Building the Ergonomic Guitar

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Last night, I completed the bridge route, mounted the Steinberger bridge, reattached the neck and strung up the guitar for the first time. There are some minor cosmetic issues around the bridge route area but no functional issues whatsoever. String alignment looks good as well. I strummed it a bit last night but allowed the […]

The guitar neck pocket is done and tight enough that I was able to hold the guitar up by its neck depending solely on its fit. By comparison, the route on the Steinberger Spirit GU-Deluxe was quite loose. Here it is with the neck attached: Here is the setup I used to make the neck […]

That’s what I wondered when I came across the Big Rock guitar pick. In fact, this is exactly what this unique design promises. The F-1 and X-1 guitar picks from Big Rock Engineering improve the guitarist’s grip on the pick through the use of a concave surface that helps the guitarist hold the pick in […]

I now have the guitar neck, bridge and headpiece courtesy of the Steinberger Spirit Guitar I purchased from Musicyo.com – seen here in its final moments. I had briefly contemplated building the neck but decided against it. The most important aspect of this guitar build is producing a playable ergonomic guitar. I decided that building […]

Here is the amazing guitarist Adrian Legg playing his ergonomic guitar design which incorporates both piezo and magnetic pickups. For more on the specifics of the design see my previous post, Adrian Legg’s Ergonomic Guitar.

Here is the latest on my guitar build – the guitar body is flush trimmed and I’ve radiused all the edges with a 5/16″ round over bit. The body sits on my homemade router table with the DEWALT 2.25 hp Router under it. Here is a closeup of the guitar body: Tools Here is the […]

The Xavier Padilla Custom electric bass guitar, built by Jerome Little of Little Guitar Works, is an amazing example of ergonomic guitar design from its unusual body design to its Torzal Twisted Neck. Six to eight months of discussions with Xavier Padilla resulted in very detailed design requirements. In fact, Jerome Little indicated that he […]

The Ovation Breadwinner electric guitar is a fine example of an ergonomic design incorporating both good balance and excellent picking arm support. Interestingly, it has not gotten the attention given to the Klein electric guitar. Only in production from 1972 through 1979, the design predated the Klein electric guitar by about a decade. Even a […]

Klein Electric Guitars may not be long for this world. Yesterday, a participant of the Klein Electric Guitars Yahoo Group reported finding a note on the site stating the following: “Note: Klein Electric Guitars is no longer taking new orders at this time.” This screenshot confirms this: According to reports on the group, Klein Electric […]

According to the National Pain Foundation’s Mayo Clinic Glossary, ergonomics is “the science of designing the job to fit the worker, rather than physically forcing the worker’s body to fit the job.” From the perspective of ergonomics, there are clear opportunities to improve guitar design in order to accommodate the way our bodies work. However, […]