dreamHand.net

by Mark Bocek
© 2003

NOTE: This tutorial is several versions of Photoshop old. Some tools and commands may have changed.

Since I play a lot of guitar, I've thought recently about having one built to my specifications (it's a crazy idea, but it just might work). I tried to get my luthier, Paul, to weigh in on the design, but he actually seems to prefer that I just tell him what to build (!!??). So, alright, I though to myself, what would my ideal guitar be like? I designed one (that's it at the bottom of the page) in Photoshop.

That went pretty well, so I got interested in making an arch-top guitar with similar design perameters, and I thought I'd share what I learned with everyone else. What I ended up with can be seen at right. I'm assuming that anyone who tries this has a fair knowledge of Photoshop, although I've tried to over-explain things as much as possible -- my apologies to those who know the program well. What we'll build is the guitar body.

A few terms to know are 1) sunburst, 2) f-hole, 3) cut-away, and, of course, 4) arch-top. "Sunburst" is the finish pattern of the guitar, with a basic finish that fades into darker edges. "F-holes" are the, well, F-shaped holes in the top of this type of guitar that emit sound; e.g., sound holes. A "cut-away" is the notch on the top of the guitar that allows a guitarist to get his hand to the top frets of the instrument. An "arch-top guitar" has a carved or pressed bulge in its top and back; this opposed to a "flat-top," which normally have round sound holes.

In the tutorial, we'll use some things a lot: things like saving and loading selections, modifying selections, and our best pal, Guassian Blur filter.

This is the original guitar project designing a guitar in Photoshop.