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Hello! I like reading Building the Ergonomic Guitar, which is where I found your site. I must compliment you on your fantastic work. Yet I was wondering, since I am building a guitar, if I could incorporate the trapezoidal neck profile onto my guitar neck? All credit is due to you, and I want something radical and comfortable for this guitar. Thanks for showing your work and future works,
Joe
-North Carolina, USA

Joe — thanks for your kind words.

Drop me an email directly, and let's talk. Implementation of the TNP is a bit more complicated than it appears as published.

Cheers,
Rick

I'm transfixed... Scrutinizing the pictures and pouring over you descriptions.
I am in the design phase for a headless, balanced guitar w a floating bridge.....
Your postings have launched me back to the proverbial drawing board.
I have anything but hard feelings about that!
Love the trap neck, you responded to someone about it being complicated...
Please consider some correspondence with me.
It would be awesome to hear your thoughts.......

I would like to know how to build a TNP neck. Do you have detailed instructions that a person might purchase? I think the idea may just solve my tendonitis pain in my "fretting hand" wrist.

Mmmm... my 'girder/ parallel-frame guitar' (described on Ola's site) was inspired by the wish to have a (non-stressed) glass neck with an asymetrical profile which would accomodate the thumb in a way that exactly matches the shape of the thumb.

How to imagine this? Stick your thumb into 'hitch-hiker' position (thumbing a lift)and see how it has some nice 'return' curves in it... like an 'S' but the wrong way round. That shape could be accommodated by the underside of the neck. This lengthwise' 'thumb groove' would help players to locate their thumb for the 'classical' playing stance.

An offset groove along the length of your trapezoidal neck... along the face that you would see while playing... would give you the received 'rock' playing position. Maybe!

Neck profiles are best thought about while imagining squishing wet clay and 'seeing' what imaginary shapes you get!

I think there is a case for having depressions in this groove to help locate different barre chord positions. For example 'Fifth Position' would have its own natural location depression. Given the incredible density of nerve endings in fingers and thumbs a depression of maybe just 3mm would be enough to 'tell the thumb' that it had arrived where it needed to be, to (say) play the Hendrix chord...
A sweet spot on an electric guitar neck if ever there was one!

Folk players would want their dimples in other places as they mostly pick in first position and favour playing in G maj a lot of the time....

Imaginary innovation is so easy.... but making these things for real takes soooo long...
: )

Steffan/ Steve

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RICK TOONE



  • I won't denigrate assembly lines — they build for the masses. I don't. This is something very different.

    If your music is art, if your vision is unique, I will shape the wood, bend the metal, solder the connections to give you the tool to let your beast run wild.

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