warmachine

I like number 2 myself. BTW...on guitar number 6 it's a Steve Vai handle. SRV didn't have one on his strat

You are right. These designs are 100% the kids work. I stayed out of the way. thanks for your vote.

I started a thread last summer about a guitar design project that I was doing with my drafting class. Well the results are in. Things didn't go as planned but here are the designs that they come up with. each student completed and presented several Power Point presentations during the year on tone woods, parts of a guitar, guitar manufacturers, etc. Then i asked them to come up with their own design. And here they are. Please vote on the one you like best. Also, be kind these are high school students and most didn't know what end was up on a guitar before they started. Thanks.

Please follow this link and vote for your favorite. I couldn't gt the scans uploaded, Photobucket is banned at the school.

I have been out of school for 20 years too. This is only my third year of teaching. Bit when I was a senior in high school I had music 3 classes a day, drafting 3 classes a day and English.

Thanks, Jaycee. I already have it. I have a couple of others as well. I am also going to have a couple of my buddies who have built guitars come in and work with my class.

I will be having my students register and become members of this site in a week or two. This project has really started to get support behind it. Thank you for providing a forum for my students.

Have you tried this site, http://www.guitarplansunlimited.com/ ? They sell plans and templates.

It is a bolt on neck.I will check Carvin out. Anywhere I can save money to spend on other parts is a plus. Thanks.

I am not sure where I am going to get my neck. I have a Chandler body that I bought back in 1991 that I am going to use. I slapped a Peavey neck on it then. It was a piece of crap neck. Any suggestions on where I can geta compatible neck? Or any information about about Chandler bodies.

Cool, I guess I just didn't read enough on the site.

I know this might seem like a stupid questions but when you buy a neck from Warmoth is it fretted? I am getting ready to build a bass and I don't want to have to build the neck.

As far as designing you could have the kids do a design asthetically or for shape and what not and then the everyone as a whole would work on the winning design and work out the technical things like dimensions and scale and others. That would be more of a group idea, but anyway.

BTW what program are you guys using? Autodesk AutoCad, Inventor, Pro E? I'm involved in an engineering program up here in Michigan.

I will be using AutoCAD and Inventor. I think because of funding I am only going to build one. We are going to have the other students,other teachers and a poll on here to decide on the final design.

Here's a thought:

The body is painted with Cap's shield as big as possible so that it covers the entire face. Cap's your guy so he's your focus. The headstock can have an inlay of the Marvel 'M' logo. The fret markers can be inlays representing your favorite titles: a round Spider-Man face, Daredevil's double-D from his chest, the Fantastic Four's 4 symbol, the X-Men's yellow & black X, the classic Avengers A, etc. If you start at the 1st fret and go to the 19th, you'd have 9 titles to pay homage to.

You are dead on to what I as thinking. I had thought about the inlays last night. I might be getting a Fender Jazz bass neck off of Ebay. If I get it cheap enough I might be inclined to experiment on it.

I think I like the idea of a Marvel tribute guitar. Cap is my favorite but I also like Punisher, Daredevil.....I have I friend who might be able to do some air brushing for me. Or I could make mylar images and apply them.

i wish I had a teacher like you at my school.

I'm new to teaching, this is only my second year. I was in civil engineering and architecture for 15 years before I started teaching. Some days I really suck, it has been hard to find things to get the kids motivated and interested while I'm trying to figure teaching out. I think this guitar project is going to be a huge success if I can pull it off.

The Iceman body would be an appropriate and subtle nod to the X-Men. Were you thinking a tribute to Marvel as a whole, or just to Captain America?

I'm undecided at this point. Any thoughts?

I thought doing Cap's shield. Have the star around the pickups and put the red and white around it like Zakk Wylde's Les Paul. I'm thinking about using an Iceman style body or maybe an Explorer.

I forgot that I even typed it in. I usually try to post between class or when the kids are working in class. They are really excited about this project. I think we might build it in house and having building construction and auto body work on it with us.

Sounds like a great idea.

If you tell where you live, there may even be some of us in the local area who could come in and talk.

Greenbrier East High School in Lewisburg, West Virginia

He told us in the first post.

Are you a Captain America fan? I also collect comics and I am a huge Cap fan. I am going to build a bass this summer and have been playing with the idea of making a Marvel comics bass.

Sounds like your doing a great thing for the kids. More young people should learn exacting technical work, I know it helped me a lot learning this kind of thing at a young age.

Definitely post/have your students post any questions they might have, this place is a great way to learn. 99% of the members here are very knowledgeable helpful people.

You could even have a sub project where they have to use the search engine here and find answers to questions you give them.

If you *really* want to challenge them and have them learn something you could bring the physics of a vibrating string into it also with questions like, what is a scale length and why does it matter when applied to the way a guitar string vibrates to produce a tone? Or what happens to the vibrating string when you fret it at a higher position on the neck?

This could be really cool for your students.

This project is still in the early planning stages so getting a physics teacher on board is something I might consider. The vocational department at my school is trying to turn our image around and this is a way to attract a variety of kids to our classes.

I am going to stress research and thinking outside of the norm.

Once I get a my plan finalized I will post a copy so I can get some input from the builders.

Thanks

I guess the first question though is, have you ever built a guitar. While coming up with a unique shape may be easy, designing one for playability and and functionality is a little more difficult. Teaching the students how to design one and have them do it on CAD is a great idea, but you have to have enough knowledge to be able to teach it first. Explaining such things as scale length, pickup positions and styles and how pickups work. Those are all things that the kids are going to either want or need to know. Teaching them about neck angle, setup and action are all necessary just to make a design that is playable. And then on top of that the different building techniques and how the designs must accomodate them.

I built a bass about 20 years ago. I plan on having CAD lessons mixed with lessons about guitar building and the history of the electric guitar and the great players. I needed a project to get my kids interested in doing research and really putting the time into a project. I will put a poll up to let you guys have a vote in the winning design. I am going to have my students with the marketing class and make an ad for the their design. Part of my class is going to involve getting a guitar in their hands and getting a feel for the instrument. I also plan on having some local players come in and talk about their rigs and playing for the kids.

Again, thanks for your comments and support.

A sub-forum may be a good idea. I will probably post pictures and sketches at various stages during the course. Thanks for the support.

Hello,

I am a high school drafting teacher at Greenbrier East High School in Lewisburg, West Virginia. I have been playing bass since 1988. Next year in my advanced drafting class I am going to have my students design a guitar or bass, I am thinking about holding a design contest and build the winning design.

This forum looks to be the most informative that I have found. To the Admins, would it possible for my students to post here? Or should I act as a go between and post any questions that I can't answer.

Thank you for your time.