Senior Thesis: Design a Kick Ass guitar Phase 1

[roachello]

I'm pretty nervous posting my sketches. All front view so far and perhaps really conceptual looking, but after meeting and consulting with many professors, mentors, and design professionals including Ravi Sawhney the CEO of RKS, the consensus is that if I want to design an electric guitar for my senior thesis for Industrial Design, I need to "revolutionize the guitar".

1.) I'm very traditional when it comes to guitars. The more vintage, the more I like it

but also

2.) Change isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's the next step to the newest product, and guitar design isn't going anywhere these days.

Therefore, my thesis is to reduce material waste and to create a guitar that looks awesome and changes the way you look at and/or play the guitar.

Soooo....

Here are my initial sketches! Poll included: which do you like the best? My professor won't let me just re-style another solid bodied guitar so it has to look funky! Phase 2 will be to take the top 2 or 3 designs you guys like the most and to make it work = thicken the parts that look weak and add some detail (Also some perspective views).

Let the voting begin!

[roachello]

Discarded Sketches:

► Show Spoiler

[stewart]

i like number 7.

[serfx]

i'm still voting for 12
even if there is no poll option

[Mages]

number 7 is cool. I voted for 4. some of the discarded sketches are pretty cool. I like the idea of the cutaway going under the strings but I also want a decent sized guitar to hold onto.

edit: actually now that I think of it, 4 and 7 might be flawed in that if you were to sit down with them, your leg would go right through to the strings.

[roachello]

Haha, yep, 4,7, and 3 were in that flawed batch, but I decided to stick it in there n e way, maybe fill the void with some acrylic to maintain the aesthetic if either of them wins. And there should be an option for 12... sorry Serfx but yeah! It's still votable!

Thanks guys! All critiques are valuable to me!

[cooter]

I voted 6 for style and function.
In the discarded batch I like the one on the right in the top row. I'm also diggin' the middle and right one in the second row.

[Ankhanu]

I'm something of a traditionalist, like you, but I understand the point of the exercise and your need to do something "wacky" (I started out in engineering before moving over to biology). I notice that most of the designs cut out under the strings; this is a pretty neat idea, but leaves me with structural/stability concerns. I imagine that considerations of materials comes at a later stage, but have you thought about how to deal with the torsion forces to maintain a stable structure under tension? Most of the deisgns that I've seen similar to these where there is a lack of structure continuity under the strings have metal bars for stability... which looks ridiculous. THIS could be a pretty revolutionary bit of design, figuring out how to make a stable structure without some sort of spar there.

Of the ones you have there, I suppose I like #11. It's interesting, has the under string cut-out, and looks like it would be one of the better designs to play sitting down. There could even be room for a bridge pickup there. Really, I like your discarded designs better, but... this goes back to needing to revolutionize; while they're awesome, they're a bit derivative with modification.

[James]

The polls here only take 9 options. Any votes for the higher ones are not counted at all (either that are they go onto 9, I can't remember which).

I'd vote for 11 for similar reasons to Ankhanu. I also like the top middle one of the discarded designs.

[tomin8r]

I like the 3 one on the first disregarded design page, love the SX SJM style. I think your sketch pulled it off better than the Rondo version

[SKC Willie]

I like the 9 discarded more than any of the current :/

Mainly, the second set of discarded.

[Mages]

some really far out stuff here: http://www.spaltinstruments.com/instruments/hybrids/

for example...

[DGNR8]

some really far out stuff here: http://www.spaltinstruments.com/instruments/hybrids/

for example...

I didn't know they made an anal intruder in spalted.

[DGNR8]

The polls favor 5 so far. I see 5 as a practical choice. My kneejerk reaction was far and away #2. It's light, balanced, and if made in maple would be plenty strong (and even heavy enough). Have you thought about pickup variations? I guess it would be too ambitious to make one completely out of junk bicycle parts and TV tubes. Better to graduate!

I can't wait to see one of those finished.

[lorez]

i really like 1. but why do they all remind me of the hammers/teachers from Pink Floyds The Wall? Very Gerald Scarfe

[timhulio]

What is your guitar going to be made of? Wood or metal or some sort of composite? It's gonna have to be strong whatever.

To my mind your designs are still too traditional, more taking guitar design and trying to make it whacky rather than breaking a guitar down to it's basic elements and throwing everything superfluous away. How about a lightweight moulded framework made from recycled materials (plastics, or aluminium cans) that supports the pickups (make the pickups hot-swappable, like an Ampeg Dan Armstrong) tuners and bridge. The only bits that need to be contoured or comfy are the few points where the guitar makes contact with the player whilst seated. Flying Vs or Steinbergers make no concessions in this department but are best played standing up.

I like the Teuffel Birdfish as a concept, even though aesthetically the Tesla is more appealing.

[Bacchus]

That Birdfish is amazing.

[Viljami]

You study ID too? Wow!

What materials are you thinking of using?

Number one gets my vote, btw.

Will you do the guitar from scratch or..?

[Asher]

That Birdfish is amazing.

WANT


But if you're considering what shapes not to use, here are a couple: http://www.otheroom.com/namm04/Guitars.htm

[roachello]

colabonham you study ID??? This excites me much, my graduating class has only 20 ID students within the whole Cal State University: this just shows you how "large" the ID world really is.

Timhulio- got some great points there. I was thinking of making it more conceptual on the material side, where I would propose a material made out of recycled wood pulp mixed with a resin to create a casted or injection moulded body. I created 2 CAD models based on 2 designs which were popular off facebook polls, IRL polls, and shortscale poll but decided that #5 was still too traditional. That being said, my proposed models were stiil too traditional so I'm going to have to do some new sketches.

Changes to be made:
-My advisors want me to go more digital: no analog knobs
-The forms were not radical enough. It still needs to be broken down more to it's bare minimum.

Damn, so these models go to waste and so I start from scratch where everything has to be made before May 24th:

(Note: Thicknesses for CAD 2 would have been adjusted to house electronics)

► Show Spoiler