Blues Guitars

[Hitone]

I am personally very interested in crazy old guitar designs. Harmony, Teisco, Decca, Hagstrom, and Kingston are some of the brands I search for on eBay. I get off on the crazy details they use to add to guitars. Right now, I am working a semi-hollow body that I saw in an old picture. The influence can come from anywhere. It's our job to make it a reality.

Hey PerryL when are we going to some finished picks of that guitar? It's a killer body.

Holy Cow! This site has every odd guitar!

[PerryL]

Spring 05! Paint and polish.

[Daniel Sorbera]

hey HiTone. Thats some GOOD fret access Thats a really cool design.

[Drak]

This is my take on ripsrv's post.

Basically, if you want to build your own design, you have to have the spunk and creativity to go hunt it down and make it yourself.

I don't think you meant any harm in asking for ideas, but it just sort of goes against making your own custom body to ask others for their input, it's just sort of an abnormality, but I think I understand what you meant, and it was a simple enough request, but it just doesn't make a lot of sense to ask other people how to build your own creative body shape.

I've made several of my own designs borrowing from others' that have come before me, and I modded them to my own liking, and I never asked anyone for their ideas, I came up with all of them on my own by researching pics, and a lot of poster paper and pencils and erasers. When I'm making a new design, I NEVER ask anyone for anything, hell, that's 1/2 the fun of it for me is coming up with it, and honestly, I'm building for me, so I really don't want any external input when I'm in a designing phase. That's my challenge to myself.

In other words, I put the time in, and I came up with ideas that I like thru my own hard work and determination.

There is a general consensus that has been voiced on this forum several different times that if you have to ask everyone for their aid when you're -just- getting started, then most likely you'll never wind up building anything because you lack the spunk to go do it yourself in the first place.

Now, that's maybe a little hard to understand since this forum is here to help and aid anyone asking for help, but it does make sense, as almost everyone I've ever seen who asks for maybe too much help, they never build anything.

So I guess, in a nice way, we're looking for your 'spark', or you're energy level, to get your own feet off the ground.

It's like this I guess. If you're a parent who has a child that is trying his ass off in school, but needs some help, you'll bend over backwards to help a kid like that out. You'll go to massive extremes even, because you see how hard they're trying on their own, and you want to help someone like that out as much as possible.

Now, another kid who wants someone to do it all for them, no one wants to help a kid like that out. It's simple human nature.

And I think your post fell smack dab right in between those two situations. I don't think you're asking us to do it for you, but the way you worded your post 'leans' to that effect, although I really don't think that that's what you were asking.

So, it wasn't what you asked so much as how you asked it that I think elicited the response you've gotten.

Does that make sense?

The worst thing you could do is think we're a bunch of snobs or mean-spirited jerks, because we're not, I'll help -anyone- out with anything I have to offer, but I want to see that the person is doing something for themselves too.

I will 'help', I will not 'do for'. And you asking us to provide you with new and creative ideas is -almost- ...'doing for'...dig?

[stageleft]

Drak,

That may be the clearest most well thought out post I have ever read on any site. Well done.

George

[ripsrv]

thanks for the posts guys... i went back and reread my original post adter reading your replies {especially drak's} and i undertand what you guys are saying, i am not asking you guys to build this for me i just wanted to see what other people are doing with their guitars so i can make my own guitar with modified aspects of guitars iv seen and liked + my own totally new ideas... i think drak understood what im getting at. on the other had i think that some of these post are a little hipicryticle{sp? sry} for instance one post said that i should make my own drawing of a totally new guitar and then compared it to perry's guitar and said it looked like a smaller jagaur. this to me tells me that you indetified that he had some fender influences....as i want influences. i dont plan to take exzact replicas of bodies and chop it into a hybrid. and drak said " I came up with all of them on my own by researching pics," this says to me he lookat at other guitars to find out what styles he liked/dissliked etc. and then made his own. this is what i want to do so i apologize ofr my first post being abiguous as to what i ment. thanks abuch guys thos links have gave me a bunch of cool ideas i apreciate it.

[Mickguard]

hey HiTone. Thats some GOOD fret access Thats a really cool design.

That's a Wandre...some of the most beautiful guitars ever made, if you ask me....wonder what they sound like?

That's the guitar that inspired me to build my own....I started out wanting to do something like the Wandre, but then I got turned on to telecasters, and one thing led to another....

[tirapop]

idch, I forgot about Eastwood. That was the first obscure guitar site I ran across.

Hitone, I like your taste... your Surfer and Fatboy rock. So whose semi-hollow is the inspiration for your current project?

ripsrv, I don't think xebryus was being hypocritical. He praised PerryL's design, something totally PerryL's design but with recognizable Jag influence. As far as we know, PerryL didn't ask people for guitars that looked like they were Jaguar influenced... he just synthesized it himself.

I think the point was instead of trying to adapt someone else's interpretation of a design, that you skip the middleman and figure out what design elements you like, be inspired, and make something that's all yours.

There's a great book,

Electric Guitars: The Illustrated Encyclopedia by Tony Bacon. All the guitars you know and many you've never seen or dreamed of.

I have to admit that I don't really understand where you're coming from. I've no shortage of ideas for guitars. I've got dozens upon dozens of scraps of paper with sketches of different guitars I fancy. When something different and choice floats into my field of view... the Girl Brand guitars, the Pagellis, vintage euro-freaks, the Bocaster (a single cutaway Bo Diddley, brilliant!)... I'm inspired. But, I don't ever want "that" guitar. I always want a variation, an evolution, sometimes something that only has a tiny kernel of that other guitar.

You sound kind of young and that you might be trying to knock one out of the park with your first guitar. It's good to stretch yourself. But, look at the guys making guitars. One guitar begets another and another... Your first guitar doesn't need to be THE NEW CLASSIC. You like the Jagstang and want a guitar with a 25.5" scale. Go ahead and make that guitar. Live with it and squint at pics of other guitars. Start mutating with guitar #2... and then #3

[Drak]

I have another book by Tony Bacon called 'The Ultimate Guitar Book' that is also fantastic and I have snagged a jillion ideas for guitars out of that book.

But sadly, I don't think young people actually buy books much anymore.

Their loss AFAIC.

[Southpa]

Another good book is simply called "Guitar" by Terry Burrows. It gives a very good historical perspective on the origins and evolution of the guitar including how the major models we see today came about. Lots of pics = lots of ideas.

[fryovanni]

I can't speak for others, but I know that I have tried to study how classic and unique guitars are built. To better understand how the design has produced unique tone or playability. I guess it's like learning to play guitar/bass/drums..... You have to study and practice a style of music to "get it". Then when you compose a song with elements of that style you have a foundation to work from.

I could sketch guitars all day (and sometimes do). A shape, object, figure, or even a large mouth Bass inspires you to design a guitar around it. If you understand how a guitar needs to be built (fret access, bridge location, scale lengths, tuner spacing requirements and on and on...) you will hopefully be able to integrate that element that inspired you into a workable design. Being able to create tonal qualities requires a familiarity with what makes what sound like that (and it's not something that is black-n-white). You say you want to make a unique Blues guitar. What should that sound like or similar to? BB's Lucille,SRV Strat, Claptons Strat or Les Paul, Muddy Waters Tele......???? I guess my long winded point is study, research, practice and learn from others experience so you will have the ability to create your vision.

Or maybe I am totally off base. Give someone who has never played an instrument before a guitar and tell them to compose a 3 minute blue grass tune. Odds are it would sound like the first guitar I ever painted looked. That totally unique guitar requires skills, knowledge, experience and your creative vision to make. I best be quite now. I rambled on and got awful preachy, Sorry.

[Mickguard]

idch, I forgot about Eastwood. That was the first obscure guitar site I ran across.

Yeah, that's what got me started looking at 'other' kinds of guitar designs, and not the standard strat/tele/LPs....

Did you know Eastwood's coming out with their own Wandre soon? Can't wait!

[Daniel Sorbera]

All I did is to look at the guitars I really like. So I got a little from my godin, PRS, breedlove (acoustic), gibson, and a tele. I than just kinda sand whiched them together to get MY guitar that looks like none of them.