custom guitar design - what do you think?

[seven7]

i've got another guitar project in the works right now and i might end up going with something standard but i'm also playing with some other ideas of trying something more unique, or at least something i haven't seen before.

what do you guys think of this design (see attachment)?

[dot-dot-dot]

Be nice to see it with a neck to see how it "balances" as a whole, but I think I like it. Yamaha have some Japan-only guitars that have something of that look to their horns, but I think your take actually works better.

[Mighty Coogna!]

That's not a design that just cutting some bits of an existing design. Clearly a Strat style (carvin bolt, I'm guessing) an you just edited off the horns. Try considering every aspect of the instrument. Both form, function, ergonomics, tone, construction, finish, build and finally styling.

[Ancient Mariner]

That really didn't float my boat - sorry.

[Dougy]

hhhhhhhhmmmmmm, it could do with the top being a bit more rounded, but if you just start hacking big chunks off a strat body it could end up being neck-heavy...


why not just nake an EVH replica?

[jrkirkish]

Methinks someone needs to learn about the heritage and history of the electric guitar. Go to Borders, or whatever big box book store you have around and spend an hour - at least - looking at the "history of the electric guitar" books. Don't read a single word. Look at the pictures. Then you can draw a custom guitar.

As it is right now, you have both horns lopped off perpendicular to the neck. That's going to look like crap. Do yourself a favor and photoshop a neck onto that body. See what I mean? There's no flow, nothing tying the body to the neck visually.

Not only that, but one pickup? I'm cool with one pickup guitars; Esquires, Melody Makers, Ric Combos, the're all good. But every well-designed guitar with one pickup I've seen has something in common: The pickup is not in the middle between the bridge and neck of the guitar. If you want one pickup, choose either a neck or bridge pup. I'll also tell you right now that the knobs are going to be horribly uncomfortable and non-ergonomic - the're too close to the edge. Look at a contemporary strat - the volume knob is less than half an inch from the bridge pickup. And it's stayed like that for 50 years. There's gotta be something right with that design if it's lasted that long.

So, here's what you must do. Go to these webpages, and look at guitars. Go to the Kieskie guitar thing, and build a few virtual guitars. Then come back here and show us.


Rare guitars
Virtual guitar

P.S. - Mighty Coogna! is wrong - excellent designs can be made by loping off corners of existing bodies. The Fender Swinger (my personal favorite guitar body of all time) was made by cutting up Bass V bodies and putting a guitar neck on them. Check it out:

[meatpencil]

I like it, I agree about the pickup though, a single pup in the middle seems limiting. photoshop a neck on there.

[The Craqster]

Who says he has to base the guitar design off a few old-school designs? There are way better designs out, such as the late superstrats with much better upper-fret access, no heel, more comfortable knob placement, etc.

To seven7:
Look around on the net at some different shapes. If you want something unique and comfortable, check out some different bass bodies for ideas. Those have advanced far past electric guitars in terms of ergonomics and looks. I'm designing a superstrat-like guitar that's influenced alot by Warwick basses as well as some others.

Just my $.02

[Paul Buerk]

But every well-designed guitar with one pickup I've seen has something in common: The pickup is not in the middle between the bridge and neck of the guitar.

 

 

I'd disagree with that. I can think of some of the older ES-style Gibsons that had a single P-90 halfway between the fingerboard and the bridge. The model numbers escape me at the moment. The LP 12 on my project page sounds great.

 

The only problems I have with the pickup located around the theoretical 36th fret is that it can have problems picking up the harmonic on the 5th fret and is located right where I usually pick if my hand is near the bridge.

 

You are right about the knobs though. They're so close to the edge and so close together that I don't think you can physically install them like that.

[angryrock]

I like things that stand out visually and that does not necessarily starts from existing design.... In this case I like the lower horn cut because it will ease higher fret access. On the other hand, the upper horn might look interesting but will surely ease neck dive situations as it is moving the strap button backward... If you really like this shape for the upper horn, try moving it forward to reach a more balanced result. If you plan on a custom headstock design, attempt for something that recalls slightly the body shape, usually radical guitar design looks more coherent when the headstock at least recalls a feature of the body. For example, parker's headstock evokes the upper horn, PRS headstock recalls the slightly longer upper horn....

Just my opinion...

Hope it helps

angryrock

[zenbu]

it`s a good starting point but as it stands now, I don`t think I`d buy one if I saw one like it... needs.....something. keep at it.

[batotman]

EWWWWWWWWW!~

[The Craqster]

Originally posted by angryrock If you plan on a custom headstock design, attempt for something that recalls slightly the body shape, usually radical guitar design looks more coherent when the headstock at least recalls a feature of the body. For example, parker's headstock evokes the upper horn, PRS headstock recalls the slightly longer upper horn....

Right, so in this case, I guess it should go headless...

[jrkirkish]

Originally posted by Distantkool Right, so in this case, I guess it should go headless...

Zing!

[seven7]

thanks for the great feedback. i figured i could count on you guys.
before posting this i was actually strongly considering just scrapping that idea. but i wanted to post it to see some opinions and if anyone caught onto what it was.

whoever said carvin bolt kit: you are good, real good lol...i was playing around with the body design just to see what could be hacked off and still get something that looks decent. this is the best i could come up with, at least in the time i spent with it. to be honest, i think it's *okay*. i don't particularly love it, but don't hate it either.

one big question i was having was about balance issues, and from what some of you are saying i was right to be worried about that...

as far as the controls knobs go, i didn't realize you guys were going to pay *that* much attention to them. i like to keep them as out of the way of my strumming/picking hand as possible. maybe i didn't hit the spot just right, but the knobs will go near where they usually do on the carvin bolts. except one of them will go more where that switch usually is towards the bottom.

as far as the one pickup goes: it is definitely going into the middle position. i'm not going to say i'll never change it, but the first place it's going is there. i'm not big on single coils in the bridge position. if it is ever moved it would go to the neck.

i actually already did make a virtual guitar with kisekae (spelling).
they don't have alder for body wood though, just ash..and this is what it may very well end up looking like. see attachment.

any ideas for where to put a battery box? the electronics are going to be active. i'm struggling with where. i know where i'd like have it (on the top for really easy access), but that would hurt the looks i think. i may choose that over looks though, we'll see..

[Paul Buerk]

The Battery Box can go in the back with no problem. However, you may want to consider installing threaded inserts into the body and screw the pickguard into those. The battery can be installed in a clip under the pickguard somewhere. The only downside is changing batteries takes a little longer, but the threaded inserts make it quick and easy, and won't strip out the wood.

[dwerlin]

I knew that body shape looked familiar...

[Shblay]

Originally posted by dwerlin I knew that body shape looked familiar...

that's exactly what I thought when I first saw his design.

good luck with whatever you decide to do.

[Shocker]

When I'm thinking up designs in my head, I just kind of start with the basic shape (what you have in the pic in the first post is a basic shape) and then kind of "sex" it up. Sharpen curves or round them. Make the design flow, so that as you're looking at it, your eyes aren't jerked to any sort of inconsisten spot. The difference would be between the original design in the first post and the guitar that appears in the previous two posts.

As far as it being neck-heavy, it shouldn't necessarily be neck heavy just because you lop off the cutaway horns. However, you'll notice the Les Paul has a much larger body, a bigger "bell" shape down at the bottom than does a strat or tele. In fact, while LP's are a bit circular, Strats and teles are "rounded off" like if you took a plastic bag of water and sat it on a table. So in order to balance a bit more, adding some mass to the bottom by not rounding it off in that way may be a way to go.

It took me a long time to notice that strats and teles aren't round on the bottom, mostly because their designs are so vertical that they force your eyes to look up to the horns and up to the headstock. I think Les Pauls do the opposite; you're drawn down to the body. This could account for why fancy tops are preferred on that style body.

I like that Fender, BTW. I'm planning on building a guitar very similar to it (hate that headstock) soon. But that's definitely a guitar whose body shape commands some attention, even if you don't like it.

//S

[seven7]

i have been leaning more towards just using my carvin bolt body as is when it gets here, but i've not completely trashed the idea of modifying it. here is another design. just excuse the white line as i just put it through the guitar to give me the same line on the horns...
if i were to go with this design and that's *if* i would shape the top of the headstock so it slanted the same way...

so here's another modified version. the lower horn stays the same but the top changes:

[Darkstorm]

Lets concider the basics for guitar innovation.

 

1st: Neck. Its radius, back shape, scale, wether to use 1, 3, or 5 peice, what wood or woods to use for the neck. What wood to use for fretboard. frets, do you want zerofret edges detectable out side of fretboard? Or do you want fret bumpies down outer edge of fretboard?

 

2nd: Pups. Do you want humbuckers, single coils, or a combo of both?

 

3rd: Body. How does the contour if any, for top of body where forarm touches, affect by your playing? Do you want a rear of body cutout for body to leg ergonomics? How close to rear of body do you want the bridge? The latter affects playability too. Single or doublecut for horns? This is mainly personal asthetic appeal. But can also affect instrument balance. Do you want the guitar to naturaly hang with it pointing upward or not?

4th: Controls. Do you want the versatility of being able to adjust each pups outpup for blending between them? Do youwant seperate or single tone control? Or do you want onboard active 2-3 band eq?

 

5th: Whatever else for asthetics.

 

If Your gonna do custom guitar, why not do guitar thats custom fitted for you. Based on things like the above, or some other list. Body shape and counters, bevels etc all affect playability and fit to body. To a lesser extenbt they can also somewhat affect tone based on mass and other things I'm not familiar enough with to comment well on.

 

Best of luck designing custom guitar that works greatest possible way for you.

[jjpistols]

I think the shapes are pretty cool - the last one was best. But as soon as you put a basically strat style scratchplate and hardware on it, it looks like a cut up strat. Play around with those designs, too.

[seven7]

right, i already know what i want with everything but the body shape. the rest is taken care of after much experimentation with my previous project guitars, etc.

yah, the pickguard is another thing..the obvious thing is that i'd cut the horn of the pickguard off at the angle to match that lower horn. but other than that, i'm not sure it would need anything else. or what might fit it..i've been looking mostly at body shape to begin with then i figure the pickguard will be secondary to that...
the output jack and strat style hard tail bridge are set though. not much gettin around that. i don't even want to so much.
the one pickup in the middle is different though.

[seven7]

here is the 'virtual guitar' edited. this is the pic i should've posted. it's a lot easier to see where i'm going than that body pic.
it's a little rough but here's the idea. i'm also considering this upper horn and leaving the lower as is:

[hardtdc]

Originally posted by seven7 here is the 'virtual guitar' edited. this is the pic i should've posted. it's a lot easier to see where i'm going than that body pic. it's a little rough but here's the idea. i'm also considering this upper horn and leaving the lower as is:

 

 

I like it. I might would round the corners just a little just to soften them. Think it will balance well (body/neck)?