Members gitnoob Posted May 30, 2019 Members Share Posted May 30, 2019 So if you've been closely following my Reboot thread, you know I made a CBG. Such a simple thing. Basically a box on a stick. But that's the essence of any guitar. The first thing that struck me when I made the neck was how resonant it was. I mean if you whack a 1x2 piece of maple, you'll get some response, but if you remove a bunch of wood where you plan to attach a box, and then whack it, that stick really sings. So that led to a few thoughts. Maybe I underestimated the contribution of the neck to tone. Maybe a neck-through design would be viable for an acoustic. OK, put that on the back-burner for a bit. I needed to finish my CBG, and then I want to offer the kids some amplification options. So you basically have the following choices: No amplification. Or rather, just the box as an acoustic resonator for amplification. That's what I have now, and it's pretty responsive for a small plywood box. Piezo disc stuck to the sound board. Piezo bar under the saddle. Various combinations of magnetic pickups. Single coil, humbuckers, neck vs bridge, slanted vs straight, etc. I could make a BUNCH of guitars to demonstrate the differences. Or maybe I could make one modular guitar. Hmm. A couple of other ingredients to this thought soup: the ubiquitous Fender-style bolt-on neck, and the aesthetics of Yamaha's ubercool Silent Guitar. And one more thing. I've become addicted to CAD. I even designed the CBG that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted May 30, 2019 Members Share Posted May 30, 2019 A "modular guitar" sounds cool. It'll be interesting to see where your thoughts take you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gitnoob Posted May 30, 2019 Author Members Share Posted May 30, 2019 The basic idea is to take a bolt-on neck and turn it into just about any type of guitar you want. So the first components I prototyped were a modular base, and couple of plug-in pickup modules -- one for humbuckers and one for tele-style single-coil pickups. Still a work in progress, but the base looks something like this.... It'll fit in a cigar box. You can add "wings" to it a la the Silent Guitar. Just a platform for experimentation for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gitnoob Posted May 31, 2019 Author Members Share Posted May 31, 2019 Here's the concept with some of the add-on modules. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gitnoob Posted May 31, 2019 Author Members Share Posted May 31, 2019 Prototype with ash base module and pine humbucker module. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Idunno Posted May 31, 2019 Members Share Posted May 31, 2019 Basic Les Paul methodology, IIRC. The neck-through design carried the electronics and the wings, creating the basic shape, were fitted after. Splained why LPs were so heavy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gitnoob Posted June 1, 2019 Author Members Share Posted June 1, 2019 That's what I'm going for. An authentic reproduction of The Log. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Idunno Posted June 1, 2019 Members Share Posted June 1, 2019 Is that one of those squeezebox gitorgan thingies? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gitnoob Posted June 1, 2019 Author Members Share Posted June 1, 2019 I like the way you think. Next project, maybe. I'll call it ... the guitcordion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Idunno Posted June 2, 2019 Members Share Posted June 2, 2019 Ever think about building a hurdy-gurdy? I am and fully intend on taking it to one of my HOA meetings when done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gitnoob Posted June 2, 2019 Author Members Share Posted June 2, 2019 Never considered a hurdy-gurdy, but now you've got me thinking about it. One of my other hobbies is robotics, and I'm always looking for ways to combine hobbies. I made a half-assed attempt at combining robotics with wood working. I was building a little robot arm from a collection of Chinese parts, and there was a part missing. So I carved a replacement from a piece of mahogany. (Attached) That got me thinking about making a full-blown automaton out of wood. Still on my to-do list. But building a hurdy-gurdy would be in the same ballpark, and it would bring another hobby into the loop! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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