sunnuntai 19. tammikuuta 2020

Designing my first electric guitar

New guitar model


As said in the title I'm going to design and build new guitar model. Aren't there guitars available to buy? Don't I have enough guitars? Why I'm doing this?  This post is about to answer these questions.

Besides this ikea man there is pictures from some of my past projects. There's link to each building post, but they are written in finnish.

This is a beginning for series of blog posts which I haven't done before. Other posts are mostly about guitars or other wood working projects and there are only things I've already solved. Most of the projects are already done when I'm writing a post. This is different. There are many unsolved things already in my head which I will write in this series. There will be challenges that I have never come across and definitely some failures.

Aren't there guitars availabe to buy?

Definitely there are lots of them and I wan't them all, but this is not about acquiring just guitars in GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) madness. When I was a boy (actually grown man, because I started guitar playing quite late) I searched some magazines for guitars and I was attracted to many of models I saw. Also there was models which was really awful to me at that time. I guess appearance of guitar is important for me. Or at least if it plays well. 

When internet came there was couple sites I used to go a lot and one of them was ibanez.com. I dreamed of RG and one time I went to order their S model for 2000€, but for that model production was ended so I never get to have guitar I really wanted. They still have those models, but the one I wanted was bit different. It had d-drop tuner some sort and it looked amazing. I did buy used S (built in Japan) for good price and it's still good expect there are some spots where frets have badly worn out. I still love RGs, but I think I've outgrown them.

There are many great and astonishing guitar models out there and if I didn't have this guitar building thing here I would definitely go and buy custom guitar from somewhere. But if I didn't have this guitar building thing how would I know that there are those custom guitars? In that situation maybe I would still drool for RGs. Who knows?

Don't I have enough guitars?

Come on this is silly question. Is there one who has enough of them? I can use guitars as a decoration. 

"Rather than building guitar, go practice with your old Ibanez".


This is not about having enough guitars. I want to design and build one or two, or many. I know instrument builders or luthiers that doesn't play at all. And most guitars I have built at this point are sold away and that is a big inspiration for me. I want to design and build guitar that has some potential for other players. Failing at this is not a big deal. Failing in the actual building process provides me some good firewood and failing in design will teach me to design better. Knowledge and experience are welcome. If I fail multiple times in everything I will rethink this whole thing.

Why I'm doing this?

Love for the guitars is not just about playing or hearing them. I'm enthusiastic music listener, guitar player and wood worker and all them combined as one could answer this question. And I want to do this. I want to design model that has good looks in someones eye. I want to design guitar that has good playability and inspires to pick up it and play with it. 

I've always looked up for challenge. This project has lots of them. Not just new design but the whole thing. I don't do this too seriously thou. If I have actual work to do or personal things I will put this aside for while. I don't count that as a failure. I will continue it when thing are fine.

I have a dream that one day there is guitar model in production and I'm not only one who has it. I will call it succeeded if one customer buys it and is happy with the guitar.

Why I'm writing this all

There are many reasons why I'm writing this down in blog. I've read some individual designing and guitar building posts from different sites and I found it inspiring. If someone reads my blog even once then I've made it for reason. I'm also writing just to clear my head. This isn't only major project I've currently planning/working on and this helps me to put things in different perspective. English is kinda challenging for me so there one reason.


Next post is about actual guitar design and maybe some thoughts about woods.

Thanks for visit!

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