Why is designing a headstock so tricky?

Simon_M

Cutting from a paddle headstock:



The body shape has lot of rounded curves so would like to continue that on but everything just looks like a Fender stock.I know some of these are a bit rough - just experimenting.

Funkfingers

Anything that exactly reproduces a Fender design will be dismissed as a copy.

Anything that loosely apes the Fender outline will be mocked for being a poor imitation. 

The blank paddle probably is not long enough to make a Firebird headstock - either way up.

Simon_M

Funkfingers said:

Anything that exactly reproduces a Fender design will be dismissed as a copy.

Anything that loosely apes the Fender outline will be mocked for being a poor imitation. 

The blank paddle probably is not long enough to make a Firebird headstock - either way up.

Yeah. I'm starting to think I need some scrap maple to plug the holes and add some more wood onto the headstock to give me a larger playing field as it were.

Winny_Pooh

ArchtopDave

Another thing, that you need to do, is to draw in where the strings will run from the tuners down to their grooves in the nut in order to make sure that they are free from each other.

Roland

Why is it so tricky? There aren’t many options, certainly not many which haven’t already been used by someone else

ICBM

Roland said:

Why is it so tricky? There aren’t many options, certainly not many which haven’t already been used by someone else

There must still be hundreds... the real difficulty is designing one that isn’t also either ugly or boring. Even most professional builders and companies seem to fail at one or other of those, or both.

SteveF

Why not look at something other than 6 in line? Musicman and Peavey have done the 4 and 2 thing well but there are less of those type around so maybe you could try that route? Or 5 and 1? Reverse 4 and 2? Etc 

Corvus

It is hard, no doubt about it.

Take a look at Inkscape, it's free and not too hard to learn. You can tweak point & curve endlessly. The slightest change makes a big difference, it's so much better than paper.
You can drop in images so could crop a Strat neck template to get a starting guide of string run/spacing, top nut, tuner holes. Or roll your own.

I use it for control cavities & covers, rod covers, whatever, as well as headstocks. You can export for laser cutting. Print and make router templates. Plenty of how-to's online but to do this stuff isn't a massive learning curve in it.

axisus

The way to do it is using a vector drawing app on a computer, you can keep copying and refining designs. Works for me.

paulnb57

I think we are so used to Strat heads on Strats and Tele heads on Teles etc that when something different comes along it jars with our expectations and looks off, its adidficult thing to get right, eg, I couldn't own a G and L, however well it played/sounded as the headstock makes me cringe!....The Mayer Silver Sky with 3 aside......just, no!...

randella

paulnb57 said:

I think we are so used to Strat heads on Strats and Tele heads on Teles etc that when something different comes along it jars with our expectations and looks off, its adidficult thing to get right, eg, I couldn't own a G and L, however well it played/sounded as the headstock makes me cringe!....The Mayer Silver Sky with 3 aside......just, no!...

Odd isn't it?  I don't much care for the G&L either but don't have as much hate as some for the Mayer PRS sig.

Ibanez's pointy effort has grown on me over the years, I guess familiarity is at the root of that about-turn.  About my favourite non-Strat Strat peghead is Suhr's.

You start to see why Fender protect the trademark silhouette of the Strat headstock so feverishly.

Danielsguitars

I spent a long time going through headstocks before settling on mine, people either like it or dislike it, nothing i can do about that

I used it on a t and s style builds but 6 in line is so ingrained on the brain they can't get past it, so if i build a fender scale guitar it'll be going on the usual G type bodies i think

 

Simon_M

I’ve designed three body shapes I’m happy with now and they’re all original (as far as I can reasonably tell anyway). I’ve so far not designed one headstock I like.

Apparently the 4-2 is protected by Ernie Ball and they are quicker with legal than Fender. 

Danielsguitars

Simon_M said:

I’ve designed three body shapes I’m happy with now and they’re all original (as far as I can reasonably tell anyway). I’ve so far not designed one headstock I like.

It's not easy and i think 6 in line is worse to get right imo

Simon_M

Danielsguitars said:

Simon_M said:

I’ve designed three body shapes I’m happy with now and they’re all original (as far as I can reasonably tell anyway). I’ve so far not designed one headstock I like.

It's not easy and i think 6 in line is worse to get right imo

I perhaps made the mistake of buying a paddle neck as a starting point. I’ll do a six in a line this time and then if I can learn how to actually make a neck from scratch I’ll try something more creative. 

Danielsguitars

Simon_M said:

I perhaps made the mistake of buying a paddle neck as a starting point. I’ll do a six in a line this time and then if I can learn how to actually make a neck from scratch I’ll try something more creative. 

 If you make an f style they're fairly easy to make from scratch especially with a modern truss rod, just have a go on cheap maple first

Corvus

Simon_M said:

Apparently the 4-2 is protected by Ernie Ball and they are quicker with legal than Fender. 

Had to read up about that, surprising they managed that because Gretsch did a 2-4 decades back, and there's the Brian Moores and whatever else. Although it seems its a US trademark or copyright, not global, like Huber made some 4-2 guitars but couldn't send them to the US and sent 3+3 versions instead. Anyway, as you were.

http://www.myrareguitars.com/guitar-pictures/vintage-1967-gretsch-corvette-6135-electric-guitar-01.jpg

Simon_M

Corvus said:

Simon_M said:

Apparently the 4-2 is protected by Ernie Ball and they are quicker with legal than Fender. 

Had to read up about that, surprising they managed that because Gretsch did a 2-4 decades back, and there's the Brian Moores and whatever else. Although it seems its a US trademark or copyright, not global, like Huber made some 4-2 guitars but couldn't send them to the US and sent 3+3 versions instead. Anyway, as you were.

http://www.myrareguitars.com/guitar-pictures/vintage-1967-gretsch-corvette-6135-electric-guitar-01.jpg

I didn’t realise it was USA only. Seems odd that anyone can trademark what side tuners go on. Weird.  

Simon_M

Funkfingers said:

The blank paddle probably is not long enough to make a Firebird headstock - either way up.

 Drill holes plugged and sanded. To the timber merchant tomorrow to find some scrap maple. This headstock is going to be painted so the fact that the holes look terrible doesn't matter.

I bought the neck for £20. It came with frets and a nut both of which were poor so I pulled them all and will be putting something better in.

Kittyfrisk

Simon_M said:

Corvus said:

Simon_M said:

Apparently the 4-2 is protected by Ernie Ball and they are quicker with legal than Fender. 

Had to read up about that, surprising they managed that because Gretsch did a 2-4 decades back, and there's the Brian Moores and whatever else. Although it seems its a US trademark or copyright, not global, like Huber made some 4-2 guitars but couldn't send them to the US and sent 3+3 versions instead. Anyway, as you were.

http://www.myrareguitars.com/guitar-pictures/vintage-1967-gretsch-corvette-6135-electric-guitar-01.jpg

I didn’t realise it was USA only. Seems odd that anyone can trademark what side tuners go on. Weird.  

Looks like someone at Schecter didn't get the 4-2 memo ?
https://www.schecterguitars.com/guitars/robert-smith-ultracure-2016-08-01-detail