'ello der

sorry this has been pretty delayed. it's taken a while to recover from finals..the past 2 days have been just as full as when i still had school to deal with. anyways, it's my understanding that i need to have a follow-up blog. again i apologize for not posting the week before..i just wasn't ready to say anything yet since i spent a lot of time thinking about what needed to be on my poster [which turned out alright i think] as well as on my slides, which i was really concerned about for a while. regardless, i think the class as a whole went alright and everyone's presentations were excellent. mhm!

a rundown on the presentation i gave, roughly. there are some facts here and there that i included that i thought about saying but opted out of. i figure the more my train of thought here is fleshed out, the easier it'll be to pick up again on the second leg of the trip. yup!

introduce the focus: my concentration is on the physical relationship between guitar and guitarist.

I: history...starting with les paul's "log" guitar and transition from there to the mass-production of solid body instruments once luthiers realize that electric guitars don't need all the resonance and space that acoustics do in order to make noise good sounding noise when amplified..

1950: fender esquire hits production lines..
1951ish: the guitar that bears les paul's name, the les paul [henceforth "LP"] is introduced in reaction to the esquire's success.
1954: the strat is introduced...boom. musicians like buddy holly help the success of the electric guitar industry skyrocket.
1961: the SG is produced after a sinking year for gibson, as a response to the strat. the sg was marketed as a new les paul body, but Les himself apparently wasn't big on it, and his name was officially removed soon afterwards.

the electric guitar becomes a runaway hit for its ease of use and transport, but perhaps most importantly, how easy it was to amplify. for years acoustics had been suffering severely from feedbacking, or the hum, buzz, crackle, pops, and squeals that are sometimes heard at live shows. electrics were more resistant to feedback [but not immune!]..regardless, the music industry was, is, and will continue to have been undeniably changed.

"the but": through generations of passing instruments and vinyls down, the appreciation for old tone and vintage instruments created a backward looking industry that clutches the old way of doing things while reluctant to adapt or accept what technology can offer the art...ie, telecasters [show the series of tele's]

"the what": the problem spaces that i am examining. again, with some clever wordplay they become one problem space..which is the non-musical physical relationships between the guitarist and his or her instrument. bad design or too much clinging to the past? either way, i want to do something about how the instrument interacts with the human body, especially while sitting down. the way the form fits to us, the way the controls are placed, primarily.

what the project is NOT: a rejection of the past, a focus on pure function*, or a hope to CHANGE the guitar industry or how people view or value guitars [especially vintage ones!] it's not a throwing away of tradition!

what the project IS: an encouragement of story. if the beautiful story that is written by the player and instrument interaction can be less hampered by poor design, then self-expression will be at least less hindered by physical barriers.

next steps: either a more well-researched, familiar body with perhaps an action packet for guitar companies to consider the research i've done AND/OR a way to digitally edit bodies with some form of software, basically a more DIY type of guitar construction, tailored to the individual.

YEAP. thanks for a great quarter everyone! cheers. :]
anthony