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Blog #1 | Introduction

Right off the bat, you may be asking yourself what’s different about this guitar. Briefly summarized, both the guitar and the modular assembly are made out of wood. That’s a major advantage that I’ll explain more about in a bit.

To help conceptualize the design, here’s short demo of the guitar:

The first prototype of the Fern Phoenix in action

I’m a huge fan of modular guitars, and I think they represent the future of the industry. There are many fantastic concepts out there, but none of them quite seem to meet the mark for me. From the materials to the price, everything seems to make some sort of compromise. You’re either paying for something made out of plastic, or you’re paying out the nose.

Now, many of the modular guitars out there are fantastic in their own right—compromises included—but none of them are as flexible as I’d like them to be. 

This is where wood comes in. My idea was to create a removable modular plate for all of the electronics made from wood. The beauty of the idea is in its simplicity. By using traditional materials, I’m not reinventing the wheel, I’m simply making better treads for the tire. 

A blank module

My idea is to make an open source guitar. The body can be made from any kind of wood, and aside from the modular apparatus, nothing about it is proprietary. We’ll make blank modules (left) available in a variety of materials so you can customize it yourself, and we’ll take any custom orders as well.

Even if you’re not technically inclined, a wide selection of premade modules is in the works—from humbuckers to single coils, I’m planning to make every standard guitar pickup configuration readily available.

Because wood is such a flexible material, I expect to be able to get the guitar in people’s hands relatively quickly. As it stands, I’ve already completed the first playable prototype, and my sense is that I’ll be able to make the final version available to everyone within the coming months.

The first prototype guitar with a humbucker module

My guitar takes the concepts of everything that came before it and turns it into something that I plan to make accessible to everyone. Aside from the lack of true flexibility, current modular guitars are quite expensive. As for price, I can’t say too much, but I can guarantee that it’ll be more affordable than most modular guitars currently on the market.

Lastly, I feel I should say something about COVID-19, the elephant in everyone’s room. My guitars are constructed here in the USA, and the manufacturers I’ve partnered with have had to close operations due to the pandemic. This has created hardship for everyone in the industry, but I’m hoping that by the time I’m ready for initial production businesses will have opened back up again. However, there is always an element of uncertainty as nobody can predict what course this thing will take. 

Anyways, I’m looking forward to sharing my journey with you as I get closer and closer to a finished instrument. I’m going to talk more about where we are with the prototype in future blog posts, so make sure to subscribe to the mailing list for regular updates. You can find the sign up sheet at the bottom of the homepage.