Did you notice that all guitars tend to look like Fender or Gibson? And sounds like all the same? Indeed it seems that guitar makers do compete to imitate guitar’s sound and design solution of the past.

I have always wondered why in lutherie’s world there was a resistance to innovation while tradition is king. Seems many musicians try to emulate their favorite guitarist and thinks “if I want to play like him I must have same comparable guitar”. Perhaps because some instruments are so tested that many prefer to be on the safe side trying to get on a par with other musicians. And so, Stratocaster and Les Paul became iconic. Leo Fender and Gibson have standardized forever electric guitar making like Stradivari have standardized violin making.

This is the classic example of how a small and harmless individual behavior influence an entire sector based on those 3-4 brands and all followers that follow it.

In a world like this if you really want to innovate you must offer a 10X solution namely that at least in some aspects can guarantee an effective improvement of 10 times better.

It’s long time I’m looking for an alternative guitar but that does not look like a Parma’s ham and with a sound that differs from standard sound of industrial instruments. Besides talent, I want have the right tool!

Here a small checklist of features that I would have liked to be available but I have never found such as:

• A stable and straight adjustable neck that does not make movements with changes in temperature;
• Fine tuning string height without having to make substantial changes to the instrument;
• 24 keyboard frets;
• Drop “D” fitting with two additional frets that can be added through that mechanisme;
• Solderless wiring system. No welding. Noise insulated circuitry by woven sheath to avoid rustling and noises;
• A sound rich in harmonics due wise mass layout and materials usage;
• Custom pickups with warm and deep tone;
• Stable key tuning;
• Recognizable iconic shape but above all a balanced and powerful sound.

And that’s how I started thinking about a different technical solution right from my university days. My idea of guitar brings together many technical solutions whose validity I want to test one by one before to be supplied.

So I started this challenge and if you follow me I will tell you about it.