Redesigning the electric guitar

Roland

When Leo Fender designed his early guitars he used simple production methods, and materials which were readily available. The design features which his trial users asked for suited the music of the time. 

If you were starting with a clean sheet of paper, and access to current tools, processes and materials, what would you do?

WezV

I kinda love gittler stuff because it shows the electric guitar reduced down to its barest design elements.  

It doesn't change the definition, any guitarist could play one within a few minutes...  It looks nothing like any other electric guitar, but every electric guitar shares its main features

ICBM

I would definitely not use wood - all-plastic/composite construction would enable much more consistency. If we didn't have expectations of 'woody' tone then there would be no problem with ones that don't sound like they're made from it.

I probably wouldn't change the shapes that much - there is an ergonomic reason why most guitars look the way they do, and although I think things like the Gittler and the Teuffel Birdfish (or even the 'cricket bat' Steinbergers) are interesting as concepts, they are not really that practical as instruments, for most people.

And although I don't generally like active systems and find them a bit of an unnecessary solution in search of a problem, at least a properly buffered output - whatever type of pickups are used - would again produce consistency, and mean that cable loading and 'tone suck' wouldn't apply - and if the pickups were low-impedance/preamped types like EMGs then noise shouldn't be an issue.

I would try not to put *too* much complexity on-board though - built-in obsolescence becomes a problem. One of the reasons 1950s guitars can still be used so easily today - even the 'radical' ones like the Flying V - is because the technology is very simple.

Sporky

I'd probably go all-out and have pulleys and mechanisms so that you could vary the scale length (and go multiscale) by wiggling levers. The body would probably be a carbon/glass/aramid shell over aerogel. Piezo and optical pickups to capture string movement in multiple axes.

It would be very, very clever and very, very unreliable, and eventually @HarrySeven would have three (one pretty knackered) in his collection.

Rabs

Hmm..  that's a hard one...  I have tried thinking about re-designing stuff but it seems that guitarists arnt really interested...  Like theres those Transformer guitars where the wings come off and the pickups are changeable..  Or those Fenders which had sound cards that changed the guitars sound... Even Gibson had a guitar with swappable pickups...  None of it ever takes off cos (most) guitarists are very conservative in that way.

Man, even when I do simple things like turn the grain the opposite way on the body or my Half and Half guitars which have two completely different woods on each side. You should see the sort of comments I get about how they wont work cos they arnt the same as all other guitars... I haven't yet finished the Korina one (where I turned the body so the grain is vertical) but the Half and Half is fine... None of the issues people said would happen did.. And im sure it will be the same for the Korina one.

Its weird.. 

But I guess yes it would have to come down to something that has good functionality ideas so everything on the guitar is easily changeable or moveable...

Roland

ICBM said:

I would definitely not use wood - all-plastic/composite construction would enable much more consistency ... 

... Gittler and the Teuffel Birdfish (or even the 'cricket bat' Steinbergers) are interesting as concepts, they are not really that practical as instruments ...

And although I don't generally like active systems and find them a bit of an unnecessary solution in search of a problem, at least a properly buffered output ... 

I would try not to put *too* much complexity on-board though - built-in obsolescence becomes a problem ...

The Parker Fly is a good example of novel materials. I used to travel with mine, and the neck never moved. I loved the slim neck and the light weight, but It doesn't have enough warmth in its sound.

I always wanted to like the Steinberger for its minimalism, but the thick neck annoyed me, and the lack of body meant that I couldn't hold the guitar still.

Buffering is a good idea!

Ravenous

Sporky said:

I'd probably go all-out and have pulleys and mechanisms so that you could vary the scale length (and go multiscale) by wiggling levers.

Hmmm... of course on old-style lutes the frets can be untied and moved (though I think that was partly for just intonation setups.) Sounds like a more modern mechanism would be interesting...

Ravenous

Low impedance pickups were mentioned.  of course the Les Paul Recording (and Personal?) models had passive low impedance pickups, though you would need a microphone input or a matching transformer to plug them in.

Wouldn't sound like a "regular" guitar though, so weirdos like me would have them but most people wouldn't like it I guess.

ICBM

Ravenous said:

Low impedance pickups were mentioned.  of course the Les Paul Recording (and Personal?) models had passive low impedance pickups, though you would need a microphone input or a matching transformer to plug them in.

Wouldn't sound like a "regular" guitar though, so weirdos like me would have them but most people wouldn't like it I guess.

I had a Les Paul Signature, which was the semi-acoustic model - it did have low-impedance pickups (although a different type from the Personal/Recording ones), and a matching transformer with selectable ratios… it sounded very like a conventional electric guitar, in fact - actually extremely good, and very powerful on the highest setting. Possibly the best-sounding electric guitar I've ever owned - sadly I couldn't get on with the neck profile, it gave me cramps.

Sporky

I wonder if you could sense the string vibrations by measuring the varying impedance of the string as it stretches and contracts.

Also modularity. Each string gets its own neck element - tuner at one end, bridge at the other, all on a little carbon fibre stick with mini frets on it. Or a ribbed steel tube - make them so that the ribs are the frets and you can mount as many side by side as you like.

WezV

Sporky said:

I wonder if you could sense the string vibrations by measuring the varying impedance of the string as it stretches and contracts.

Also modularity. Each string gets its own neck element - tuner at one end, bridge at the other, all on a little carbon fibre stick with mini frets on it. Or a ribbed steel tube - make them so that the ribs are the frets and you can mount as many side by side as you like.

Get to work Sporky! Should be easy with the CNC right

I think novel ways of if capturing string vibration could be good. I was really interested in optical pickups a long time ago.  Magnetic dampening is pretty much part of the sound of the electric guitar as we know it, doesn't mean it has to be.

Sporky

WezV said:

Get to work Sporky! Should be easy with the CNC right

It'd be easy if I had a factory and a full order book.

The string impedance thing tickles my idea-cortex though. Wouldn't be too hard to mock something up to enable testing of that.

Roland

A friend of mine put an optical pickup on his bass. He said it was nothing special.

WezV

Yeah, they were expensive and didn't really add much... but that was a while ago.  I wonder if it could be done better with today's technology.

If I remember right it allowed you to use pretty much anything as a string.

Sporky

Roland said:

A friend of mine put an optical pickup on his bass. He said it was nothing special.

I would imagine that they're very "neutral" - which, with an appropriate approach to outboard gear, could be very useful. Run what's effectively a FRFR pickup through an IR and you could have the character of a wide range of instruments and pickups - a bit like a Variax...

Ravenous

Sporky said:

The string impedance thing tickles my idea-cortex though. Wouldn't be too hard to mock something up to enable testing of that.

I think optical fibre can be used as a vibration detector - in that case using a fibre built into surrounding string material might be workable...  (I expect it'd just sound like a bridge pickup though, as it'd be picking up all the harmonics from the length of the string.)