DESIGNING THE REIGN

 

After building the 3 Prince models I decided it was time to design and build a model of my own. So night after night I spent at the drawing table trying to design something new without being too extreme. I want to use this guitar with every gig so I didn’t want a model that looks too metal or something like that. A shape that hasn’t been used before and that was tricky because a lot has already been done. Of course it is impossible to be sure that there isn’t a model like the one I designed but I think it is pretty unique. You can see some PRS influence and a bit of Cloud too… Here you see some drawings of the early stage,  but still (re-) designing. I have to say that my wife Miranda helped me out desinging. She can draw and paint very well and it is always good to have a creative person nearby when you're stuck...  The name of the guitar has been known before I started the build. Because the finish will be purple, I came up with the name Purple Reign.  If I ever build a second one like this, it will be just called the “Reign”. Or maybe a name like “Sovereign”. The EJ you see in the drawings are my initials. People call me "Ed" which you can also write like "@" so that's why I use this symbol as the 12th position marker. Nice detail... I think.

                        some schetches and drawings in an early stage.  You can see the head stock, and inlays. 

Below you see the final shape. At least, final on paper. When I made a trail version of the body from some scrap wood, It didn't feel right, so I moved the curve where you put your knee, more to the middle of the body.  So the shape has changed already..  but for the better!

 

 

below are some versions of the custom made Pick guard/ pick up ring. I wanted the shape of the head stock to return somewhere on the body. the black one is going to be the final shape ( i think...) I have to look how it turns out because I don’t want to hide too much of the beautiful quilted maple but I don’t want to use ordinary pick up rings to mount the pick ups.

 

Today I received my quilted maple top which I ordered from holz-faszination, you can find a link at the "link" page.  Also included was a piece of Grenadil, which is a lot like ebony.... Black! 

I need this for the pick guard/ pick up rings. You can just see it in the lower part of the picture.

Thanks, Frank for a great piece of wood!! . 

 This is the place where it's going to happen... my attic...

 

OK, it's a but messy from my last project but it will be clean before i start working on the Reign.

  Here is another pic of my work bench.

you can see the trail version of the body I'm working on. I almost have all the parts I need. I still have to order the Sustainiac but I can start without it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see in the trail version, I am working on a carved top. To make sure the actual body and any future one has the same carve, I am planning on building a machine that duplicates the master body. A kind of Xerox machine which uses a router. So before I can start on the actual guitar I have to build that first.  And in between, I am trying to get the mother ( trail) version  perfect so any duplicate will be too!

 when I put the master body on my knee for the final test it still didn't feel right. So I replaced the place that rests on your knee further backwards (again). This meant that the round back of the body is no longer symetrical. The shape had to change pretty much to get the feel I wanted.  Now it sits perfect on my knee and it now it looks like a rain drop which fits the name of the guitar. So 2 changes were needed to join design and playability. It turned out very nice ( I think)  The higher part of the neck is very easy to reach. No stretching your fingers into the cut out of the body but full access to the 23rd fret. 22 or 24 would have been too common... hahaha!!