You're invited to play: Guitar Designer Tool

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Suzanne

Junior Member
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Folks, like you, I sit around pretty much all day dreaming of custom guitars I could build. My daydreaming was so bad I started doing elaborate mock-ups in Photoshop. That got annoying with all the showing and hiding of various layers so I build a web-based form. That got me thinking... it should have better images and jquery show and hide features and and and... well, I'm now building what could be a problem for all of us.

http://guitarsparks.com

This is a full-blown, design a custom guitar, configuration dealio that allows you to choose from hundreds of bodies and tons of options. There are 10,500 pickguard images already!! Everything you might consider for a real build is here and if I dont' have an option for something you want, I will eventually. It's designed to help you visualize your next project. I've obsessed about the quality of the imagery. It's about as close as you can get to real photos of real bodies. Use it to work out an idea you have brewing or just play around with ideas you thought you'd never consider. Who knew a Daphne blue burst on top of a Glow In the Dark paint job looked so cool?

Anyway, although I am still very early in the development process, I'm inviting you to come and play around. Some of you may curse me for even mentioning this. It's addictive.

Please be aware, THERE ARE BUGS. I don't have all the images uploaded for some things, some options produce no image, but that's the exception, not the norm. There's enough working here to keep you busy and distracted for days.

Keep an eye on the NEWS section because that's where I will keep you updated on progress. You're also welcome to help me along by providing feedback, suggestions and wish list features.

Cheers,
Suzanne
 

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That's one of my favorite finishes Bagman. Have you guys found the flames option yet??? http://imspark.in/RGVsvR or http://imspark.in/NooJHh
 
Suzanne said:
Folks, like you, I sit around pretty much all day dreaming of custom guitars I could build. My daydreaming was so bad I started doing elaborate mock-ups in Photoshop. That got annoying with all the showing and hiding of various layers so I build a web-based form. That got me thinking... it should have better images and jquery show and hide features and and and... well, I'm now building what could be a problem for all of us.
Click to expand...

You've done a fantastic job there, Suzanne. I built a guitar using it and had no trouble. I'd like some better different headstocks to choose from, but I understand it's a work in process.

Is this going to support a guitar-building company at some point, or is this just for fun?
 
Cagey said:
Is this going to support a guitar-building company at some point, or is this just for fun?
Click to expand...

Thanks Cagey. This started out as my own obsessiveness around "seeing" what I was entertaining in my mind. You know you can spend HOURS at the Warmoth gallery just envisioning what you'd do with all those bodies. I wanted an easier way to "see" things and ultimately that will remain the bottom line  with this site. It's a tool to make choices about your next guitar.

However, with that said, once I began to build it, I started to realize its potential in terms of bringing people together... builders with parts manufacturers with the little people who want the guitars and so on. Will I start a guitar building company? Hum... probably not. That's not my gig. However, I love the idea that this "tool" could actually bring a lot of different types of people together - all of whom love guitars. It could bring parts manufacturers and luthiers and all of us together in a way where we all collaborate to get more of what we want. I would love to have parts people write to me and say, "Can you add my bridge to your configurator?" Of course. We all win.

That will likely happen. I am taking great care to build this thing with that potential in mind.

Regarding headstocks... I actually have all of the major headstocks designed, but as you might guess, I have not included them for trademark reasons. Until the owners of those trademarks give me permission to use them, I won't. I will eventually design more headstocks for use -> TRUE. I'm also hoping "the community" might participate by submitting designs, for both bodies and headstocks ;)
 
line6man said:
I tried a Cocoa Brown burstover, but it did not show up on the matching headstock.
Click to expand...

Correct - the overlay option is independent of the actual body. You kinda have to know how I make this happen to see why that is. I start with a body shape and apply the basic finish. Obviously you can see I have attempted to mimic all of the popular finishes from major manufacturers and Warmoth. I have to generate these base finishes in Photoshop and then I export the images and upload them. We build from that starting point.

The "Overlay" option you're referring to allows you to "spray an edge burst" on a "finish" that normally wouldn't be there. For example, Warmoth doesn't haven't anything called "Daphne Blue Finish with Black Burst". However, I let you do that :D  I'm pretty sure that if you called Warmoth and told them you wanted a black burst on a Daphne Blue finish, they'd do it for you so my thinking here is, why not be able to see that? I let you see it.

The "Match Body Finish" option for headstocks then is only aware of the body finish, NOT the extra option edge burst you might have chosen as well. I think technically I can make it aware, but now we're talking another 150 images PER HEADSTOCK to do that LOL.

Here's some math for you just to give you an idea of what we're talking about as far as imagery... and this is just ONE example.

5 body styles (so far)
7 pickguard styles for each body style
300 color options per pickguard style (150 solid colors and 150 pearls)

5 x 7 x 300 = 10,500

That's 10,500 pickguard images and I've only just begun :-O  What happens when there are 20 body styles and 15 pickguard styles and I add the metallic pickguards?

Ugh. Some of this makes my head spin. That's what I'm up against when I consider new options. Thank God for PHotoshop actions or this would never fly.
 
Y'know... Warmoth has a LOT of "stock" photos of necks and bodies. I wonder if they could be induced to share? A little quid pro quo with identification of design and/or source might be attractive...
 
Cagey said:
Y'know... Warmoth has a LOT of "stock" photos of necks and bodies. I wonder if they could be induced to share? A little quid pro quo with identification of design and/or source might be attractive...
Click to expand...

Truth be told, the original version of this "tool" used actual bodies from the Warmoth gallery. There are a number of issues with that approach however.
 
Scuffcakes said:
Truly addictive fun.  Great job.

http://imspark.in/RH4iJS
Click to expand...


OMG WOW LOL... now this is what it's all about... You would never in a million years dream that up in your head, yet, when you get to play around with options like this, stuff becomes more real. What you did there is completely do-able. I mean you can order that right now LOL. Whether you would is another question, but the fact remains, you could ;)

One of the things I love about the tool is that you start entertaining things - like that Ipe fretboard - that you never would have before. I guarantee you Warmoth is going to sell a lot more Ipe fretboards once this thing gets some attention. I have a config for the LP style body that's really cool and it uses the Ipe fretboard. I'll redo it and post the link.
 
Okay, I forgot I still have to redo the pickguards for the LP style body so I did the config on the SG style instead, but know that this config looks way better on the LP style.

Anyway, this is what I mean when I say you start entertaining things you normally wouldn't and then you're like hey, that looks kinda cool!

http://imspark.in/QnibHG
 
Is anyone here "in the know" about "representing" trademarked headstocks? Maybe someone from Warmoth can slip me some wisdom.  I have all the headstock shapes already drawn... even the arrowhead one! I just don't know if I can actually display them.
 
I'm not a lawyer, but here's my understanding of it.

Generally speaking, the only time you have to worry about trademark infringement is if you're trying to trick somebody, or somebody could inadvertently end up deceived about a product's pedigree. Assuming your intentions are benign, all you really have to do is give credit where credit is due. Trademarks aren't like copyrights; they're designed to protect the user/consumer more than the mark holder.

Trademarks aren't all you have to worry about, though. There's also copyright. Copyrights are a restriction on reproduction - a time-limited government-sanctioned monopoly awarded to the creator of the work. But, there's such a thing as "fair use", particularly if you're using something in an educational or demonstrative way. The owner can't prevent that kind of use.

In your case, I think if you just threw a line of weasel words at the bottom of the title page or some general place like that where you tell everybody "All registered trademarks mentioned in the [site] are the property of their respective owners and [we] do not represent these owners." you'd be in good shape.

 
Ah! Okay... I will look into this a bit more. So I wonder then if I can actually use body shapes that more closely match the body shapes we all know... AND BUY. I have tried to design things that are NOT as the originals are, yet still give you enough of the feel of the original while you make choices about what to buy. Obviously if you're going to build or buy a Strat, you want to visualize on something that looks like a Strat. I didn't use the guitar names for that reason as well.

HUM...
 
Total Side Note: I need to find some high-quality wood grain imagery for any wood you could potentially use as a laminate top. The trick here is that the image has to be at least 420x420 and not have gradient shadows or highlights as most photos do. I need these to create bodies with transparent or dye finishes, ie. the quilted maple bodies or mahogany bodies or what have you. If anyone has leads on that, that'd be great. Then I can create another search dimension called Laminate Top and you can choose for example, "flame maple" and I can toss up all the flame maple bodies at you, regardless of which dye or transparent finish it has.
 
Suzanne said:
Ah! Okay... I will look into this a bit more. So I wonder then if I can actually use body shapes that more closely match the body shapes we all know... AND BUY. I have tried to design things that are NOT as the originals are, yet still give you enough of the feel of the original while you make choices about what to buy. Obviously if you're going to build or buy a Strat, you want to visualize on something that looks like a Strat. I didn't use the guitar names for that reason as well.

HUM...
Click to expand...

It is my understanding that, at least with Fender products, the legally protected shapes are the headstock shapes, but the traditional Strat and Tele body shapes weren't legally protected back in the day, which is why you see a lot of people making Strat and Tele bodies, but with different headstocks.  Of course I'm not a lawyer, so I may have it all wrong.
 
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