I’ve commissioned a new guitar from Texan luthier Chris Forshage of Forshage Custom Instruments.

I’ve been aware of a couple of ergonomic issues associated with ‘regular’ guitar.
The headstock  weight coupled with the weight of the tuners pushes the neck down away from the player and over the last 20 years of playing I’m finding that it is more of a struggle than I would like it to be.
Also, several surgical interventions and other postural issues have reinforced the need for something that is a bit better for me, as a player.

Forshage’s ergonomic guitars are loosely based on the work of Steve Klein’s ergonomic guitars but pushes the envelope a bit more in terms of playability and ergonomics, as well as being just damn pretty.

There is a lot more information over at Building The Ergonomic Guitar. BTEG seems to have stopped updating but there is a lot of information there.

My ergo will be a set neck, hollow mahogany body with maple top, maple neck with cocobolo fingerboard instrument.
Electronics will be a pair of Lollar highwind humbuckers.

Here is the top we started with:

Chris has already cut and glued the top, which you can see here:

Here is one with black hardware mounted on it:

The final product will have side mounted sound holes, chrome hardware and a satin finish.

Pretty exciting stuff- so far Chris has been absolutely great, particularly as I vacillated about various details of the build.