While working with the team at Design Concepts (now Delve), I helped develop a concept for a novel folding travel guitar for Ciari Guitars. The goal was to design a guitar that would fold up small enough to fit under an airline seat and be ready to play after unfolding with only minimal “top-off” tuning. We solved the challenge of folding the neck by using a three-element hinge and a translating truss rod mechanism and handled the string management using a spring-loaded tensioner and roller bridge. My role included concept generation, architecture development, and proof-of-concept prototyping. Check out the patent!

(Images courtesy of Design Concepts and Ciari Guitars)