|
Home >
All Guitars >
Abstract Guitars & Basses
If You Can Dream It - Abstract Can Build It
Design Your Own Headstock
| Abstract guitars offers numerous different
headstock designs, eventually they will all be pictured here. The reason
there will be a page devoted to headstocks is to drive home the fact that any
model may be ordered with any headstock. In most cases it will not affect
the prices. After all these are all custom made anyway. |

Angel Of Death With Scorpion Headstock
Currently
there are over 35 new headstock designs on the drawing board
All
Headstocks Available on All Models



The scarf joint in wood
In woodworking, there are two distinctly different categories of scarf, based on whether the joint has interlocking faces or not. A plain scarf is simply two flat planes meeting on an angle relative to the axis of the stock being joined, and depends entirely on adhesive and/or mechanical fastening (screws, bolts, etc.) for all strength. Hooked, keyed, and nibbed scarfs are some of the many example of interlocking scarfs, offering varying degrees of tensile and compressive strength, though most still depend on mechanical fastening to keep the joint closed.
The plain scarf is not preferred when strength is required, so it is often used in decorative situations, such as the application of trim or molding. The use of modern high-strength adhesives can greatly increase the structural performance of a plain scarf.
Scarf joints are used on mass production guitars where the headstock angle dips
far back
|
| Major guitar brands have signature headstocks that make
their guitars or guitar series easily recognizable. An unwritten
law of the guitar industry allows copying of overall
guitar body designs, but no major brand copies headstock
designs. As seen in a section below, even "copied" at the first
glance designs retain clear visible changes in dimensions,
proportions of elements, etc, so it is almost always possible to
tell a major brand of a guitar by looking at headstock. |
Fender-like curved 6-in-line headstocks
|
|
Fender Stratocaster, regular version, used
on modern Mexican and American-built guitars
(other than the Highway One (Upgrade) series)
|
Fender Stratocaster, "CBS" version, seen
from 1965-1981. Currently used on Highway One
Strats, and '72 Telecaster Deluxe
reissues
|
Gibson Firebird series
Over the years Gibson has attempted to copy
Fender many times but fails miserably every time
|
Washburn N-series (reverse)
|
Floyd Rose Guitarsdecorative headstock, no
machine heads at all
|
Gibson Les Paul , SG, 1960 issue
|
|
asymmetrical, used on most guitars
|
PRS symmetrical, used on Santana 3 model
|
|
|

Rickenbacker
|
|
ESP "pointed" headstock, used on Horizon
NT-II and M-II guitars, as well as many
signature models (also used in reverse)
|
Ibanez "pointed" Ibanez signature headstock,
used on most rock-series solid-body electric
guitars (also used in reverse)
|
Jackson "pointed" headstock, used on almost
all solid-body electric guitar series (also used
in reverse)
|
Washburn "pointed" headstock, used on almost
all rocker-series electric guitars (also used in
reverse)
|
| Many wood joinery techniques either depend upon or compensate
for the fact that wood is anisotropic its material properties are different along different dimensions.
Joining wood parts together must take this into account, otherwise
the joint is destined to fail. Gluing boards with the grain running
perpendicular to each other is often the reason for split boards, or
broken joints. Furniture from the 18th century, while made by master
craftsmen, did not take this into account. The result is this
masterful work suffers from broken bracket feet, which was often
attached with a glue block which ran perpendicular to the base
pieces. The glue blocks were fastened with both glue and nails,
resulting in unequal expansion and contraction between the pieces.
This was also the cause of splitting of wide boards, which were
commonly used during that period
|
|