8-string. ergonomic. headless. fanned fret. phase 1::design

[helferlain]

Hi,

some of you might know my first build guitar. It is a 8-string headless guitar, finished in summer 2010:
http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/ex...ing-headless-homemade-guitar.html#post2112785


After a few months of playing I find now more and more reasons to rework it. The trussrod starts to rattle inside the neck, the body is way to heavy, therefore I am planning a complete new build of every wooden part.

This time I will take all the time it needs. And I'm creating a complete new desing at the moment. It's heavy inspired by ergonomic guitars like Klein, Forshage or Strandberg. I want a "made-to-measure suit"-like guitar with following specs:

scale: multiscale,calculated for 720mm-800mm. The higher strings starting at second fret (~640mm) the lowest from 0-fret (full 800mm), 24/26 frets
wood: still to decide, I prefer some local german woods like walnut, cherry- / plum-/ peartree.
bridge: ABM single string bridge
pickups: EMG 40HZ
electronics: state variable filter, active / passive switch, eventual killswitch

For the moment I have measured myself in my most comfortable playing position, sitting and standing. I've studied some guitar plans and many pictures.

Here ist what I get out of google sketchup so far:


If you have any constructive thoughts about this project please tell me.

This kind of guitars may look strange to most of you and so it did to me as I discovered this concept the first time. I will do my best that my guitar will not look like some kind of medical equipment...

 

[CooleyJr]

Only thing I can recommend, is if you're a lead player, you should probably rework that cutaway a little bit. Overall though I think that'll be one SEXY guitar.

 

[Facebones]

I like it, I think that it's the most unusual looking guitars that seem to be the most ergonomic. Take the Parker Fly for example. Most people think it looks too weird, but it's the shape that really does make it so amazing.

 

[MABGuitar]

I'm sure this is going to turn out pretty nice. Good luck!

 

[xmetalhead69]

headless + multiscale = awesome idea. Good luck with it man, I'm sure it will turn out great.

 

[Tritono]

Im suscribed to this thread! good luck

 

[helferlain]

Only thing I can recommend, is if you're a lead player, you should probably rework that cutaway a little bit. Overall though I think that'll be one SEXY guitar.

Thank you for the hint. I've done a little bit more sketching, regarding the cutaway (now open about 2" / 50mm) and dropping the idea of the upper gap. Now its a hollow body with bolt on neck.. It would be a chambered body anyway for weight reasons. That's it:



For the wood I have the option to use some cheap leftovers from a friends woodworking shop. They have some maple, mahagony and alder pieces. I will have a closer look...

As the next step I'm going to make a rough 1:1 model to check the balance, ergonomie and the design in reality. stay tuned...

 

[CooleyJr]

Hell yes man! That sounds a lot better. Lots of progress updates please.

 

[helferlain]

Today we have a little autodidact d.i.y. ergonomic lesson.

1. What went wrong with the 8-1 guitar? Have a look:



Left picture: Resting the guitar on my right leg the bottom is way to heavy, the lower horn to short to hold it in position and the angle of the neck looks not relaxed and healthy for m left shoulder. Rigt picture: To compensate those problems the angle of the neck schould be higher but you see the gap betwen the guitars body and my leg. No material to work with. In addition, the upper horn is very uncomfortable on the players chest.

2. New design - right leg position:



Left picture: This design has a much better feeling to start with. In comparsion the right picture shows a more relaxed look. I should rework the design of thel lower part. The upper part could go a bit higher on the fretboard also.

3. New design - left leg position:



The same as the right leg position, with a lighter difference between the pics. This position does harmonize most with the momentary design.

Conclusion: I will rework the body design a bit to fit better in the right leg position.

 

[Goatchrist]

Wow! I love how you visualized this.

Looking forward to see the result, very interested how it works while standing.

 

[BlackMastodon]

Looks like it will be a very interesting and very comfortable guitar.

 

[scherzo1928]

How did I miss this?!?

Cant wait to see what you make out of this. Your other guitar was out of this world.

 

[helferlain]

Update:

I had a busy week. All "work" on the guitar was thinking about the pickups. I want a singlecoil for the neck position and humbucker for the bridge. For tilted mounting they need to be custom made. I've ordered some magnets. Now I have to do some practical work...

 

[brutalwizard]

makes me think
<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/I-lv9ltZ2cw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[helferlain]

Update:

Some of you worried about the spacing of the cutaway. I've changed a bit on the design.

Because of the uncertainty of the pickups I played around with a proper pickguard. This will be easy to replace with different pickups and placings.

The hollow body is no longer continued, the pickup cavity takes enough wood out of the body (hopefully...)

I'm dreaming of a white finish with a very dark fretboard. The "eye" and the "nose" inlay, the pickguard and the "ear" part of the arm rest will be made of some red (mahagonny?) veneer. Or some other dark red stained veneer...

This is the momentary design, I'm working on routing templates already:




Good night from germany!

 

[technomancer]

Ok that design looks REALLY freaking cool

 

[BlackMastodon]

Just noticed the eye, nose, and ear thing. Looks fierce.

 

[lobee]

Fucking awesome Thundergat, bro.

 

[helferlain]

routing templates :: part 1

Drawing with sketchup is one thing, preparing the templates something else entirely. I reduced the sketchup drawing to a center line and some matching points for a couple of radii.

How to get a steady radius with the router? Using a simple compass:

First creating a baseplate for the router and drawing some lines to the center of the routing bit. Drilling holes for the center of the multiple radii. Calculate the distance to the radius edge correct, remembering the diameter of the routing bit.


Removing the original baseplate of the router and mount the compass:


Set the center of the required radius and drilling a fitting hole for the center pin:



Time for routing:


The finished radius templates are usefull for drawing the contours:


Now its time for routing the guitar template, but i made a mistake: need the outer radius and made the template for the inner radius:


No problem, another radius template is easy to make:


Now its time for some serious routing:


For the small radius of the cutaway I did not make a template. I managed it by free hand routing.


All today's routing is made with poplar plywood.

 

[scherzo1928]

ah, that is awesome!