Hybrid Prototype

I am going to stop apologizing for the lack of updates as it is happening too often. But I have been busy in the workshop with students and developing new ideas and working on a couple of personal projects.

Today we look at my take on a hybrid guitar, something which I have always wanted to do but never got around to it. The final push came when a friend of mine, whom my 12-stringer was loaned to asked if I could design something more portable; that he could strap on and carry while he moved around on his motorcycle. I got back to the drawing board and started drawing up new ideas on its design and how to amplify it.

My requirements were; it had to be light and easy to carry around (of course), it had to be somewhat durable and be able to take some beating and hold up well when you carry it around for gigs, it had to sound great like a proper acoustic guitar amplified, and it had to look like a regular acoustic guitar (from the front at least). So it came down to this, enjoy the pictures!

It’s got a thin, 50mm-thick hollowed out body CNC-assisted to cut out of a solid Mahogany block, a striped Monkeypod top, slotted headstock on a solid Mahogany neck, Malaysian Blackwood fretboard, bridge and detailings. Jescar Evo Gold fretwires, Bone nut & saddle, Japanese Gotoh open gear machine heads and wooden bridge pins.

The arm bevel was added for added comfort while playing seated. The shorter, 24.75” scaled fretboard added to its already easy playability, and also lent an added compactness to shorten the entire length of the guitar.

For amplification purpose, I went with Supernatural* by Bradley Clark (of course), the version with a top sensor and 9 presets. I had to modify the original preamp design to make it fit into this body. Sounds amazing when amplified, just like a properly amplified full bodied acoustic guitar. (This guitar is surprisingly pretty loud acoustically as well)!)

*30 July 2022: I have a brand new batch of pickups shipped in if you are looking for them! Please e-mail me for more information. Stocks are extremely limited due to the worldwide chip shortage.

I designed this to be a workhorse, gig-ready machine, so I added a passive pickup system as well, just in case the player runs out of power mid-gig with no spare battery on hand.

You can choose to use either the active Supernatural, or the passive K&K style system, or blend them both depending on your gigging needs.

I chose a slotted headstock to relief the guitar of some weight. The position of the tuners also keep it from being knocked out of tune when you stuff the guitar into a gig bag. The rear of the guitar allows access to the preamp, a quick battery swap and a bigger hole for future repairs and servicing of the pickups and other electronics:

This is a project I would very much like to develop further in the future. Perhaps also to add in a mechanism for a removable/collapsible neck, we’ll see. Here are some pictures of the work in progress: