I believe there was a section explaining why he didn't normally use maple, but it sounded like he'd build with it if desired. (if I'm not mistaken!)Wow! This is fantastic!
I just went through the questionnaire to see what options there might be.
A few thoughts:
Single (bridge) pickup option? Or would that require something expensive to be developed? A fair number of us metal guitarists actually prefer a single pickup model, and it might simplify the issue of the switch that sticks out (you wouldn't need a switch anymore).
Of the listed neck timbers, wenge was the only one I'm familiar with. Personally, is there a specific reason why maple is not listed? IT seems to me to be, by far, the most common neck wood on the market. Maybe there's an excellent reason why it ought to be avoided, or maybe it's just your own preference (either is perfectly fine, I'm just curious).
Some of the questions won't let me skip, even if they are redundant, like, for example, if you select "no binding," you still have to choose which binding material, and there's no type-in option to just say "none." Same with the control knobs and maybe one or two other things.
You have open-ended scale length options - I think that is awesome! But, I imagine that, at some point, the thing won't fit in the case anymore, no? Personally, I'm in the minority of players who will opt for the longest scale length practicable. If you let me choose anything, I might come back with something ridiculous.
And this is probably something I just missed on the website, but I'd 100% want to see video of how to assemble and disassemble the guitar. It's probably brainless once you've done it once, but just seeing the photos of the assembled and disassembled guitars and the included fasteners and tools gives me a moment of pause. Hopefully you already have such a video or are working on one. If not, it could lead to some hesitation from buyers.
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Wow! This is fantastic!
I just went through the questionnaire to see what options there might be.
A few thoughts:
Single (bridge) pickup option? Or would that require something expensive to be developed? A fair number of us metal guitarists actually prefer a single pickup model, and it might simplify the issue of the switch that sticks out (you wouldn't need a switch anymore).
Of the listed neck timbers, wenge was the only one I'm familiar with. Personally, is there a specific reason why maple is not listed? IT seems to me to be, by far, the most common neck wood on the market. Maybe there's an excellent reason why it ought to be avoided, or maybe it's just your own preference (either is perfectly fine, I'm just curious).
Some of the questions won't let me skip, even if they are redundant, like, for example, if you select "no binding," you still have to choose which binding material, and there's no type-in option to just say "none." Same with the control knobs and maybe one or two other things.
You have open-ended scale length options - I think that is awesome! But, I imagine that, at some point, the thing won't fit in the case anymore, no? Personally, I'm in the minority of players who will opt for the longest scale length practicable. If you let me choose anything, I might come back with something ridiculous.
And this is probably something I just missed on the website, but I'd 100% want to see video of how to assemble and disassemble the guitar. It's probably brainless once you've done it once, but just seeing the photos of the assembled and disassembled guitars and the included fasteners and tools gives me a moment of pause. Hopefully you already have such a video or are working on one. If not, it could lead to some hesitation from buyers.
Glad you like the concept, and thanks for posting!
Absolutely - single bridge pickup is coded up and ready for your build! In the future I plan to dabble with virtual pickups so a single pickup build could still provide all the classic positions and an infinite number beyond that...crazy right?
Always looking for the next innovation! Anyway... 😁
Maple has traditionally been chosen because it's cheap, quickly renewable, and readily available. It was never chosen because it's the right material for the job. It's actually less dimensionally stable than Pine and Fir, if you can believe that, here's a chart of several common hardwoods.
Obviously a guitar designed to be portable HAS to have an extremely stable neck. If I flew from Denver to Miami and the humidity difference required me to do an entire setup, I'd be pretty disappointed! I have a blog post with more details here - https://ten32guitars.com/blogs/news/neck-stability-lumber-selection.
Thanks for the form feedback! I tried to squash all the bugs, but there's just too many permutations. I will address your concerns ASAP!
The case will currently support necks ranging from 24.75" to 26", but I could probably squeeze up to a 26.5" scale in there if I had to. Beyond that, you're not within TSA requirements anymore.
The second video in the series covers assembly, here's the exact time stamp where I put it together -
You're right though - I need a 60 second video covering only the most important aspects (including assembly). This is on my list, if you subscribe to the YT channel, you'll be the first to know about it
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If someone insisted on maple, I'd probably also insist it be roasted maple, and possibly also quartersawn.
I mentioned the fact that maple is less naturally stable than pine and fir (although its obviously much harder). There's a pretty good line in the blog summing all that up:
"Would you want a guitar neck made of a pine 2x4? If not, you probably don't want one made of Maple either."
I know....taking shots at Maple is probably not the best idea, but I think the facts speak for themselves in this case!
Crash Dandicoot
» B E H O L D
This is beyond cool. I love the level of detail you put into making the fasteners and tooling highly accessible and not proprietary hardware.
My only concern is this could be perceived by a large demographic as way too ahead of the curve, similar to Parkers back in the day. Not appreciated for what it is in its own time, you know what I mean?
My only concern is this could be perceived by a large demographic as way too ahead of the curve, similar to Parkers back in the day. Not appreciated for what it is in its own time, you know what I mean?
spudmunkey
SS.org Regular
This was very much seen and appreciated by me, as well. At my last job, I was tasked with redesigning a custom office desking/benching system to reduce cost and speed up assembly/installation., and standardizing fasteners was one of my favorite tricks.
spudmunkey
SS.org Regular
To be clear, there are reasons to not use pine for necks, despite their environmental dimensional stability. For example, stiffness (modulus of elasticity). Even sugar maple is more stiff than the stiffest pines.
Again, incredible attention to detail. To me, there's only one aspect of the modularity/assembly that gives me a brief pause, and it's the neck connection point. I know four screws is a decades-long best practice, but seems very "inside the box" to the point where it almost seems out of place with the rest of the design. What are your thoughts on something that maybe uses one, larger fastener? The first two that come to mind are Anderson guitars where the "bottom" of the neck pocket" isn't flat: it's V-shaped, so that the neck seats itself and is cradled to avoid twisting, so then the neck joint only needs two screws. I also feel like I have a faint memory of a guitar with only one large-headed screw, but it may have been a dream. Ha! The second one was a folding travel guitar, and I can't remember the name of it, but the neck and body sort of keyed together, and then there was a latch on the back that pulled everything tight. That was quick, no hardware to lose, and was toolless...though it was builkier, if I remember right.
Another thought: could any of the screws used for assembly be captive, to further reduce the chances of losing any, and also saving install time with not having to find the right screws?
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Thanks! I put a lot of time into refining the tools/fasteners, and I think it was time well spent. I'd say you guys and 4-5 others have specifically mentioned that, which was unexpected!
Yeah, straddling that line between familiar and alienating is a tricky act in a world as rooted in tradition as electric guitars. I did my best to strike a balance but there will most certainly be a contingent that wont be tempted out of their comfort zone.
That said....I have 2 friends who are 100% vintage guys. They've both placed their deposit already
TEN32 Guitars
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Of course! Pine would be a crazy choice, but I still think the stability point is valid when it comes to evaluating maple as a neck material. Along those lines...I'm intrigued by the possibility of using sassafras for a neck. Its relatively soft and looks almost exactly like pine (as a neck blank anyway), but its SUPER lightweight and has exception dimensional stability. They used to make wagon wheels out of the stuff, seems tough enough for a guitar neck! I'll let you know how that experiment goes 😜To be clear, there are reasons to not use pine for necks, despite their environmental dimensional stability. For example, stiffness (modulus of elasticity). Even sugar maple is more stiff than the stiffest pines.
Again, incredible attention to detail. To me, there's only one aspect of the modularity/assembly that gives me a brief pause, and it's the neck connection point. I know four screws is a decades-long best practice, but seems very "inside the box" to the point where it almost seems out of place with the rest of the design. What are your thoughts on something that maybe uses one, larger fastener? The first two that come to mind are Anderson guitars where the "bottom" of the neck pocket" isn't flat: it's V-shaped, so that the neck seats itself and is cradled to avoid twisting, so then the neck joint only needs two screws. I also feel like I have a faint memory of a guitar with only one large-headed screw, but it may have been a dream. Ha! The second one was a folding travel guitar, and I can't remember the name of it, but the neck and body sort of keyed together, and then there was a latch on the back that pulled everything tight. That was quick, no hardware to lose, and was toolless...though it was builkier, if I remember right.
Another thought: could any of the screws used for assembly be captive, to further reduce the chances of losing any, and also saving install time with not having to find the right screws?
I would LOVE a single neck fastener, but this was part of the "tradition vs future" debate that's been raging in my head the last ten years. In the end, I thought making it look familiar, but hiding a ton of really useful stuff under the hood was a pretty good recipe. If money and time allows, someday v2.0 will push the envelope much further.
All 4 of the headstock screws are what I call "semi-captive". They can be removed fully but they don't have to be, so in effect theyre stored where theyre installed. This is covered in video 2 starting around here -
Neck bolt ferrules are glued into the bottom of their cavities, so the only loose parts you have are the neck bolts, and theyre also the only flat socket cap type on the whole instrument, so it's easy to tell where they go.
In the future I would love to work with someone like the trick drums guys on some kind of high tech latch to eliminate fasteners and tools, but I think that runs pretty firmly into the "too much progress" bucket and will immediately turn some potential buyers off.
Jonathan20022
Engineer
This is honestly so thorough and well thought out that I'd love to support it whenever these become readily available. One thing I'll personally give some feedback on since I'm huge on backpacks and have a few for my different hobbies. I would definitely include some cloth/padding on the back of the case just for comfort's sake, flat surfaces can be uncomfortable with long term wear but you do have the briefcase handle on the side to address it as well. Loving the video series, I will subscribe and follow your journey to launching these.
JimF
Contributor
Sounds perfect! I read all the blog posts last week! I still love this idea.
I showed this all to my dad who is a mechanical engineer and he was very impressed!
Seabeast2000
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How about a few big neo magnets?To be clear, there are reasons to not use pine for necks, despite their environmental dimensional stability. For example, stiffness (modulus of elasticity). Even sugar maple is more stiff than the stiffest pines.
Again, incredible attention to detail. To me, there's only one aspect of the modularity/assembly that gives me a brief pause, and it's the neck connection point. I know four screws is a decades-long best practice, but seems very "inside the box" to the point where it almost seems out of place with the rest of the design. What are your thoughts on something that maybe uses one, larger fastener? The first two that come to mind are Anderson guitars where the "bottom" of the neck pocket" isn't flat: it's V-shaped, so that the neck seats itself and is cradled to avoid twisting, so then the neck joint only needs two screws. I also feel like I have a faint memory of a guitar with only one large-headed screw, but it may have been a dream. Ha! The second one was a folding travel guitar, and I can't remember the name of it, but the neck and body sort of keyed together, and then there was a latch on the back that pulled everything tight. That was quick, no hardware to lose, and was toolless...though it was builkier, if I remember right.
Another thought: could any of the screws used for assembly be captive, to further reduce the chances of losing any, and also saving install time with not having to find the right screws?
TEN32 Guitars
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Thanks! Feedback like that makes all those hours grinding over details feel worth it.
All 5 models are available now! I have been slapped in the face by the time and money realities of marketing these last 2 weeks, but I'll get all that automated and streamlined soon enough. That's the only thing keeping me out of the wood shop right now.
You can find links to all 5 config forms both on the individual model pages or all in one place (at the bottom of the page) here.
On the backpack - totally agree. If I had another year for product development I'd add padding with a laptop sleeve built in. Let's hope I get the chance to develop V2.0 of all this stuff someday!
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Thanks for the time reading through all that, I cant tell you how many people said "Dude, make videos. No one wants to read a blog."
I still prefer reading to videos but I guess I've become the minority there
Your second comment gave me some goosebumps if I'm honest. I consider myself much more a designer more than an engineer. That's quite a compliment, thanks!
TEN32 Guitars
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I like where you head's at! Initially I wanted to try an electromagnet and avoid fasteners altogether but I figured that would quickly lead to a lawsuit 😂
TEN32 Guitars
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New promo video up for those that are interested:
OmegaSlayer
SS.org Regular
I stumbled on the videos on youtube
I thought: "Either this guy sells fried air, or he's a genious...he solved every problem with great Quality Of Life ideas"
I thought: "Either this guy sells fried air, or he's a genious...he solved every problem with great Quality Of Life ideas"
TEN32 Guitars
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Honestly, I think that's the correct reaction. There's so much new stuff all at once, and some of it is pretty out there. We're all conditioned to believe maintenance and setup are mysterious creatures not to be trifled with, so the idea of intentionally breaking down a guitar without having an unplayable mess on your hands after reassembly seems borderline insane, right?
The build quality has to be world class, maybe even beyond that into precision engineering/machining territory, the neck has to be made from lumber with the right combination of natural dimensional stability and modulus of elasticity (stiffness), the neck has to go into exactly the same part of the pocket every time. All of which are requirements guitars have never really had before. That doesn't even include all the requirements to make true modularity possible. Welcome to my life 😂
Honestly I'm surprised the reaction hasn't been much more negative. As guitarists we have no frame of reference for allowing a concept like this to exist in objective reality.
25 years ago I played with Saxon and Paul Quinn had a guitar he was endorsing that had quick-releases for the neck so you could fly with it easily. If I can dredge it up I'll pass it along.
Thaeon
Cosmic Question Asker
If you buy two guitars, the bass, and the forthcoming drum kit, they will combine to form Voltron!
But in all seriousness, with all of the crazy builds and builders out there, without established reputation, I’m hesitant. However, I want stuff like this to succeed. If this thing can get put together in minutes and be in tune and set up consistently, I think you’ve done something pretty amazing. I have concerns, but I hope they’re unfounded. It’s a really cool idea.
But in all seriousness, with all of the crazy builds and builders out there, without established reputation, I’m hesitant. However, I want stuff like this to succeed. If this thing can get put together in minutes and be in tune and set up consistently, I think you’ve done something pretty amazing. I have concerns, but I hope they’re unfounded. It’s a really cool idea.
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