Electric Guitar & Bass Design
By Leonardo Lospennato
How to design a solidbody instrument that looks, plays and sounds the way you really want.
The design process, from first draft to full plan!
When you're ready to add your own ideas to your solidbody guitar or bass building project, you'll find no better guide than this one for making successful decisions. It's all about the design process—a departure from the usual step-by-step construction books. It's planning the ergonomics and proportions; pickup choices and placement for best response; controls and wiring layouts for versatile sound; wood selection for sustain; hardware compatibility, neck customization for ease of playing, and the aesthetics of the instrument. Everything to consider before you start cutting wood for the guitar or bass of your dreams!
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Contents in brief
- Searching for the perfect guitar and planning your project
- Beauty, playability and sound
- Designing the body shape and headstock; ergonomics
- Neck design: angled vs. bolt-on necks; truss rods
- Fretboard design: scale length; radiused and compound radius fingerboards; fretwire choice
- Pickup selection: how pickups work, how magnets and coils affect sound, single-coils vs. humbuckers
- Controlling the pickups: pots, switches and coil-tapping
- Guitar and bass electronics: pot values and taper; specialty pots; capacitors; drawing the wiring diagram
- Wiring, shielding and grounding; electronics safety, common wiring diagrams; active electronics
- Secrets of sustain
- Selecting the right hardware and wood
- Finishing: wood preparation, nitrocellulose lacquer, oil, polyester, waterbase lacquer, colors and sunbursts
- Interviews with guitar designers; lutherie woods; pickup color codes; cavity templates
219 pages, softcover.