Folding Electric Guitar

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SPiN Racing:
Very very awesome guitar. Extremely complex, yet very logical as it unfolds. No Pun Intended.

Awesome as usual John!

Bogstandard:
Thanks for the comments everyone, it is much appreciated.

Now onto the final part of the project, and the bit that caused me the most head scratching. I had to replicate what the tuning knobs did on the original, but in a different way, plus it had to be bomb proof and keep exact tune, a thing the original tuning method couldn't do after the guitar was folded.

But first, I would like to show you one of my ideas that didn't make it from the sketch pad. This is the first idea that I came up with, instead of the final part that I showed last time. in fact there were a couple of others after this one that were also consigned to the 'has been' bin. By doing little C-o-C's like this, sitting down and looking at it for an hour or so, you can easily see the stumbling blocks that will crop up.

This one was rejected because it would not give enough slack on the strings to allow the detached neck to be repositioned, plus it would also foul the tuning method that already had a rough sketch done of it.

I started off with about the smallest size that I thought the tuning method could be squeezed into. I had already cut the six grooves at my 10.5mm pitch. I would be using the straight length of string between the two change of direction rollers that I showed last time, to carry out the tuning on, by pressing on the individual strings with bronze fingers.

So, now it was time to squeeze what I wanted into the overall size. I knew that I might need a fair amount of forwards movement to get the string tuned, plus I also knew the max I could have it move forwards, so I made the close tolerance fingers next, out of aluminium bronze with a very fine (56 tpi) left hand thread cut well down into the end of them. It required the left hand thread to give an instinctive movement of the tuning knobs. Turn the knob clockwise, and the finger would put more pressure on the string. I made a couple of spares at the same time.

Stainless rods were then single point threaded to give a very smooth and slop free fit into the fingers. You can't afford any sort of binding on something like this, it has to be smooth as silk otherwise the tuning might suffer.

An exercise was then carried out to lighten the main block as much as possible, but still retain enough support for the critical parts.

A lot more work was done on this tuning mechanism to get it to this stage from the last picture, and I don't want to show some of it, as that part could be a trade secret that I want to protect at this time.

I will just say one thing, this unit gave a very smooth operation with not one sign of backlash or undoing, that could cause problems by losing tune as the guitar was being played.

It was now time to get things into position in the body.

So back onto the mill. This is the roughing out.

Followed by a precision bit of machining, at least as best as the material would allow.

It fitted perfectly into the correct position.

Just a bit more machining, to allow room for fingers to get into the tuning knobs.

Looking good. Plenty of room, even for my gorilla sized fingers, and when viewed from the front, the tuning knobs cannot be seen.

So basically, except for a couple of fine tuning mods that I am keeping deathly quiet about, and having all of 'my man's' bits refitted, that is the finished project as you see in the first picture of this post.

I did need to keep a few things from your eyes, it was a stipulation that was given to me so that I could show you this project, and I hope it didn't spoil your enjoyment too much about how I went about it, and some of the stumbling blocks I faced along the way.

You wouldn't believe how much enjoyment I got from this project, even though I cursed it at times, as it was being done at a bad stage of my wife's and mine lives. But I must admit, there was never any pressure from my man, 'just do it when you feel like it' was what he used to say, so I did.

But it does prove, even though I hate working with the brown stuff, and can't play a single note of music, it didn't stop me from having a go and succeeding.

I hope it gives yourselves enough of a confidence boost to have a go at something you don't thoroughly understand. You never know, you might enjoy it.

Bogs

mike os:
wow... what can be said Bogs? cracking piece of work, some very inovative thinking and looks very smart too.

Thanks for sharing :D

jcs0001:
Bogs:

I really enjoyed your description of this project - fantastic. I know that acoustic guitar players are always concerned about travel because often their instruments get damaged. They are even more delicate because of the hollow bodies. I suspect that there will be a good market for this travel guitar - a lot of players are willing to pay well for a solution to their problems.

Maybe you can put your talents to an acoustic (classical) version!! :palm:

Thanks,

John.

DaveH:
John,

Great post. :clap:

Masterly and beautifully done. :clap:

Turned out to be a work of art. :clap:

:beer:

Daveh

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