News And Updates

I have completed a set of drawings for the tuner/bridge assembly. What is still missing is the plate on which they should be fastened. I am planning two different versions, one for fixed bridge and one for tremolo, preferably identical except for the spring block. Also, I have created two sets of drawings - one with a 6mm “slider” and one with 8 mm. I will have to try both, I think. Drop me a line if you want the actual drawing files in Visio format. I will be happy to share them.

I managed to create a prototype bridge today. The final design will require some tweaks for sure, but I think it will work. I have gone through a million ideas ranging from close to the original Ned Steinberger patent to the Atlansia design. I am not sure how Atlansia have solved fastening the string, but it might be similar to what I have done. Another thought entails using the Steinberger design but not lock the string, but route it through the body and using the tuner to pull the string in a “bow” shape. I am still thinking about that, but until then, here are some pictures of the progress so far:

Obviously, this is just a rough proof-of-concept. It has taught me several valuable lessons that will make the final product much easier to make. The knob will be knurled and the threads will be finer (this is M6×0,75) Next: find someone with good enough machines to work with stainless steel… And not charge an arm and a leg for it…

I passed a new BMW 5-series today and got to thinking that I should try out some “sleeker” and more “edgy” designs than what I had up until today.

I started by simply making the corners sharper but went all out in Design 3 with thinner horns. Not wanting to end up with a hard-rock axe, but a more versatile instrument, I smoothed out the rear end in Design 4 and then reverted back a little bit to the original and added a little more thickness to the horns in Design 5. The jury is still out on which will end up in wood, but it stands between 1 and 5.

Meanwhile, I have been messing with Google Sketchup to do some more bridge designs, but it is just too time consuming so I think I will revert back to paper. I might go into work and borrow the lathe to make some PVC prototypes.

I have also been thinking that perhaps an aluminum neck would allow me to drop the truss-rod altogether, making the neck build easier. Theoretically, one could just rig a T-beam and twist it… There are those who even do the fingerboard in aluminum. One could use the expanding foam that comes out of a spray can (for insulating e.g. window frames) to fill the gaps and perhaps fiberglass and epoxy coating? I’ll let those thoughts mature for a bit.

So, I have dusted off 15 year old plans (the age of my oldest son, incidentally) to build another guitar. Where to go? What to do? Not sure how, but a few weeks ago, I stumbled on buildingtheergonomicguitar.com and the idea was hatched. We’ll see where it goes from here, but I have at least started.

Some basic design constraints:

Headless design Low weight Twisted “helix” neck
I already have a Steinberger “Strat” style guitar that I built a long time ago and that I like a lot, so the headless design was a given. The other are ergonomic traits that just seem to make sense.

My second ever guitar was built out of Jeluton after reading an interview with Allan Holdsworth in Guitar Player Magazine, so I am no stranger to light-weight designs either. I am not too fond of the Klein look, but I like the concept of the leg cutout, so I will steal that design but I will incorporate a Strat look on it for balance.

Having a twisted neck seems like a great idea and I hope I can pull it off with truss rod placement and avoiding fret-outs, etc. I have built quite a few through-the-body instruments before, and I was going to do this one like that also, but in the end I think I have opted for a bolt-on neck that will be interchangeable for a regular neck. If you, dear reader, have thoughts on the “radial angle” of the truss rod and how to fit a fingerboard onto the twisted neck, please let me know. Right now, I am considering just putting the truss rod in perpendicular to the face of the guitar (i.e. not exactly 90 degrees to the fingerboard) and using a planer to make a regular but very thin fingerboard. This would allow me to twist the fingerboard and glue it into place.

Next, when researching the Helix design, I found the new Lace Alumitones pickups. No idea what they sound like, but they look great and are lightweight, so I will bet on them. I was going to get a Steinberger tremolo. This South Korean company that builds replacement and license parts (www.jcustom.kr) are about to release their own design that sounds promising. But then I found a link the Ergonomic Guitar Blog pointing to Atlansia (www.atlansia.jp). I am sorry to say that I will have to build my own bridge now…

I spent all night yesterday on Google Patents so by now I have a good grasp of what to do both in terms of the neck and the bridge. I hope one can build a non-commercial one-off for personal use without patent infringement?

That’s it for now. Will put up some pictures eventually to show how the work progresses.