Musicians make demos. Guitarmakers? Sometimes they just have to draw it out. In our new Sketchbook department, we take a peek at when inspiration hits. First up: A glimpse into the mind of boundary-pushing luthier Michiro Matsuda.

Upon receiving a commission for a double-neck electric guitar—one neck sitar, the other six-string—he started thinking about bridges. “I had an idea of using a Gotoh Sitar saddle,” he says. “And I was thinking about how I can accommodate it to an archtop style bridge with an adjustment system on this sketch. I do this kind of one-person brainstorming sometimes.”

Matsuda’s pencil drawings evolved into the finished structure you see here. “It was a special project, something between guitar and art.”

Learn more: https://matsudaguitars.com