
Learn how to move from a great idea to a tangible product through prototyping, testing, and iterating with 3d cad, 3d printing, and milling, while navigating design realities.
Explore crowdfunding, NAMM, and Shark Tank to test market response, gather feedback, and refine a guitar design through iterative prototyping and data management tools like Solid Edge and Teamcenter.
Explore a cloth over carbon fiber finish for guitars, enabling bold graphics, then address warping, fret buzz, and electronics fit through iterative design and stronger truss rods.
Embrace modular design and iterative prototyping to balance reducing parts with practical manufacturing, using a metal back plate as a unifying structure and applying design for manufacture concepts.
Navigate international NAMM deals, licensing, and press coverage while learning to delegate quality control and balance free advertising with product excellence amid brand-name market forces in guitar design.
After NAMM, the team pursues 500–1000 boutique guitars at 500 each, but funding gaps and costly custom parts, plus feature creep, threaten profitability and require new investment.
Create a core and cavity in Solid Edge by building base and top mold pieces, using borrow and extrude, then subtract to form the mold, noting draft is required.
Patents can protect your idea but involve cost and risk; perform a thorough prior art search with Google Patents, FreePatentsOnline, and Lens.org, and stay original, testing feasibility with provisional patents.
INSIGHTS & CHALLENGES WITH BRINGING A NEW PRODUCT TO MARKET - Over the years I’ve had numerous students come to me & want to talk about a new product idea they have but aren't sure how to get started. Now instead of giving you a classroom lecture on product development and the steps involved, I'm going to share with you a personal experience, probably with more examples of what not to do than what to do.