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# A "guitar fit"
- URL: https://the-strandberg-lab.ghost.io/a-guitar-fit/
- Published: 2026-09-27T13:35:41.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-27T13:51:23.000Z
- Author: Ola Strandberg

As discussed in my [previous post](https://the-strandberg-lab.ghost.io/bikes-vs-guitars/), I think that there may be value in quantifying physical aspects of guitars that affect the ergonomics of playing them. I have spent considerable time lately trying to figure out how much value there is in actually fitting a guitar to a player in the design stage vs what the appeal would be to have a guitar that is [modular or adjustable](https://the-strandberg-lab.ghost.io/ume/). Likely one will go with the other. I realize that I have rushed ahead starting to design a solution to a problem that is not yet crisply formulated, so I will do my best to put off designing the solution until the problem is clear.

To discuss how an instrument's physical properties and dimensions affect posture, how posture affects playing comfort and dexterity, and how all relates to the risk of repetitive stress injuries, we probably need a terminology or classification system for all of this. As described earlier about the bike geometry charts, "stack", "reach", seat post angle, head tube angle, q-factor, etc., all describe properties of a bike frame that will influence how the rider will perform on it, and it is possible for a rider to make educated guesses about if it will fit, and how it will behave. So what if we could come up with some relevant measures and give them meaningful names, to allow us to discuss this in the context of a guitar? 

When we have the terminology, we can start investigating if it is possible to map any particular values to a player's physique and/or preferences. Maybe there is an ideal posture to strive for, and using this mapping would make the player aware of how an instrument may work for them. There are certainly commercially available attachments out there, like foot stools and adjustable leg rests, and perhaps one can also model how instrument + attachment will affect posture for an individual player. And, this work would certainly drive how to design a modular/adjustable instrument.

So for now, some tentative goals are:

- Decide to what extent to deal with seated vs standing playing
- Define how "ergonomics" relates to the efficiency of playing the instrument - eg. the placement of the wrist in relation to the bridge might allow the player to pick the string at a higher rate/more efficiently, without it necessarily being more ergonomic or less prone to injury
- Posture terminology  
  - Define what a "neutral" posture is
  - Map and name typical deviations from the neutral posture
  - Investigate if there is correlation between physical traits such as how tall a player is, the length of torso, arms, etc., and posture
- Instrument terminology  
  - Name the relevant contact points
  - Name the relationships between the contact points and determine how to measure them
- Instrument design  
  - Is a fully open-ended fitting rig needed to determine what measurements will allow a player to play with good posture? Or can a few measurements of player limbs and preferences guide the selection of a suitable instrument?
  - Is it realistic to fit a custom built instrument to a player based on a fitting session, or does the instrument have to be adjustable? If so, which adjustments are needed?
  - Assuming a modular or adjustable instrument is needed, what are some questions and design goals? For example:  
    - What are the adjustment points?
    - How important is it that sonic character remains unaffected by adjustments?
    - To what extent is the sound of the instrument important? (The feeling of playing an instrument is vastly impactful on what you play, and how you play, and I think this is very much connected to how the instrument vibrates/resonates against your hands and body. Hence, the original .strandberg\* tagline of "feel better - sound better". I think that they go together and that one drives the other. So it is not realistic to find your favorite and most efficient "fit" unless you can also dial in your favorite sound. And the concept of modularity also opens up using modules made from different materials to tailor the sonic character.)
    - Define the required +/- ranges of adjustment
    - If different sizes of instruments are required, do they have to be tuned to E-standard regardless of scale length?
    - Does the instrument have different seated and standing configurations?

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f9/96/f99656fd-cf33-4985-9c09-1e14e49d7aa2/content/images/2026/08/backpackresearcher_IG.jpg)

[@backpackresearcher](https://www.instagram.com/backpackresearcher?ref=the-strandberg-lab.ghost.io) diagram of load

Above is an example one could use as inspiration, taken from the backpack design world - which is well researched.

Interestingly enough, there is very little academic research done on the ergonomics of electric guitars specifically. Among the scarce research I have been able to find (not being an academic myself, access is somewhat limited) on this topic, a [published research article](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/245359989%5FDesign%5Fof%5Fan%5Fergonomic%5Felectric%5Fguitar?ref=the-strandberg-lab.ghost.io) from Tijdschrift voor Ergonomie, nr 2, June 2013 describes the (by then 6 years old and trademarked) Boden design, including the patented EndurNeck without any references to Strandberg Guitars or myself. The author claims to have come up with this design to address most ergonomic concerns with the electric guitar. While I'm bummed to not be cited, I suppose it is nice to have research validating my work.

Another article (Marmaras, Zarboutis, Applied Ergonomics, Vol 28, No. 1, 1997) describes a slightly more ambitious work of designing an ergonomic electric guitar, including developing a "Comfort Function" - a series of equations that measure the left hand's comfort for different neck lengths - and formulating some geometry of the player/instrument system, as per the image at the top of the post.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f9/96/f99656fd-cf33-4985-9c09-1e14e49d7aa2/content/images/2026/09/Marmaras-Zarboutis-Comfort-Function.jpg)

The Marmaras and Zarboutis Comfort Function, which is the weighted sum of four parameters affecting the comfort of the left hand: the angle of adjoining fingers when playing a chord, the body-arm angle, the arm-forearm angle, and the force applied by the fingers on the strings

Combining parameters into a single formula may seem like an attractive proposition, and perhaps it can be done - time will tell. I will surely make an attempt to apply it to this project later down the road! But right hand ergonomics as well as the weight on the shoulder, balance of the instrument, etc., would need to be added to the formula. Additionally, there is the question of seated vs standing playing. 

Marmaras and Zarboutis also compared the ergonomics of a Gibson Les Paul, Fender Stratocaster, Yamaha RGX1212A, and their developed prototype, and had experienced players (subjectively) grade various features - from accessing the output jack, packing the instrument, using the controls, to bigger issues such as wrist flexion, etc. Now, this article was written in 1994 and published 1997, so it is quite old and the world of guitar ergonomics has moved on somewhat since then (which I would like to take some credit for). While I will not go into detail about their findings, their solution is far from what I envision in many respects:

- First and foremost, they have developed a "one size fits all" guitar, which I think is unrealistic for any attempt to address guitar ergonomics
- They use conventional headstock mounted tuners as opposed to body mounted tuners, which alleviate many of the concerns they raise, from instrument balance to the ergonomics of tuning the instrument
- They use a straight scale, where a multi scale instrument addresses many ergonomic concerns, as well as tonal properties
- They use a conventional C-shape neck profile, where there are now many alternatives that are (anecdotally) proven to be more ergonomic or appealing to individual players
- Aesthetics are not considered

It is my firm belief that for a player to use an instrument, it has to meet some aesthetic criteria that appeal to the player, or it will not be used. This is what gave birth to the Boden design in the first place - I wanted to design an ergonomic guitar that I would consider playing myself.

I’ll admit that while still working on this post, I have cheated quite little bit already and done several iterations of guitar design in parallel with this problem formulation work in the back of my mind, simply because I couldn’t contain myself… These features will all be described in detail in upcoming posts. Some of them may prove meaningful, where others may not, but I am very excited about where this is going.

I have also reached out to [Dr Andre Fludd](https://www.youtube.com/@andrefludd?ref=the-strandberg-lab.ghost.io) who has done quite a bit of excellent work on the ergonomics of electric guitars that I have enjoyed. He and I have tossed some ideas around regarding the broader issues discussed here, and I hope to be able to make something more of it going forward.

Lastly, regarding the use of AI: I tried re-generating the (copyrighted) player geometry image from the Marmaras & Zarboutis article using Claude, but it did a pretty miserable job of it. I did however prompt Google’s Nano Banana to generate the image, which probably saved me about 0 minutes of work, but was nonetheless interesting. The result can be seen at the top of this post. Curiously, no matter how I tried to prompt away various text labels that were generated in the image without my asking for them, I didn’t succeed. I had to erase them manually in the resulting jpg file (which is probably a result of incompetent prompting, but there you go...).

**AI Panel Commentary (+ Podcast!)**

The panelists:  
Blaine Segway - moderator (female, but the others think she is male)  
Iain Footnote - brand historian, knows "everything" about the brand  
Daiter Lesmore - knows Dieter Rams' 10 Principles of Good Design like his own  
Kai Fretwell-Wayback - pro musician and general skeptic

They were created as prompts in Claude, and asked to comment on the post above in order, including to react on what anyone before had said. The script was then uploaded to ElevenLabs and voices assigned to the respective text blocks. No edits were made to the script that was generated. 

Feel free to continue the discussion in the comments!

The Strandberg Lab A Guitar Fit Commentary

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Links: 

1. [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/13816593\_Ergonomic\_redesign\_of\_the\_electric\_guitar](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/13816593%5FErgonomic%5Fredesign%5Fof%5Fthe%5Felectric%5Fguitar?ref=the-strandberg-lab.ghost.io)
2. [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/245359989\_Design\_of\_an\_ergonomic\_electric\_guitar](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/245359989%5FDesign%5Fof%5Fan%5Fergonomic%5Felectric%5Fguitar?ref=the-strandberg-lab.ghost.io)
3. [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340724404\_Analyzing\_working\_conditions\_for\_classical\_guitarists\_Design\_guidelines\_for\_new\_supports\_and\_guitar\_positioning](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340724404%5FAnalyzing%5Fworking%5Fconditions%5Ffor%5Fclassical%5Fguitarists%5FDesign%5Fguidelines%5Ffor%5Fnew%5Fsupports%5Fand%5Fguitar%5Fpositioning?ref=the-strandberg-lab.ghost.io)
4. [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324972597\_Design\_of\_an\_auxiliary\_implement\_for\_classical\_guitar\_positioning\_from\_a\_postural\_analysis\_in\_musicians](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324972597%5FDesign%5Fof%5Fan%5Fauxiliary%5Fimplement%5Ffor%5Fclassical%5Fguitar%5Fpositioning%5Ffrom%5Fa%5Fpostural%5Fanalysis%5Fin%5Fmusicians?ref=the-strandberg-lab.ghost.io)
5. [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334681848\_Motion\_Capturing\_for\_the\_Evaluation\_of\_Ergonomically\_Designed\_Guitars](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334681848%5FMotion%5FCapturing%5Ffor%5Fthe%5FEvaluation%5Fof%5FErgonomically%5FDesigned%5FGuitars?ref=the-strandberg-lab.ghost.io)
6. [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/28577148\_Technicity\_as\_the\_conceptual\_basis\_for\_explaining\_innovation\_in\_design\_and\_technology](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/28577148%5FTechnicity%5Fas%5Fthe%5Fconceptual%5Fbasis%5Ffor%5Fexplaining%5Finnovation%5Fin%5Fdesign%5Fand%5Ftechnology?ref=the-strandberg-lab.ghost.io)