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.