Custom Electric Guitar

Functional Art.

This project was undertaken as a personal one to design a custom electric guitar that also acted as a work of art. the guitar was to have a rustic “beater” colour scheme that evoked a sense of wear and heavy use that implied a generational instrument passed down through the ages. This was a test of woodworking, electrical knowledge and aestehtic sensibility.

multiple sketches 1.jpg — Concept Development

Ideation & Concepts that were taken into further development.

Early CAD

Early CAD of the guitar was modelled in fusion 360, this was an attempt at understanding a new piece of software in my design tool kit.

The Process

This project was completed over a time span of one year of on and off work as it was balanced around academic work and time available for project work. It was a long process with a few changes along the way that resulted in the final model of the guitar.

I decided to create the body at half the thickness that of what a normal electric guitar would be. Sloping towards the edges of the guitar the thickness is 21mm as opposed to the normal 42mm all the way through that you would find on a normal electric guitar. To ensure the pickups for the guitar had enough space the middle of the guitar needed to be 42mm thick, this resulted in creating a "spine" along the middle of the back of the guitar.

I chose to slope this spine smoothly into the rest of the guitar, this creates a seamless transition from 42mm to 21mm in thickness, this also creates a very comfortable feel on the players body as the spine of the guitar slots in below the rib cage and the hip. This serves to make the guitar feel more as an extension of the body and through that more ergonomic and natural.

On the inside…

The body of the guitar contains two single coil pickups, a jack socket, two pots one to control volume and one to control tone, it also contains a switch that cycles through the different modes that the pickups can be played in.

All the control electronics were housed underneath a copper plate that was to have a patina applied to it, but I eventually decided against that as I preferred the way it stood out once placed on the body of the guitar against the colour scheme.