Early Ideas For New Build

[dh7892]

I anticipation of the roland VG-99 (and assuming that it's any good) I'm planning a guitar the only has a GK-3 pickup in it. This will enable me to make use of the space normally occupied by the pickups to better show off the wood.

Here's a pic of a very early design idea. I'd welcome comments/ideas.

The idea is to make the teardrop part from one piece of quilted maple and the "stuck-on" bits around it will be very dark (ebonized wood?).

It will be a neck through with a wilkinson trem. I'm not sure about the headstock yet so suggestions welcome there.

I really like the idea of the teardrop with the neck through piercing it but it does pose a few design issues. In particular, I don't like the bit just above the trem as I've drawn it but I will need something there to rest my arm on when I play it.

Sorry about the quality of the pic, I scanned it from a sketch I did in my lunch break and it's just me trying to get the basic idea down.

[rubber314chicken]

I'm liking it. I would make the lower horn a little bigger, and use a 1/4" thick top for the teardrop, and have the grain running the length of it. that way, you get the benefits of having grain parallel to the neck, and the cool looks of the grain angled with the teardrop. the teardrop would look cool in spalted maple, bookmatched like this (with the "volcano"), and have a dark contrasting wood for the other parts, running parallel to the neck. The neck would look cool made of curly maple, with a purple heart strip down the middle. As for the armrest, maybe make it like a strat, but cut it down, so its smaller in size? And for the head, maybe like an arrow head, cut like a fender style headstock, but instead of being flat, its curved back.

[ihocky2]

Definitely lengthen the lower horn. I would try having the arm rest a little more rounded. Also, I would work up full scale drawing. Yours shows the trem at the rear of the body, but it seems like quite a distance from the end of th fret board. Once you get something to scale, you'll see how the rest of the design wants to flow. I think you'll see the neck either has to cut further into the body or the body will have to be shorter.

[Jon]

Conklin did a similar bass, maybe their bass will inspire your guitar a little? My first fretless (which was ditched due to construction flaws) was also a tear drop like this, except it didn't have a lower horn. Strictly meant to be played while standing.

Edited July 26, 2007 by Jon

[dh7892]

Thanks for the suggestions.

Definitely lengthen the lower horn. I would try having the arm rest a little more rounded. Also, I would work up full scale drawing. Yours shows the trem at the rear of the body, but it seems like quite a distance from the end of th fret board. Once you get something to scale, you'll see how the rest of the design wants to flow. I think you'll see the neck either has to cut further into the body or the body will have to be shorter.

I did the drawing to half scale (based on a 25.5 inch scale length) but the various image resizings I did before posting it may have messed it about a bit. There is a line near the end of the fret board that marks the 24th fret position (which I thought should be exactly 3/4 of the way along the strings). Based on this, I think the drawing is right. Of course, a full scale drawing will be the way to go before I get too much further. The main thing I was trying to get right was the shape of the maple bit and I'm pretty happy with that. Perhaps the trem just looks further away from the finger board because there are no pickups to fill the space? I might have made a mistake though!

@jon: thanks for that picture, that's given me some ideas. I like the way the top shapes around the bridge too. I might go with that sort of thing a bit more.

I was originally hoping that I would be able to have no components at all attached to the maple but I can't think of a way to avoid the bridge being in it without making it a very inelegant shape. So, given that I have to put the bridge in it, I might as well shape the top around it a bit more.

@rubber chicken: The lower horn probably needs to be a bit bigger like you say. I didn't really put too much effort into that bit for now. I think I'll have to build a simple prototype to get the shape of it right relative the how I like to sit with my guitars when I play.

I agree that dark contrasting woods are the way to go for the edging bits. I was also thinking about putting an ebony binding around the whole maple top to frame it.

I quite like the arrow head idea, it fits with my concept that the neck is "piercing" the teardrop. I also thought about trying to parody the teardrop shape with the headstock but couldn't think of how to make that work with the machine heads.

[WezV]

i was gonna make some suggestions - but looking at that conklin, i think they are there!!

It should work ok but i would do accurate drawings from the front and side elevations with accurate hardware managments to make sure. the idea of the tear drop in maple is good but will look so much better if its fully incorporated into the design early on rather than cut out and added in later on

[dh7892]

I agree about the need for full integration in order to make the concept work. I'm gonna take my time with the design and make sure I'm confident about everything before starting out.

[rubber314chicken]

2 more ideas I've gotten:

extend frets all the way up until the maple, so it looks like it has a lot of frets, but they were cut off to make room for the maple

make the maple a hair higher than the rest of the body.

[dh7892]

2 more ideas I've gotten:

extend frets all the way up until the maple, so it looks like it has a lot of frets, but they were cut off to make room for the maple

make the maple a hair higher than the rest of the body.

Yes, I was going to do that! You can probably see from my pic that the maple intersects with the fingerboard a bit behind the 24th fret (at the low e string). I was planning to have the fingerboard extend up to the maple and keep the frets going right to the end.

Given that I don't need pickups, I was toying with the idea of having the top level with the fingerboard (height wise) but I'm not sure if that will make it funny to play.

What sort of wood should I use for the "stuck-on" bits around the outside? I want them to be really dark but ebony probably wouldn't be practical.

Edited July 27, 2007 by dh7892

[Geo]

Sweet design. For the headstock, I'm seeing something that swings down like a Strat headstock. I really like rubber chicken's idea with angling the headstock back. Maybe you could throw one or two tuners on the bottom half. I think the tear drop is just begging for a 6-to-a-side headstock--but in a shape that compliments the teardrop.

Whatever you do, it'll be sweet.

[tubab0y]

What you could do would be fretted up to the maple and then make sure it's the right height so it's fretless up to the bridge.

[dh7892]

What you could do would be fretted up to the maple and then make sure it's the right height so it's fretless up to the bridge.

That's a fantastic idea. I'd have to get it right but it could be great. It would really help with playing those Bumblefoot tunes that go above 24 frets. He uses a thimble but I'm not big into my sewing so I don't have one!

@Geo: Thanks for the encouraging words. I think I'm having exactly the same thoughts as you about the headstock. I think that the top sweep of the teardrop cries out for 6 in line tuners but I can also see it working better with 4+2 Music Man style. I'm definitely going to want a roller bridge and locking tuners so I think I'll need the headstock angled back a bit. I'll try to draw something out and see what you guys think.

[dh7892]

Here's that picture of the headstock sketch.

The black bit will be ebony. I've drawn it parallel to the neck but it will be tilted back.

[rubber314chicken]

I would use maple for the dark parts, then dye it black so it looks like ebony.

[Jon]

Cool! And of course, I have another picture for inspiration. This bass was just recently finished by http://www.crimsonguitars.com.

[dh7892]

Cool! And of course, I have another picture for inspiration. This bass was just recently finished by http://www.crimsonguitars.com.

Wow, that's fully mental!

@ RubberChicken: I thought about using some ebonized wood for the dark bit but I'm concerned about how it would work. Would I dye the wood first before sticking it on of would it be better to dye it in place? When it comes to final sanding, would I not have problems with the colours bleeding into each other?

[rubber314chicken]

I would dye the pieces for the top separately, then sand them, then glue them on, so you only have to do touch up work. I think the color might blend a littlte if you're not careful, and do all the sanding on the guitar.