Building the Ergonomic Guitar

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The Klein Electric Guitar is somewhat rare as guitars go and it is often difficult to find information about them or its players. Since I have based my ergonomic guitar build project on a Klein Electric guitar plan obtained from the Guild of American Luthiers, I keep an eye out for information about them. Particularly […]

As we’ve seen in previous posts on different approaches to headless guitar designs, conventional tuners can be repurposed for use in a headless guitar design. Here we see Koll Guitars’ solution as seen on their Custom RE. Here is a closer view of the tuners lined up in a row on the body side: For […]

Soloette Guitars illustrate another alternative in the pursuit of a headless guitar design. Like the TK Instruments Hollow Body electric guitar seen in Alternative Headless Guitar Design – TK Instruments, the Soloette models make use of conventional tuners in an unconventional manner. Essentially, a conventional classical guitar headstock and tuners are located at the body […]

As discussed in Headless Guitar Resources for the Guitar Builder, the headless guitar design lends itself to the pursuit of an ergonomic guitar design. With the headstock’s weight removed and the tuners relocated to the body, the guitar’s balance improves significantly. This improvement in balance was one of the driving forces behind Ned Steinberger’s redesign […]

With a successful guitar template completed, I traced the template shape onto the body blank and prepared to cut out the guitar body. I was a bit concerned with this step. My first thought was that I would have to cut very close to the tracing. Not being particularly skillful with a jigsaw, I knew […]

In Make Your Guitar More Ergonomic, I discussed some general ways to address issues of weight, balance and playing effort in an existing guitar. The following list of guitar accessories further illustrate how a guitarist can improve the ergonomics of a guitar with a minimum of effort. Below is the Planet Waves Dare Guitar Strap. […]

Headless guitar designs are particularly suited to ergonomic guitars. By eliminating the weight of the headstock and centralizing the weight of the tuners close to the player’s body, headless stringed instruments can end up with significantly better balance. Bass guitars particularly benefit from moving those heavy tuners off the end of a long scale neck. […]

One of the challenges in being new to guitar building is developing an understanding of basic woodworking and finishing techniques. While guitar building books will tell you what tool to use, they typically don’t tell you how to use it. If you don’t have that knowledge or understanding you’re out of luck. Being a newcomer […]

The guitar virtuoso Adrian Legg plays a great example of a custom guitar made with ergonomics in mind. Built by Bill Puplett, a guitar builder out of England, the guitar bares a striking resemblance to the Klein Electric guitar. Among the key ergonomic features are the sweeping upper bout which provides plenty of picking hand […]

In Important Elements For An Ergonomic Guitar, I list weight as one of several important design considerations in an ergonomic guitar. Weight reduction can be accomplished in a number of ways including such methods as the use of lightweight woods (or other materials) or chambering the guitar. Here is another possible approach as seen in […]