Titanium/aluminum guitar

chas smith · Post by **chas smith** » 6 Jul 2005 5:26 pm

A couple years ago, I wanted a guitar that could bolt onto the side of Guitarzilla, that would have a kindof diatonic tuning and a 25 1/2" scale. I had some titanium tubing, a dozen tuning keys and some aluminum:

Joe Delaronde · Post by **Joe Delaronde** » 6 Jul 2005 5:59 pm

Chas
Super nice job. That's clean looking. I like the tube idea. Excellent!

Very nice machine work. What are the two knobs under the pickup?

Joe
[This message was edited by Joe Delaronde on 06 July 2005 at 07:01 PM.]

Jon Light · Post by **Jon Light** » 6 Jul 2005 6:05 pm

Too cool, Chas. Can you try to describe its sonic properties?

Bill Bosler · Post by **Bill Bosler** » 6 Jul 2005 6:17 pm

Chas - Very nice job! Nice looking welds. Looks like you've had some experience building race car chassis.
What tuning did you end up using? The string gauges look fairly light.

Rick Aiello · Post by **Rick Aiello** » 6 Jul 2005 6:21 pm

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Aiello's House of Gauss


My wife and I don't think alike. She donates money to the homeless and I donate money to the topless! ... R. Dangerfield

Michael Aspinwall · Post by **Michael Aspinwall** » 6 Jul 2005 9:14 pm

That is THE coolest thing I have EVER seen!!

Denny Turner · Post by **Denny Turner** » 7 Jul 2005 2:17 am

Chas,

Work of that calibre should "always" be applauded. I look forward with great interest to the musical and mechanical reports and dialogue this instrument and discussion chain is sure to generate. Sure looks like great work to me.

Thanks a mil for sharing your work.

Aloha,
DT~
[This message was edited by Denny Turner on 07 July 2005 at 03:18 AM.]

Jackie Anderson · Post by **Jackie Anderson** » 7 Jul 2005 3:59 am

More!

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 7 Jul 2005 4:18 am

Too beautiful.
My favorite is still the blue 6-string bass.
A lifetime of collecting little machined bits pays off.

Howard Clark · Post by **Howard Clark** » 7 Jul 2005 6:33 am

It might be a lap steel, but it looks like sculpture to me. The concept, design, workmanship, as well as your photography, are exquisite. MOMA should do an exhibition of your work.

Dan Sawyer · Post by **Dan Sawyer** » 7 Jul 2005 10:13 am

Something tells me this will still be here when all other life on earth is gone.

chas smith · Post by **chas smith** » 7 Jul 2005 12:59 pm

Gentlemen, thank you.
Joe, the knobs are basically tone and tone.
Jon, sonic properties, well, it's a little bright and it doesn't have the "I-used-to-be-a-tree" sound, but it's very musical, especially when it's bolted to the side of Guitarzilla where the titanium "soaks up" the resonance of the larger body.
Bill, as fate would have it, I did some time as an aircraft welder at one of Northrop's subcontractors. I had no idea what we were working on, other than there was a lot of titanium and inconel. The blue welds wouldn't have passed inpection, too hot. Chrome and straw were the limits. But then this thing doesn't have to go mach 2. The current tuning is, top down:
G,E,D,C,B,A,G,E,D,C,B,G.
The thing I like about this tuning is, it has either I and V or I and IV , with the relative minors, on the same fret depending on whether the key is C or G. Granted it's not a "strum" tuning, outside of art music, but then I don't strum. Actually, I did strum it for what was going to be the "Herbie sound", in the recent movie, but I don't know if it made it to the final and I wasn't going to go to the movie to find out.

Michael Whitley · Post by **Michael Whitley** » 7 Jul 2005 3:23 pm

I hope to hear a recording of this some day. Spruce is the primary material for guitar tops, and it has one of the highest strength-to-weight ratios of all woods. Titanium, I know, has a very high strenth-to-weight ratio in the metal family (thus it's use on jets and Mercedes wrenches). I would imagine that it would be very resonant. On a related note (no pun intended), I've got an old aluminum neck Kramer guitar, which I'll probably never sell due to it's sound, although it is a heavy b@$^@rd.