On Chris’ guitar, I am not taking any chances. He will have a quite thin ‘C’ shaped neck profile, so I am not including any sound channels in it. His rosewood fingerboard is also incredibly light-weight.

In this picture, you can see the access to the truss-rod adjustment. I have made sure to leave sufficient material below the fretboard to support fastening my string locks directly into the wood.

#6 with fingerboard glued on – note new shape of heel of fingerboard.

#5, Chris’ guitar:

Lastly, I have some shop improvements a new gadgets: I bought this in order to accurately create the angle for the set neck (which I am taking out of the body end of the neck blank). It works like a dream, and leaves a very even surface on the workpiece.

And, an old East German construction – a nice little planer/jointer that I found at a good price.

This guitar has a core of Australian pine-like wood King Billy and is fully carbon fiber. It has several fairly unique features, such as pickups mounted out of view from behind (to give an un-interrupted CF top) and glued on frets (again to not ruin the fibers of the CF weave).

Mark writes:

The total weight of this guitar is 1.3kg or 2.875lbs. Pickups are Adeson Icendiary in the bridge and a Fenton Weill in the mid position. Switching is single / single and split h/b in series , and bridge h/b. Frets are hardened SS and glued on. Nut is home made to suit purpose as are the knobs. I new exactly what I was aiming for from the beginning with the hidden P/U’s this was due to the fact that I wanted uninterrupted fibers running all the way to the bridge This creates the problem of getting the strings close to the body so as the P/U’s work. A simple mold was made that creates the top of the guitar, and a mold for the fret board. Its a piece of laminex bent and reinforced on the sides, with a bit of design work the center forms a 16 in radius. The rear of the blank was then laminated with a combination of uni and woven cloth. Peel ply was applied over to control wet out. The face will be laminated in the mold.

The Aussie Guitar Gear Heads forum thread documents the build steps and show off Mark’s impressive design skills and creative solutions.

Thankfully, there are others that do the same. My good friend Rick Toone is one of them. We have been exchanging e-mails and met twice in person in the 2+ years that I have known him. He has done extensive research on, among other things, the ergonomics of stringed instruments. One of the ideas that I bought into early was the Trapezoidal Neck Profile (TNP). I finally decided to use this in my first prototype of the Ergonomic Guitar System (see earlier post), and got permission from Rick to use it. Hence, the the licensing and attribution aspect was fulfilled at the time.

Rick Toone is the inventor of the Trapezoidal Neck Profile as embodied in my first prototype instrument, and Rick has a US patent pending for it. I am using the design concept with his permission as discussed above. In the interview for the recent article in FUZZ magazine, the author Per Boysen and I discussed at length my method of working, including my collaboration with Rick as well as the Intonation Adjustable Nut, of which I happened to have an early prototype in my workshop. The published condensed article discusses my prototype guitar #3 (on which the prototype #1 TNP neck is now fitted) but does not attribute Rick Toone as the inventor of the TNP, which readers have commented on. It was an oversight by me in the proofing process to not spot this omission – since I have always attributed the TNP design to Rick. There is an important aspect here, which is that the fact that my work is licensed under Creative Commons does not make my collaborators’ work the same. Hence, the attribution has to be carried through in all instances.

So, my thanks go out again to Rick and all you others that I have collaborated with over the years. I look forward to many future projects!

Getting this done was not as straight-forward as I had hoped. The Alumitones are a few millimeters smaller (36 x 65 mm) than a regular humbucker (38 x 68 mm), and for aesthetical purposes I had cut the pickup cavities as close to the original Alumitones as possible. This meant that I actually had to get the router out to enlarge the holes for the test. Another interesting fact is that the two Lundgren pickups weigh 250 grams and the two Lace pickups weigh 90 grams. With the EGS#1 guitar weighing in at about 2kg, it still results in a fairly light instrument, but the increase in weight is quite large percentage-wise.

You will have to judge the results for yourself. The larger frequency response of the Lace pickups allow them to be equalized into any type of sound using tone controls and effects, but the clips are recorded with the same settings on the amp.

Some comments from Jonas – his personal views and reflections:

• The Alumitones have a “sparkle” on the high end and the “punch” is high in the tonal register.
• The Lundgren pickups have their “punch” much more in the mid-range.
• The Lundgren pickups have a warmer and muddier sound.
• When playing the Alumitones, he feels he has to hold back a little – they have a tendency to “break” when picking hard. With Lundgren pickups, he feels more “relaxed” and un-inhibited.
• The EGS guitar still responds very quickly with the Lundgren pickups, but the attack is slightly less intimidating than with the Alumitone.
• Jonas’ verdict: “the EGS guitar really comes together with the Lundgren Heaven 57 pickups. Having said that, in something like the sound clip featuring Joe Pesce from FUZZ Guitar Show, the Alumitones beat the Lundgrens hands down.”
• My verdict: “As with anything on an instrument, the choice of pickups is very subjective. Material choices, design features, and electronics all have to blend together to form a complete instrument that resonates with its player. Both of the tested pickups have their merits. I am offering my customers a choice of whatever pickup type suits their playing style and genre the best. The Lundgren pickups turned out awesome in this particular instance, so I am definitely keeping them on. In the niche of ergonomic guitars, design and innovation, Lace Alumitones will continue to be my first choice.”

Clean sample:

Slightly distorted sample:

All in all, adapting the tuners to using piezos was very simple. And, for use with the tremolo where individual string height adjustment, the case is closed here. However, when mounting the bridges individually with the fixed version of the bridge, it is necessary to be able to adjust the height of each string. Most likely, I will have to solve this using one or two set screws accessible at an angle from the front of the tuner to adjust height. This means having to release tension from the string in order to adjust height (since it uses the same screw for fastening and adjusting intonation). Some work remains. Also, it remains to find a routing of the cables. This is easier with the upper version (IceTone) that has the cable coming out towards the rear. The regular ghost saddle on the bottom has the cable coming out through the bottom and requires some clearance to be created for it.

Here are some more pictures. Please let me know which is preferrable or if you have ideas on height adjustment.

Here is the neck blank along with the sides for #5 roughly cut:

And the future #6:

Some routing templates for these and future neck-through builds.

A swatch for #5 of: rosewood fretboard (that looked a little too purple at first, but better when oiled), wenge for the top, mahogany for the back, maple for the neck blank, custom colored blue hardware and Lundgren M7 pickups.

Last but not least, Chris has requested position markers placed off-center, so here is a suggestion.

The key points for the design are: compact mounting, low weight (there will be 36 of them on the tri-kanta), durability, cohesion with the current EGS designs and, last but not least, it should be able to retro-fit into existing instruments to improve ergonomics.

Here are some pictures of the first prototype:

As you can see, it fits into a standard tuner hole. The difference here is that the tuner extends behind the headstock and does not rely on being mounted close to an edge. Additionally, with the low profile, the angle over the nut will be higher possibly eliminating the need for string trees or the use of an angled headstock. It uses the same parts as the current EGS bridges, so the investment in developing them can be leveraged.

The design issue that we discussed yesterday was how to tighten the assembly into the headstock. We do not want any risk of scratching the surface of the headstock in case of having to re-tighten it. Also, visually, we don’t want a large irregular shape visible as would be the case with a hexagon nut like on a normal tuner. Also affecting the appearance and this part of the design is the need for a more durable and replaceable part for the string to slide against. All current parts of this type in the current EGS concept are made from stainless steel for looks and durability. With any type of assembly, there is the issue of how to bond it to the aluminium. We don’t want any risk of this piece falling out on stage during a change of strings. Here is a prototype of a possible solution:

It is made from a stainless steel M5 screw with a recessed head and Torx grip. The remaining Torx grip after rounding the edges can be used to tighten the assembly and is easily replaced.

As always, comments on the design are welcome. The weight? 7 grams. Compared to 35 grams of a regular tuner I found. With a saving of 28 grams per tuner sitting mounted on a headstock 500 mm away from your center of gravity, this really adds up. Removing this weight from the headstock allows you to remove weight from the body and still get a well-balanced instrument. For Paolo and the tri-kanta, it’s a saving of roughly a kilogram compared to normal tuners.

When this is bookmatched, it should give a result very similar to #3. I bought enough for at least 4 instruments. I also got some incredibly light Sapele Mahogany: I have never used this before, but am very excited. It is very resonant and this particular piece felt like Swamp Ash in weight but with a very even color close to maple.

I also cut up the neck blank for #5 and #6 today. This has been the subject of a previous post. The original intention was to make #6 an 8-string, but I might make both of these 7-strings in order to leverage working on several instruments at a time.

#5 (Chris Letchford) specs:

• 7 strings headless EGS design
• Mahogany back with maple neck-through-body center
• Wenge top
• Semi-hollow construction
• Belly carve + arm bevel
• 2 x Lundgren M7 pickups
• 2 position mini-toggle switch (neck/bridge)
• Master volume, master tone
• EGS fixed bridge, custom color blue
• String spacing at bridge 10,5 mm and nut 7 mm
• Rosewood fretboard
• Stainless steel Medium/High frets
• 24 frets
• Double-acting truss rod
• Zero fret
• 25.75″ – 25″ scale, with neutral fret at approximately fret 9 (12 mm difference between outermost bridges)