Your Absurd Guitar Designs

Don't know if there's a thread already for this, but I wanted to create one. I always love to see absolutely banana's ideas for instruments, good or bad, so this thread is for those instruments that may never see the light of day, or maybe, ones that, against all sane reason, have materialized.

https://ibb.co/4YLMqVr

This design I came up with is the Blue Rose Les Paul. Designed this mostly for the aesthetic of Silver hardware, MOP binding, and a finish that looks like you're looking at the top of a blue rose. The instrument would, for all intents of purpose, be a '59 spec'd Les Paul, just with an eye catching finish.

https://ibb.co/hL1GNCT

As opposed to the last post, this instrument is changed up out the wazoo. It has a Fernandes sustainer in the neck, and the toggle switch on the lower horn has been moved, in order for a Buckethead-style kill switch to be accessed in the strumming region. The most noticeable feature are the arcade style buttons on the lower end of the body, which function as a bluetooth comparable midi controller, with octave up and down buttons on the side. I was inspired to design this after watching a video by MerwinMusic on the topic, and wondered how the design would look on an Explorer.

This Explorer just became an experiment of how many features I could throw on to the face of a guitar. I'm sure that all of these electronics could all fit in an explorer style body, but the whole back might have to be routed out, to the point where it would basically just be a glorified acoustic.

MerwinMusic's video on the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPgYpVHFSQY

Whoa, some cool designs there. The Explorer is particularly cool to me. I don't have any really crazy ideas like this, but it's got me inspired to try and think of some. My dad's idea was to have a guitar that looked like a Harley Davidson. I don't know how the balance on that would work, but he doesn't play, so that doesn't really matter. I told him if he really wanted, he could get a custom paint job on a guitar of a Harley, but that's not quite the same.

For some reason this threads come to the top of the list after 2 years? I wasn't here back then, but moding guitars is something I love doing and I've always wanted to make a fully custom model!

The two ideas I'm hot for atm are a reverse explorer styled into an "evil" Jazzmaster and a tele with built in effects like a pog or a delay (annoying fender have very recently don't that exact thing)

Oh nice! I wasn't here then either, but also love modding here and there (well depends on the guitar, I won't mod a vintage guitar, but a Cort or Harley Benton, naturally!)

Ok I wouldn't know where to start creating a guitar, let alone a custom one, but some of the ones I already do have, have some pretty wacky designs. One of them is my Jolana Iris (a vintage Czechoslovakian guitar from the '70s, which is a sort of mashup between a Tele and a Jazzmaster), and another is a custom microtonal Strat (similar to a regular one in almost every way, except with additional frets, allowing me to play quarter tones as well as semi tones). Always interested in unusual designs!

...and another is a custom microtonal Strat (similar to a regular one in almost every way, except with additional frets, allowing me to play quarter tones as well as semi tones)...

Nice! Can you recommend some microtonal guitar albums/tracks? ... besides the King Gizzard stuff, which is great.

Apart from King Gizzard, I can't think of any other high profile artists who use microtonal guitars in their music, apart from George Harrison's debut solo album "Wonderwall", and Brian Jones' solo album "Pipes of Pan at Joujouka", but neither use microtonal guitars but rather folk instruments such as sitars . I guess the reason I wanted a microtonal guitar was sort of inspired by my travels in North Africa and the Middle East, listening to the local music and street artists, I had bought an Arabic oud as I wanted to incorporate those elements into my music. But then I wanted to do the same but on electric as well.

So yeah can't really think of any other high profile artist that uses microtonal electric guitars apart from King Gizzard, but if you're interested to hear how it sounds, here is one of my songs where I use it for the intro and outro:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3e2kCV-3bQ

... I guess the reason I wanted a microtonal guitar was sort of inspired by my travels in North Africa and the Middle East, listening to the local music and street artists, I had bought an Arabic oud as I wanted to incorporate those elements into my music. But then I wanted to do the same but on electric as well.

I know the feeling. Years ago, I was in this world music course in college and the professor busted out an oud and started showing us some new scales, and I was hooked. If I could have afforded one at the time, I'd surely have done it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3e2kCV-3bQ

So spicy to these western ears! I dig it. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3e2kCV-3bQ

So spicy to these western ears! I dig it. :)

It's like listening to tahini.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3e2kCV-3bQ

So spicy to these western ears! I dig it. :)

It's like listening to tahini.

Ha! I hope there's quality Middle Eastern food in your part of PA.

It's an embarrassment of riches in my part of CA.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3e2kCV-3bQ

So spicy to these western ears! I dig it. :)

It's like listening to tahini.

Ha! I hope there's quality Middle Eastern food in your part of PA.

It's an embarrassment of riches in my part of CA.

Philadelphia is no slouch on food but for middle eastern and most ethnic cuisine on the east coast ,apart from European stuff like fine French dining or serious Italian,living in DC was the jam. When I'm back in town I always try to hit all my favorite joints up and also kick it to Annapolis for old school fish fry and hush puppies. Maryland and Virginia are pizza deficient though. I had to learn to make pizza myself the year I lived there lol. That's the worst part about going down for recording work. I can deal with the lack of professional recording facilities but the lack of late night pizza is unforgivable. Nothing kills a session like having to eat soggy cardboard crust with tomato soup and string cheese on it lol! I don't know how Congress is so unproductive. I would think the lack of dining options would motivate every Rep and Senatir from a metropolitan area to get things done and head home. There's only so much falafel, Cuban and pho I can eat, man.

Being away from philly is hard. There's nowhere else to get a proper cheesesteak (though they will try) and no one has even heard of roast pork with rapini, sharp provolone and grilled long hots outside the philly metro area. I enjoy a NY hero or a Brooklyn pizza but they're not a hoagie or trwnton tomato pie. Sorry to sound like an Eagles loving Philly chauvinist but I can't disguise my civic pride. I'll trash my loser hometown all day but I always come back. Once I hit that first pothole I feel like I'm home.

I think the only thing I miss about LA apart from the sunshine is the food. I've been craving a vegetarian burrito from Benito's lately.

Haha thanks :D I also use my Arabic oud on several songs... hoping to do more like this one of these days! One of my friends requested I should make a longer version of this song, 2 minutes was too short for him!

Regarding Middle Eastern food, there are some decent places here in Hungary. Of course though, it doesn't compare to the actual thing! My girlfriend (from Tunisia) just cooked me a huge array of traditional dishes from her country on New Year, and also taught me how to prepare them! It's pretty similar to Middle Eastern food, just with a lot more heat!

Haha thanks :D I also use my Arabic oud on several songs... hoping to do more like this one of these days! One of my friends requested I should make a longer version of this song, 2 minutes was too short for him!

There is no harm in leaving people wanting more :) We are living our lives in the era of 90-second songs.

While this artist is 100% not your vibe at all, I recently saw an interview with Pink Pantheress where she stated:

"Second verses? I don't do second verses -- that's ridiculous".

I didn't get the impression she was joking.

Regarding Middle Eastern food, there are some decent places here in Hungary. Of course though, it doesn't compare to the actual thing! My girlfriend (from Tunisia) just cooked me a huge array of traditional dishes from her country on New Year, and also taught me how to prepare them! It's pretty similar to Middle Eastern food, just with a lot more heat!

Lucky skunk!

That's the kind of experience & gesture you'll remember the rest of your days.

If you've a liking for microtonal electronica, Sevish is a musician I follow who faps about a lot with odd musical temperaments!

Listen to his stuff for long enough and you'll start to find 12TET sounds "wrong"

It's the audio equivalent of staring at one of those optical illusion patterns and then looking away at a plain wall to find it "moving".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zSqfyBLayM&list=PL3mH2gZZv-Na3WJJQufRO8RiWaReISYXQ&index=2

If you've a liking for microtonal electronica, Sevish is a musician I follow who faps about a lot with odd musical temperaments!

Listen to his stuff for long enough and you'll start to find 12TET sounds "wrong"

It's the audio equivalent of staring at one of those optical illusion patterns and then looking away at a plain wall to find it "moving".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zSqfyBLayM&list=PL3mH2gZZv-Na3WJJQufRO8RiWaReISYXQ&index=2

I feel like I still have a lifetime of study ahead of me just in 12TET, but I doff my hat to anyone that dives into this stuff with both feet like Sevish obviously has.

@pkennethk True, for example on Submithub, among many of the younger artists I meet there, it's not uncommon to have 1 minute songs. Also, it was one of the best meals I've ever had! Took ages to prepare (I helped her with the cooking), but well worth it, and will always remember it, also hopefully someday looking forward to a future filled with these kind of meals :D

@mylittleeye Love it! Microtonal, and everything sounds perfectly in place! I'll need to check out some more of his stuff!

@pkennethk True, for example on Submithub, among many of the younger artists I meet there, it's not uncommon to have 1 minute songs. Also, it was one of the best meals I've ever had! Took ages to prepare (I helped her with the cooking), but well worth it, and will always remember it, also hopefully someday looking forward to a future filled with these kind of meals :D

Thanks for putting submithub on my radar. I'm gonna investigate.

You seem like a good dude, thcraymer. I hope you DO have a future full of these kinds of meals. :)

Yeah Submithub has a pretty good community of artists, I've had some interesting conversations in their group chats! And of course there are many useful services it provides, such as getting your songs listened to and rated by other artists, submitting to various playlists, blogs, etc., and finding people to help mix/master/promote your music (similarly to Fiverr I guess, but "policed" more strictly to keep out scammers, I haven't tried it yet though but am considering hiring someone to help promote my upcoming album, if it's cheap enough).

You seem like a good dude too, it's great chatting with you here :D even if I don't come here too often... and I do hope to have more of those kind of meals!