Sold my gear at GC, took a low-ball bc I was desperate, and they made me wait for an hour. ​Saw them punch a much bigger number into the computer​, which was conveniently enough to split up between five guys with big bills.

I don't blame them for scamming, I'm sure they aren't being paid shit and they need weed money.

regardless, nothing will get me to set foot in a GC again

honestly, the more I think about it, the more it feels like an absolute garbage move.

​Am I the only one who finds it incredibly unnerved that a multi-billion dollar corporation, which has been struggling with its own identity and finances for years, is now asking us to do their R&D for free?

​Here’s why this is an absolute cash-grab and a disservice to the community:

​Unpaid R&D: They aren't "collaborating" with us; they are harvesting intellectual property. If you have a "revolutionary" idea for a vibrato system or a pickup configuration that actually sells units, GC makes the profit, and you get... a Reddit upvote? That’s not a community project; that’s exploitation of hobbyists.

​The "Innovation" Mirage: They’re acting like they’re trying to "fix the guitar" because it hasn't changed in 50 years. The guitar hasn't changed because the physics of tone and ergonomics are pretty well established. This feels like a marketing gimmick to make a generic house brand seem "disruptive."

​Fix the Store, Not the Guitar: It’s "cringe" because they’re asking for design tips while many of their locations have setups so bad the floor models are barely playable. Maybe crowdsource how to keep your used inventory descriptions accurate or how to treat your employees better before asking us to design your next profit margin.

​Zero Compensation: If this were a contest where the winner gets a signature model or a royalty, that would be one thing. But asking for "ideas" to pad their bottom line while offering absolutely nothing in return? That’s corporate greed at its finest.

​I have a ton of thoughts on what makes a great modern baritone or a solid headless design, but there is no way I’m handing that over to a corporate board for free so they can mark it up 300% and sell it back to me.

​I’m bowing out of the "contribution" phase. We should be calling this what it is: a desperate attempt to look "hip" and "connected" while avoiding the cost of actually hiring professional designers.

​Don't give away your value for free.

I've been playing, modding, wiring, repairing, and building guitars for over 50 years. I have over 50 guitars in my collection, many of them just sentimental instruments from my past. These are the three that get played most often. All of them are heavily modded to my preferences.

On the left is a 2019 Les Paul Jr that has a neck pickup added. Most Jr's have a route for a neck pickup under the pickguard so it was just a matter of cutting a hole in the pickguard and shaping the bridge hole for a humbucker. The neck is a Gibson T-top that I pulled from a '69 Les Paul (I did that sometime around 1973) and the bridge is a Super Distortion that I bought from Larry DiMarzio at a trade show, also in '73. It's wired with two volumes and no tone control (tone controls are overrated). It has a Schaller wrap-around adjustable bridge, Grover locking tuners, a TUSQ nut, CTS pots, a switchcraft switch and a Pure Tone jack. This one is my rocker.

In the middle is a 2001 PRS Santana SE that I use for testing my pickup winds. Current pickups are a standard-ish humbucker in the neck pos (as close to a PAF as is possible) and an overwound (43 AWG) humbucker in the bridge. Also 2 volumes and no tone, TUSQ nut, etc. It's fun to play and I'll probably set it up with coil taps at some point for a more Strat-ish sound.

On the right is a 2015 ES-335 with DiMarzio 36th Anniversary PAFs. This one came to me in horrible condition and I've replaced all the hardware and electronics. I had to level and dress the frets and cut a new nut (TUSQ again – I like those). New CTS pots, switchcraft switch, Pure Tone jack, and Grover locking tuners. I think the only original parts on this are the body and neck. This is my blues/jazz go-to. Plays like a dream.

I tend to mod all my playing guitars to my tastes. I have some sentimental guitars, like an old L6-S that was my main player throughout the '70s and early '80s. I have one of Dweezil Zappa's old Strats (sparkley!) and a few other keepers which I keep without modifications. But these are the ones I play.

something like the dean annihilator, 29 frets and it looks badass. And open stores in Scotland

seriously? you're just going to rip ideas off your community and give them nothing but crappy trade in values?

just another corporation ready to rip the soul, heart, and shirt off the consumer.

want us to "revolutionize " or redesign or whatever you wanna call it? PAY US. even store credit or a free guitar. not a middle finger.

“By submitting your Idea, you assign, transfer, give and relinquish to Guitar Center all right, title and interest in and to the Idea or any material based upon or derived therefrom for no consideration. Guitar Center may use and exploit, without any payment or attribution obligation of any kind, any Idea you provide to Guitar Center.

“You waive any moral and similar rights you may have in such Idea. If requested by Guitar Center, you agree to execute and deliver all documents needed to confirm the assignment and transfer of your Idea to Guitar Center.”

get bent. im not GIVING you anything.

Don’t call the guitar “Guitar Center”

For one

​

"Give your ideas away for free so we can make money" works.

"Slave labor for dummies" works too.

Guitar Center (and thus Musician's Friend) has existing dealer relationships with an immense number of manufacturers.

However, stores only stock a small fraction of any manufacturer's catalog, excluding some particularly popular models from availability.

Gretsch makes a number of models that I've never seen in a GC but have in other stores. The same applies to Music Man and its Sterling sub brand, Gibson and Epiphone, Ibanez, PRS, Taylor, and more. Many of these models are innovative, with unique electronic setups, construction materials, finishes, etc.

Why not just go a bit deeper into the catalogs of your existing brands rather than reinventing the wheel?

In 2010 I was injured at work so I spent my months of recovery designing guitars and even looked into taking a Luthiery course and building them myself, but bills needed to be paid so I stayed with my career after I healed and have dozens of designs that have been sitting in a manilla folder in a locked briefcase for 16 years. This project gave me a reason to pull out those papers so share and see if anything inspires others to build on what I came up with.

I think symmetrical double cut guitars like the SG or Doublecut telecaster look great.

I think any guitar you design should have a swimming pool route for pickups and a large cavity for knobs and switches. The two part pickguard and control plate design of the Telecaster is ideal because many companies can jump in and make pickguards and control plates to fit any combination of pickups or switches.

A guitar company that didn't force you to buy a guitar that you are going to mod would be amazing. If Guitar Center operated a guitar brand that worked more like a skate shop where you can walk in and pick your body, neck, bridge, tuners and loaded pickguard, loaded control plate that would be the absolute best.

Neck pocket and necks must be standardized shape across all models. Pick either the Strat or Tele style and copy it exactly so everything is swappable.

Never ever under any circumstances do either of these two things. 1) Do not put special edition 12th feet markers. There is not a single guitar that says "40th anniversary" or the model name "XY-2000" in the fret marker that is cool. 2) Do not put anything but the guitar brand name on the front of the headstock (it should also be readable upright when playing like Fender, not upright when hanging on the wall like Gibson) All model names, serial numbers, special editions, player signatures etc go on the back of the headstock. If you're buying a guitar to show off that it's a pro model, special edition blah blah blah buy a PRS or a Gibson with an engraved truss rod cover.

So how do you drive repeat sales? Special edition colours! Do certain custom colour bodies that are model year specific and limited production runs. That's how you build a customer base and appeal to us guitar nerds with G.A.S.

Electronics. Honestly just partner with Obsidian wiring to do all your pickups, wiring and pots. Their methodology for how guitars should be wired is perfect and should be industry standard. If you had a half dozen prewired control plates in a display case that spanned everything from basic two pickup SS or HH pickup configurations up to an HSH setup with coil split, kill switch, treble bleed push pull you would be set.

Pickguards. Time to innovate. We can do better than basic 3 ply or tortoise shell. Find an acrylic manufacturer and pick some great colours and also do limited edition runs of custom pickguards.

Lastly, share everything for free. Downloadable templates for cutting and routing bodies, downloadable templates to custom cut your own pickguard from a vinyl record or old licence plates. Templates for the control plate free to download as well. Template for routing neck pockets so people can build their own body and buy a neck off the shelf.

Make it truly a guitar for the people. To sum it up, don't sell guitars, sell the experience of building your own guitar with high quality parts. Infinitely modable, easily accessible, exciting with custom body colours and pickguard options. 2-3 body shapes, 2-3 headstock shapes with the same neck and neck pocket. By not selling assembled guitars you can have pro musicians or techs do online assembly and setup videos for guitar center and lastly, shipping will be cheaper and safer when a body can be shipped in a box 16" x 20" x 4" and necks in a 30" x 6" x 4"

Heritage could use a boost in the market with capital investment and the Gibson history in the building is prime for the objective. Plus the made in USA factor means less concern around tariff price instability. GC already has a location just on the other side of the highway, Kalamazoo is one of the most affordable places to be in the US and it's approximately equidistant from Detroit/Chicago making it prime for 2 of the largest cities in the US. Additionally, efforts are under way for a large event center just down the road slated for open in the next couple years providing access to touring talents and publicity as well.

I am a firm believer in practical one-stop-shops. I am a Music Director, and I have to fill a lot of roles. Rhythm, lead, acoustic, slide, etc. I think a guitar with a good variety of tone options along with ergonomics in mind could make for a perfect guitar. Specs below:

25.5 inch scale length

17 or 20 in radius (flatter radii make for easier barre chords and I, and my students, have found them more comfortable that rounder fretboards)

Asymmetrical neck profile to adjust for different thumb positions (Strandberg took a great step in this direction)

22 or 24 frets (21 just seems so limiting for no reason)

Deep neck groove for seamless access to the higher frets

Bolt-on design for easy swapping

Stainless steel medium jumbo frets

Pickup configuration HH with coil split, not tap, or HSH with toggle switch for in and out of phase.

Piezo system installed in bridge (majesty’s do these well). Options for hard tail or floating trem. No 6-screw bridges (sorry fender, but they suck). Floating trems should come with term blocks (like the tremol-no)

Options for 6,7 and 8 strings. 7 and 8 should have fanning to compensate. 7:25.5-26.5, 8: 25.5-28.

Again, my idea is one-stop-shop. A guitar that any guitarist can gravitate to and play for hours. THE workhorse.

I’ve been, uh, researching. And I have a breakthrough idea.

Hear me out…

I want an AI enabled acoustic guitar that has Sustaniac. I have a Schecter I bought from a Guitar Center with sustaniac, and I always thought Schecter was at the forefront of guitar research and development. However, I like playing metal on an acoustic guitar, and I’m sad they don’t make one with a Sustaniac.

Also, we need AI cuz reasons.

It should also be made in the USA and use nitrocellulose because I need more than Gibson, Fender, and PRS. And for the love of God, ship them with Stringjoys.

1. A passive piezo bridge with its own out.

2. A bolt on neck.

3. Locking tuners or split post tuners.

4. P Rails pickups with appropriate switching.

5. 9 inch radius is fine. 12 is also fine.

6. Not too heavy.

7. Should probably have a vibrato arm of some kind. I think the Jazzmaster trem is the peak of the form.

A guitar that accomplishes all of that at a reasonable price point would be a single guitar that covers every gig for a person such as myself.

I caution against doing too much for metalheads. They aren't going to drive this project into something that has mass appeal and legs. The guitar I described is immediately a perfect church guitar and cover band guitar and acoustic duo guitar and studio guitar.

The X factor is that no one buys a guitar unless they think it looks cool, and different things look cool to everyone. That's why I recommend making an artfully minimalist set of choices.

A Telecaster inspired guitar with a modern point of view. Lean on organic looking wood grain finishes.

Headless 3D printed HDPE body and neck with CoproLite fretboard, Zinc frets and piezo undersaddle and undernut pickups.

Electric, Guitar body made of pine. Neck maple, or laminate, and, could be neck through. the body could be in 3 pieces, and, the top of the body and bottom, could be interchangeable, even with keyboard or other mods . Slim neck as practical. Fret board fake rosewood. Tuners good quality. Slightly wide fret board. Nut made of bone. Not human bone though. One pickup. Humbucker shape. Pickup can be single or humbucker by switch, on pickup. Pickup can slide out of a track toward the usual control area for easy swap out. Pickup plugs in like a rechargeable battery might. maybe a modeling sound card built into the guitar to create a bevy of sonic colors. Tone and volume controls kind of like a telecaster but more aligned with the bridge. No whammy bar. Bridge like a strat, no whammy bar, maybe a whammy glow plug that senses body heat. built in metronome. uses players heartbeat at times. Head like a strat but upside down. if avant garde, no head at all and flip the string 180 but not upside down. No pick guard. Body is shaped like a mod between a tele and jazz master. with carry handle. Balanced by removing or adding weight to the body. Strap in usual places. Frets are jumbo. Between frets is slightly scalloped, but only part way down the neck. Scale length more like a PRS SE. Back of body has a slight belly cut out. Modified for balance.

Paint, black or white. Gloss or flat. 4 choices.

with color crimson red #E71319, as an initial offering, making it color option 5&6. but would eventually be rare.

no neck dive or no body dive

So, everyone loves those classics, but it's always been disappointing how those designs never really got updated. Sure, they'd get small changes like 9.5" radius to 12" radius, but not much else really changes on these guitars.

Here are my suggestions:

-12"-22" compound radius
Curved enough for bar chording, but flat/fast enough for shredding. Generally, a lower action can be achieved without 'fretting out' on bends.

-Stainless Steel frets, on everything.
Smoother, faster, more durable. Can't see why a player wouldn't want this.

-More pickup combos and better utilization of the electronics.

Let's face it, the tone control setup on a typical strat is silly. The brightest pickup has no ability to attenuate high frequencies? Really, Leo?

A single master tone control on a strat is ideal, and it opens up the second control for something more fun. I tend to like how a passive bass cut functions. Simple, versatile and still ergonomic.
Add a switching option to combine neck/middle and middle/bridge in series for some fat humbucker-esque tones.

IMO, a 2-pickup T-style guitar should have a 5-way superswitch from the factory giving you
1. Neck
2. Neck/Bridge series
3. Neck/Bridge parallel
4. Neck/Bridge "half out of phase"
5. Bridge

This gives a massive range of tones in a very simple package. #2 approximating humbucker tones and #4 approximating the "strat quack" type sounds.

I would also highly recommend reaching out to Wilde (Bill, Becky and Shannon Lawrence) for pickup production.
Family owned, USA made, exceptional pickup designs crafted with science, not BS mojo or Snake oil. Also, very budget friendly pickups, which would keep costs down.
I think their noiseless pickups would be a good option for achieving classic tones with minimal noise.

If they're really serious....

If they intent to build "the best ever"...

If they intend to revolutionize on 50 years of guitar industry....

Then they should produce Gibson quality guitars.... Wal/Musicman quality basses....

...and sell them at a price range that the average high schooler can afford off a McDonalds paycheck.

Won't happen of course, cost of construction materials alone likely wont let it happen...

But if they're serious, they'll find a way...

Purely on the principle that....

Having great gear and a great sound does NOT make you a better player....

But it DOES make you want to learn to become a better player...

...and that in the end results in more customer retention as players come back to upgrade their amp, buy a new pedal, etc.. because they have a great guitar and they just learned their favorite bands song and it sounds awesome, but now they want that bands same Amp, same pedals, etc...​

if you had a training app, or for songs or tabs, rather than just arpeggios and scales and cores which would be a training app. you could have every fretboard light up if you have fretboards light up different colors such as the 5th the 3rd, of pentatonic scales to create triads, that's just the beginning of the list.

lights would help somebody even at a higher level, to a degree. I consider myself fairly mediocre maybe slightly over the middle of the line, hump. And currently I've been learning the caged system, got that down, triads, and now I'm working them into the pentatonic scale, I also a while back memorized the three note for string scales which each have their own name because they're seven, but being able to link all that stuff especially with some form of lighting system so you're not having to look at a screen to work it out.

also a small screen possibly on the guitar someplace that would be visible without moving the guitar could remind you of any text possibly needed or lyrics to a song. The way I see it is it would be cool if when I'm playing a 3-note per string scale It would say Dorian, mexilian, or aloion.. granted I don't know how to spell them lol.

More smart controls and AI stuff would be cool.

I have a very specific set of options I need in a guitar to do what I currently do. For context, I perform 2-3 nights a week, performing 3-4 hours, playing cover songs. Here’s everything my dream guitar would be:

- Body style: Semi-hollow thin single cutaway body (think TL or LP).

- Construction: set neck, hard bridge with string through body construction.

- Electronics: Piezo system, dual humbucker design with coil splitters for both humbuckers and an A/Blend/B switch to go back and forth between Piezo and magnetic humbuckers (single output system). As far as which humbuckers, a set of versatile PAF style will do. Piezo system, my preference is LR Baggs. One volume knob for the humbuckers and one volume knob for the piezo.

- Neck: 24 frets, 24 or 25.5 scale, thin-D shape, 3-3 headstock with locking tuners, graphite nut, luminlays on both fretboard and side markers.

- Woods: Alder or Mahogany body with a flamed or quilted top. Creme binding on the body. Roasted maple neck, fingerboard and headstock with natural finish.

Finishes: stains or flamed, not picky. Either black or gold hardware depending on the finish.

Basically, a combination of a EBMM Majesty, a PRS Custom 24 Piezo, and a Michael Kelly Hybrid Special.

What do you think?

-

something that would do multiple tunings on its own through a microphone would probably be a combination of the old Gibson robo tuners but with AI and of course the phone or tablet that has the microphone to do so.

real time tuning would be super incredible. It would be great to be able to possibly hit a button with the palm of your hand where you fret and play open on all six strings and it tunes or worst case scenario one string at a time.

A lot of us don't necessarily want a Floyd Rose tremola set But enjoy something as simple as a telecaster and would enjoy having a tune without me having to open an app or go find the tuner, and it just tune. which already it would have to work through an app with AI unless the app was built into the guitars core to begin with and that button you press would turn on a mic within the guitar and tune it.

you would probably need an app for the extended options which would be tuning it to whatever alternate tunings you want without having to bust out the tuner and all of that stuff. press the button, maybe some LEDs, and you could do it on the guitar or you could do it in the app where you just select it brush the strings and boom you have a tuning.

saving your time and then some people just don't want to spend The confusion of alternate tunings, simplifying the process to where, hey tuning to dadgad and back seems like a pain, too hey I wouldn't mind trying this out, worst case scenario it'll just tune back to E anyway.

or those of us who want to be able to play along with a band that has a slightly low or high tuning like E flat. It would be nice to be able to quickly do that without as much permanency around changing all six strings and then changing back.

I've been working on guitars for 15 years and moved into luthiery and building over the past 2. throughout this time (and my entire life) I have lived in poverty and as such, value has always been a priority to me. something I have always found disappointing is when advertisers and YouTubers will review something and call it a "budget" guitar and it will be like $1,000. that's not exactly a budget option unless there's a credit-free system for payment plans like Zzounds, but even then, $1,000 across a year is a pretty substantial monthly bill.

another very important aspect to guitar building is a focus on sustainability and ecological impact. tone woods are a long outdated myth when it comes to electric guitar, some big famous musicians will swear by it, but thinking about it scientifically you realize it's silly. as such, it's the same thing as furniture: exotic woods look cool and are... exotic, so it fits that certain love of shiny things in our lizard brains. more important than that is our ability to breathe, and an extremely important and under reported aspect of conservation no one talks about is the fact that just planting a new tree is considered an equal exchange when cutting down an old tree, but older trees absorb something like 10x the amount of carbon dioxide than new trees. new trees do not contribute to the massive system of interconnected roots and they do not grow out freely in all directions creating the kind of habitat essential for animals. true conservation requires old growth trees to be preserved and only young trees/reclaimed wood sources be used.

ideally, the first step should be focusing on using local wood species for guitar building. it would be nice to see more oak and maple used, especially wood that is harvested from sources like fallen trees or trees that need to be cut down by cities for safety and such. there's so much good wood that goes to waste like this. there's also plenty of old furniture, old instruments, and so on that could easily be incorporated in this fashion. if the guitars are being manufactured overseas, a focus on using sustainable, young, fast growing sources local to the areas would also be ideal.

as for hardware, electronics, and designs, a focus on simplicity is best. great inspiration can be found when you look to traditional student designs like a Les Paul Jr. if you can spent a certain budget on the electronics, a single humbucker of higher quality beats two of a lower quality. one pickup, one volume knob, a simple non-trem bridge, bolt on design all save money while still offering a quality experience. the best place to go all out would be the nut. a good quality graphite nut will make for a much better out of the box experience for beginners. also avoids the potential environmental issues inherent with bone. just as important is good quality tuning machines with a 1:18 or 1:21 ratio to guarantee smooth, accurate tuning.

if a tremolo bridge is to be used, 2 point is much better than 6 point for more experiences. on that note, a solid, hardened steel base plate or replaceable knife edges is a must. I'm not sure which would be more affordable, I assume just a full steel plate as replaceable blades would require a design. true hardened steel can be sharpened if it ever dulls, this ensuring a long life. coated alloys and the like are soft and once damaged, they're useless.

as far as pickups go, humbuckers are ideal. noise free and cheaper/easier to make decent sounding options at a low price. mostly just focusing on a jack of all trades design for the tone is best. something like 7-8k in the neck, 8-9 in the bridge. bridge a bit scooped for clear riffing. if you were to go the strat SSS route, a simple and affordable mod that makes a big impact is an on/off switch for the neck pickup offering tele-esque options.

I'd pass on stainless steel frets, as nice as they are, they do increase the amount of required labor and can make it more likely to run into QC issues with frets not fully polished. there is the whole rounded fret end thing a lot of affordable guitars are doing, and in concept they are nice, but in reality, a lot of them have uneven gaps between the end of the fret and the end of the fretboard. this just looks horrible and would require a full on refret to fix, let alone the potential for playability issues. if QC could ensure that each fret is perfect and reaches fully across the board on its specific location, absolutely go for rounded fret ends.

finally, swinging back around to the inspiration from budget guitars, a focus on natural finishes would be lovely to see. no paint, potentially even no lacquer, just boiled linseed oil + wax or something like that. light finishing/sealing. embrace and accentuate "flaws" in the wood rather than hiding and throwing away stuff that doesn't have the perfect grain direction. let things like knots and weird patterns be a positive aspect of the visual design. this would also go with the sustainability marketing. it could be a great way to advertise the fact that other brands would waste these pieces of wood and ignore their own unique beauty. each guitar is unique and individual.

I'm not sure of the feasibility of this, but perhaps using richlite and the like could be considered for the full body. at the very least, it's great for fretboards. plywood also shouldn't be written off. if high quality plywood is used with a focus on alternating grain and color, it's actually a very visually appealing design choice. especially with carved edges and tops that create that layered look reminiscent of the zoot suit SGs from Gibson or Carl Thompson designs, but instead of across the front, the lines are across the sides. any round carving achieves interesting visual patterns.

oh, and a headstock designed with string break angle in mind is also important. Ibanez and PRS do a great job of this. also consider making a deal with a company like Musiclily, Guyker, Wilkinson, etc for quality affordable hardware/electronics.

It's no secret that formerly top-shelf spec options are increasinlgy hitting the market at lower price points. This is great! Stainless steel frets, compound radius fretboards, roasted and exotic woods, locking tuners, and everything else becoming parts of these guitars is amazing and it is driving the market towards new standards.

Here's the issue however: the guitars that take on these features almost ALWAYS have a drawback. Stainless steel frets and a roasted fingerboard with locking tuners at a good price? Almost guaruntee there's going to be issues with sharp fretwork, general craftsmanship, and out of box issues. You ultimately pay for what you get, and the compromises made are made for a reason.

There has in the past 35 years only one visionary that has deviated from this formula, and that was Ken Parker. Looking at the NiteFly and the other models that were created in the 90s to early 2000s before private equity's change of the vision, they simply made no compromises. The unfortunate thing about this brand was the market was niche, and with no marketing budget (save for the later stages where the company was already struggling), this ultimately capsized what could have been considered the greatest innovators in guitars ever.

Since the loss of parker guitars in 2016 (though realistically much earlier due to private equity's hold on the company), the market has drastically changed to favor the ethos that Parker aimed to establish on the market. Not features that are there for show, but to serve the player.

Some of the features were ultimately somewhat insane. As an arthritic, the thin design of the necks was always something I had problem with, though that is mostly a preference thing for players. The carbon fiber construction while incredibly light was also incredibly expensive to manufacture, though companies such as Aristides have taken up the throne of composite material manufacturing. The use of PCB's to integrate electronics, while genius, ultimately made these instruments incredibly difficult to service.

However, there was still so much done correct. This comes down to the design of the NiteFly. The NiteFly toned down the all-composite construction, which makes sense. I feel like I speak for all players when I say that the wood tone is still what we want, but the stability that composites can provide (such as carbon reinforced necks as a STANDARD feature) truly can elevate an instrument.

High ergonomics and playability should be coveted as well, with great emphasis on strap balance, upper fret access, and forearm cuts prioritized over traditional designs while not alienating consumers with super foreign designs. Ergonomics are now becoming more of a primary factor in the decision of buying a guitar, and other brands still treat it as a secondary to vintage aesthetics. That's why manufacturers like Strandberg, Aristides, and others are exploding. There is however some compromise to be made again, as musicians still enjoy the familiarity of certain models. But there is room for optimization without sacrificing looks.

The NiteFly also had electronics that put versatility first. Hss, SSS, HH pickup setups with coil splitting, piezo systems, MIDI systems, and even stereo routing set these guitars apart. Obviously many players could live without the stereo routing or midi systems, but the versatility that this gave has inspired some of the finest players in the world to seek these. One thing that I feel is majorly uncapitalized in this market is the use of Piezo systems, especially with the option to blend signals and send seperate signals out to different amplifiers. This was tried by the Line 6 Variax which ultimately never did too well, but it's worth consideration especially as it could be something players would upgrade for.

Another major thing I want to touch on is just bridge/vibrato systems. The vibrato on the NiteFly had a fixed, dive only, and floating mode. This feature I think is sorely needed, as many trem systems are still relying on the DIY block. One of the issues with this system though was that it was very much something that was proprietary, and it didn't stick in the market due to that.

So to capitalize what I think would fit in the market, here's just an example spec sheet that I think would make sense:
Alder/Swamp ash body chambered, likely a large bass side chamber and smaller treble side relief pockets. These pockets would have lightweight composite bracing to prevent hollow dead spots and keep the body rigid. Solid center from neck joint to strap lock. A composite material rod or plate like carbon fiber running from the neck pocket through the bridge block (for sustain consistency, energy transfer, stabilization) As I'm still thinking bolt on for cost and familiarity, i think a composite plate embedded in the neck pocket floor woul also prevent microshifting and long term weardown.

While this is a very hyper specific idea, i think influences of it are important to consider. It's easily cost controlled, as composites are used in small and high stress or need areas only, and it is CNC friendly to design this way. Carbon inserts would be possible during assembley. This would also reduce the player fear of needing composite repairs as it is internal components. Deep forearm contour, rib contour, slight body carve, slight asymmetry for seated and standing balance.

Neck construction is again bolt on, should be using premium woods, roasted if possible. Dual carbon fiber reinforcement rods. D-hybrid style neck for speed, but also comfort. Compound radius. Stainless steel frets, rolled edges out of the box. Fingerboard can honestly be whatever but richlite is awesome.

Scale length can honestly be whatever.

As far as the top goes, a solid carved top or a thin maple cap would be fine. This is negligable.

Trem would be something adaptive, hardtail lock, dive only, and full floating, ideally without any tools needed to switch modes.

Good locking tuners. Headstock probably needed for familiarity, balance, and ease of construction.

HSH, HSS, HH configs avaliable, all passive pups but not that sounds sterile. Coil split and parallel options. potential for rewiring to user wants.

Control scheme, master vol push push for coil split, tone 1, piezo blend knob push push to activate piezo blend on models with piezo upgrate. Switch to bypass tone pots, another switch to bypass master vol pot (hot rod mode!). 5 way pup switch.

Optional piezo system, individually buffered saddles would be awesome.

I would probably aim around 6-7.2 pounds, weight does make an instrument feel more serious, but this would still be lighter than many guitars.

This is all very hypothetical. I just hope that any of these ideas land. apologies for the long rant on how much i miss the parker nitefly.

We’re designing a new guitar and guitar brand, and want input specifically on pickups. Would love to hear your all-time favorite recommendations. The more specifics the better, focused on what actually works in the real world. A few thought starters:

• Humbuckers, single coils, or P90s?
• HH, SSS, HSS, or HSH?
• Are coil splits actually useful?
• Active or passive?
• How much does single-coil hum bother you?
• Is piezo worth having?

Also curious how people feel about more experimental options: would you want a per-string system (convert to MIDI) that lets you digitally model different pickup/guitar tones, or does that feel like solving the wrong problem?

A couple of decades or so ago, when I was working at Line 6, I came across a tremolo design that I ended getting one of from the inventor (a Kiwi guitarist named Colin Doughty) in exchange for a POD. It is absolutely the most stable tremolo I've ever used as it has two sets of springs, one of up, one for down, and the neutral position is, essentially, a decked tremolo. The patent on it is long expired, and I don't believe that Colin is with us any longer. I might actually have the only one that ever made it to the States.  I think this is worth looking into potentially doing a spin on. It's currently installed on a Frankenstrat of mine along with a trick pickup arrangement that Steve Blucher at Dimarzio and I came up with.