You might have noticed that car dealers have their fanciest cars in the show room, yet most of the cars they sell are more practical. On our other pages I show my 'art of the guitar'. Here I show what I am developing for a competitive market place. These projects intend to encompass three prime directives:
1. They will have the best sound quality obtainable.
2. They will be ecologically responsible.
3. They will be low cost to the consumer.
To achieve these goals the production scale will have to be large enough to require the participation of venture capital. If you happen to be interested, please call me.
David Eldredge
907-776-8489
POB 7352
Nikiski, Alaska 99635
My experience building aluminum guitars has lead me to experiment with a number of different ideas for guitar construction. Market demographics are changing and widening with entry level guitars showing the most consistent and greatest growth. The size of the market has increased at up to 25% per year since the turn of the century. This is spread over a much wider age group than before with many beginners at all ages from all ethnic and economic backgrounds. The guitar is rapidly becoming the universal musical instrument. My latest designs address the new market paradigm.
The basic concept for both acoustic and electric guitars will be that they are "upgrade-able". The acoustic guitar uses a standard bolt-on neck similar to ones in widespread use in the majority of electric guitars today. This would allow mass produced, as well as proprietary custom necks to be used. The necks will be interchangeable between both electric and acoustic. The bridge for both guitars will be the same, allowing for economy of production. On the acoustic guitar the neck will join the body at the 16th fret instead of the standard 12th or 14th fret allowing for greater access to the upper registers of the fret board There will also be no external heel on the guitar further aiding fret board access. There will be a variety of bodies available for both electric and acoustic each using common components as well as being adapted to modern manufacturing techniques. The acoustic will have choices of sound board material ranging from traditional fan braced wood to aluminum with cello - like bass bar and sound post. Also a new proprietary honeycomb, metal/polymer sound board will be available. The electric guitar will have choices of wood, polymer, metal, or engine turned aluminum for the bodies.
I also believe that this approach could be applied across the entire range of musical instruments, from professional orchestral instruments all the way to toys. A number of historical and current references are available on my LINKS page.