Drawing Guitar Plans

[kuanjb]

I'm interested in what process you use to do this. I tried to make plans when I was working on the pickguard design for my JZA-1 build. The problem I ran into was that the photos would have a sort of fish bowl effect and hence you couldn't just trace the routed locations etc. Had to do a lot of measuring to try and get it right.

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[Woltz]

I'm interested in what process you use to do this. I tried to make plans when I was working on the pickguard design for my JZA-1 build. The problem I ran into was that the photos would have a sort of fish bowl effect and hence you couldn't just trace the routed locations etc. Had to do a lot of measuring to try and get it right.

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The advice Sonic has given is really good for what you are wanting to do.

It ultimately comes down to how accurate you need to be. Here is where I'm up to with the plan for the Eagle.



The advantage I have with this is that I'm not aiming for an exact replica so the measurements don't have to be exact. Obviously the most important thing is the scale length. So first I set up the scale length in illustrator. Then when drawing the fret locations, they are not taken from a photo, the whole fretboard is done based off exact measurements. This website (http://www.ekips.org/tools/guitar/fretfind2d/) allows you to plan out a fretboard and export in multiple formats.

In the case of the pickups and bridge. They also aren't traced. They are drawn separately based on measurements and then placed in their approximate location along the centreline with the photo in the background as a reference. I've also spoken to someone who has a BC Rich Eagle to get some basic measurements and may yet have to get a couple more but the extra measurements at this point aren't necessary for a functional guitar.

The more measurements you have obviously the more accurate it will be. However it is possible to produce a plan of a guitar that is very similar to the production version even with limited information.