Guitar Building & Ergonomics at Building The Ergonomic Guitar
(6 votes, average: 3.33 out of 5)
Loading ...I’m Robert Irizarry - an amateur guitar builder who has successfully completed my first ergonomic electric guitar. As a long time sufferer of chronic back pain and more recently Repetitive Strain Injury, I started to look into guitar designs that took ergonomics into consideration. This, in turn, grew into an interest in guitar building as a further means to to explore the ergonomics of the guitar. Just over a year ago, I decided to combine these subjects and interests into the blog Building The Ergonomic Guitar.
Through Building The Ergonomic Guitar, I explore ergonomic guitar designs, document my guitar making efforts and cover ways that existing guitar models can be made more ergonomic.
In addition, Building The Ergonomic Guitar has become something of an information hub for those interested in headless guitars. Because headless guitar designs lend themselves so well to ergonomic design, I have also covered alternative approaches by various guitar builders and luthiers. My first build is, in fact, a headless design based on the Klein Electric Guitar shape.
Over the coming year, I will continue covering these subjects, begin work on at least another guitar build and expand the blog even further with several new features.
If you have interests in guitar building, radical guitar design, headless guitars, guitar ergonomics and musician’s health then stop by, take a look and leave a comment or two. I look forward to reading your comments, suggestions and ideas.
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This entry was posted on Sunday, March 18th, 2007 and is filed under Health and Fitness, Special Interest, Blogs. Tagged with:You can follow any responses to this entry through the Comments Feed. You can Leave A Comment, or A Trackback.
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March 20th, 2007 03:54
Loving the wood effect, Robert.
I can empathise with back pain (old car crash).
Good luck.
March 20th, 2007 06:37
wow, that is one cool looking guitar. I wonder if Hendrix would have played one? Do any living guitar virtuosos play them? Don’t tell me Esteban is looking into selling em..lol
March 20th, 2007 10:16
Hey David - Thanks! The wood effect is a result of using a Danish oil finish over alder - a wood commonly used in Strats. I’ve never been much of a fan of thick coats of paints on guitars. I also wanted to focus on the project itself and not the finishing process.
March 20th, 2007 22:47
You’ve got some really nice designs there. It makes me wish I’d actually learnt to play the guitar.
March 22nd, 2007 13:13
Hey Pixelhead! The guitar that this is based on seems to be favored primarily by jazz guitarists. Here’s an article of jazz player Jody Fisher playing his - Jody Fisher Plays The Klein Ergonomic Guitar
March 22nd, 2007 13:26
Hi David,
It was really fascinating visiting your site and watching the process of developing your guitar go from beginning to completion. I can see the benefits of having the ergonomic design when sitting, but what are the benefits while standing? What was the impetus for creating your ergonomic guitar? I ask only that it’s such a unique task to take up. I am in such awe of the amount of time and patience this project required, completing each step with patience and precision. Very interesting site, and if you made the guitar just for yourself or plan on using it to take over the world, I wish you the best of luck! Take care, SarahAnne
March 22nd, 2007 14:21
Hey, that’s an unusual looking guitar. How’s the twang? By the way, do you do acoustic guitar?
March 24th, 2007 05:14
Hi SarahAnne - The guitar build is actually mine not David’s.
The design does have several benefits for playing in the standing position. First, its very light at only 6lb. Compare that to Strats that weigh in the 8lb range and Gibsons which can weigh in the 10lb range and you can see how someone suffering from musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) would be far more comfortable. Also, while the guitar is a standard scale length, the overall design is shorter and reduces the reach required for the fretting hand.
As I mentioned in my Introduction, the impetus was largely my own issues with back pain and tendonitis. I’m also something of an engineer - I was the kid that took things apart to find out how they worked. It was an opportunity to explore a creative aspect of my personality that was completely new.
The guitar, based on an existing design by Klein Electric, was built both for personal use and as a means to explore guitar design. In time, I can see myself sitting down to work out a design of my own based on my research as well as my real world experiences with ergonomic guitars. I’m already thinking about the next several so…
Thanks for checking out my blog and I hope you will become a regular reader!
Robert Irizarry
Building The Ergonomic Guitar
March 26th, 2007 16:51
Hey Mark - The twang is fine
I haven’t tackled an acoustic guitar build - yet. However, I’m thinking that’s a way down the road. I like the acoustic but my focus as far as guitar building is the electric. If you’re into acoustic, check out my current article - Linda Manzer’s “Wedge” Acoustic Guitar. Linda Manzer is a noted luthier of acoustic guitars who introduced an important design change that improves the ergonomics of acoustic guitars. Other guitar builders have since started to adopt this change as well.
April 25th, 2007 00:41
I wanted to play the guitar when i was younger… but just couldn’t get my short fingers to hold down those chords - *and* my wrist hurt from the awkward position… glad to know there’s hope, if ever i want to try again, thanks to your impressive designs & constructions
April 26th, 2007 08:19
Willow - Thanks for the comments. Please keep in mind that I built the guitar shown in the picture above and which you can read about more here guitar build #1. The latest design I showcase is by luthier Chris Forshage. Besides documenting my own work, I’m interested in discovering the works of other luthiers in their efforts to improve upon the ergonomics of the guitar.
June 23rd, 2008 21:09
I had no idea I was a founding supporter of you but I like the ring to that…so thank you for the link.
July 2nd, 2008 12:36
BTEG is now over 2 years old with the site continuing to grow. Recently, I added guitar forums to facilitate additional discussion on ergo guitars.