Old guitar design sketch...

[merciful-evans]

I was going through some old files & came across this print out of a guitar idea. I vaguely recall the idea was to have an increased tilt angle on the neck, like a cello. 

The inverse rounded back suggests I was overweight at the time ?! Note the floating pickup at the base of the neck.

It was drawn up on a CAD program; looks like DeltaCad. It still just a sketch. I imagine its at least 30 years old.

 

[gdecantoo]

Finally,  a guitar for us fat guys🤣

[Ceptorman]

Very cool. With the increase string height would the sound diminish? Electric?

[merciful-evans]

2 hours ago, Ceptorman said:

Very cool. With the increase string height would the sound diminish? Electric?

Electric yes. Sound? No idea. It would be a case of 'suck it & see'. The idea was access to upper register without cutaways. 

[duane v]

If the measurements are in "inches" on that sketch,  that guitar body is only 2-3/4" in length.

[merciful-evans]

13 hours ago, duane v said:

If the measurements are in "inches" on that sketch,  that guitar body is only 2-3/4" in length.

I was wondering about this myself. The nearest thing that would make any sense is feet. Though even that would still make the guitar oversize. Probably the scale is not too important, as is could be altered easily enough.

[sparquelito]

Very nice!!

Speaking of old sketches, here's a drawing I did while I was in the Army.
This sketch was obviously thirty-something years ago.

I was in a communal coin laundry at Grafenwöhr, Germany,  waiting for my uniforms and socks to dry.

I was having fun with a drawing pad, creating a fictitious guitar magazine cover, featuring my brother's dog Scruffy. 
I used to write him letters, and enclose absurd cartoon involving his ugly little dog.

I guess you had to be there.

🙂

Yes, that's a Steinbarker guitar I invented there.
 

The actually dog, Scruffy.

Edited May 31, 2023 by sparquelito

[merciful-evans]

On 5/31/2023 at 9:51 PM, sparquelito said:

Very nice!!

Speaking of old sketches, here's a drawing I did while I was in the Army.
This sketch was obviously thirty-something years ago.

I was in a communal coin laundry at Grafenwöhr, Germany,  waiting for my uniforms and socks to dry.

I was having fun with a drawing pad, creating a fictitious guitar magazine cover, featuring my brother's dog Scruffy. 
I used to write him letters, and enclose absurd cartoon involving his ugly little dog.

I guess you had to be there.

🙂

Yes, that's a Steinbarker guitar I invented there.
 

The actually dog, Scruffy.

I would have bought that magazine. 

[sparquelito]

On 5/30/2023 at 4:52 AM, merciful-evans said:

I was going through some old files & came across this print out of a guitar idea. I vaguely recall the idea was to have an increased tilt angle on the neck, like a cello. 

The inverse rounded back suggests I was overweight at the time ?! Note the floating pickup at the base of the neck.

It was drawn up on a CAD program; looks like DeltaCad. It still just a sketch. I imagine its at least 30 years old.

 

I'm studying the design a little closer, and I think it's brilliant.

Looks like, in your drawing, there's a floating pickup (mini-humbucker) mounted to the very root of the fingerboard, via two side braces. 

Much like an Ibanez jazz box that I owned until recently.
Or like this Godin depicted below.

Love it!!

🙂

 

 

[merciful-evans]

53 minutes ago, sparquelito said:

I'm studying the design a little closer, and I think it's brilliant.

Looks like, in your drawing, there's a floating pickup (mini-humbucker) mounted to the very root of the fingerboard, via two side braces. 

Much like an Ibanez jazz box that I owned until recently.
Or like this Godin depicted below.

Love it!!

🙂

 

 

Man, that is beautiful ! Especially those f-holes.

Yes. I have a pickup like that on the Hofner HCT 17 though that one attaches to the pickguard. I had to have it rewired and took the opportunity to replace the pickup with one I always wanted to try; a Kent Armstrong mini HB. The original Chinese one sounded great, but I had to laugh after the KA was fitted. It sounded virtually identical. Pretty good job of copying that design.

 

[sparquelito]

This was the Ibanez, the AF71F.
An elegant design.

Nothing was screwed into the top of the guitar, save the very top (near the neck juncture) pick-guard screw.

Swing off tailpiece, violin-style floating bridge, and the Volume and Tone knobs and pots were in the pick-guard, not in the top of the guitar.

Alas, I never bonded with her, and she went to go live with someone who coveted her more.
Kind of like Pattie Boyd, when you think about it.
😔

Edited June 2, 2023 by sparquelito

[merciful-evans]

15 hours ago, sparquelito said:

This was the Ibanez, the AF71F.
An elegant design.

Nothing was screwed into the top of the guitar, save the very top (near the neck juncture) pick-guard screw.

Swing off tailpiece, violin-style floating bridge, and the Volume and Tone knobs and pots were in the pick-guard, not in the top of the guitar.

Alas, I never bonded with her, and she went to go live with someone who coveted her more.
Kind of like Pattie Boyd, when you think about it.
😔

That idea for the tone / vol knobs makes good sense. Nice & easy to work on or replace. 

[sparquelito]

10 hours ago, merciful-evans said:

That idea for the tone / vol knobs makes good sense. Nice & easy to work on or replace. 

It is a great design, and it was an elegant, wonderful jazz guitar.

In the end, I think it was above my station.
I wasn't in her league.
That guitar was better than me, physically and spiritually, I think.

I bought it used two years ago, while in New Hampshire.
My brothers and I were up there because our sister Margaret was dying of cancer, and though the end date was uncertain, we wanted to be there with her and her family.

After a day or two up there, spending time with our sister and her family, it didn't seem right to visit her in her room without a guitar in my hands.
(We used to sit around over the years before, she and I, singing and harmonizing.)

I brought the Ibanez into her house, and spent more than a few hours and days just sitting with her and singing to her.
I have no idea if she even knew we were there.
The cancer had spread from lungs to here and there and brain, and so, it was uncertain.

We found a Catholic Priest one afternoon when it seemed like the end was near, and I must say that Father Ray did a great job.
The prayers and incantation brought Margaret peace, and even the most atheist and agnostic of her kids agreed that it was a lovely and perfect evening.
She died an hour after the Father drove away.

I brought the guitar home with me a few days later, and I must confess that the thought of recording with and and maybe carrying it to gigs just seems like a sacrilege.
I'm sure that sounds stupid.
But it had a time and place, and a very elegant purpose, and then it was time for the guitar to go where she could serve some other family and mission.

Rest in peace, all good sisters and mothers.
😔

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/margaret-garrett-obituary?id=17777637

 

 

Edited June 3, 2023 by sparquelito