Modified Design

[Hasa]

Firstly, I'm not sure if this is the right section to start this topic in, but anyway, here goes...

I'm still working on building the same (and first) guitar of mine, and I've recently decided that rear routing to fit the electronics wouldn't be a good idea at all since it would defy the purpose of the build (more on that later).

Here we go:

Below is a dodgy screen shot of the plan from the CAD file that I made -

This link is for a better picture (make sure that you maximise the window) -

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h100/Has...ubleNeckCAD.jpg

Anyway, back to the point. What I need feedback on is whether the pickguard design that I have made suits firstly the design, and secondly the guitar itself.

The guitar is made out of a similar material to this one -

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h100/Has...tarman1copy.jpg

As you can see from the photo, the routing of the control cavity reduces the transparency of the body at that particular point, and the position of the cavity would make it very hard to clean up to an acceptable smoothness.

As for the pickguard itself, I was thinking of making it out of either transparent acrylic with aluminium foil glued to the back or some of that shielding paint, but I think that it will be much easier to use the foil. Another possibility that I have considered is using different coloured pieces of acrylic in a type of collage, but having a pattern that will work with the rest of the relatively simple design may be a problem.

It's not overly obvious, but I intended to make a similar guitar to the Gibson EDS-1275 with a few changes, ie. 25.5" scale length, acrylic body, side input etc...

Any comments/suggestions are welcome, and if you want a better look at the CAD drawing I have done, PM me.

BTW, does anyone know of any tutorials for designing 3D objects in AutoCAD?

[Mickguard]

I dunno...have you thought about surgical tubing to house the wires? Seems to me you can make your own wires--use clear surgical tubing instead of the typical colored casing...that way the wires will be much less noticable. Then you should be able to route from the rear and the wires will be a lot less noticeable.

Which leads to another question --you'll have to mold the acrylic, right? So when you mold it, do you mold the cavity and channels at the same time , or are these cut out separately afterwards.

Seems like if there's a way to mold the wire channels at the same time, that will help in maintaining the clarity. Maybe you can mold the channel with surgical tubing in place, so you'll be able to sneak your new wires through that without having to route it.

Just my questions, I know nothing about working with acrylic... well, you guessed that, didn't you?

I think in this case the extra pickguard will subtract from what you're trying to achieve...

[Hasa]

...Which leads to another question --you'll have to mold the acrylic, right? So when you mold it, do you mold the cavity and channels at the same time , or are these cut out separately afterwards...

I had initially planned to have it made out of glass/other really dense material that was also transparent and could be moulded so that this problem could be avoided, then I saw the price of doing something like that

What I settled on as a compromise was to buy a big block of acrylic (420x460x40mm) and use a band saw to get close to the shape and route that out. Then I discovered the problem that has set me back substantially.

What I think that you're trying to say is that by putting the wires in surgical tubing, the wires will be less noticible, which they will be, but the problem remains that the channels routed would still be unsightly.

I just had a thought, would it be reasonable/possible to get an old large mirror and have it shaped into a pickguard? Other than being made out of glass, I don't see any possible problems, and by doing this the creativity/abstractness of the guitar would still remain...

Either way, I think that I might have to do a small side project with some more scrap pieces of wood to see if adding a pickguard would have an adverse effect on the image of the guitar.

Edited April 16, 2006 by Hasa