how do you guys design your guitar shapes?

[fguihen]

when designing a new guitar, do you guys :

1) use set squares, t squares, compases, dividers etc to make a geometrically correct shape ( hope that sounds ok)

2)just draw the pickup bridge and neck positions onto a piece of wood(accurately obviously) and then just doodle around them until you like the shape

3)any other methods you care to mention of

[rhoads56]

all of the above. I usual doodle on paper when im on the phone, and the ideasa develop from there

[Andreas]

The easiest way is to take a guitar you already like and take an outline of it on paper.

Note the leg positions and the inward peaks of the cutthroughs and try not to mess too much with them since you will create balance problems (I had that problem a few days ago )

Then just try to make it fit the plan that you have in mind.

[Devon Headen]

I usually take measurements from guitars at several critical point, and draw it out to make sure it looks right. Then I mess with the measurements little by little until I get something that's different, but not freaky. And obviously I have to like it too.

[krazyderek]

for my shape, i took a couple of body shapes i like, cut them all out on to scale carboard shapes then just moved them around till i was happy, a little smoothing of the transitions was required but i'm happy \

my main inspiration was i would always look at 1 or 2 guitars and say "if only it was a bit more....."

[MzI]

piece of paper and a pencil, im in architecture school so i know how to design already which is a big help

MzI

[Southpa]

My last guitar is a tracing of the treble side of my Hagstrom III, flipped the guitar over and traced again to get a mirror image. My current guitar is from a printout of a Gibson SG CAD drawing.

As far as "unique" designs, I would use drafting tools, to maintain symmetry and balance where required. That is, using protractor to draw radiuses (radii?), all on a large piece of paper. When the overall shape is drawn I would cut it out and trace it onto the wood I plan to use.

[MzI]

autocad, corel draw and other programs on the computer can be helpful too if you know how to use them

MzI

[JFC]

I do everything i coreldraw.

[spirit]

I have only "designed" one guitar, and it's basically a telecaster with a slightly adjusted shape. This is 'cos it's gonna be my first and I don't want it to be too complicated to cut and what not.

[Reaper]

The easiest way is to take a guitar you already like and take an outline of it on paper.

That's what I did for my first... the other thing you could try is to use a French curve.

[frank falbo]

Some of the biggest "mistakes" I see in traditional strat variations (I realize they're not really mistakes if they're intentional) are that designers don't keep a consistency from one area to the next. When I design I like to do it with the "flow of the eye" in mind. For example, I like guitars where the top cutaway seems to flow right into the bottom cutaway. Most guitars do this but some seem to have the cutaways randomly placed, so the eye has to move over to follow the line. So I like to be able to make a "C" type line that flows from one cutaway to the other. The Ibanez BTB bass series is a perfect example of this. It also flows in the other directions too. You can take a line starting at the top strap button, and swoop it around in "orbit" to flow right into the lower bout. If you continue it all the way around it will flow from the elbow area across again, right around to the treble cutaway. And the beveled edge just enhances that. I don't know if they did this on purpose or if someone's "artwork" just happened to do it, but I like guitars that have a sense of flow. almost like if you took the lines all the way out it would make a sort of infinity sign. It would be stretched and offset, but lately I've been sort of "crosschecking" my designs that way. The "X" pattern through the middle usually intersects around the B string in between the neck and middle pickup. It's really interesting because I can take several of my rough designs that I like, and although they are very different, that X seems to end up right around the same spot. If I do rejected designs or factory guitars that I don't like, it's either somewhere else, or it's "off the map" because the guitar doesn't have a flow. Just a little info from a different perspective. I wish I could draw it out in a program to illustrate what I'm talking about.

[skibum5545]

For my bass, my process was rather simple: I traced my G&L SB-1, and labeled the scale length position and centerline, then modded the pocket area to fit a stanard J-Bass neck. Then I printed out a picture of a J bass, and sized it so it was the same width as the G&L (12"). The pic had the bridge installed, so I lined up the centerlines and the scale length lines, and then traced on the J bass. What I ended up with was somewhere between the two shapes, with the angled and "swung out" bridge side of the J bass and the general size of the G&L. Then, it fiddled with the curves to make it more visually pleasing, shortened the bottom horn, and lengthened the top horn. I did this all on white paper with pencil. After this was done, I made a bunch of full size copies at Copymax, and used them for various purposes.

[GregP]

The guitar I'm working on is just a modification of existing designs.

I took a CAD file of a 335, another one of a double-cutaway Les Paul, printed them out, superimposed them and used my eye and instinct to draw what I saw as a "metamorphosis" between the two of them.

Once I had that done, I wanted a bit more precision, so I went back into the CAD program and modified the 335 drawing in order to match what I came up with using pencil and paper.

I have yet to make a truly "original" design, so I'll let you know when the time comes.

Greg

[jefm]

I doodle....I usually start with a design in mind...then it looks bad on paper...then I toy with it till it doesn't suck anymore...then I take my french curves and clean everything up

Also if you're looking to be inspired.....draw blobby shapes and weird curvy squiggles and even just circles until something catches your eye...

Don't waste time on them at this stage...just put down every stupid thing that comes to mind....screw it up even...who cares it's just thumbnails...then you can develop the ones you like more later...

[Hotrock]

I've only tried to design a guitar once (well a proper design and not a doodle).

I started by just doodling loads of different shapes and then modifying and redrawing. My artistic girlfriend was trying to teach me to break the overall shape down into it's componant shapes but I'm more autistic than artistic. Once I had the basic shape down that I was after I started on AutoCAD and kept modifying it on the computer. It's best not to delete any of the shapes as you can use bits and pieces from all over the place.

THEN FINALLY AFTER WEEKS OF DRAWING..................

.................I decided to build '59LP Jr as my design was still butt ugly and I just couldn't beat the shape.

Good luck dude, hope it goes better than mine did

[aeli]

I get my desings from my english notebook.

[KTLguitars]

I understand I'm spoilt, as I can use the high end 3D CAD and FEM tools, I normally use at work, in my spare time:

Here is how...

Here is what it becomes...