HWN-GTR-1 : custom design of an hawaian guitar.

Original version

I have never been able to ring this guitar because its connection system is outdated... My idea was to mount a real humbucker microphone to give a second life to this instrument. And the task was not going to be simple. Hawaian guitars have 8 strings whose spacing does not match the standard humbuckers of the standard of electricguitars. After a few measurements and material comparisons, my choice stopped on the DiMarzio X2N®7 where the size of captors perfectly cover the space of the 8 strings.

For an integrated electric microphone, we need an integrated electronic circuit. And so, a cavity to integrate all this cirtuit, placement of the knob(s) and the jack connector. But what about the mass ? ... the bridge is in wood and has only one small bar - which also looks like a guitar fret (!) - on which the strings are layed. I'll have to be ingenious...

Custom design

Set all the instrument in parts : strings, fretboard (in plastic !), bridge rails, and mechanics that - like the acoustic guitar I have customized - needed to be clean. The body is made in very massive wood which had to be scratched.

After a some projects of electronic and structural schemes, I finally opted for a centralization of the elements - the volume knob, the cables and the jack insert - in a single cavity as compact as possible. Firstly, because the body of the instrument - probably in massive oak - is not very big nor very thick. And secondly because the wood is particularly difficult to dig when you have a simple chisel ... and not a stomping machine. A small plate of plexiglass, recovered and cut from a frame, will serve as a cover for this electronic cavity.

A small and very discreet groove leads a cable from poti to the metal part of the bridge to serve as a grounding point. Very experimental technique that works well but could be more efficient.

Painting and graphic artwork

Initially, the guitar was to be white, green, turquoise and gray antracite... but a little accident of varnish forced me to start all over again from the beginning. I chose to change the colors and create a more striking graphics in black, white and red.

For the customization of Skateboard, I had invented various and totally surreal letters, and I liked the idea of re-exploiting them for this guitar. Especially with this very powerful color combination.

A strings set from D'Adarrio usually suitable for 8-string guitars that almost match the standard draw of Hawaiian guitars will do the trick. As for tuning, open tuning, I'm still in my research... but the instrument now offers a great design and sounds very good.