You dont need a truss rod when....

robgilmo

Your guitar is a solid lump of glass.

Apollo Premier | MStar Glass Guitars (morningstarglassguitars.com)

SlopeSoarer

Clearly you don't but I think I'd be shattered playing that all night... a proper pane!

elstoof

Sounds better clean than dirty

maharg101

Would sound great through a nice transparent overdrive pushing some glass bottles !

Philly_Q

You don't a truss rod but you might need a truss... some kind of surgical support, anyway.

Weight: 12.5lbs-14.5lbs

CavemanGrogg

There is no way in hell that that guitar is made out of ''regular'' glass - it wouldn't be strong enough or rigid enough to support it's own weight never mind the tension across the strings especially if played standing up and supported by a strap, it's either a laminated glass - as used in vehicles, or some form of borosilicate -  AKA Pyrex which is actually a brand name and not an actual type of glass,  Either way, I don't think that even @HarrySeven would want one in his collection of abused monstrosities.   One chip, and it's not the finish you're worrying about, or even cutting yourself on it, rather the structural integrity of the entire guitar, not to mention the potential for the instrument to shatter/explode without warning - and as somebody who collects glass this happens a hell of a lot more often than people think even with laminated glass and borosilicate glass especially if their are temperature changes or the glass hasn't been tempered/cooled/destressed properly just Google ''outdoor glass top table'' in the news with google.

Edit to add:

Notice the stress test video on their FAQ page has been set to private, and they claim that the now unviewable set to private video that supposedly proves that glass is a better and stronger material than wood for making guitar necks out of, and while you're at the FAQ page you really need to read their warranty to see what it covers - funnily enough this can be summed up as ''anything not made out of glass for a period of 1 year'', as well as whether the guitar can have a refret done - spoiler alert here no it can't be refretted.  And then there is the fucking neck, just read their FAQ on how it has been attached to the body, and then ask yourself, if that's the case and if that method really does work, then why the hell are the pickup rings, jack and everything else, apparently glued in place, rather than screwed into epoxy filled holes in the glass.  Then there is all the crap about neck relief.

BillDL

Clearly you saw right through their ploy from the outset.

WezV

 I assume It's laminated glass

No guitar companies offer warranty for cosmetic damage caused by normal use, so I wouldn't expect to see that covered here

Just imagine how awesome it would look to smash this on stage or in a video if it did shatter.

I'm not sure how he attached the frets.  I assume epoxy again.  If so there will be ways to get them out without damaging the board, but a new neck may be easier and certainly less risky.


It's an interesting effort to me, but will be overly heavy for most.  However, some aluminium guitars get close to that weight and still sell well

Cols

I remember Ampeg made a Plexiglass guitar around the 60s/70s, albeit with a wooden neck.  I assume this is a similar concept.

The Apollo Premier ‘glass’ guitar looks heavy.  Hopefully too heavy for Pete Townshend to lift over his head.

elstoof

Weird, he had a load of build videos on YouTube a few years ago but they’ve all been removed from his channel. Anyway, they’re glass, the necks are epoxy laminated sheets, quite thick if I remember correctly. The bodies are the same sheets but precut from templates to provide cavities etc. He basically grinds the neck out with an angle grinder before sanding smooth which isn’t actually all that unusual in glass production. What I found interesting was he had no prior traditional guitar building experience before deciding to start building from glass. It was all documented for his Crimson Guitars Guitar Build Off competition entry iirc

Musicwolf

Retired Global Product Manager for one of the world's largest glass manufacturers here

CavemanGrogg said:

There is no way in hell that that guitar is made out of ''regular'' glass - it wouldn't be strong enough or rigid enough to support it's own weight never mind the tension across the strings especially if played standing up and supported by a strap, it's either a laminated glass - as used in vehicles, or some form of borosilicate

Bollocks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps6-6QiLz3E 

Even without lamination or toughening (thermal or chemical) glass of that sort of thickness won't be troubled by at set of strings.

I used to give talks about Automotive Glass where I would finish by standing on curved piece of, admittedly, thermally toughened glass - but that was only 3.15mm thick.

Lamination isn't used to increase strength, it is employed to maintain structure in the event of breakage and preventing objects from penetrating (or occupant retention in vehicles).  Borosilicate is used to reduce breakage at high temperatures (it is actually mechanically weaker than regular toughened glass).

Weight will be the real issue.  Glass has a density of 2,500 kgm-3.  That's roughly three times the density of wood?

steveh

Why on earth would anyone buy a glass guitar, especially north of 12k, as displayed proudly on his website?

elstoof

Plenty of guitars, and many other products, are made and bought without the intention of being used. It’s probably safe to assume these aren’t aimed at the gigging musician

BillDL

steveh said:

Why on earth would anyone buy a glass guitar ......?

To make a spectacle of himself? 

ICBM

Cols said:

I remember Ampeg made a Plexiglass guitar around the 60s/70s, albeit with a wooden neck.  I assume this is a similar concept.

I remember Nile Rodgers using a Strat with a perspex body in the late 70s or early 80s too.

There were all-perspex (including the neck) guitars in the 90s or early 2000s under a few different brand names - the most common design was a sort of pseudo-Jazzmaster with Strat pickups.

They were heavy, toneless and no thought had been given to where the wiring channels were - they just did the same as on wooden bodies - so there were ugly opaque tunnels across parts of the body… which seems to be quite a common feature on this sort of thing. (Unlike the Ampeg/Dan Armstrong ones where it’s all neatly hidden by the pickguard.)

Musicwolf

ICBM said:

Cols said:

I remember Ampeg made a Plexiglass guitar around the 60s/70s, albeit with a wooden neck.  I assume this is a similar concept.

I remember Nile Rodgers using a Strat with a perspex body in the late 70s or early 80s too.

There were all-perspex (including the neck) guitars in the 90s or early 2000s under a few different brand names - the most common design was a sort of pseudo-Jazzmaster with Strat pickups.

They were heavy, toneless and no thought had been given to where the wiring channels were - they just did the same as on wooden bodies - so there were ugly opaque tunnels across parts of the body… which seems to be quite a common feature on this sort of thing. (Unlike the Ampeg/Dan Armstrong ones where it’s all neatly hidden by the pickguard.)

I had a 'Shaftesbury' branded one in the 80s which had a regular neck

I seem to remember the pickups being different on mine.  Not a nice guitar and very heavy.

Offset

elstoof said:

It’s probably safe to assume these aren’t aimed at the gigging musician

FTFY.

MartinBush

I hope to see a Cleartone conversion of this...

PhilKing

Cols said:

I remember Ampeg made a Plexiglass guitar around the 60s/70s, albeit with a wooden neck.  I assume this is a similar concept.

The Apollo Premier ‘glass’ guitar looks heavy.  Hopefully too heavy for Pete Townshend to lift over his head.

I have one of these and can tell you that they weigh about 9-10lbs, but they do sound great.  I have 4 or 5 pickups that I can drop into mine for totally different tones.

Mike58

As ICBM said, very untidy look re wiring, the DA and DA copies are much nicer aesthetically, but they do not have a glass neck.
would appeal only to a tiny, tiny proportion of players and possibly end up just being displayed as a conversation piece.

Blueingreen

I played in a band with a guy who had one of the Dan Armstrong ones back in the day.  We swapped guitars a couple of time and  I must admit I thought it was a gimmick - I can't remember what I thought about the playability but I didn't like the way it sounded.