Stereordinary's Guitar Design Challenge #1

[Stereordinary]

Hello everyone and welcome to the first in a new series of guitar design challenges! My name is Paul, I will be your host on this adventure, as well as a participant. That's right! There are no winners, this is not a contest, we are here and we are doing this for the fun of the challenge. There will be no judgement, no prizes, just collective enjoyment, and camaraderie.

You can enter as many times as you like, the rules are simple: Each new Guitar Design Challenge (GDC) thread will contain a list of requirements for entrants to follow. To enter as a designer you must simply follow those requirements and post a photo mockup of your new original guitar design. Each entry must have original body, headstock, and pickguard shapes! Designers are allowed to reuse their own original shapes across multiple challenges.

Please post questions/suggestions regarding the rules of the challenges, as well as any requirements you might like to suggest for future challenges RIGHT HERE in THE MASTER THREAD LINKED HERE..

And with that, here is the list of requirements for the first challenge. These were taken from the master thread, suggested mostly by forum member FightingPlankton, myself, and BoringPostcards.

Design Requirements:

Offset (guitar body must have offset waist, because of course)
3 Pickups (any pickups you want, there just has to be three of them)
4x2 headstock (if you don't like it, wait for the next challenge, no one said this would be easy)
25.5" scale length (I doubt anyone will notice if you sneak in something else)
Must have original fretboard markers (no dots or blocks)
Incorporates a unique tailpiece (not an aftermarket part)
Can not use a four-bolt Fender-style neck plate (any other means of neck attachment is ok)
Must have a pickguard (such nekkid)

And, GO!

[UlricvonCatalyst]

Can not use a four-bolt Fender-style neck plate (any other means of neck attachment is ok)

This seems like a really pointless detail to me, though I admittedly know nothing about building guitars from scratch. If the neck isn't glued in is there any sort of advantage to it?

[MattK]

Here's one I prepared in 1967 -

Wait - 4 bolt neckplate, DENIED.

[Stereordinary]

Haha. That's really funny that here's a guitar that already exists that pretty much meets the requirements. Still, I hope I'm not the only one that's gonna do this.

Also, the neck plate thing is a pretty minor detail, and I'm not such a hard ass over here that it's really gonna ruin anything if people ignore little things like that. Remember, the idea is to force designers to create within limits and for some people that might mean they're used to one kind of neck joint, so doing anything different is going to test their abilities. There's going to be requirements in these challenges that I don't like, and things you won't like, and things other people don't like. But it wouldn't be a challenge otherwise. Like, how do you make something you are proud of when it features something you wouldn't normally go for?

[FightingPlankton]

I have a couple designs I drew up but my Photoshop skills are terrible so it'll be a pencil drawing.

[countertext]

I have a couple designs I drew up but my Photoshop skills are terrible so it'll be a pencil drawing.

Big talk. Pics or etc.

[KeithJ]

I have a couple designs I drew up but my Photoshop skills are terrible so it'll be a pencil drawing.

I'm pretty much in the same boat. I'll get some poster board!

[windmill]

Here's one I prepared in 1967 -

Wait - 4 bolt neckplate, DENIED.

Points for effort and speed of response !

[FightingPlankton]

So, first off. I KNOW THESE ARE VERY NOT PROFESSIONAL SKETCHES.
Furthermore... I came up with 2 of them at work. i just inked over them this morning. the paper wasnt long enough to draw the whole fretboard/neck so i just did a short neck with headstock on each. looking back i wish i had swapped headstocks on the 2 guitars.
These are not meant for everyone to like them...hell, i dont even like all of them, they're just meant to be ORIGINAL ideas, so before you tell me how much they suck, please post YOUR ideas.

1st. this one uses push/push pots to turn on/off each pickup. Neck PU is duncan SM-3, middle is Lace Chrome Dome, and bridge is (insert no holes chrome covered humbucker)
i REALLY dont like the headstock i attached to it, but the idea is its a classical style headstock with 2 individual holes on the treble side. I want seahorse inlays(PRS has birds so why not?) but i cant draw animals so well(or guitars for that matter). Set neck, ebony cello style tailpiece with fine tuners...just cuz.



Next is a semi-hollow. I wanted surf tones so i put filtertrons in neck and bridge and lipstick middle. offset mandolin headstock and mando style tailpiece(has ashtray cover).
superellipse(4 pt star) inlays, and one of those fancy 6 way LP toggle switches.


last is a fretless bass. this one could be omitted since it doesnt have 4x2 headstock or fret markers...but i did it anyway.
J-P-J pickup configuration, individual string saddles. didnt know what to do with upper jag plate, just knew i wanted chrome there.

[Toots]

The headstock is a challenge, alright!
Very hard to make anything that will actually work, and look good at the same time...
I've been doodling on and off all day, but can't seem to get it right.
Love the challenge though. It's a great way to push yourself.

[SansRegret]

These challenges are going to be excellent. I have a few ridiculous headstock ideas sketched out. Should have something drawn out by the weekend.

[druunkonego]

stayed up late last night. I didn't mean to. I started doodling and next thing I knew it was almost 2am. But I ended up with this...


I'm thinking the tailpiece would be some kind of custom trapeze style.
and for fret markers... Maybe just one denoting the 12 fret. Intersecting horizontal crescent moons, maybe...I'll have to think about that one.

[FightingPlankton]

DUDE! the way you got the headstock to match the feel of the body makes me jealous. looks great.
standard single coils in there?

[druunkonego]

thanks.

Maybe trisonics for the pickups. I've always wanted a guitar with them.

[alkalineHemlock]

It's nothing radical, but I've always loved the way the horns on my Ibanez Roadstar are angled and the lines of the Rickenbacker 4003.



I'm also in the process of designing a tremolo tailpiece for it that will allow you to tune the strings behind the bridge as well (to some degree). Kinda going back and forth on adding an integrated effect pedal in the upper horn (maybe a black ice circuit in the form of a rhythm circuiit-esque control?).