I should end up doing it blindfolded as real men do with guns in movies).

Also I will test this transparent mate black finish I want for my serious projects (didn't find the right product yet), design and make a headstock (it's already in the previous post), make an aluminium scratchplate and instal a Bigsby clone (a real one would be more expensive than the guitar itself). All this should happen in the coming days - wish me luck.

more sketches

metal frame guitars sketches

Lately on the Guitarz blog I saw several interesting metal frame guitars, such as the Stonehenge III, the Weston Rail Bass, the Sardonix, and got inspired for this series of sketches. I learned from the wonderful Teuffel Birfish - the best of its kind - that aluminium is a perfect conductor for sound vibration, so fragmenting the wooden body should not be a problem for the acoustics. Have to admit that these guitars look a little too arty for my personal taste but it might interest someone !

kaoss padded guitar

Lately the guitar internet is buzzing about Manson's MB1, Matt Bellamy's signature guitar, with its famous embedded KAOSS pad. Since I know this guitar, I love the idea - I used some heavy electronics on guitars myself and I much prefer this use of digital technology than the modeling of 50-year old electro-acoustic devices. But I've always been disappointed with Bellamy's guitar, since it seems obvious to me than the MIDI screen should not be behind the bridge where it cannot be really integrated in guitar playing, then just adds some special effects on sustained notes. So it should be just below the strings and usable while hitting them, like the volume knob. I guess that it wasn't done because it would have meant a complete modification of the guitar's quite classic design, and forced to explore the dire paths of experimental design.

So I made a little sketch of what I expect from a KAOSS padded guitar with an easier access touch screen, trying to keep it ergonomic, and rebalancing more or less the same amount of wood to keep the same sound. It looks then a little bit like these Soviet guitars of the 70s when they used constructionist design - the form follow the function - though I try to keep it a little bit more sexy...

wuxia & guitars

Lately I've been watching many wuxia movies and it gave me the idea of designing some guitars inspired by antique chinese weapons. I wrote somewhere else how pathetic most metal guitarists seem to me, with their pointy instruments that are supposed to look fierce but are just grand-guignolesque - they all look like old fans of Kiss. But if you want to show genuine machismo, your guitar has to be really dangerous, and mainly for yourself of course (also for rogue managers)! So my guitars should be made of steel and sharp for real (OK they'd be heavy, but what kind of sissy wants a light guitar?)

more sketches

back to cardboard

   

My last research in guitar design led me to go back to some sketches I made a couple of months ago and rework them with a different perspective. I mostly like big bodies (probably because I'm big) and my first idea was to create thick chambered solid bodies - with the influence it would have on the sound of the guitar. For this guitar I would rather go for a thin and sculpted body, removing material in the most ergonomic way to make it very comfortable. From was I could judge from the cardboard model, it's well balanced and quite enjoyable to wear already, I will make it heavier for a more accurate feeling. I used a baritone scale of 30 in.

I mainly use recycled paper and cardboard but I got myself good pencils recently - it helps for better drawings.