Yesterday, I told you about the Kisekae Virtual Guitar Builder…the easiest way to design your own custom guitar using free online software. It’s also incredibly good fun.
Today, I’m putting my money where my mouth is…and give you a step-by-step demonstration and show you just how simple it is to use Kisekae to design your dream guitar.
And I’m going to see how close I can get to one of my existing guitars…the custom Telecaster in my “About” page.
It should be a piece of cake using the virtual guitar builder. Fingers crossed.
Click on the images below to open up the screenshots full size.
Here goes!
Step #1 - Visit Kisekae
Click here to visit the Kisekae website.
Kudos to the anime chick on the homepage!
Step #2 - Find Your Guitar
Scroll down, and choose a classic guitar template.
For this tutorial, I’m picking the Telecaster.
Step #3 - License Agreement
On the license agreement page, click “I AGREE” to continue.
Step #4 - The Base Model
OK, our base guitar loads up.
Firstly, let’s select the right timber. Click “Body”, then “Wood” to continue.
Step #5 - Choose The Body Top
To match my custom Telecaster, click through the pages until you find Figured Maple Number 7.
At the time of writing, it was on page 2.
Step #6 - Sunburst Base Tone
To apply the sunburst finish, first select a yellow base tone, and change the transparency to 30%.
Step #7 - Sunburst Top Tone
Next add a rich upper red, and make it 90% transparent.
It’s almost invisible…for now.
Step #8 - Sunburst Inner Burst
Now choose a warm orange inner burst, fully opaque.
Step #9 - Sunburst Outer Burst
And finally, select a red outer burst, and set the transparency to 30%.
I think we’re looking good!
Step #10 - The Fretboard
To select the fretboard timber, click “Neck”, then “Fretboard Wood”.
Step #11 - Rosewood Fingerboard
Choose “Rose1″ from the left-hand options.
Step 12 - Headstock
Now for the headstock…my custom Telecaster is flame maple.
Can we find something similar? Click “Neck”, then “Headstock Wood”.
Step #13 - Headstock
Yes! Choose “Fig. Maple 1″…it’s perfect!
Step #14 - Neck Inlays
Next, click “Neck”, then “Inlay”.
Click on “Pearl Dot”
Step #15 - Removing the Pickguard
My Tele is sans-scratchplate…I want to keep it that way.
Click “Pickguard”, then “Scratchplate”. Finally click on “None” to remove the pickguard.
Step #16 - Time To Add Pickups
I Hope you’re following on. Kisekae is so easy. Now I’m just going to add my pickups. First the mounts.
Nice and easy…click on “Pickup”, then “Mount Ring”. Choose a couple of black mounts, and drap ‘n drop them into position.
Step #17
…exactly the same process for the pickups.
Nice and easy…click on “Pickup”, then “Other Pickups”.
In this case, a I’ll choose a pair of humbuckers. Once again, dragged ‘n dropped.
Step #18 - Controls
My guitar has chrome controls. Is that a problem?
Choose “Control”, the “Knob”…and hope for the best.
Step #19 - Controls Again
“Chrome” is there , and we’re happy bunnies.
Simply move them into position.
Step #20 - Adding The Pickup Toggle Switch
As with the volume and tone knobs, we find our toggle switch by clicking “Controls”, then “Switch”, and finally “Toggle”.
Place it into position.
Step #21 - The Bridge
The last thing we need to do is change the stock Tele bridge.
Choose “Bridge”, then click on “Non-Trem”. Select the bridge from the left-hand side.
Step #22 - Finished!
We’re done! And I think this is pretty darn close to my actual custom Telecaster. And all done in less than 10 minutes.
I hope you can see how powerful Kisekae is, and how you can quickly and easily design a custom electric guitar using it.
Kisekae gives you all the tools you need to plan your dream guitar.
I hope you enjoy using it as much as I have, and I’d love to see your designs, too.
Thanks for reading.
