Nifty tool for Luthiers

Jason Beam

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1,364
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Sacramento, CA
I just came across this handy software called "G" Thang ... it's a program that lets you plug in all sorts of guitar building parameters and it helps come up with a shape. It also lays out fret positions and exports to a DXF so you can bring it into a CAD app and use it to make your shop drawings or jigs or send to a CAM app to do CNC toolpaths.

I dunno how many are interested, but i found it nifty :)

Check it out: http://liutaiomottola.com/formulae/gthang.htm

Oh and also on that site - i have learned the magic number is 17.817 :)
 
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Thanks Jason...not only for luthiers, but us wannabees also! Lots of great info there as well :thumb::thumb:

I've been into the cigar box guitars lately and the only techie stuff I've dabbled with is the fret board layout & scale length, I've been using Fretfind2D with good results, plus I can save the results/printout as full size which eases transferring ...but this looks a lot more in-depth, again thanks!
 
Very cool Jason. I'd love to make another guitar someday. Got about a million projects in from though.
 
Looks like a cool tool, but I'm at somewhat of a loss coming up with the initial numbers to plug into the form. (I'm not familiar with all the terms like "primary arc radius".) Can you list a set of starter numbers to plug into the form for us?
 
Looks like a cool tool, but I'm at somewhat of a loss coming up with the initial numbers to plug into the form. (I'm not familiar with all the terms like "primary arc radius".) Can you list a set of starter numbers to plug into the form for us?

I had exactly the same problem! Under the File menu, there's an Initialize - which has a few sample styles that get you started. That was as far as I got so far :p
 
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