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Hi new to the forum but I wanted to share what I've been working on. About a year ago I worked for a window company for a few months, learned how to cut glass and familiarized myself with glass working methods and such. I got the idea to build an all glass guitar. The neck, fretboard, headstock, and body are real glass. the picture on the left was my first attempt. I encountered some design flaws too late. I just slapped the pieces I had already cut and shaped together and used scrap parts from other guitars for the bridge, tuners, etc. stuck a single coil in the bridge position and considered it "proof of concept." The one on the right is my second build and better than the first. I spent a little money to get decent parts. I still need to fine tune the building process, troubleshoot some things, and figure out how to make everything look sleek and shiny. Still, I'm quite pleased how these have turned out. the fretboard is radiused to 12". they are a bit heavy roughly 15lbs. the glue I use is no joke. i glued strap buttons from a pawn shop squire to the back side and I was really surprised how strong it is. if I tried to pry the buttons off they would come off with a chunk of glass still attached. Anyway I've at least proved it's possible to build an all glass guitar. I am working on my third build but can't afford all the parts right now so I'm progressing more slowly than I'd like until I save enough.

I really need a solution for making the sides a little more clean and polished. I was thinking about trying some kind of trim or binding but never worked with the stuff before. Any suggestions?

Aside from a few refret jobs and putting in new pickups/pots. I've never built a guitar from scratch prior to making these and I decided glass was a good idea for a beginner . I'm interested to know what other guitar builders think of an all glass guitar?

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https://www.morningstarglassguitars.com/
https://www.instagram.com/morningstarglassguitars/
https://www.facebook.com/morningstarglassguitars/

Cool and wow creative. I won’t even ask how.

haha. I don't even think I could explain most of what I did. it took 3 months of planning/building to make the first one. the second one took about 3-4 weeks. I didn't do any kiln/lampwork on the glass. Just used a good Toyo glass cutter, diamond tile saw blades and drill bits, and silcone carbide sanding belts.

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https://www.morningstarglassguitars.com/
https://www.instagram.com/morningstarglassguitars/
https://www.facebook.com/morningstarglassguitars/

Crazy, in a good way.
Way to go!

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

They look really cool! Awesome concept.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Acrylic has been done many times but I have never seen glass.... Cool! At 15 lbs though these will be a tough sell I think.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Just don't drop it!

I realized I didn't measure the weight for the second build. It's actually a little heavier than 15lbs. I was exactly 17lbs, so yea its a bit heavy. It does put a strain on my shoulder if I play standing up(which i usually do). I use a cheap/thin strap which compounds the issue. The one I'm building now is a little smaller than the last one and I change the design a little to remove some excess glass weight. hopefully I can get it under 15lbs. I did some googling to see how much a double neck SG weighs and got mixed results. some said a little over 12lbs and others said 16lbs.

I think 15lbs is reasonable given that it's made of glass. It could be played for a few songs and switched out for something lighter. I've yet to find anyone that sells glass guitars online so I think there's some potential to make some decent money. I decided to build a glass guitar because I wanted a glass guitar :p. I don't think there are very many glass guitars out there so the uniqueness and rarity was appealing to me. I could have given up due to how challenging it was to figure everything out and having pretty limited resources in terms of space and equipment. I did a lot of the work down on the floor. but the major driving force that kept me from giving up was not really knowing how it would end up sounding.

given that it's an electric guitar the difference in sound is subtle but I just did a comparison recording of my stratocaster and my glass guitar. same pickup (seymour duncan JB SH-4), pots, wiring, scale length, new strings on both. etc. Put an sm57 in front of my marshall dsl40c and played the same chord progression on each guitar. I was surprised at how deep and rich the tone was on the glass guitar compared to the strat. the strat sounded a little shrill and kinda thin.

from the beginning, in the back of my mind I thought it might be possible to turn this into a profitable venture but I made a point not to think about it too much and just focus on building the guitar. I didn't even know if it was going to be possible to make or that it would end up breaking easily. I've done some stress testing like holding it at the top of the neck and shaking it really hard/fast in random directions, hitting it fairly hard repeatedly with a wood mallet and found it's a pretty solid/sturdy instrument. I have it hanging it on the wall held up by the headstock and it's still in one piece.

now that I know I can produce them I'm starting to think of how I might turn this into a business. I know I'm not the only person who ever wanted a glass guitar. So I have a lot of work ahead of me. perfecting my craft, improving my process/efficiency, adding some missing elements to my current model, and creating entirely new designs/models. At the same time figuring out how to market and sell them.

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https://www.morningstarglassguitars.com/
https://www.instagram.com/morningstarglassguitars/
https://www.facebook.com/morningstarglassguitars/

It's a multi tasking tool.
Lift weights and practice guitar.

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Say what you do, Do what you say.

A couple thoughts, could you get away with a thinner body? I imagine you could shave some of that weight off easily that way.

I was thinking about dealing with the sides, you could scuff the entire thing and end up with something resembling sea glass. A nice smooth matte finish. You'd be sacrificing the see through quality, but to my tastes I think I might prefer that.

Certainly unusual and an eye catcher... I could see a well heeled performer wanting one for the effect. Not sure it is practical or there is a large market out there, but the concept is very cool. Very impressive project. You don't have to worry about humidity...

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

I went to guitar center today cuz i wanted a wider padded strap. I took the guitar with me so I would know how the new strap would feel. It definitely turned a few heads and a lot of people asked me about it. It feels much better with a padded/wide strap distributing the weight and pressure. It's hard to say what the demand will be. but the supply is basically non existent so that will work in my favor. the cost to make one is about $600 for parts, materials, and other misc supplies. I'm fairly optimistic about being able to sell them. I just need to think about how I want to present them. I'm taking pictures, recording stuff, and gathering other stuff so I have I variety of material for my own website and various social media outlets. we'll see. wont know until I try

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https://www.morningstarglassguitars.com/
https://www.instagram.com/morningstarglassguitars/
https://www.facebook.com/morningstarglassguitars/

First sale.... WONDER WOMAN!!!

Cool idea! Does the back of the neck have a standard guitar neck profile? If so, how did you do that? Does the neck bend at all under string tension? It looks like the tops of the bodies are beveled. Is that right?

Possible set list:
Glass Onion
I Can See Clearly Now
I'm Looking Through You
Heart of Glass
Shattered

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

The neck is profiled. I am still fine tuning the way I do the profiling, trying to slim it down into more of the "C" shape I'm used to. the necks came out to more of a "U" shape. Kinda feels like I'm gripping a club, but it's better than wrapping my hand around a rectangle. I used an angle grinder with a diamond blade to shave off large portions of glass from the neck. a silicone carbide sanding belt to smooth out the edges made with the diamond saw. then used a diamond hand file to round off any residual edges. It's really difficult to get a slim shape and I don't like doing a lot of sanding once the fretboard is on. when you start sanding the edges by the fretboard it's really easy to start chipping off glass and getting "pits" around the edges. When that happens there's no fixing it and a lot of work goes down the drain.

I don't have a neck relief gauge or other tools to measure if the neck is bending due to string tension. If there is any it's a really small amount. The neck is rock solid. My strat feels kinda flimsy after playing my glass guitar. I tried doing a neck bend on the glass guitar and could get a tiny change in pitch if i got enough leverage and put a lot of muscle into it. so If there is any bend it's miniscule plus I dont have to worry about it warping over time.

Could you elaborate on what you mean by the tops being beveled? the term is used in the glass industry too. However I dont suppose it matters because I didn't do any kind of beveling anyway lol

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https://www.morningstarglassguitars.com/
https://www.instagram.com/morningstarglassguitars/
https://www.facebook.com/morningstarglassguitars/

"Could you elaborate on what you mean by the tops being beveled? the term is used in the glass industry too. However I dont suppose it matters because I didn't do any kind of beveling anyway lol"

I can see now in the photos you just posted that what I thought might be bevels on the body were actually the different sections of glass used to make up the body.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Will you be marketing "tone glass" soon?

Haha! one thing at a time. I just want to build glass guitars. people argue enough about tone wood. I don't think we need to add glass into the mix. Glass is glass as far as I'm concerned.

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https://www.morningstarglassguitars.com/
https://www.instagram.com/morningstarglassguitars/
https://www.facebook.com/morningstarglassguitars/