Nice of you to share all this with everyone. It amazes me to see the different apparatuses and processes fellow luthiers use for creating the conical fingerboards. I am contacting you in my effort to touch base with fellow luthiers using the compound radius in an effort to clear up confusion about the creation of my idea.
What I originally called the “Multi Radius Fingerboard” in 1978 was renamed by Warmoth in the 1980’s and subsequently they are often given credit for creating it. I built many guitars in the late 1970’s, 80’s & 90’s using my “Multi Radius fingerboards and their still around along with the owners.
Much like you are doing here I shared my creation with the entire world of luthiers by publishing it in two different journals, American Luthier #8 and String Instrument Craftsman. This was a personal choice I made and it gives me great satisfaction to know that I have given something back to a community that has give me so much. 
Over the years my idea has been widely used with no company or individual luthier ever paying a single penny in licensing fees, as I intended. It was important to me to share the idea many years ago and as I have become more knowledgeable about computers and the internet it’s important that I clear up the misinformation about creating multi/compound/conical radius fingerboards. Certainly my conical radius fingerboard is not the end of the story when it comes to fingerboards but it is part of the story and I would appreciate it if you would consider some mention of my name regards to creating the compound radius on your posting.
Your consideration is much appreciated and best of luck with your instruments.

Here are a few links to document and verify my comments
http://www.luth.org/backissues/al05-08/al08.htm
http://www.rauenguitars.com/articles.html    click the link in the bottom half of page
http://www.sweetwater.com/expert-center/glossary/t–CompoundRadius
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fingerboard

Peace
Denny Rauen
ww.rauenguitars.com

There is definitely a demand for LED fretboard inlays and side dots. There is a reason why guitar companies such as Moser Graphite, Ran guitars, Alembic, Warrior, and other custom builders offer them as option on to they’re customers. Likewise, there is also a reason why companies that specifically offer retrofitting of LEDS into necks such as Sims UK and Aurora Project UK are around….some people really like ‘em. Myself in particular, side dots would be cool, but small fretboard inlays with LEDS that can be activated (and maybe dimmed) if I need them would be the icing on the cake.

Besides, this is a carbon fibre/bamboo guitar. Let’s just say it’s not exactly conservative to begin with!

Love your design, Joel!

Those are very nice remarks, Paul! And I really appreciate your suggestions. Thank you very much for your interest.

Here are my replies:

Headstock:

Prior to conceptualizing Alpha, I’ve collected various ideas on various aspects including the headstock. There were so many ideas. A lot of them were even somewhat radical. For example, I considered having classical-style tuners where the orientation of the pegs is most natural (i.e. you don’t have to twist your arm to reach them as you do with tuners on either the bottom or the top). I’ve also thought about using Steinberger Gearless Tuners, also with a nice knob placement: http://tinyurl.com/6ptvgeb and even no tuners at all at the headstock (like Floyd-rose guitars such as: http://www.edroman.com/guitars/floydrose.htm) with tuners at the body. Yes, I also considered reversing the headstock.

These are all nice ideas, but in the end, for Alpha, one design constraint I stuck with is to stay closer to the traditional style (for both the body and head) as much as possible. I did in fact had various takes on these ideas at the CAD (3D modelling) design stage an showed it around. The response was mixed. Perhaps I haven’t caught the right design yet, in terms of aesthetics. Perhaps, it will be different with the next iterations, with more people such as you to solicit comments from.

One advantage of a reversed headstock that I can think of is possibly improved sustain. The thicker, longer and hence more massive strings can have a greater effect on sustain (at certain resonant frequencies, of course). However, I’ve recently discovered that making both ends (bridge and head) heavier has a better effect on sustain (more on that in a future article). The mass of the end points stores the energy of a plucked string and, much like a pendulum, releases it back to the string.

As for tuning stability, there should be no problem with any of these headstock ideas. However, one concern that needs to be studied and empirically tested is unwanted resonance. If the length of a string (or strings) coincide with a bad harmonic(s) it can cause unwanted resonance that can ruin the tone and/or degrade sustain. Sometimes this can be apparent and the remedy is to put dampers (felt cloth) up there (like Pianos do).

Bridge Saddles:

Yes, I’ve thought about piezo transducers at the bridge. Thanks for the link BTW and thanks for reminding me. I just could not find one that fits the bridge I am using (Schaller: http://tinyurl.com/52cjk). Perhaps I should switch to a different bridge, but does RMC produce saddles for Gibson-style bridges? (Update: indeed RMC has them: http://www.rmcpickup.com/powrbridgeg.html)

I love hex pickups. I love hex processing –beyond MIDI and keyboard-flavored synths like Roland’s. I believe there’s yet untapped potential there that I want to explore.

LED markers:

You are not the first who criticized that. Now, I have to agree and that feature is history. Yay! It all started one day when on a very dim gig, I lost my positions and fretted the wrong keys! Haha. Anyway, at the very least, how about small fiber-optic position markers at the top binding instead of the fretboard (like this: http://tinyurl.com/7ddn4lj)?

Have you considered flipping the headstock upside down so that the tuners are below instead of above the headstock? This would be more ergonomic, and it would also shorten the thinner strings and lengthen the thicker ones, although I don’t know whether this has any impact on tuning stability but on paper it makes sense.

I like the fact that the strings don’t deviate above the nut (they are perfectly straight all the way to the tuner). I think any serious guitar should be built this way, to prevent “jumping” when tuning.

Another idea for the headstock would be to have 3 tuners on each side and shape the headstock as an arrowhead in order to allow for the strings to stay straight above the nut.

I like the fact that you use single-coil pickups with a fixed bridge. This design is so rare (other than Telecasters, which are so ugly). Usually single-coil guitars have tremolo bridges, and humbucker guitars have fixed bridges, and there is no deviation from that other than the Tele.

Have you thought about using an RMC transducer for the bridge saddles?
http://www.rmcpickup.com/powrbridgest.html
It will allow the guitar to drive Synths like the Roland GR-55.
A good example of this type of guitar is the Godin LGX-SA.
http://www.godinguitars.com/godinlgxsap.htm

I saw you are installing LEDs under the fret markers. I think that’s a little cheesy and it could diminish the perception of prestige for such an amazing guitar. I think you are building the perfect guitar and you do not need any “bells and whistles” or gimmicks that have no functional purpose. Less is more.

If you really want to explore the LEDs imbedded under the fretboard, then you should make them functional: give them a purpose to exist. You could build a model that has 6 LEDs on each fret space, and wired them up to light up according to different scale patterns or chords, like the Fretlight guitar.
http://www.fretlight.com/

I like the earlier Freglights that could be used independently from a computer. They just had 2 additional knobs: one with the letters A thru G and the other one with the 7 modes (Major, Minor, Mixolidian, etc.).

No matter what you decide to do, please keep me posted, I want to be one of the first owners of CYCFI guitars, and if I really like it, I would like to be involved in marketing it. I think you have a niche and there is serious potential for your product.

Sincerely,

Paul

949 777 5695