The aim of this project was to make an electric guitar that addresses issues which effect sound and playability of the instrument and also its life span. Thus, in turn making a smooth playing, warm and rich sounding guitar suitable for rock and metal genre.
Take a look at the video to know more about the final product.
The design process
My approach towards this project was quite different from what I have learned so far during my education. This was an experimental take, I would say. Not exactly human centric design, I tried focusing more on product and the senses it would have impact on; Sense of touch, sight, sound and smell to be exact. Apart from this my major focus went into playability and ergonomics of the instrument.
Then I learnt and compared different guitar making techniques and chose practices that were suitable for this particular context.
I also built two quick rigs of full functioning one string electric guitar (Iktara) (entirely, even the pickups), in order to understand how an electric guitar works.
I studied, analysed and compared modern and traditional guitar building materials.
I researched thoroughly about different tone woods and their properties, clearing all the doubts by reading several research papers.
I also visited a nearby Sawmill to take a look at all kinds of woods personally.
The only job of a musical instrument is to make music and allow the user to do that easily. It was because of this realisation that I decided on following priorities for this project:
Problem Identification:
Then I observed and listed problems in existing typical electric guitar. These were 36 problems in total, which are listed in report.
Following this, I started figuring out solutions to these problems and also construction related challenges that I would face. I sketched out each and every single idea and also made blueprints of tools that I would need to build before making the guitar itself.
After this I worked on form and aesthetics of the product.
After refinement I decided on building following concept. I chose this particular concept because of its sound qualities and ease of playing. Also, this shape was familiar with the mass and hence this concept was widely accepted.
Making the guitar
With concept and blueprints ready, I went ahead with making the product. A huge challenge for me at this stage was to acquire a whole bunch of new crafting skills within span of a month. Even the material I used- Indian rosewood, is considered to be very difficult to work with.
Even a few millimetres deviation in dimensions of construction can mess up the whole guitar. So, I always kept a blank of wood by my side to practice on before performing that particular task on the final one.
Following are the pictures that summarise the prototyping stage.
A huge part of this project was to maintain material honesty. I used genuine Indian rosewood due to its tone and rarity. I used bone to make the nut saddle.
While trekking in a jungle I stumbled upon an 15-20 year old animal skull (image below) that I thought deemed perfect for building guitar nut saddle. I picked up that skull and treated it over months with dilute hydrogen peroxide to clean it up. After that I carved a blank out to it.
I also learned to use various hand tools. This was the hardest part. I remember not being able to even sharpen a chisel until my 9th attempt!
I also kept on made several mistakes but did learn a lot from them. Few of the scars can still be seen on the final product.
A huge challenge for me was to work within limited resources. My workshop didn't have professional luthier tools so I had to build some for myself. For eg: I built a neck relief gauge (image 1) that was able to detect bow in my guitar's neck within thousands of an inch! I also had to make my own radius sanding block too (image 3) just to give a minute 9.5 inch radius to the fretboard.
The most intricate part was- neck and body joint of guitar. If the joint is loose, the guitar's sustain would be ruined and if its too tight, in case wood expands due to weather change, it might develop a crack. So in order to get the perfect snug fit I had to do 9 tedious iterations of this one single cavity before finally transferring it to the guitar body (image 2).
User feedback
After the guitar was built and tested I called 9 volunteers to try it out and give feedback. Out of this only 2 were experienced players who play electric guitar on a regular basis.
This is how they reacted:
Pros
"The guitar was fun to play."
"The 9.5 inch fretboard radius is quite noticeable and comfortable."
"Sounds very good!"
"The string action is quite low, makes playing easy."
Cons
"Guitar weighs 6 kg. It's not a lot when compared to other heavy wood guitars but is quite noticeable."
"The low E string keeps slipping due to crafting error."
I have noted these issues and will improve on these in future iterations.
Following is a video compilation of the entire project, in detail.
Above project summary shows the experimental nature of the design process and degree of details that have been worked on at each stage. I personally am very happy with the project, yet unsatisfied as there are still a lot of improvement opportunities. I will indeed work on these in future.
