From a Family of Inventors

I come from a family of visionaries and inventors. My grandfather spent his after-work hours developing a new refrigeration concept back in the early decades of the 20th century when cooling was still being done with ice. My dad had his first big success while still in his twenties, as part of a team that developed a frictionless rocket fuel mixer. I am a low-tech guy; I prefer simpler things such as guitars.

My Dad's Wheeled Luggage Obsession 

My dad did have a few interesting, low-tech inventions, too.  One of my favorites was not his idea but something he just stumbled upon in his travels. When he was in Hong Kong, Dad discovered a little shop where they made suitcases with casters. This was probably about 1972 or 1973, long before the rest of us had heard of such a thing. Dad was so passionate about the wheeled suitcase concept that he imported dozens of these. In fact, one bedroom of his small, two-bedroom apartment (yes, inventors are not always the easiest people to live with) was stacked high with wheeled suitcases still in their packaging.     

Skepticism

So, that’s the inventor’s story. What about the inventor’s skeptical audience? Well, I remember sitting at the kitchen table of my grandparent's beach cottage one summer (Let’s call it the summer of the wheeled suitcases). We were all sunburned after a day at the beach, and we were having dinner with our cousins. If my father was an evangelical innovator, then my aunt and uncle were just as devoutly uninterested in change of any kind. They were definitely tired of hearing Dad go on and on about yet another obsession. I remember one of them, or both, or possibly everyone at the table in unison, crying out: “Mark, don’t be ridiculous”. No one is going to want a suitcase with wheels. ” 

Although the build quality was not very good, he eventually sold them all.

The point of this story is not to suggest that you all go out and buy a suitcase with wheels. You probably already own one or several.

My point is that some of the best ideas have been there, in plain sight, all along. It’s just a question of applying these ideas where they can be most useful. 

Inventing the TurboTail

Installing a TurboTail or TurboStrand on a guitar makes as much sense as putting wheels on a suitcase. However, most people don’t notice that they are missing out on something useful if they have never seen it before. Just like the benefits of a wheeled suitcase, once you experience the benefits of the TurboTail,  you will never go back.   

Lessons From Designing an Ergonomic Headless Guitar

My original interest in traditional acoustic guitars had nothing to do with improving the sound of guitars. It was a by-product of my goal to design a compact, ergonomic, headless acoustic guitar. 

Transferring String Tension Does Not Ruin Tone

The big takeaway from the headless guitar project was the discovery that transferring the string tension to the tail block-mounted tuners does not necessarily ruin the tone.

That came as a big surprise.

Common guitar wisdom says that the rocking motion of the bridge is essential to the guitar’s basic function and its unique sound. 

Benefits of Removing Tension From Soundboard

When we divert the tension of the strings from the soundboard, not only do we eliminate any risk that the guitar will implode instantly, but the likelihood of any temporary or permanent deformation of the soundboard (“bridge belly”) is also eliminated. It’s even possible to correct any existing soundboard deformation by installing the TurboTail on a guitar with a warped soundboard. 

Lack of Research into Transferring String Tension

Despite our best efforts, we have not found any documentation that acoustic guitars built with strings terminating at the tail block have ever been compared with standard bridge-anchored guitars. Apparently, it has just been taken for granted that securing the guitar strings to the bridge in the middle of the soundboard was the best design for guitars.  

The fact is that no research has ever been done that questioned the common system of anchoring the strings to the middle of the soundboard. The strings of modern guitars are anchored to the middle of the soundboard simply because it’s always been that way. Thousands of years ago, the earliest stringed instrument bodies were made of turtle shells, gourds, or coconut shells. The strings were secured to the middle of a soundboard, often made of animal skin. The neck of these instruments was just a branch from a tree. The basic principles have not changed since then.

Our Pursuit of Perfection

We aim to do the testing and comparing that has been missing for so long.  

Check out the videos we have published so far, click here.