Post 33: Exploring designs for the Aluminum Barytone Guitar

   I have spent a good deal of time in the last week or so exploring unusually creative guitar design on Pinterest, and have seen some great stuff made of wood. There are plenty of amazing custom guitar shops. One that really stands out for me is Stradi, out of Poland. They have been around for 20 years, and the stunning sophisticated simplicity of their bass designs is truly admirable:

     But as much as I would like to design and build something along those lines, I have neither the uber craftsmanship nor the woodworking equipment to do so. I better stick with my aluminum and brass rough look. I am even reconsidering using padouk sections for the body I designed. 

   But I happened to have a chuck of brass with a nice half-curve to it and Stradi inspired the idea of a slick curved piezo bridge. I finished the curve, sawed the 3/4" piece in half, and shaped the two sections with a sander. I cut and shaped a 1/4" piece of padouk to make a bridge. It's still rough, but once smoothed out and bolted to the guitar body, with two piezo sticks under the wooden bridge, I should get a good signal:

        Of course, to use that bridge, I will have to make a fingerboard with a roughly 12" radius for 7 strings or settle for 6 strings and use the ebony one I just bought on sale:

       In that case, I would need to make another matching bridge out of ebony.

      An issue I am working on is whether to use a truss rod to have some adjustment on the neck if it bends, which I doubt. But it is possible if it pulls on two brass pieces bolted to the 1/8" aluminum top itself.

     To get enough pressure on the piezo bridge, the strings need to make an angle of roughly 20 degrees, so the tuners will have to be mounted at a 20 degrees angle. I made a side drawing of the guitar:

        Another issue is whether to use the Chinese tuners I ordered:

or to make my own using some 1/2" brass thumb screws I have. I made a proof of concept mockup by bending a piece of the 1/8"aluminum, which was actually quite difficult. That stuff is stiffer than I thought. They have to be staggered and spaced precisely so they are as close as possible but do not touch. I tried to bend the little pieces at a right angle, but the aluminum broke. So I had to cut little sections of a 3/4"x3/4"x1/8" aluminum angle molding and attached them with M3 socket screws. The sliders to which the strings are attached will be made of brass and tapped to match the 10-32 thumb screws. Each tuner unit would end up being wider than the commercial ones, which means they will need to fan out slightly and the strings will require spacer posts: