Evolution of a Guitar Design
I thought folks might like to see the path from inception/idea to actual design of my first guitar body and neck/headstock.
Thanks to Araz of projectelecticguitar.com, I learned about Inkscape (and tons of other useful stuff), a free open-source scaled-vector-graphic drawing program. Inkscape became a part of the design process, and I consider it invaluable.
This is the initial sketch that I felt was interesting enough to explore. It is followed by several iterations/variations rendered in Inkscape.
There was a two or three week learning curve for Inkscape, and then things got easier. I love Inkscape! It is very powerful, does curves beautifully, and lets me print out full size patterns.
Some of these are awfully awkward! The first one captures the drawing well, but reveals some drawbacks. It took a while for me to realize the upper bout was too large and needed to be reduced. You can see this in the last image here.
The final shape; the paint is probably correct. The pickguard will probably be changed.
At this point, I am planning on fabricating knobs similar to those pictured here.
The image on the right is for you, Earl!
