anthy

crossed fingers blog

2010-05-13T00:18:00.000-07:00

hey all. so i've gotten some absolutely fantastic responses for the previously posted questionnaire thingy. i'm really grateful, and surprisingly [well, maybe not that surprisingly] a lot of the feedback i've gotten has lined up perfectly with what i've been investigating and the hunches i've had about guitar design. so thankful!

i just dropped $300 on parts. I . HOPE . THIS . WORKS . seriously haha it's getting down to crunch time now and things are picking up real fast! getting pretty stressed now. i bought a body blank, a bridge, a control plate, control cavity templates, strap locks, string retainers, a neck, and something else that i now can't remember. also expedited shipping so things should be here soonish. the reason i bought so many "real" guitar parts is because i would hope that people can experience my artifact in the most physical way. what better way to understand research on physical relationships than being in one? i also bought strap locks so that people can sit AND stand with the artifact and be able to see the difference between the standard and the modified. oh. right.

since i have ready access to one, and also since it is widely acknowledged as the first mass-produced electric solidbody, i'll be working on modifying a telecaster body. i have full blueprints for the original fender specs, and so i'll woodwork out the general shape and add on the things i've found. so far, definitely some good work and some sketching done on the potential knob and switch placements. results to the "timed" knob turning while placed at different areas experiment should be done in the next day or so.

stress. full.

the FB questionnaire

2010-05-10T11:19:00.000-07:00

this is for my friends on FB that are electric guitarists...the intention is to fill out the research that i have already and bolster what is to come. hopefully i can pull quotes out of this to help strengthen my project's introductory section.
cheers!

Hey there! It’s been a while since I was on Facebook, but I’m back temporarily to ask all of you a few questions for my Design Thesis, which is coming up in a few weeks. If you’re receiving this and you’re 1: not a guitarist or 2: not an electric guitarist, go ahead and ignore it, sorry for the mistake! My project is based solely on electric guitar design.
That said, the project is specifically focused on the non-musical physical relationship between the guitar and the guitarist. In the context of the project, the “non-musical” relationship refers to the way that the player experiences the instrument, specifically the body shape and the control rig, especially while playing sitting down.
The issues I’ve been toying with for the past two quarters has been how the tradition of the electric guitar has been passed down from generation to generation alongside dusty vinyls and tapes with the axe-slinging legends of before, and how the electric has thus become a heritage that guitarists are fiercely defensive of. Because of this, electric guitar designs that were made in the 50’s and 60’s have changed little, even if they could benefit from design or technological improvements. Things like knocking the controls/switches out of position while strumming or having a hard time playing the instrument because of the way it fits against the human body are the main issues I’m addressing here.
The goal of the project is definitely not to throw away the legacy and heritage of electric guitars, but to suggest ways to help improve the design in such a way that the guitarist can express him or herself unhampered by some of the patchy design work that was done 50 some years ago.
If you have questions about the project or how this information will be used, go ahead and email me at a12@u.washington.edu. None of your personal information will be used, and if I use a quote from you I’ll be certain to check with you before putting it into my work.
Thanks again for doing this!
1: Electric guitar[s] you use most? Make and model please.
2: Style[s] of music you play?
3: Do you have any complaints about the way the body of the instrument sits or feels uncomfortable against you? Please identify the specific areas.
4: Do you have any complaints about the way your controls [knobs and switches] are laid out or placed on the body?
5: Any additional questions or comments?

Thanks again!

a few updates..and the concept of balance.

2010-04-30T15:59:00.000-07:00

so i haven't had a chance to set up the projector yet, but tomorrow i have probably 10+ hrs to work on capstone stuff. i'm pretty excited, i just ran into an old friend from one day's wages [to see what they're all about www.onedayswages.org !] and her boyfriend was presenting his senior thesis and we got to talking about guitars [naturally] since we're both big on buying parts and guitar assembly. i'll see him at the undergraduate research symposium, so that'll be fun.

it's just dawning on me that this project is reaching a close in about 4 weeks. it terrifies and excites me.

anyways. i recently got an email from an old DS friend about her husband's connection to the industry [if you're reading this...thanks! i'll be emailing him later on tonight hopefully!] and so i think it'll be cool to pick his brain a bit.

one major thing that i feel i've overlooked [or at least not expressed enough of] is balance though. many musicians i've talked to complain of unbalanced instruments..what i mean by this is that the body or neck are either too heavy or too light. i've heard often of this happening for gibson style instruments, say, for custom les pauls that are oversized, or maybe for SGs whose thin and lightweight body structure aren't heavy enough to offset the weight of the neck and headstock, resulting in an instrument that leans to one side when standing or sitting with a strap. it may not necessarily be a HUGE deal, but i think it's still important. an instrument safely nestled into your body will likely be more comfortable and playable than one that leans away from you. i hope that's clear enough an understanding.

next monday is the 2nd stepping stone presentation. i feel like i've come quite a way from the 1st stepping stone presentation this quarter, but it's still not enough yet. if i have time i'm going to go to a church friend's house and use his equipment to hack out a basic body shape out of some affordable wood to help drive home my points on monday....hopefully it'll work out! yup.
cheers team.
anthony

just a hello

2010-04-25T20:31:00.000-07:00

hey folks. so here is a fun product i saw.
// anyways, as of today i have now 8 clips of 4 people playing their electrics, ranging from teles to strats to hollowbodies. the quest for hopefully an SG or les paul continues, though i have maybe 1 friend willing to help out who owns a les paul.

regardless, the plan as of now is to rent or borrow a projector from CSS and outline kind of how each player strums along. initially i was kinda worried about how it might turn out but surprisingly everyone has pretty noticeable differences in strumming styles. well, i guess it's not that surprising, but it's interesting to note nonetheless, since normally one wouldn't notice. cool stuff, methinks. thanks to tim, kevin, andreas, and stefan who have helped out so far. i have at least 2 more people lined up, my hope is for about 10 people to get the really solid info i would like. we'll see how it plays out.
cheers
anthony

video logs

2010-04-24T00:47:00.000-07:00

hey all. just a quick check in. hope people's weeks have been good. tomorrow i have lined up a pair of guitarist friends that i grew up with to record them playing and interacting with their instruments, whether that be sitting down or standing up. they play different models [that is, like, different body shapes] which is fantastic as well-that way i get a better understanding of multiple body shapes instead of being confined to the 2 or 3 that i own. i'll let you all know how the recording process goes,
but the idea for the recording at all is that i can observe on my own time the way that each of their arms move in arcs while playing guitar, whether it be for fast songs, slow songs, jazz, rock, metal, blues, or what have you [they are both fantastically multitalented, so i suspect it should be good]

cheers team
anthony

today in DS...what is DS?!

2010-04-19T09:12:00.000-07:00

from a discussion in class today...this is what our working definition of Design Studies is, for the senior DSers at least.
skills:
adaptable process
write/communicate with or for diverse audiences
gather and synthesize disparate information

goals:
find new relevant problems,
connect design to outside fields
change behavior or ways of thinking

products:
understanding for how designs fit into larger systems.
novel frameworks for understanding information
these products may be more traditional graphic or physical designs or a design for a system.

real - world idears.

2010-04-17T22:05:00.000-07:00

it's been a long time...so i have this strat body [squier 80's ish] coupled with a late 80's squier 2 neck. no pickups, no pickguard, just a bridge, a trem arm, and an output jack and jack plate. nothing else.

what i intend to do is to use the holes that are built into the body, i'll "nail" a sheet of paper or some sort of related material [probably uhh that cereal boxy material. chipboard!] and use a marker or some such to mark down different picking/strumming patterns for a song or songs with fast, slow, and solo-ing passages. i'll ask a few friends to help as well, people i know who have really comprehensive, well - versed understandings and experiences with multiple styles, say, rock, blues, jazz, whatever else, and use different colors for each clip or style. hopefully that'll give me a good idea of what areas i've already suspected fall under the "danger zone" of strumming and knocking controls out of wack.

i experienced that the past few days [which are really the reason i haven't been posting...all week i've either been stressing over school or playing for the worship team at 30 hr famine]. we played 2 gigs back to back, and with that number of knobs and controls on my guitar, on my pedals, on my amp, and on the soundboard it can quickly become overwhelming. i see why for many guitarists the simpler, the better.

tim and i were recently talking about wah pedals [for those of you don't know, the wah pedal does what it sounds like. wah-wah type noises, really rich swept distortion sort of thing. it's kinda hard to explain but i am positive all of you have heard it somewhere]. anyways, he has this fancy model and i have the most, most, most basic one and i was just telling him that as much as i like having control over how i sound, if i can't figure out how to get a sound i like within a minute or two i get worried and kind of tired. i understand why now that more useable and understandable controls can be accepted as better than instruments [or anything, even!] with massive control over tiny details.

i don't want to put words in other people's mouths, but for technology as vintage, revered, and spartan as guitar innards i see why it's true. too much is too much. if you look at the moog guitar, it is often hailed as a groundbreaking instrument with fascinating levels of complexity and built in-midi control [it can make noises other than guitar noises...pretty much anything you can think of] but it's just too many controls. as i'm looking now it has 3 gold knobs [?] 2 black knobs, 2 gold switches and 1 black switch, and 2 different output jacks. madness. i have a few ideas for control layout but don't want to say much yet for fear of putting the cart in front of the horse. yup

uh..

2010-04-05T09:41:00.001-07:00

for those of you following along....enough said. bo diddley's awesome and all, but imagine playing this sitting >.>

well actually don't imagine....found one! interesting.... hm haha

the worst article...EVER.

2010-04-04T22:58:00.000-07:00

i hate to be mean but i seriously just read one of the most useless reference articles in the history of history. i won't blog about where it was or who wrote it, since that would be cruel...but it was just...terrible.

it jumped from topic to topic with little connection, random and unproven facts interwoven awkwardly with opinion, and actually repeated the same sentence [or almost the same sentence] a few times in the post. ouch.

i kinda then realized that that was a little what i was doing...tailspinning a lot. i think i'll talk to dominic again. i know these things take a lot of time and effort to push through, but the more i struggle with it now [and not 5 weeks from now..] the better my product will be, i just know it. taking linda's class last quarter and pushing out 6ish iterations of just my final paper before finally striking compost-research-paper gold definitely reminded me of that. it's been a long time since i've been motivated to really work for something, and last quarter i've started to pick up the pieces. the past few years have been a bit tough for my family and i, but i'm tired of that being my excuse to create garbage designs. all my design profs and TAs, and even my friends at ODW have seen truly subpar work. part of it is yea, i'm just not that great a designer, but a lot of that is also just because i can't find the motivation to do anything anymore. people joke about not being motivated but literally. i cannot get out of bed. i cannot clear the fog in my head. i cannot focus for more than 5 minutes...all these things i can't do and i'm tired of it. gonna go to sleep early. fresh start. fresh week.

uh. anyways. here's to an effortful quarter.
this week i'm gonna make a trip out to EMP hopefully, find some more articles, and narrow down some more. i wanna talk to dominic tomorrow about my focus and goals, since the directions i felt like i was headed towards last week were directions that i'm really..not that interested in. maybe i should go more theoretical than physical. hrm.

progress?

2010-04-03T22:33:00.001-07:00

so i can't say honestly that i've made big progress as of late.
after meeting with dominic he encouraged me to push more towards controls and such, which is fine, i guess, but the more i think about it the less i'm actually really into the controls aspect. okay. i need to say it's not that i'm no longer interested, i just don't know what i am actually interested in anymore. anyone else??! ay.

regardless, i actually went into the UW libraries to try and find some cool related articles, which were surprisingly abundant [and relevant!]. the first was about the Garrison bracing system for acoustics. which is kind of old news now, but basically Garrison acoustics use some form of composite material to create a shell bracing for the entire instrument, which replaces every brace and bit of wood within, leaving only the top, sides, back, and neck that need to be fitted to the body. while there are claims that they don't sound as good or are unnatural [again with the resistance to change, especially changes afforded by technology!], but the fact of the matter is that from a strictly business or efficiency point of view this system is awesome. it cuts build time from weeks to probably less than a week, allowing the Garrison manufacturers to produce...multiples of what it used to be able to, and since much of it is automated now [in order to create wood pieces that will fit such exact, unerring bracing systems, machinery is used to cut the wood as well] it saves costs and increases consistency in product quality, tone, and build. interesting tradeoff, i think. i've played a Garrison before. they make gorgeous instruments, but i've heard personally some complaints about the automated system and worries about the composite brace stretching or shrinking in a way that might adversely affect the wood.

the second was about Fender [also a pretty old article] using 3d modelers to design and "test" different modifications for a new line of electric basses. again, while this is old news, it was right along with my CNC DIY idea for guitarists to be able to modify instruments to their exacting needs. but after talking with dominic and coming to the conclusion that it's unlikely that i'd be able to pull off this sort of "digital DIY" type thing [especially since there will most certainly be legal issues and things at stake] so i think i'll stick to something else.
just don't know what yet. ARGHHHH!

a fresh quarter

2010-03-29T09:20:00.000-07:00

my last quarter in actual design school [i still need an art history somewhere next year, but that's not a big deal]
anyways, i'm having some trouble figuring out how to pick up the pieces, so to speak, in regards to my culminating project. there are a lot of things that i want to do [this includes the writing of a brief book to introduce new folks to the guitar/luthier industries, which i started last summer...yup!]

i feel like this last quarter is so unreal..but enough with the sappiness.
i had two major directions to head towards at the end of last term, the first of which was the reworking of a classic design, with subtle changes that could improve the ergonomics and useability, which might result first and foremost in a sort of design package that might reveal to, say, local luthiers, the body of work that i've done and a few key physical areas on conventional guitar designs that might help their process without throwing out tradition.

the second was a little more unconventional, the creation of some form of program or the use of an existing 3d modeler to import bodies from existing guitars [haha uhh copyright alerts..] but allowing tweaks so that users can really push for truly custom guitars through c+c machines [with final hand sanding] without having to pay multiple arms and legs.

for now, to do list:
visit EMP..glean what i can.
start talking to the local luthiers. hank at effectsbay [http://www.effectsbay.com/] and tim from our class have both suggested some local folks to chat up.
eventually get back on FB and conduct an erin-style survey regarding key features that electric guitarists look for, as well as problem areas for those who own common body shapes [this includes strat, tele, LP, SG, and most of their copies]. my focus is specifically on solid bodies, by the way, because semi hollow and hollowbody electrics have their own quirks and needs, whereas solidbodies are less confined by shape for resonance [i said less! not none! haha]

okay. i think that's where i am. about to talk to dominic.............don't have much to talk about yet. : / yikes.
happy spring quarter.

'ello der

2010-03-20T14:13:00.000-07:00

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

dude

2010-03-08T12:11:00.001-08:00

this room is way too cold.

rundown for the final presentation..i hope

2010-03-06T22:54:00.000-08:00

based loosely on the notes i took when we talked about this in class...i feel a little like the final presentation will essentially be a lively explanation of the abstract, with sort of a more strictly defined "next steps" section.

FINAL presentation [wednesday during finals week] outline

-overview: guests probably won't know much about our general topic, so be as
specific and succinct as possible, the 5-7 minute policy will be more strictly
enforced.
basically, go through the history again, the traditions and customs that have built the current electric guitar industry; outlining how it is backwards-looking and very against change, and underlining that while my project will likely involve proposing a change to the way the industry works i do not intend to just throw away the rich legacy that is electric guitars.

-problem: be specific about the problem space we are defining. this will likely
be 2/3 of the whole presentation.
reiteration of the concerns on how the stress on vintage styles and traditions in the industry have caused instruments to change little and spawning wave after wave of knockoffs and similar instruments that have not necessarily had good design research performed as far as ergonomics and ease of use. obviously i don't mean the previous sentence as an all-inclusive end all be all [or however the phrase goes] statement, just a thought.

i want to make clear that certain physical interactions between the stakeholders are not really the most comfortable or healthy without needing to go too far technical.

-suggest a course of action: what next? be specific here as well so that we can
get good feedback on our chosen course of action's feasibility, mention artifact
suggestions [what to make?] and goals to achieve.

uhh....let me come back to this...yup

the continued pursuit of story.

2010-03-03T12:08:00.000-08:00

hello.
so unfortunately i really think for some reason i just pushed the wrong point today at PK. what's frustrating is that i knew all the information that would've made this PK tied perfectly into my previous presentations, but i just didn't...stress it enough. ugh!
anyways, this is more of what i meant to say.

in the past i've been focused sheerly on function. how guitars work and how the player physically interacts with the instrument, presented as mostly mechanical. in hope to find the most strained/heavily touched areas of an instrument i wanted to show some of the relic or road worn instruments. since these are all brand new guitars that are aged to LOOK and feel like they've been played for years, it's safe to say that the strained and worn parts of these guitars are really where the most contacted areas of the instrument are.

when occurring naturally these worn patches, scratches, and dings represent a beautiful story between the player and the instrument [what i said today] BUT they also represent the key points of a well-built physical relationship.

i wish i had made that clearer...and now as i read the above paragraph i wish i made that paragraph clearer too! ay.

the fact of the matter is that my focus is still on the physical aspects, specifically, the controls and the body contours themselves. looking at worn instruments was a way to understand the extremes of the physical relationship, but in examining this i didn't want to ignore the narrative that is formed when a person and his or her guitar exist together.

the key to guitar design, i think, is to create an instrument that bolsters the player's personality and is made not only to look and sound good, but also to feel right when played... however, it MUST also provide a transparent enough guitar playing experience for a faithful story to be written between the stakeholders, this being me and my guitar.

tell me if that makes sense...the final presentation suddenly seems a lot more intimidating than before. . .

"what can this made guitar add to the canon of made guitars?"

2010-03-01T14:12:00.000-08:00

a quote from dominic today that i'm gonna have to mull over a bit more for the pecha kucha on wednesday. i want to include more theoretical mulls-over for my capstone since i don't want to be caught making a guitar for the sake of making one, i want to make one because i am genuinely committed to the field and care about properly founded capstone body of research.

anyways, time for some fun.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhlDsuOEBdY&feature=player_embedded

this is fantastically childish looking to me, but fun nonetheless...yup

acoustasonic tele

2010-02-27T22:25:00.000-08:00

this is the coolest thing i've seen in a while.

oh by the way, thanks kelsey and nat for the comments! i'll respond tomorrow [i'll tell you why later]
anyways, this isn't really THAT related but it's still interesting. fender recently rolled out the "acoustasonic tele,"
which is basically a freaky hybrid between an acoustic and an electric; however, it is NOT an acoustic-electric. i'll define those now: [hi august! haha]
an acoustic generates sound by the reverberations that occur within the instrument, and the tone and volume of the instrument are fixed by the material, shape, craftsmanship, condition, weather, etc. very susceptible to environmental change.
an electric generates sound by the pickups "picking up" the vibrations of the strings and translating that into something the amp or sound system will understand.
an acoustic-electric is USUALLY an acoustic guitar that has an output jack that allows it to be amplified, but not used like an electric. essentially, an acoustic that is plugged in.

the acoustasonic, as i understand it, is none of those. there are very few hybrid funky guitars out there, and this counts as one of them. as far as i can tell, it has the shape, approximate weight [ish], playing "feel", and appearance of a normal telecaster. however, if you'll note the bridge [where the strings meet the body] it is made of rosewood, and this bridge has some sort of acoustic pickup system with piezo crystals...and yet it has an electric pickup in there too. essentially, this guitar can be used as an acoustic, as an electric, or kind of a funky blend of both. interestinggg...and very budget friendly! 900$ is something i'd be willing to pay to play with this guy here.

the reason is this: my dream guitar is a taylor t5 custom. absolutely, ABSOLUTELY stunning instrument. this won awards for best acoustic AND electric guitar of the year a little while back...in the same year. crazy. the concept is similar as the above, but i suspect that taylor just does it better: better materials, better research, and to a point, better craftsmanship. except....this guy is riding on about 3000, or more than three times the above guitar...yup. still. lOOK AT IT. :]

cheers. essay due in 1.5 hrs...should probably get cracking.

the concept of curatorship

2010-02-26T00:16:00.001-08:00

i lost my drafting pencil.

anyways, this past week's PK was on the concept of curatorship. i feel like i somewhat unsuccessfully tried to explain it, or at least i just muddled it some. alas.

the idea basically was the presence of a "curator", if you will, in a guitar research or manufacturing company. just as a museum curator will collect, maintain, and organize works of art in the museum, a guitar curator will collect and organize lists of reviews and artists. in both cases the intention is to influence the target audience of each collection and show the values of the company or museum as a whole..in this way, it takes time to adopt or accept these ideas or perceptions. the most famous museums and guitar companies have time under their belts, but also loving "curators" who were willing to go all out and push against the status quo until they hit the "tipping point". [thanks mal] after that, people are automatically drawn to the product and to the facility or entity that hosts the product, and perceptions are much more solidified even when a person hasn't actually experienced it.

in this case, say, i've never been to the smithsonian or to moma but i know i'll have amazing experiences there, and if i wanted a rock solid instrument i know i could pick up any ernie ball music man or whatever other brand you choose.

regardless, the point of this week's PK for me was to understand more on what it takes for the collective guitar society to accept change...it takes a lot. what exactly, i haven't much idea yet but i know that the product must be able to consistently back up its hype, especially the hype generated and maintained on the product webpage.

cheers.

abstract: retitled "The Artist and the Axe: Redesigning the Relationship Between the Guitar and the Guitarist"

2010-02-21T21:34:00.001-08:00

hello all...this is what i have for my abstract so far...if you have thoughts i'd be happy to hear them. it's been quite a few years since i've needed to write an abstract ! ay.

In the history of music, few instruments have had as dramatic an impact on popular music and culture as the electric guitar. Now a staple of musicians performing and recording worldwide, the electric guitar has proved its worth as an instrument flexible enough to span dozens of genres and influential enough to inspire waves of young musicians to follow in the footsteps of their axe-slinging heroes. This cult following of musicians pursuing the sounds and instrumentation of the legends, however, has built a backwards-looking industry of guitar technology desperately pursuing the past while fiercely resisting change. As a result, many of the most famous guitars have remained largely unchanged from their introduction to market down to the exact specifications of each instrument. Unfortunately, these older styles are often uncomfortable or physically taxing to play, especially while sitting down. Due to design flaws and poorly configured control rigs, controls knobs and switches are difficult to reach or too easy to accidentally adjust while playing, and body shapes do not conform to bodies comfortably. In this research, thorough consideration will be put into the ergonomics of current instruments in respect to the non-musical physical relationships, which are here defined specifically as the player’s interaction with the guitar controls and the body itself. While the intention of the research is not to completely reject the rich history of electric guitars and move towards a more ergonomic solution, the research is meant to develop ideas to improve player comfort and control accessibility without sacrificing aesthetics or tone.

cheers team ! gonna go comment on some friends blogs now. mm. happy sunday evening.

another page share

2010-02-21T15:24:00.000-08:00

so i found this other guy who made a custom instrument, just to show how complicated controls of instruments can really be. this guitar is pretty slick, but it'd confuse me too much at this point, since he made it to exacting standards and ordered controls and such for his own taste.

to share the site: http://www.tsuken.co.nz/my-new-custom-guitar/
his youtube video for him playing a santana song [win!]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9sFThqR1-Q&feature=player_embedded

this is a fantastic instrument and definitely a good glimpse at what controls really can do...almost anything.

cheers..more later.

a little help?

2010-02-21T02:11:00.000-08:00

hey folks [and erin!] soo...i looked a little for a basic video that could explain as much as possible about guitar electronics in as little time as possible.

i found this video from sean peronard. his voice really irks me, and some of the stuff he says i'm a little iffy on, BUT he explains pretty well most of the stuff...his wording is off but it's got some good info. just to help people understand the basics. :D mhm!

knobs description from about 3:49, but when he's talking about the switch and the knobs those are all relevant to my project's direction. the rest of the stuff is relevant, but not directly, since only the knobs and switch are for me relevant to non-musical instrument-player relationship.

yeaa okay this guy's video really is off putting to me, but i watched the whole thing just to make sure that it was largely relevant. yup :]

i'll write my research abstract tomorrow, and post it here for critique. stay tuned ! [and erin i'll respond to your comments...now..must...sleep.]

what i play.

2010-02-15T01:01:00.001-08:00

i spout enough about electrics to maybe just make a person wonder what i play. well here we go. [not to sound pretentious of course, i just want to show y'all what i play..]

the list of instruments in my house:
fender mexican telecaster
fender mexican stratocaster
fender mexican jazz bass
squier by fender japanese strat
ibanez artwood acoustic
epiphone strat copy [not mine]
hamer slammer [not mine]
an old unidentified korean or japanese mustang copy which is now in pieces.

i had an american standard fender strat as well, also not mine, but i returned it.

the number of instruments i have is pretty high for someone who's really not that great at guitar, but it gives me a chance to see how different companies do similar things.

let's take a look at the list again:
in the series of guitars i listed, 4 of them are strats or strat copies, which essentially means that as far as body shape and control configurations they are identical. not that helpful, but that's okay. i have friends who own or have access to several other major electric styles, and of course there is guitar center.

regardless, the following 2 pictures are of my axes. both were constructed with real fender parts i hand picked or bought from ebay. i put a lot of love in these things :]

pedals in chain: tele or strat to...
stock dunlop crybaby...to be modded. definitely.
MXR dyna comp
catalinbread dirty little secret
boss blues driver...to be modded by matt @ www.twitter.com/cheeseblocks hopefully
MXR smart gate

into...a fender blues jr. delicious!

going to get...
MXR carbon copy
catalinbread serrano picoso
AB box from BYOC or JHS

i had a fantastic thought,

2010-02-13T22:15:00.001-08:00

but that was yesterday and now i can't remember it at all. SO. LAME.
anyways, i feel like the interim presentation went...pretty well. i had some great feedback from the class talking about how this PK i actually addressed the problem in a way that non-musicians and specifically [or more broadly?!] non-guitarists could really get behind, and i'm so thankful for that. honestly the PKs before that i felt like i couldn't figure out a way to reach people about my topic in a way that would really mean something to them. in the same way that lauren or erin's presentations on fashion and blues dancing and social dancing, respectively, are completely over my head as far as understanding, i realized fully that it's so crucial to figure out how to reach the audience if they're not involved or knowledgeable in the industry already. i really think that everyone in the class have made leaps and bounds towards this, i mean PK day is stressful to a degree but fantastically eye-opening for all of us too i think.
people like TED speakers come to mind, who 9 times out of 10 are able to introduce their speciality in a particularly stunning and seductive way, that informs listeners with enough background to at least grasp the foundations of the speakers' presentation.

mm anyways, thanks erin for the comment! definitely got me thinkin a bit more....and i'm glad too that hopefully i can still MAKE something :D haha.
so dominic told me last PK that i should explain some about how controls work, since right now i'm focusing on nonmusical physical relationships between the player and the guitar, and controls are...arguably nonmusical but they can also be argued for musical...this is because they are interacted with physically but not to create music, just to modify the sound of the guitar. most controls are for tone, which kind of control the timbre of the instrument, or for volume, which is basically the output level. many electrics also feature a switch of some sorts to control which pickups are "hot", or picking up the vibrations of the strings. different instruments have different configurations, for example: [please note that these are the most common configurations, of course there are tons of exceptions.]

strats and strat copies have 3 pickups: neck, middle, and bridge.
the 5-way switch controls which pickups are being used. generally:
position 1: neck only
position 2: neck and middle
position 3: neck only
position 4: neck and bridge
position 5: bridge only

in addition there are 3 knobs: 1 for master volume, 1 for the tone of the neck pickup, and 1 for the tone of the bridge pickup.

telecasters and tele copies usually have 2 pickups: neck and bridge.
the 3-way switch controls which pickups are being used, generally:
position 1: neck only
position 2: neck and bridge
position 3: bridge

there are 2 knobs: 1 for master volume, and 1 shared tone knob.

gibsons and epiphones [this applies to most les pauls, SGs, etc.] have 2 pickups: neck and bridge.
the 3 switch positions are often referred to as "lead [neck only], middle [both] and rhythm [bridge].
most commonly there are 4 knobs: 2 for each pickup representing volume and tone for each.

i feel like this is getting confusing. bbl team.

later: i realize the irony in finally communicating things alright last week and then posting this blog....sorry.

a shameless plug. well, yea. no shame.

2010-02-09T16:22:00.000-08:00

Interview with Trace Bundy from One Day's Wages on Vimeo.

this is an interview my boss, eugene cho [from one day's wages and quest church] conducts with trace bundy, who is apparently a good friend of his and flat out sick at guitar. if you'll remember a few weeks ago in my presentation i presented the "sticktar", which was a performance and instrument of his...check it out! fantastic. :]

the interim presentation, or, where i am on this guitar project.

2010-02-08T13:26:00.000-08:00

hokay so i'm thinking it's a good idea to really get my focus for this project in line, because at this point [1/4 of the way through from beginning to final project : senior design show]

the intended user group i'm going to target [and some players out there may hate me for this] is specifically guitarists who have a respect for the rich history of electrics, but are willing to try new things without worrying too much about the stigma of being a guitarist who doesn't play a legendary axe. there has been a lot learned throughout the half-century or so since electrics really took off, but there are still many avenues of exploration possible that have previously been sluggish because of the collective guitarist group that is deeply attached to the way things have been in the industry.

while i'm certainly not trying to only target up-and-coming young folks who all dream of being rock stars, the intention is to have a product or system that is useable for guitarists of all generations, whether it be the older folks who grew up with axe-slinging heroes, their kids who inherited vintage guitars and fell in love with the style that made those guitars famous, or even THEIR kids who have a proper respect for the greats but are also in tune with the modern demands of the industry.

my intended focus for this project is going to be [and i am now largely set on this] is the non-musical physical relationships between the player and the instrument. in this case, the musical relationships would be everything having to do with the neck [ie, fretting, hammer ons/pull-offs, tapping, and even sliding up and down the neck [neck-heel playing i am considering a "musical relationship as well.] the other major musical relationship i am NOT considering for this project is the strumming hand and arm.
HOWEVER, what i do want to consider are the relationships between the player and the bottom curve of the body [usually only relevant while sitting] as well as the player to the controls.

the third chunk of this blog is cnc capability. dominic today suggested that i have a product that can basically start as a rhino edited file that i can chuck into a cnc machine with a block of wood and basically call it a day for body making. [sans finish sanding of course] the coolest part of this, however, is that due to the nature of guitarist's body differences, a user can more or less download the file, edit it a tiny bit to get their specifications correct [mind you: this could also be a step to make different cavities for different pickup arrangements, 7 string neck pockets, front or back control cavity, control configurations...the possibilities are endless and certainly not limited to comfort.] and print it in a CNC machine. once it's completed, the musician can "dry run" the body by attaching a spare neck to it and checking out how it feels, and do finish sanding or milling or whatever to suit their final needs. what's great is that the cnc machine plans would be much easier to sell and to customize than a factory made guitar; people who have read my previous posts [maybe like...2 people haha] will know that i'm not really into companies selling 20 different guitars with slightly, i should say, minutely different offerings instead of maybe 4 or 5 really excellent instruments with multiple upgrades.

the idea of the cnc plan is cheap, effective, and much less wasteful than companies producing dozens of guitars [including some that will...let's face it: not sell well at all.]

all this is in preparation for the interim presentation on wednesday morning...yikes. anyways i'll keep chugging along. cheers all.

toooo formal.

2010-02-01T12:21:00.001-08:00

i feel like some of the other DS folks' blogs are so much more casual and laid back than what i've been doing..haha.

anyways. the past few days i've been like constantly hungry or something, i dunno what's happening but i feel like i'm ALWAYS salivating. makes me kinda nauseous. sicknasty

i've been thinking a bit about careers in the industry and i think it'd be amazing to work at, say, ibanez, jackson, epiphone, charvel, anywhere but i feel like i just don't have the skills necessary to get there, yet. hopefully the capstone project will at least be a tiny foot in the door.

here's some stuff that is..well, interesting. not necessarily relevant, but it's kinda..it's out there.
hrm...haha. it's more of a weird rock star thing, but cool to look at anyways.

and one from steve vai, who actually has the chops to handle instruments like this. crazy.

i was gonna try and find a nutty video with steve playing one of these but haven't found the one i had in mind...yet.
regardless, these are definitely taking the instrument-musician relationship to the extreme, even if they are a bit unwieldy..mhm

hello, pt. 2

2010-01-31T00:18:00.001-08:00

sorry folks, i forgot to finish my analogies!

wine + guitar industries:
great, dedicated worldwide following, very niche-y
both descended from old traditions
value of old product, aged product
fierce debates over what may or may not be important to preserving the quality
[ie: screw on and boxed wines; digital modeling and machine-made instruments]

chair design + guitars [specifically while sitting down]:
without a person to interact with, neither one can function in its originally intended purpose.
both have strong leads in design and styling
both are concerned with ergonomics, comfort, and safety [more or less]

there are a few more, if i can remember them i'll post them up here.
in the meantime, here's this vox spokesperson showing off the 2010 vox electric lineup.
listen to the way he talks about their "3D carved bodies...sits against the player unlike anything on the market"
[that was a rough paraphrase.] but it's intriguing. i will CERTAINLY pick one of these vox instruments up the next time i go to guitar center just to see if it really does live up to this dude's hype. he also mentions deep cuts behind the neck and body joint for easy access to the high frets. coooool, seems to be a trend.
only about the first 2:45 are relevant. this dudes' voice makes me want to hurt something

hello

2010-01-30T23:34:00.001-08:00

so some stuff from NAMM that i think is rather inspiring:
unfortunately this website is in a language i definitely cannot read. however, what i have heard is this.
the aristides 010 guitar is, well, groundbreaking. not only is the composite material used to create it completely different from any composite on the market now [composites offer decent replication of wood vibration with more durability and consistency, and sometimes better pricing]. i heard something about a stradivarius in someone's description of it. regardless, even after finding the translate to english command on the website it was...a little mangled. with this wonder-ingredient a bunch of engineers designed for the express purpose of sound transfer [read: acoustics/musical applications], Arium was born, which is what the 010 is made of. apparently this material handles vibration so well that it has a tested 50% increase in sustain [of the amount of time a string will vibrate when plucked or strummed], but that was tested by the company themselves sooo.

anyways: take a look! i am willing to bet that this instrument will be particularly light and very stable because it lacks wood more or less everywhere but the ebony fingerboard, which is hard enough to resist most mild environmental changes and soft enough to act as a fingerboard.
http://www.aristidesinstruments.com/homepage/0i0guitaraluminium.htm

unfortunately i have no idea of the price other than this: €3.950 VAT incl.

regardless, i have to say: original design [certainly! it looks like a jet plane...], innovative techniques, partnerships with specialized companies to supply a solid all-around instrument [the nut, bridge, straplocks, and even an RFID security device are purchased from pretty well known companies who specialize in those fields, allowing aristides to focus on the design of the instruments themselves.

as far as physical instrument-player relationship goes, the relationship is basically the same, just looks different. i don't think i have the funds to really be able to see for myself, but if i see it at guitar center i will take pictures of me playing it.
cheers!

an analogy..or 2.

2010-01-25T16:39:00.000-08:00

2 analogies from class today: other topics in relation to the guitar industry.

#1 : wine.

#2 chair design. i will elaborate later..my head is going to explodeeeeee. tylenol search begins now.

ohh deer

2010-01-24T18:10:00.001-08:00

i wish blogspot's image uploading program wasn't so sucky. uy.
i had a great idea last night right after i posted the previous blog, and now cannot remember it.

anyhow...some thoughts, on guitar control layouts.
often they are unlabelled numbers of knobs and switches. of course, most instruments come with instruction manuals and any discerning and/or caring guitarist would be able to find a good informative youtube clip or harmonycentral review on how to operate the instrument. regardless..it can be confusing. see below. [again, sorry for poor uploading skills.
click on the big thumbnail to see the full image: it's worth a glance, this thing has 5 knobs, 3 switches, and 2 output jacks..wow.]

this is a shot of the moog electric guitar's controls. the moog electric is a bit unique in that it can do a lot more than most conventional electrics, but its capabilities aren't what's in question here. what is? what do each of these switches and knobs do ? all just gizmos and gadgets. the majority of instruments have a RELATIVELY understandable control layout, but as i've mentioned before, a serious flaw in the entire industry is flooding the market with somewhat similar instruments that could honestly have all the extra amenities combined into one insanely useful new guitar a year instead of 10 with barely different changes..and quite a few of these instruments have minor differences in wiring and control layout, a definite field that could use some tender love and cresearch. [woo]

of course, not all instruments could be as simple as this p-bass:

but they could definitely be more thoughtfully organized.

this is a preamble for a different area of focus i want to look at: while still being physical, it is less how the player's body relates to the instrument and more how a musician interacts with his or her instrument. small, but vital difference. cheerss

messes of men

2010-01-23T23:47:00.000-08:00

on an unrelated side note: i am listening to mewithoutYou. tim'll love this haha, he simply adores them, and i can't say i blame him. aaron weiss is simply the MOST amazing lyricist i have ever had the honor of experiencing. it's more than music, it's almost inhuman how beautiful his lyrics are.

ANYWAYS. more thoughts on the sticktar:
you'll notice that he has it wedged over his right leg, and since there is little to no surface area on the sticktar he is forced to support a lot more of the instrument's weight on his left hand than is otherwise necessary: not really great for the wrists in the long term, but trace doesn't gig with this goofy little instrument that often.

what IS important to note here though is that the Y shape in the sticktar essentially acts as the "curve" on the bottom edge of a guitar: it braces the instrument to prevent it slipping away. whether that curve conforms to the left [classical] or right legs is up to the style and tradition of the player, but its presence is important in both acoustics and electrics. in the case of electrics, it largely developed from tradition: before a pickup was ever installed into a piece of wood with strings vibrating over it, acoustics had that tried-and-true double curve shape. [the rather curvaceous form that acoustics, at least about 99% of them, retain to this day] the double curve likely is derived from the arm reaching over the top of the instrument [the top curve] since acoustics have quite a bit of depth to them, it is far more comfortable to play with the curve. the bottom curve, again is likely for stability.

you'll see that some of the earlier electric instruments have much in common physically with acoustics, simply for tradition's sake. once luthiers and guitar designers realized that were no longer constrained by the depth of the instrument, experimentation began to take place [and some of it, decidedly, was NOT for the better.]
a few radical instrument designs: [this will be relevant...later]

as a side side note, blogspot's picture uploading thing is really confusing so i'm still bad at using it. click the images to see the full image.

and
oh gosh, my eyes:

obviously these aren't all...tasteful designs but still they are real instruments with real reliability and rich history.
what's important to consider here is what happens to the bottom curve. no longer can a player really sit comfortably and strum away [this is mostly true of the FLYING V..and the reverse flying v, above, and any flying v relatives] unless their name is albert king.

more on actual diagramming later. i need sleep.

this is fantastic!

2010-01-18T12:17:00.000-08:00

i hope trace bundy is a familiar name. he is an incredibly gifted acoustic guitarist, doing things with capos and fingertapping that few have been able to even approach in skill, style, and craftsmanship. but this is cool:

look at the way he holds the instrument. it's interesting because the "sticktar" is in fact just the bare bones of a guitar, which means that the way he interacts with it can be read as 1 of a few basic, basic ways to interact physically with the instrument. the points at which the sticktar and trace touch can be considered the most fundamental interactions with a guitar [playing aside.] tell me what you think..but looking at this video and seeing the origins of the sticktar and how it works is important to understanding these key relationships.

briefly...

2010-01-17T16:17:00.000-08:00

finally, something from NAMM that directly relates:

joe satriani shows us the new ibanez js2400, a beautiful signature instrument in its own right, BUT the most important thing is that it is a 24 fret instrument with a bottom cutaway that allows you to reach allllll the way up to the 24th fret unhindered, whereas many other instruments [even those with 24 frets] prevent comfortable playing at the high end. fyi: most instruments have 20, 21, or 22 frets; a 24 fret instrument has a full pair of octaves, making crazy solos and harmonizing possible. guitarnoize's thoughts [a twitter connection] follow:

"Ibanez have just posted this video on their Official YouTube Channel to coincide with the release of the Ibanez JS2400 at Winter NAMM 2010. Joe explains how Ibanez worked with him to create a cutaway that was aesthetically pleasing but gave complete access to the 24th fret and how he worked with Steve Blucher and Larry DiMarzio to select a single coil sized Humbucker that would retain the tonal qualities of the JS Series and compliment the Mo Joe. The Pickup that Joe and the Dimarzio guys selected was the Pro Track which as you can hear from the demo above actually sounds very much like a DiMarzio PAF Joe, at least when Joe plays it it does!

I think the single coil and the extended cutaway give the guitar a very different look but it also retains the smooth curves of the JS which make it so unique in the current Ibanez product line, I think these guitars are going to literally fly off the shelves. Personally, I’m happy with my 22 fret JS, which Guthrie Govan refers to as a “grown ups guitar”, but like Guthrie I do have a 24 fret guitar that I can turn to should I wish to regress.
"

a little from namm, a little from my head.

2010-01-17T00:47:00.001-08:00

hallo.

these are the types of instruments that i really just can't imagine would be comfortable.

speaking of comfort:
this is an ovation instrument. i talked about these my first PK and about how much i detested ovation instruments. here's why:

you can make the most beautiful instrument in the world, but if it slides away from the player due to the curved "bowl back" [ovation's trademark and thus found on every ovation guitar] and causes wrist and arm damage, good looks are as good as discounted.

additionally, some interesting "grips" on instruments. they may not do much without an imaginative guitarist playing it, but they look interesting and are a welcome departure from the standard styles.

anyways..i can't remember what i was going to say along with these pictures, but i'll shower and think about it. be right back...

and now, after the break i remember roughly. obviously i still need to run it by everyone [if anyone is reading this, that is..] but i'd like to focus on a few key points on the BODY of the instrument itself to do research on...more later. sleep now.

NAMM* 2010

2010-01-15T13:42:00.000-08:00

NAMM is now..i'm keeping my eyes open for anything i see from twitter or email newsletters for stuff that might be relevant to the guitar-player relationship. there is a lot of neat stuff showing up there [it's crazy!] and lots of amazing products that are making their first market appearance this weekend in anaheim..awesome.

fyi: "NAMM," my sources tell me, once stood for "National Association of Music Merchants" but has since grown to include not only retailers but manufacturers, innovators, famous musicians and musician groups. it is the number 1 largest trade show of the music industry in the world, filling the anaheim convention center to its utmost, resulting in MILES of walking to get through every exhibit and..get this, an average 85db loudness for the main hall just from background noise and demos..incredible. [my sources are wikipedia and the people i'm connected to who are there..haha]

i wish that namm wasn't closed to vendors and manufacturers..there has been some concern [and some lawsuits apparently] regarding the relationship between namm and guitar center for price fixing [guitar center, being one of the largest national instrument retailers, has a huge amount of control over what other companies charge..it is a vicious industry.]

i have a long list of source info from namm, but right now i have to get going for a meeting later tonight. standby..
for now though, the more i think about it the better the dummy body sounds to me. i was never going to make the neck myself [that is the hardest area, hands down.], i was simply going to purchase a good quality one to show a retrofit or a new neck cavity that might end up being more comfortable than what's on the market now. i really want to have an artifact to show for this project. and who knows, maybe a retrofit little piece that slides onto the instrument can make a big difference in comfort and playability..need more thought [and more sleep]

best,

PK#2

2010-01-13T22:22:00.000-08:00

soooo..lots to update.
right now is the NAMM show, whose name i can't remember the meaning of, but it is the largest or at least one of the largest instrument manufacturer's conventions/shows in california. some of most advanced guitar tech and innovations are revealed every year at NAMM and the best products of the year are awarded big bragging rights and such. for example, Taylor's "t5" was awarded best acoustic guitar release a few years ago...and that same year it snagged the best electric guitar of the year. for more info on the groundbreaking t5 check out taylor.com, but a basic rundown of it is that it is essentially an acoustic that looks like an electric. it has a stereo output that allows it to be plugged into multiple amps, say, one for acoustic and one for electric. it has actual pickups built into it, allowing it to behave just as a normal electric would, but its acoustic-style body means it has stunning signature Taylor tone..basically revolutionizing the way a musician can use the instrument. giants like doyle dykes and jason mraz both play t5's.

unfortunately, it's not quite the direction i want to take my project. i've thought a lot about building instruments [and done it a few times] but realistically it's not really a one or two quarter project [at least that's what the consensus was today]. i honestly would like to go all out but the larger concern is whether it will be a project that is doable, research-wise. i thought about the problem of being more concerned with making the instrument than actual research, so maybe the 3b from the previous post is a legitimate choice in project: the "areas of research."

i want to look into ergonomics since it's such a big deal in tons of other fields but not as much in guitar research and design. companies like Schecter [who happen to go by the full name "schecter guitar research"...fitting] have fantastic innovations on some of their instruments both in appearance and in comfort/ease of playing, which is why i have such a deep love and respect for schecter instruments..i daresay schecter was one of the companies that inspired me to be this involved in guitar research, and their work shows. big names like the misfits, avenged sevenfold, and the cure all run schecter instruments, a testament to the success of their innovations. things like their "super sleek" neck profile [ie, where the neck meets the body] and creative wiring techniques, fancy-schmancy body designs and sweet artist models.

BUT
enough rambling.
tim d. brought up a great point: even if i don't have time to build an entire instrument, just a dummy body to demonstrate the areas of interest would be a strong demonstration of my research..this is cool. honestly i think it would be a waste of a project to simply do "areas of interest" with suggested changes without being able to experience the changes themselves: a guitar, like any other instrument, must be touched, held, loved, experienced. without these rather intimate interactions with the instrument one may as well have not seen it at all.

cheers..more thoughts later. for now, sleep.

testing...testing.

2010-01-10T21:13:00.001-08:00

i posted via email once but that was months ago. let's see if this still works:

today i spent a good 2 or 3 hours jamming with a few childhood friends. their licks stunned me, but hey, i'm just the rhythm guitarist

so what counts as "fancy" to me will be child's play for them. regardless we all had fun. and burger king. and a delightful meal

served up by their mom. all told, a great success.

there were a few concerns though. my buddy was playing my telecaster and i could tell it wasn't the most comfortable instrument to play sitting down.

he noted some funky things going on with my tuning pegs [fyi: i built this guitar from parts on ebay, so not everything is necessarily "factory inspected."]

but anyways. he noticed some funky things going on with my tuning pegs and i could tell as he was soloing that changing pickups [see attached image]

during playing was really just not comfortable. not as easily engaged on accident, but now it is more of a hassle to switch than a protection against accidental switching. i dunno if that really made sense, but ask me and i can clarify. or the image might help.

anyways..this jamming experience [watching really gifted musicians play for a few hours] solidified in my mind the problem areas that i highlighted last week, and illuminated a few minor ones, but there's not that much else to say right now..yikes.

whew. that's all for now. this is a short short blog.

cheers

-ant

you can see below that the control plate [img #2] sets the switch perpendicular to the strumming arm, meaning that for the most part a player would need to stop playing in order to switch pickups. yikes ! also the funky body shape that makes sitting very uncomfortable is highlighted in picture #1: the cutout on the bottom side [the side toward the top of the picture] is TOO far forward to be of much comfort.

pt. II

2010-01-07T18:59:00.000-08:00

so after pecha kucha 1's feedback there are some pretty sweet ideas poppin around in my head. not necessarily more focused but certainly more interesting than my previous 5. regardless i'd still love to build an electric with focus areas to improve, but i dunno yet..i guess.

anyways, a few of the ideas brought up after PK#1:

the comparison of the relationship between a vintage guitar and a player as opposed to, say, a vintage violin. i realize that "vintage" or "old" will mean vastly different things in these cases, as electrics have really only been around for about 60ish years, while old violins can date hundreds of years back...but regardless there are some ties between the physical relationship between a player and the instrument and the values of vintage styling; ie the f-holes, flairs, curves and basic construction of violins haven't changed at all, and the same basically goes for electric and acoustic guitars. instrument heritage value is so high that the basic forms of the most revered electric instruments [ie, strat, tele, SG, les paul, etc.] have not changed in the slightest. modern instruments are often "dated" in order to more accurately represent what an instrument from 40 to 50 years ago in order to fulfill the nostalgia that older players have and to cater to young guitarists who have heard the legends about those old instruments from their former garage-band playing, beard-slinging dads.

also: the perceptions of other countries on the quality of american instruments. korea, mexico, and japan are 2 major quality instrument making countries who have put their own spins to traditional guitar making. companies like ibanez which have pushed guitars out of korea and japan for years, are at the head of this, making instruments inspired by but not copied off of traditional american instruments, while companies like fender that operate a secondary facility in mexico have found interesting ways of producing high quality, affordable instruments with amenities not always found on instruments from the american shop.

also also: problem areas for guitarists. this was more or less what my PK1 was about, what aspects of the instrument are poorly designed and have been preserved through the years simply because of tradition. based on my PK there are at least 5, of course with others that i can mention later on. this idea i have the most interest in because it could potentially involve building with innovation, which i hope to be able to do.

one last idea that is spawned party from the previous paragraph is research opportunities and areas for guitar makers. the same problems that i have mentioned above can be broken up into distinct "areas of interest" for a luthier or guitar researcher to work on.

that's what i've got so far...cheers team

in the spirit of Glee: "new directions."

2010-01-04T22:52:00.001-08:00

today constitutes the first day of a two quarter journey towards what is known as the "Capstone" project, the culmination of 2 years as a DS student [and 3 and a third years as a design student in general.]

honestly it's pretty harrowing to think that in 5ish months we'll be the ones lounging around in the jake with our work on the walls and nothing but graduation to worry about. [granted i won't be graduating, but hey..]

the road through the DS program has been a fun but tough one. the debates over difficulties getting elective design classes, clashes with other advisors and frustrations with academic requirements have been recurring themes throughout our time as DSers. i feel like DS is moving in a good direction...just not quickly. regardless, this isn't a post about the shortcomings of DS: i have the following to say and i'm pretty excited.

today in class we went over the design process in 2 major, easily digested chunks [yes !] which were "problem finding" and "problem solving", with DS sitting more on the "finding" than the "solving" end. that's all well and good, but i realized that the DS program moving the last year of study as an undergrad from 3 straight capstone quarters to August's practical DS class was an incredible blessing. a few of the biggest lessons i learned from August were encapsulated in the "problem finding" statement [although i would want to find AND identify as clearly as possible the problem at hand] and defining every term in the context of a project. building on top of August and Dominic's foundations [from last year] i feel a lot more comfortable approaching the capstone...the question now really is what problem i want to identify, research, and maybe make a movement towards solving ?

i've thought pretty hard about developing a more comfortable neck joint for bolt-on neck electric guitars and i really want to pursue that, but for wednesday we need 4 other ideas [5 total] in pecha kucha form..that's a whole lot of ideas. YIKES. regardless i am pretty sure that i want to do something related to the relationship between a guitar and its guitarist. YUP.

cheers.

-ant

for those of you who are interested, i am moving between listening to john mayer and coheed + cambria right now. GRAPHIC change in genre haha

post script:

in the spirit of having all 5 of my ideas solidified, here they are:

1 / 2. the relationship between a guitarist's hand and the neck/body join in a bolt-on style instrument.

this probably all sounds like gibberish to you, but consider this: in the old days, the neck was attached to the guitar body with a metal plate and 4 screws. makes for a really solid, strong bond between the two pieces of wood, but was cut in a way that is exceedingly uncomfortable and not-form fitting, nor is it really conducive to a natural feeling grip when soloing near the neck/body join. the join is important to the performance of the instrument, but in the 60 some odd years since the inception of mass produced electric guitars, guitar players worldwide have adored the VINTAGE instruments and thus resisted altering or changing instrument design quite fiercely.

however, with advances in tech, guitar research, and building methods since leo fender first sat down with his esquires and broadcasters, i think that it is fair for guitar research groups to push away from the standard bolt-on neck style without thoroughly insulting electric guitars' heritage.

this splits itself into 2 natural categories, 1 more ambitious than the other, but both ambitious nonetheless.

1: less ambitious approach= the "comfortable" fit. that is, a mix of 4 screws and a metal plate contoured or otherwise fitted in such a way that is significantly more ergonomic and conducive to healthy hand and wrist motion than what is currently available. the metal plate is important for spreading evenly the downward force of the 4 screws. there are alternatives to the metal plate, such as individual ferrules for each screw, but they are less even. thus, a combination of metal plates and ferrules i suspect may be a worthwhile option to research.

2: more ambitious approach= the "swappable fit." the form of the bolt-on is essentially this: 2 rectangles bolted together. modifying the fit of both pieces of wood to allow a slide-in, slide-out customizable wood join cover is also a liable solution to the problem. inexpensive and customizable for individual players. this sounds like a really promising solution, and well worth the research. lots of technical woodshop skills required, but awesome nonetheless.

3: the relationship between guitarist and the body of his or her instrument. again, the value of vintage styling has prevented much change in the traditional instruments, and the hard rock shredders of the world have pushed radical designs whose body shape are dangerously sharp. most electric guitars are comfortable to play standing up [some are unbalanced, but i am not considering that at the moment] but can be unbearably uncomfortable to play sitting down, depending on your preferences and body shape. the contours and cavities milled out of instruments are often more for decoration or vintage credibility than actual comfort. a dedicated time of research into maximally comfortable and balanced instrumentation for both standing and sitting players i think would be a rewarding endeavor. i realize that it is impossible to please every guitarist [especially electric players, who are pickier than schoolchildren] but at least moving towards a more body-friendly instrument i believe is a worthy cause.

4. positioning of tuners. more than one instrument in history [cough firebirds] have had strangely placed tuners that are out of reach or plain uncomfortable. i would actually not mind studying more comfortably placed tuners, analyzing the differences between "6 in line" [6 tuners in a row, a la fender], "3 x 3" [3 tuners on each side of the headstock, a la gibson] and "4 x 2" [4 on one side, 2 on the other, a la ernie ball] and having a better understanding of how the placement of tuners can change the way a musician interacts with the instrument.

5. orientation of the cord jack. okay, by now you're dead tired of reading guitar nonsense. i'll make this one quick and dirty. the cord jack or socket is where the instrument is connected to an amp or PA system via an instrument cable, known as a 1/4" cable [this looks a little like a headphone plug, but about 4 times bigger and generally only possessing 1 stripe on the metal tip instead of two]. older model guitars and vintage inspired [read: les pauls and telecasters] have jacks that are on the underside of the instrument, which hides the jack from plain sight but makes funkin' out on stage significantly less comfortable. other instruments have a straight-in jack, [this is not a real term, i just made it up..] but the plug basically goes straight into the face of the instrument. just imagine the socket from a telecaster moved from the rim of the instrument onto the face. it is now visible and perpendicular to the body of the instrument.

still other instruments have angled jacks, such as strats and herman li's [of dragonforce and rock band fame] stunning new custom instrument the ibanez e-gen, which allow the cord to plug into the face of the instrument at an angle. this allows the cable to be manipulated out of the way better, but honestly not much better than the first two solutions. some work on this could be fun...

okay. i'm out. pecha kucha tomorrow...peace !

Fwd:

2009-05-28T01:19:00.001-07:00

sherwood in seattle. i think i am near the middle of this picture.

as yet, another venture into blogging !

2009-05-28T00:59:00.000-07:00

Soooooo here we are again. i stopped blogging years ago because i felt kind of self-centered, but this beat's FB notes by quite a bit, so maybe i'll try it again. i suspect that this will be mostly about guitar projects i'm working on.

for those of you that may or may not be interested,
i am planning to build a few guitars and basses in the summer under commission.
i leverage all parts before construction and ask that all costs are paid back once the project is finished...and a fee of about 80-150$, depending on the depth and difficulty of the instrument in question. that sounds terrible, but it has to be done.
i will also periodically post guitars that i have worked on or made, for sale or just for your eyes..well, i get real excited when i see nice pictures. haha.

in other news, because i think everyone should know:
-sherwood's latest LP is now finished being recorded and now being mixed and mastered by brad wood in california. keep your eyes and ears OPEN to their fullest capacity because i have heard a few of the songs and they are as stunningly charming as ever.
-i've already raved about this a few times, but hillsong united's latest album A_Cross//the_earth is now SECOND on itunes' most popular list. doesn't sound interesting, until you take into account the fact that it is second on the main charts, not on a separate christian chart. and that it is second after EMINEM. if it reaches first, it will be the first worship album to ever hold the #1 position on itunes. wow.

i'm supposed to be working on stat hw. but i'm thinking about guitars, hillsong united, and listening to saosin. not bad, methinks.

night world.