emmanuel Posted November 30, 2007 Report Share Posted November 30, 2007 Hello everybody, This headstock and body shape looks very cool! Does anyone know when Mr Kubicki designed Key Factor? Emmanuel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted November 30, 2007 Report Share Posted November 30, 2007 Hold on, lemme guess, your real name is Alex and you build guitars under the Zachary name? You're out of luck, Kubicki has been using this headstock at least from the mid-1990s : Kubicki 1996 catalog I'd be interested in seeing better photos of that headstock, if anyone has found any. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gosh Posted November 30, 2007 Report Share Posted November 30, 2007 Hold on, lemme guess, your real name is Alex and you build guitars under the Zachary name? You're out of luck, Kubicki has been using this headstock at least from the mid-1990s : Kubicki 1996 catalog I'd be interested in seeing better photos of that headstock, if anyone has found any. mid 90's? Try mid 80's. http://www.route66guitars.com/kubicki.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gosh Posted November 30, 2007 Report Share Posted November 30, 2007 best i can find Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emmanuel Posted November 30, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2007 Hold on, lemme guess, your real name is Alex and you build guitars under the Zachary name? Nope, my name is Emmanuel and i would really love to know when Mr Kubicki designed this unique bass. Is this headstock Kubicki's original design? Emmanuel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gosh Posted November 30, 2007 Report Share Posted November 30, 2007 Hold on, lemme guess, your real name is Alex and you build guitars under the Zachary name? Nope, my name is Emmanuel and i would really love to know when Mr Kubicki designed this unique bass. Is this headstock Kubicki's original design? Emmanuel Philip Kubicki made his first guitar in 1958. Aged 15. The design for the factor range was developed and copyrighted in 1983. C - Philip Kubicki Technology (PKT). He's had a trademark and licensing deal with Fender Musical Instruments Corporation for the concept and distribution of the Factor Bass Effective from 1985. That deal was dissolved by Kubicki himself in 1992 and is now owned solely by Philip Kubicki. So to answer your question, YES, he owns copyright for the original headstock design. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emmanuel Posted November 30, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2007 (edited) Hold on, lemme guess, your real name is Alex and you build guitars under the Zachary name? Nope, my name is Emmanuel and i would really love to know when Mr Kubicki designed this unique bass. Is this headstock Kubicki's original design? Emmanuel Philip Kubicki made his first guitar in 1958. Aged 15. The design for the factor range was developed and copyrighted in 1983. C - Philip Kubicki Technology (PKT). He's had a trademark and licensing deal with Fender Musical Instruments Corporation for the concept and distribution of the Factor Bass Effective from 1985. That deal was dissolved by Kubicki himself in 1992 and is now owned solely by Philip Kubicki. So to answer your question, YES, he owns copyright for the original headstock design. Thank you very much! I like this design very much (especially the headstock) and i wanted to learn more about Philip Kubicki and his work. If there are some other usefull links, please let me know. If one wants to build an electric bass or guitar with that shape (including headstock) does one need any permisson from Mr Kubicki? I am 19 years old and i would like to build my own electric bass and guitar. BTW this web site is excellent! So much useful information I found! Emmanuel Edited November 30, 2007 by emmanuel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gosh Posted November 30, 2007 Report Share Posted November 30, 2007 Hold on, lemme guess, your real name is Alex and you build guitars under the Zachary name? Nope, my name is Emmanuel and i would really love to know when Mr Kubicki designed this unique bass. Is this headstock Kubicki's original design? Emmanuel Philip Kubicki made his first guitar in 1958. Aged 15. The design for the factor range was developed and copyrighted in 1983. C - Philip Kubicki Technology (PKT). He's had a trademark and licensing deal with Fender Musical Instruments Corporation for the concept and distribution of the Factor Bass Effective from 1985. That deal was dissolved by Kubicki himself in 1992 and is now owned solely by Philip Kubicki. So to answer your question, YES, he owns copyright for the original headstock design. Thank you very much! I like this design very much (especially the headstock) and i wanted to learn more about Philip Kubicki and his work. If there are some other usefull links, please let me know. If one wants to build an electric bass or guitar with that shape (including headstock) does one need any permisson from Mr Kubicki? I am 19 years old and i would like to build my own electric bass and guitar. BTW this web site is excellent! So much useful information I found! Emmanuel If you build a guitar with that design then you run the risk of infringing his copyright and intellectual ownership. For further links about him, just google his name or buy a good book about guitars. There are some with his work included. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WezV Posted November 30, 2007 Report Share Posted November 30, 2007 as far as i know you are fine to make a version for yourself but selling it would be illegal there is a thread at the top of this section on the legal stuff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emmanuel Posted November 30, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2007 Hold on, lemme guess, your real name is Alex and you build guitars under the Zachary name? I googled "alex zachary guitars" and now I understand why you wrote that. Emmanuel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emmanuel Posted November 30, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2007 as far as i know you are fine to make a version for yourself but selling it would be illegal there is a thread at the top of this section on the legal stuff Thank you all very much! There are so many interesting topics on this web site. I am sure that I will learn a lot here. Sincerely Emmanuel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted November 30, 2007 Report Share Posted November 30, 2007 I googled "alex zachary guitars" and now I understand why you wrote that. Seriously, I love the headstock...I wonder if it'd work for a six-string? From the photo, it looks like there's no scoop. oh yeah, and I just noticed there's fretwire for that E string-- I'm assuming it's playable? How cool is that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xanthus Posted December 1, 2007 Report Share Posted December 1, 2007 I like that, it's a cool way of doing a drop D. I wonder about how that would affect the scale length/intonation, since you're moving the nut. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted December 1, 2007 Report Share Posted December 1, 2007 oh yeah, and I just noticed there's fretwire for that E string-- I'm assuming it's playable? How cool is that! I'm sure I've linked this before on the same subject. So here's Stu Hamm playing his Kubicki bass http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_l7RYuWIGk I like that, it's a cool way of doing a drop D. I wonder about how that would affect the scale length/intonation, since you're moving the nut. It's now an obsolete way of doing drop D thanks to the D-tuners, which Stu Hamm also uses now. Basically, it's extra hassle to go through to build a bass like this when you can simply install a tuner that can do a drop tuning at the flick of a switch. It does not affect the intonation in any way, think of the 2nd fret as a zero fret. When the headstock clamp is down, it is applying pressure to the string to use the 2nd fret as a zero fret. When removing the clamp, you've got drop D tuning which is adding an additional fret + nut to extend the 34" scale. I'm sure it's something like a 36.2" scale for the E string, I don't know the formula to add additional frets to a scale. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xanthus Posted December 1, 2007 Report Share Posted December 1, 2007 Stu is amazing Thanks for clarifying that, Jon! I've been doing a bit of fanned fret reading lately and when I saw the nut was moved back the first thing that jumped to mind was "no fanned frets? intonation problem!" hahaha. I get what you're saying now, though. And yeah, drop tuners are so much easier. I'd almost get them if they didn't cost more than a whole headstock full of tuners. Looking at it again, it's almost the reverse of a banjo 5th string, in looks. Oh those crazy bluegrass musicians. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j. pierce Posted December 8, 2007 Report Share Posted December 8, 2007 I don't know - I like the idea of the built-in single string capo; I like drop tuning, and certainly a tuner with the drop tuning built in would be handy, as I've often wanted to be able to drop tune mid-piece, but I don't like the messing with string tension - this method seems like it would avoid that. (And yes, I could just change my string gauges to compensate, but I have a setup that works and feels comfortable to me - right now I have another guitar strung with a different low E string to avoid the weirdness inherent in my setup when I drop tune. Has anyone seen the parts to create something like this on custom build? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RGGR Posted December 9, 2007 Report Share Posted December 9, 2007 Body shape reminds me of Ibanez axstar guitar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emmanuel Posted December 9, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 9, 2007 One of my favorite designs is also ZETA Mirror 6 which was designed in 1984. http://www.keyboardmuseum.org/ar/z/zeta/mirror6.html I spent few hours on Alex's web site. A lot of great stuff. Great ideas, great philosphy, great guitars but....is everything true? "When I really knew I hit the big time was recently when I was contacted by a regular Z watcher who had this shocking discovery to tell me about. Here is what he said. Even Warmoth did it! Not an exact copy but it still obvious. Hell, they even call it a Z body style. Dude, you should light some fires. Regards, Jeff http://www.warmoth.com/guitar/bodies/radic...ion=zbody" Jeff is wrong. BTW Z1 body reminds me of Danelectro Pro-1. Emmanuel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted December 9, 2007 Report Share Posted December 9, 2007 I spent few hours on Alex's web site. A lot of great stuff. Great ideas, great philosphy, great guitars but....is everything true? BTW Z1 body reminds me of Danelectro Pro-1. There are enough threads discussing Zachary guitars....just do a search for the fun. Take his ideas with a grain of salt --you have to see the videos of him demonstating his guitar in order fully to understand his 'philosophy'. His first guitars were indeed copies of the Danelectro, before he began developing his own designs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emmanuel Posted December 9, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 9, 2007 (edited) I spent few hours on Alex's web site. A lot of great stuff. Great ideas, great philosphy, great guitars but....is everything true? BTW Z1 body reminds me of Danelectro Pro-1. There are enough threads discussing Zachary guitars....just do a search for the fun. Wow! Take his ideas with a grain of salt --you have to see the videos of him demonstating his guitar in order fully to understand his 'philosophy'. His first guitars were indeed copies of the Danelectro, before he began developing his own designs. Which are his own designs? Edited December 9, 2007 by emmanuel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emmanuel Posted December 13, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2007 OK. I understand that no one wants to discuss this matter. I only wanted to discuss Philip Kubicki's work and Mickguard pointed out to me some relevant facts. The fact that some people "borrow" elements of other peoples designs and claim that those are their own bothers me a lot. I've seen a lot of that crap on the Internet. There are so many "revolutionary" and "unique" copies out there. I will ask Mr Kubick if he will allow me to use his headstock for my first project. This guitar I will build for my self, but anyway It would be wrong not to ask him for permission first. Thank you for your inputs everyone. Emmanuel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted December 13, 2007 Report Share Posted December 13, 2007 The fact that some people "borrow" elements of other peoples designs and claim that those are their own bothers me a lot. I've seen a lot of that crap on the Internet. There are so many "revolutionary" and "unique" copies out there. Well, I don't think it's that big of a deal. It's one thing when you claim someone else's technology as your own. It's quite another to be inspired by someone's design and incorporate that influence into your own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmrentis Posted December 14, 2007 Report Share Posted December 14, 2007 The fact that some people "borrow" elements of other peoples designs and claim that those are their own bothers me a lot. I've seen a lot of that crap on the Internet. There are so many "revolutionary" and "unique" copies out there. Well, I don't think it's that big of a deal. It's one thing when you claim someone else's technology as your own. It's quite another to be inspired by someone's design and incorporate that influence into your own. Agreed. Its not that often when a completely new idea is developed, most new concepts are just variations upon past ideas and there is nothing wrong with that or claiming it as your own because as Mick said you are just using these past ideas as a base or inspiration for your design. As I have seen here and elsewhere, people come up with drawings almost every week of guitars they designed off the top of their head and almost every drawing has at least a couple of guitar designs that it very closely resembles. At this point there are very few designs that one could make that would not have a look-a-like and they would likley be miserable to play; as in uncomfortable. I recently tried at my own design and while I haven't seen anything that is exactly the same, I already found one that is quite close and honestly I haven't researched past designs all that much, so I bet there are a few more that are very close to my design. I drew it with no inspiration, but as with any you can see elements of other designs in there, no way around it. As Mick said, the problem lies when you "take" a design and sell it as your own. Even if you copy a guitar exactly its no big deal as long as you don't sell it. Anyhow, if you are using that headstock as long as your building for you and not selling there is no permission necessary, just so you know. If you prefer to, then its all you. Best of luck, hope the build goes well. J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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