It's hard to believe now, but even the standard Fender Stratocaster or Gibson Les Paul were once considered radical new guitar designs. Today, anything that doesn't resemble these two instruments is considered radical. With acoustics, any guitar that had a “cutaway” was considered an abomination. The Ovation guitar solved many problems for the performing guitar back in the 1960s with its “electro-acoustic” instrument the Balladeer. Today, most all production acoustic guitars are electro-acoustic.

The Handle, by Peter Solomon

The Handle guitar, shown in FIGURE 17-1, was designed by Peter Solomon for Jim Reed Guitars. The materials are made from carbon fiber, developed for the aerospace industry, and are used in F1 racecars among other uses. The Handle is constructed of ultra-lightweight material and is incredibly resistant. It won't bend or buckle under high temperatures or humidity. It is said that carbon fiber offers a much wider harmonic range than wood.

Again, the use of alternative materials is perfect here. The entire guitar is hollow, creating a resonance chamber similar to that of a semiacoustic guitar.

The only wood used is ebony for the fret board. You can read more about this instrument at www.jimreed.it.

Phifer Design and Concepts by Woody Phifer

Woody Phifer has been building and repairing guitars for over a quarter of a century. His approach to guitar building centers on the traditions of the masters, as the sample in FIGURE 17-2 shows. His multi-ply binding adds elegance to the body, neck, headstock, and recessed panels. The hand-built wooden bridge is fully adjustable. The bridge and solid brass tailpiece are recessed into the body. The shape is designed with the human body in mind. The offset cutaways offer greater access to the fretboard. The visually striking body design is balanced in a standing or seated playing position. Amazingly, the guitar weighs in at under seven pounds! The other new design concept worth mentioning is that the bodies are constructed with a new design: multiwood composition. You can read more about Phifer Design & Concepts online at www.phiferdesigns.com.

Floyd Rose Guitars

In 1977, Floyd Rose introduced the Floyd Rose locking tremolo bridge.

The “Floyd Rose,” as it would come to be known as, revolutionized the guitar industry. Jump ahead twenty-five plus years, and Floyd has introduced the quickest way to change strings on a guitar with the Floyd Rose Speedloader series, shown in FIGURE 17-3. The Speedloader series incorporates a radical advancement in guitar bridge and string design. The Speedloader series consists of a tremolo or fixed bridge and a special nut (see FIGURE 17-3). The integrated Speedloader bridge and Speedloader string design allows a complete set of strings to be changed in less than one minute by eliminating the need for tuning keys, wrenches, string stretching, or major retuning! The neck weight of the guitar is lighter because of the absence of string tuners at the headstowck. The special strings are calibrated to their actual pitch for instant loading and tuning, FIGURE 17-3: Floyd Rose Speedloader which is great for onstage use. You can read more about the Floyd Rose Speedloader series online at www.floydrose.com.

Born to Rock Design F4c Aluminum Guitar

The F4c line, shown in FIGURE 17-4, was invented by a guitar player whose friend complained that no one could make a guitar with a neck that stayed straight. Intrigued by this problem, the guitar player realized that the harder you pull a string, the straighter it gets. If the guitar strings position the neck, rather than the neck trying to position the strings, then the neck stays straight. This is the logic behind the Born to Rock design concept. Suspending the neck on pivots allows the strings to position the neck. A string under tension defines a straight line. Since the strings are straight, so is the neck.

The neck, bridge, and pickups are a floating unit suspended from the headstock and body by pivoting joints. String tension is handled from the headstock to the body by a lightweight, hollow aluminum tube. This tube does not have to be heavy or tremendously rigid because it is designed to bend as it takes up the string tension. Check out this unique instrument online at www.borntorock.com.

RainSong Graphite Acoustic Guitars

RainSongs, shown in FIGURE 17-5, are the only graphite acoustic guitars in the world. The body, neck, and soundboard are all made out of 100-percent pure graphite. The company developed its own manufacturing process, called Projection Tuned Layering. The combination of graphite construction and Projection Tuned Layering eliminate the need for bracing by providing uniform stiffness across the soundboard. That's right — RainSongs are made entirely without braces!

Brazilian rosewood has been banned from import to the United States since 1993. The only imports that are allowed for use of guitar building are from already cut tree stumps or pieces that were cut before the ban and stored for future use.

RainSong guitars are also impervious to humidity and temperature changes. This means the guitar can survive travel and changes in the environment. The guitars come in both electro-acoustic and standard acoustic models with no electronics. More on RainSong Guitar can be found online at www.rainsong.com.