De-Sigh-N

Almost done with these legacy posts! Only three left! Here we go:

Note: The following was originally posted by myself to BASIS Tucson North's Senior Project webpage on April 11th, 2018.

Hey everyone,

The past week and a half, I have been out of state, so since I couldn’t work in the shop, it was time to design some more, as well as plan for the finished project. I have been working on the CAD model for the body of the guitar, and also started designing the tremolo system. The guitar body is just about done being designed, and only needs a couple of minor changes to the overall shape and needs cavities for the electronics. You can see it below:

Originally, I had wanted to do a Stratocaster-style body, which is a good shape for comfort and ease while playing, but I’ve been thinking about how it would look with the custom headstock I have already cut, and decided the Strat body might not be the best compliment to the neck, not to mention I already own two Strat-style guitars. So, I started looking at different existing body shapes to see if there was already one that would look good with the headstock I have. This research took ages, as there are hundreds of unique body shapes that have been produced over the 90 years that the electric guitar has existed. Below are some of my favorite weird body shapes that I found.

This is the BC Rich Warlock. It’s pretty gnarly, and I really like the angles on it.

This is the Eko Rock VI. Its overall shape is supposed to be an arrow, but I think it looks more like a whale or fish tail.

Klein Ergonomic Guitar

This is the Klein Ergonomic Guitar. It’s nice to not have to move your hand to adjust volume, tone, etc. with the knobs and levers. Other than that though, I think this would be an awkward shape to play with.

WC Hydra

The Hydra was made by Wayne Charvel for Eddie Van Halen, and as such is a very rare guitar. Charvel Guitars does, however, still produce them in small batches every couple of years.

ESP Angel Sword

This is the ESP Angel. Not many guitars scream 80s hair metal more than this…I want one.

And of course, there’s the Bat Guitar...because Batman.

Seeing all these guitar designs was fun, but it took a very long time for me to actually find one that would compliment the headstock I already have. I really liked the Gibson Explorer body, but it seemed too big, and lacked curves. So, despite how good it looks to me, and how good it might look with the headstock, I think that the overall guitar would lack a balanced aesthetic. If you look at the body of the Explorer, its point goes up and away from the guitar, and that goes really well with its headstock, which does the opposite. That makes the design look well rounded, and feel symmetrical despite it not actually being so. If you were to swap out the Explorer’s headstock for my own, it loses that feeling, so I decided against it.

The Gibson Explorer, a well balanced design

The next shape I considered was the Fender Jazzmaster. I really liked its sort of slanting base (the bottom of the body, where the neck strap attaches to), and it also doesn’t stray too far from the Stratocaster shape, so I almost picked this one. I have a bass guitar that has the Jazzmaster shape, and it’s very comfortable to play, but I don’t like the cutaways (horns, or rather lack thereof) on it, as it gets awkward to play on the highest frets.

Fender Jazzmaster

I decided to see if I could find something in between this and the Strat, and I came across three designs that satisfy that requirement while having the nice slanting base. These three designs are the Musiclander Arrow by Fender, and the Music Man Stingray I & II by Ernie Ball. I’m not sure which one I like more, so I think I’m going to combine the three designs. The Musiclander has that nice cutout from the base, but I don’t like its cutaways/horns or its flat top. The Stingray I has a slightly shallower curve to its base, and has a little bit more curve to its top surface, which helps with comfort while playing. The Stingray II has much nicer cutaways/horns than the other two designs. I’d like to take those good elements from all three designs, put a shallower cutout from the base than the one on the Musiclander, and add a nice bevel to the edges, similar to how PRS does their guitar tops.

Ernie Ball Music Man Stingray I

Ernie Ball Music Man Stingray II

Fender Musiclander Arrow

The Musiclander guitar has a pretty nice cutout in the base, but I’d like a longer, more shallow one on my guitar.

Well, those are the changes I plan on implementing in my CAD model, so I’ll post an update on that once it’s done. Well, that’s all for this post! There will be a separate post about my tremolo system, as well as one about what hardware I plan on using in the guitar coming out in the next day or so, so come back soon!