eLUTHERIE.org

Stage Fright

EDITOR'S NOTE: Guest author Gethyn Edwards joins us to discuss the ergonomic psychology of guitar and bass design.

I know this is a guitar design blog, and I appreciate that mostly we're interested in the latest fanned fret ideas, or the current take on headless basses, or new insights into instrument ergonomics, or the latest Klein variant, or what-have-you, but today we're offering a little something else for the mix.

Here's a truism to start with:

The biggest problem any person can face is the one they don't think can be fixed.

What's more, if someone goes for long enough thinking they don't have the tool to fix a problem, there comes a point when they start to not even identify the problem as a problem at all.

It's a biological thing, actually. By default, your body works constantly to edit out huge portions of your experience.

It's called habituation — excess information is dropped out of your awareness on an instant-by-instant basis. Who has not, for example, had the experience of returning home from a vacation and realising that their house has an odor? And if you had to go around all day acutely aware of the sensation of your own clothing, or the position of your hair, or the constantly shifting points of contact between your teeth, or each and every movement of your own eyeballs, you'd be barely able to function.

This automatic placing of things into the background keeps us sane, basically, but there comes a difficulty when the input being discarded is from an injury or a source of discomfort.

Our nervous systems are very, very good at routing around damage. All you have to do is have a brief chat with a chiropractor or a Feldenkrais practitioner to find out how easily that process can lead to problems.

As I mentioned, part of this stems from not seeming to have the tools to fully resolve the issue in question.

While it is perfectly possible to open a tin of varnish with a chisel you would not, let us say, be able to solve the problem of low panda fertility using wood glue and a handsaw. That's obvious enough. If I gave you wood glue and a handsaw you would not immediately go out and start looking for a panda.

The real point is that if there was a panda right there in the shop with you, and if you had tried various ways to wish it away through — for example — strategic use of fresh bamboo or photos of smokin' hot lady pandas, maybe...you would eventually give up. You would stroll in of a morning, pick up your wood glue and handsaw, and simply step around the panda in order to get to your bench and start work.

The trouble is that sidestepping a panda every day is not without its costs. It adds mileage. It drains resources.

But enough about pandas — it is an almost 100% certainty that there are things in your actual non-metaphorical life that you have been dancing around for so long now that you no longer notice what it is you're doing.

What sorts of things do I mean? Try these for starters:

• Stage fright
• Fear of success
• Fear of failure
• Where & how to direct energy
• Relationship/bandmate issues
• RSI & carpal tunnel pain
• Maximizing musical/artistic/creative potential
• Setting work vs. home boundaries
• Coping with setback
• Improving musical ability
• Marketing yourself effectively
• Creative blocks
• Time-management skills
• Etc.

We might be able to build comfort and ease of use into our custom guitar design. We could build or have built for us the greatest instrument in the world, in fact — and it would barely touch a single item on that list.

But those are all problems you just have to live with, right?
Just life doing its thing. Of course.
It's all background stuff...

See, here's the thing. The background is an illusion.

Everything starts 'in the foreground' and manifests there, whether we're aware of what's going on or not. Just because you aren't aware of every conversation in the bar, your ears still prick up when someone mentions your name. Just because you aren't aware of the chain of muscular adjustments that are protecting that weak knee of yours, doesn't mean you don't end the day with back pain and a stiff shoulder. Just because you've learned to live with a whole bunch of assumed stress or difficulty or whatever, doesn't mean it won't take longer to finish or sell your instrument than it ought to.

So look around you.

What things are there in your world right now that no amount of wood glue or handsaws will improve? How many pandas, as it were, are you choosing to walk around to get to your workbench? For that matter, how many workbenches do you have in your panda enclosure?

Notice what's there.
Then notice what happens.

***

Gethyn Edwards is a long-time friend and close collaborator of eLUTHERIE.org editor, Rick Toone. Gethyn has over 15 years' experience using the tools of NLP, coaching and hypnotherapy to help people do stuff better. Email him via gethyn.edwards@gmail.com

Guitar Potentiometer Mounts — "Pot Pods"

Seth Thomas at Z.S. Thomas Guitars has been growing some exotic stuff.

He's created an efficient and practical invention he calls "Pot Pods" to securely mount guitar potentiometers via the front of the instrument. What is highly clever about his innovation is the knob completely hides the mounting assembly.

The mounting assembly is machined from non-conductive lightweight plastic. Alpha (mini) guitar potentiometers are pre-mounted to the copper shielded removable upper plate. The lower structure is designed to be epoxied into guitar or bass body holes drilled by 1.25" diameter Forstner bit. Straightforward installation.

These will really be useful if you are exploring contoured or ergonomic guitar body shapes and need an unobtrusive means of installing instrument wiring. Beautiful results on his custom mahogany solidbody electric guitar below.

Pot Pods are patent pending. You can purchase them direct from Seth:

Z.S.Thomas Guitars
Southern Pines, NC
910.639.7750
seth@zsthomas.com

eLUTHERIE.org

Rob Irizarry and I worked through the weekend to bring eLUTHERIE.org back online. It was the culmination of a two-month master plan to move three dozen relevant articles and comment threads to their new home here at eLUTHERIE.org.

Rob will now exclusively edit and manage BTEG which will focus on enthusiast level information specific to ergonomic guitars.

eLUTHERIE.org will get your hands dirty with designing and building innovative acoustic and electric stringed instruments. Expect more content oriented toward professional luthiers as well as serious self-builders. We're going in-depth on theory, methods and techniques. Plus some humor and psychology, of course.

What do you want to learn more about? Email me!

Skilled Luthiers Needed

I'm seeking three or four talented luthiers to beta test the Simplicity tuning system. This will be an opportunity for you to experiment with integrated multi-scale headless hardware and build it into your own original guitar design. Your work will gain global exposure via publication on multiple websites including eLUTHERIE.org.

EDITOR'S NOTE: All positions have been filled, and beta testing is in progress. Thank you for the (overwhelming) response of highly qualified candidates.

Simplicity tuning system is machined from 7075 aircraft grade aluminum, stainless steel and bronze. Premium components that will outlast a lifetime, milled with precision analogous to fine watchmaking. Townsend Machine is ISO 9000 certified. The elegant matte finished set includes:

• Multi-scale (fanned fret) capable nut with string height and intonation adjustment
• Multi-scale (fanned fret) capable bridge with string height and intonation adjustment
• Body mounted 40:1 (ratio) constant tension tuning

Selected luthiers will be given one complete 6-string guitar system in the color scheme of your choosing, available from a broad spectrum of anodized colors. There will be no hardware cost for you. You may keep or sell your completed instrument at your discretion. Because the hardware is designed to simplify both instrument construction and hardware installation, I will be available to assist you in optimizing integration.

In return for the system and publicity, you will commit to the following:

A. You agree to design and build a completed instrument within 2-4 months upon receipt of hardware. Please discuss prior to committing, if you need additional time. We anticipate delivering your hardware to you in early/mid December, 2009.

B. You agree to provide studio quality photographs of the completed instrument for use by us for promotional purposes. Your photos will be accompanied by written analysis in which you share your experiences working with the system. Video is optional, but always appreciated, as are in-progress photos. All materials should be for publication, without restriction, and are due within the same 2-4 month time period. You remain free to use your materials for your own promotion.

C. You agree to pay all expenses associated with the above. We are only providing one no-cost-to-you hardware system.

D. Multiple patents are pending on the system, so you agree to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

That's it. Pretty straightforward, really.

If you are interested in participating leave a comment below, or email me. Please be sure to include a link to your website or photographs of your work. I look forward to meeting and working with you.

IMAGES: In the drawings below an abstracted version of the hardware system is shown superimposed over some familiar friends. Mostly. The guitar in the center is my own design, currently under construction (26" bass & 24.5" treble) to demonstrate the capabilities of the hardware. Drawings to scale.

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License

Luthier (Changing Careers)

EDITOR'S NOTE: Guest author Ola Strandberg shares thoughts about his evolving career path.

It started at Christmas 2007 after a 15-year hiatus to raise children and run a "normal" career. Suddenly, with kids running themselves to schools and practices, there was a tiny increase in the amount of time available to return to what had been a passion so many years before.

In the search of a concept to tie things together, I stumbled on Rob Irizarry's buildingtheergonomicguitar.com and realized immediately that this was a worthy cause to dedicate myself to. This community, which has partially morphed into eLUTHERIE.org, has a large number of very dedicated readers and followers, and has indeed offered a lot of cheers of encouragement as well as good discussions on the way.

The theories that I picked up on and formulated for myself were:

• Low total weight to save shoulders and back
• Weight distribution that centers the guitar's weight in line with the player's centre of gravity
• Allow multiple standing and seated playing positions to minimize static loads
• Minimize strain on the wrist and palm when playing
• Restful on the eyes
• Bonus design goal: experiment, take chances, be innovative and have fun!

I started with pen and paper and CAD drawings and published the progress on a blog of my own. It quickly became apparent that there was no hardware available that met the requirements I had, which were: headless and light-weight. It was logical for me to start in this end, because I was originally trained as a mechanical engineer and had access to a metal workshop, but not a woodworking workshop. Before I knew it, I was contacted by readers who wanted to buy the hardware that I had designed and prototyped.

I completed the first series of hardware, both separate fixed combined bridge/tailpiece/tuners and a tremolo version that had Floyd-Rose measurements. (This leads me to an additional design goal: stay standard. Luthiers all over the world have routing templates for Floyd Rose tremolos, and Strat type neck pockets already, so as long as I am not severely constrained by these I try to stick with them.) This hardware design track has kept me occupied for over a year now and is in its second iteration. A complete concept of parts that would allow conversion of a guitar into an ergonomic one was born: Torzal Natural Twist neck, and while trying to figure out how to make it, via machined aluminium, to twisted aluminium beam, I discovered and learned how to mold carbon fiber — again, no woodworking shop, and a desire to take chances and experiment. Heavily influenced by Gus Guitars and the Luis and Clark carbon fiber cello, my goal was to make the back of the guitar and neck in one piece.

After experimenting though, I quickly realized that I should begin by making smaller pieces at a time simply due to how tricky it was to work with carbon fiber and epoxy. I designed a Torzal twist neck with dimensions that would be possible to retrofit on any Strat type guitar without modifications, but have had to shelve it due to lack of time, still believing that it is a good idea in terms of ergonomics.

In the summer of 2009, I travelled across the atlantic to meet up with one of the luthiers I had made "virtual" friends with: Rick Toone. He had combined his Trapezoidal Neck Profile with a not-so-extreme version of fanned frets. I liked both of these concepts a lot, so when it became time to build an exhibition/demo guitar and I only had a few weeks to do it, I put the Torzal twist plan on the shelf and charged ahead.

I had launched my EGS hardware at the Uppsala International Guitar Festival in 2008, having picked up and assembled the first tuners the same morning as it started. There was interest for sure, but mounted on a piece of MDF, they didn't look very exciting. When I was invited to exhibit again at the 2009 show, I decided to complete a whole guitar in time for the show.

So, running with what I had, which was my almost 20 year old stash of left-over wood (ebony, maple, wenge) and some Louisiana Swamp Ash I had picked up on eBay. With the maple and wenge not being thick/big enough for a carved top, it turned into a flat top. With a flat top, I wanted to try carving a decorative f-hole. With an f-hole, let's try to make it semi-hollow. And so on: it's been an improvisation from start to finish.

For the neck, I tried to find an off-the-shelf fretless neck that I could modify, which was impossible on such short notice. I then tried to find a cheap neck that I could shave off the fretboard and replace but I couldn't find a good one for that either. I did find, however, the left-over piece from a neck-through bass I made a long time ago. That would have to do, and while taking chances, I put a carbon fiber tube into it as a truss rod experiment, a technique I learned from Rick Toone. I had previously discovered Lace Alumitone pickups that fit well into my overall design concept in terms of looks and "innovativeness" and that are incredibly lightweight.

So, I give you the EGS Prototype Guitar:

• Weight: 1850 grams/4 lbs
• Swamp ash back, stained “Ebony Black”, finished with Danish Oil
• Large tone cavities cut both top and bottom
• Curly maple top (5 mm thickness), finished with Danish Oil
• Black veneer strip in centre
• Three-piece wenge neck with cherry veneer strips
• Ebony fretboard
• Carbon fiber truss rod
• Super wide/high frets
• 25.5″ scale length on low E, 25″ scale on high E string
• Strandberg EGS fixed bridges
• Lace Alumitone humbucker pickups
• 5-position pickup selector (front HB, front SC + rear SC out of phase, front HB + rear HB series, front SC + rear SC in series, rear HB

Initial impressions by players to date include:

• Low weight is awesome
• Trapezoidal Neck Profile feels comfortable and is easy to get used to
• Fanned frets feel natural and are easy to get used to
• It is a very "fast" instrument
• Sustain is great
• Sound is unique (in a good way)

Watch this space for follow-up instruments or visit Strandberg Guitarworks.