The Guitar Modelling Thread!

[redstone]

Here's the basic step by step neck+heel to give you an idea about sketchup, just using the line, arc and guide tools.

 

[Jim666]

This is great, thanks.

I have been trying to learn Rhino, and managed to model a neck, but would rather just use Sketchup. Time to try it again...

Please give a bit more detail how you did the transition from neck to heel. When I have tried stuff liek that I could never get it to make a surface.

Here's the basic step by step neck+heel to give you an idea about sketchup, just using the line, arc and guide tools.

 

[Jim666]

I see what I missed before. If you connect endpoints into triangles you get a face. Sketchup does not really do curves, so by changing how many endpoints a curve has you can build your faces with control.

 

[redstone]

Absolutely. When the pocket isn't symmetrical, you can use temporary surfaces to find the other end of the arc.

Most heels are not difficult to reproduce as long as you can see the original. I don't think it's easier than rhino though, some stuff takes less time, some takes more..

 

[Jim666]

Thanks, that helps too!

Rhino is pretty good, I actually cut the neck I modeled in Rhino on my CNC today. I found it much more intuitive than Blender. Still, I find working in 3 dimensions easier in Sketchup. Maybe because drawing basic shapes feels a bit more like CorelDraw which I use for 2D.

Funny, some of the things I am trying in Sketchup now based on your pictures are actually making some other things click for me in Rhino.

 

[redstone]

That's quite unexpected, glad it helps that much. Agree, Sketchup is a great interface, too bad it doesn't handle solids, I wish I could try spaceclaim..

 

[Jim666]

That's quite unexpected, glad it helps that much. Agree, Sketchup is a great interface, too bad it doesn't handle solids, I wish I could try spaceclaim..

Maybe it's one of those things where you can't figure something out, go on to something else, then solve your first problem easily when you get back to it.

Today I tried Rhino again, and within minutes had modeled the headstock much better than my first attempt. It also helped that I had the actual neck I made from my first model to rethink the design.

And I suppose learning to model in 3D takes more than an hour or two...

 

[redstone]

Ah, I proceed a bit differently for the headstock transition, if this can help.

 

[JuliusJahn]

I'm surprised there's no lofting script out there yet for this sort of thing....

 

[redstone]

There is, in my case they didn't work so I got used to working without plugins.

CLF Simple Loft | SketchUp Extension Warehouse
SketchUp Plugins | PluginStore | SketchUcation

 

[Klzow]

I like modelling guitars before I build them to give me a good picture on how the guitar will look when finished!

I'm using Solidworks and the built in render tool photoview 360.

What do you guys think?

 

[redstone]

Looks nice, do you use your own wood for the textures ? The multiscale looks wierd though, where's the neutral fret ?

 

[JuliusJahn]

God, I really need to teach myself SW. Such great lighting/texturing power.

Ebay is a great place to find wood textures, actually. If you just google the wood you only get a square 'floor tile' sample.

^Looks like the 15th, for some reason? I'd stick it to the 12th or 8th.

 

[asher]

I'm surprised there's no lofting script out there yet for this sort of thing....

Rhino has a loft function, but god damn is it ever fickle.

 

[Klzow]

Looks nice, do you use your own wood for the textures ? The multiscale looks wierd though, where's the neutral fret ?

God, I really need to teach myself SW. Such great lighting/texturing power.

Ebay is a great place to find wood textures, actually. If you just google the wood you only get a square 'floor tile' sample.

^Looks like the 15th, for some reason? I'd stick it to the 12th or 8th.

Thanks! I'm pretty new to rendering and stuff but still learning.

Like JuliusJahn said ebay is awesome to find wood textures, this wood is from a seller there, I just fix it a bit in photoshop and then import to SW.

The neutral fret is fret number 9, i guess the angle makes it difficult to see. Here is another pic where it shows the fan better.

This one is not close to finished though, my plan is to put in a model of some real pickups instead of my mockups and make a good cad model that can be used to rout the guitar with a CNC. And that needs more work then this.

 

[rockskate4x]

I think 9 is about right. It makes extreme fans more comfortable because the angle of the nut and the bridge are more equal rather than having one be very extreme in comparison to the other. Also, i know virtually nothing about modelling, but that looks brilliant and i'd love to hire you to design all my guitars (in the fantasy where i can hire people to do my bidding haha)

 

[redstone]

The right place is the center of the accessible fretboard.

 

[JuliusJahn]

the 8th fret will leave the 24th and nut to be on the same angle. 12th will make the nut and bridge have the same angle. I really don't find a 12th fan that bad at all, it all depends if your doing a 1 or 1.5" fan and with how many strings.

 

[redstone]

Sure, it's an ideal rule in an ideal context...

I did a proper dome knob yesterday, you can download it here https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model.html?id=uf7499ef9-9ffb-432e-a56d-8963f2866ef5

 

[JuliusJahn]

Woops! Were we supposed to be sharing things?