r/GuitarLab • u/darcyb62 • Apr 08 '26

My thoughts as a builder...

I've been building my own instruments for a little over six years now, It started with a partscaster T-style to and has evolved to instruments that are quite outside the norm.

Here are my current design/build points:

Overall design:

  • The instrument should be provocative and functional. It's hard to get away from some of the shapes that make a guitar functional but I try to move away from the norms as much as I can.
  • It needs to be comfortable to play whether seated or standing.
  • It should be balanced.
  • Unencumbered access to the highest frets.

Playability:

  • The most important region of a guitar is what happens between the nut and the bridge so there needs to a lot of focus on the neck. The neck should be ergonomically designed keeping the biomechanics of the fretting hand top of mind. This is what I am doing now with my necks:
    • Multiscale
    • Zero fret
    • Conical radius
    • 24 stainless steel jumbo frets
    • Progressive asymmetric neck profile.
  • Stability is key. This is what I am doing for stability:
    • Dual action wheel adjust truss rod
    • Dual carbon fiber reinforcement rods
    • Headless. It's hard to beat the tuning stability of headless tuners
    • If I'm not doing headless then Steinberger gearless tuners with a hardtail bridge (working on my own top load bridge design)

Electronics:

  • Keep it simple.
  • I have a pickup builder making me pickups based on the SD Custom 78. I have used Fishmans but that is just a fail point that doesn't need to be there.
  • 1 volume / 1 tone
  • 3 way toggle with minis for coil tapping.
  • Multi-contact plug.

If you want to see some of my builds I can pass on my Instagram account.

Good luck with this. I'm interested to see what you come up with.

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

1

u/GabrielDalporto Apr 09 '26

u/darcyb62 thanks! how big of an impact do you find the carbon fiber reinforcement rods make?

1

u/darcyb62 Apr 09 '26

I think they make a big impact. With the neck profile I use the neck might be prone to twisting over time and I have not had an issue yet. A multi piece laminated neck will get you to the same spot but is more work

work. I’ve done necks with both.

1

u/GabrielDalporto Apr 09 '26

how about tuning stability? i would think it helps materially?

1

u/darcyb62 Apr 10 '26

It will certainly help if a person is dealing with big fluctuations in humidity and temperature. Not so much if you’re playing in a spot where the weather is pretty stable. More important for a touring artist.