The basic solid body electric guitar design has not changed for over fifty years now since Les Paul first slapped together two sides of an acoustic guitar into a 4×4 log with pickups made from telephone parts that magnetically sense the string vibrations, or, if you prefer the other side of the story, since Leo Fender screwed a maple neck into a solid ash body again with attached single coil magnetic pickups.
Details vary, but almost every solid body guitar you see today is based on the same basic configuration. A truss reinforced wooden neck, bolted, glued or running through the entire length of the guitar (thru-neck), a solid slab of wood for the body, geared tuning pegs, a bridge and tailpiece that terminates the strings on the guitar body, sometimes with tremolo, one two or three single or double coil “humbucker pickups”, volume and tone potentiometers (pots), a pickup selector switch, and an output jack.
While it is safe not to stray too far from the basic design, I say it is time to bring the guitar into the 21st century. Don’t be afraid to be radical. Don’t let the fear of non acceptance keep you from hyper jumping outside the comfort zone of the “tried and true”. Don’t be afraid of failure. Be as bold as you can ever be!
“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
—Albert Einstein.
