Guitar Shapes Navigator: Measuring the shapes of the guitar and the positions of its elements

By Jan Jirasko

The book "Guitar Shapes Navigator" deals with the determination of the positions of characteristic points, lines, distances and shapes of parts of the guitar as a whole. In contrast to technical drawings, "Guitar Shapes Navigator" does not use classic dimensions, but mainly the coordinates of the positions of the end points, center points, etc. Everything takes place in the X and Y coordinates of the normal Cartesian system. The third dimension, the Z coordinate, is used as needed.
And the main role is played by the origin, the Z E R O P O I N T - actually invisible under the bridge.

• Language: English
• Publisher: tredition
• Release date: Aug 23, 2021
• ISBN: 9783347386556

Book preview

Chapter 1 – Guimetry, Geometry of the guitar

At the time of my childhood, we had only two musical instruments at home. An old mandolin, and a mandolin banjo that someone once gave to our daddy in a useless state. In school, teachers accompanied our singing with the piano or the violin, and we were not allowed to try anything on our own. Singing only folk songs didn't bother us at all. That was still the time when brass and bow-string instruments still ruled. When I recall my first closer encounter with a real guitar - that was a deep experience! Both her elegant shape and the sound of their strings charmed me. It was a concert Spanish guitar, but unfortunately not mine.

How it continues to develop with my guitar playing, I will not describe it here. It's about something else. What is the source of the fascination that guitars have had in their shapes and sound on our and the next generation? As for the sound guitars, I'm not going to discuss this here anymore, so there's more room left to explore the curves and contours of the guitars under the magnifying glass.

Body, neck and head, even without legs and hands, these are clearly female beauty features of the guitar. And just as differences in faces and bodies greatly affect the beauty sensation, every guitar has its own character. In the meanwhile seventy-year history of the electric guitar, some types of guitars either developed into generally accepted copy templates or serve as the basis for detailed changes. Therefore, the limits of creative freedom in elelectric-guitar curves are relatively narrow. It is hardly possible to invent something previously unknown.

Divide et impera, Divide and rule!

This is the way to examine and understand the smallest visual differences and their effects. For this I roughly divide the guitar into three sections according to the method of action:

Body – Neck – Headstock,

so that we can measure and compare them over time.

A detailed technical drawing, English blueprint called, although useful, but not understandable for everyone. And to compare several blueprints on top of each other in detail is quite exhausting job. It is said that a picture says more than a thousand words, but it also leaves much room for interpretation. In this case, numbers are missing in order to be able to define exact dimensions and proportions. By comparison, a crack drawing or guitar blueprints talks in numbers. It is a manageable set of design values, which also includes formulas to understand them correctly. For example, the scale length, the position of the octaves, etc.

I would like to say that a book about guitars unfolds its greatest benefits when photos and drawings with numbers and text descriptions are described exactly. This not only benefits guitar designers or home builders, but also collectors, buyers, sellers, and other interested parties. And that is the intent of this book.

Chapter 1.1 – Who needs this type of guitar measurement?

Chapter 1.1.1 – Designer by profession

A designer who works professionally and lives well on guitars and related musical instruments will probably not find much new here. The instruments are measured and described from a different perspective than usual, and this type of measurement can be helpful for CNC programming. After all, anyone who studied general design, such as college design (including product design / product planning) and electric guitar design, can not avoid prototyping by hand. And thus he is also a craftsman, and not a pure designer in white coat. Life income depends on the number of guitars sold, whether they are made by an employee or a private entrepreneur. The situation is better for the copyright owner or patent protection.

A method of systematically displaying the most important guitar parameters in coordinates can also be very useful for seamless communication between two or more guitar designers. If none of them cling to traditions and everyone is willing to agree on a zero point in the middle under the bridge.

Chapter 1.1.2 – Amateur guitar maker

The amateur luthiers either work creatively, with the goal of creating something original, or just to copy a role model. They both need location data for a certain number of contour checkpoints and internal guitar details. The simplest method is to copy by template. This is relatively expensive if you buy a set of milling templates and build only one guitar, if there are any templates at all. Making templates by hand at home is almost free, but time consuming. And there begins the time-consuming search for specs, suitable photos and drawings in scale 1: 1. Even for those who have the opportunity to work with a CNC system, the coordinates can not be obtained without considerable effort.

The method for the systematic representation of the most important guitar parameters in coordinates, is (with a little practice) also for a clear understanding between two or more amateur guitar builders very useful.

Chapter 1.1.3 – Collector, buyer and seller

For this clientele, standard routing templates would be well suited for a quick comparison of the original form, but unfortunately too big, too heavy, too expensive and not very space-saving. It is easier to measure with a ruler, a caliper, etc. position of control points of selected guitar. The coordinates of the checkpoints are only pairs of numbers and therefore easy to look up. For example:

Also in search of a suitable guitar case, a rolled up paper template is much more comfortable than to lug the whole guitar along. For some guitar suitcase manufacturers, you can find information about width and length of the body and the total length, but this information is not as reliable as a detailed template.

Chapter 1.1.4 – Skeptics among the self-builders

Ten years ago I presented my idea of