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The Fusion Guitar, an Innerspace Journey

Discover how Outerspace Design’s resident guitarist and the Innerspace Development Program created a revolutionary new guitar

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knows that travelling light is essential. And any serious electric guitar player knows that there’s a lot of gear involved, including amp, speakers, pedals, cables, not to mention a wall to plug your cables into. So necessity fathered the invention of Dave’s first portable travel electric guitar.

The first prototype dubbed “Frankenstein’s Monster” was basically a collection of small off-the-shelf hardware components attached to a lightweight aluminum body. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked. And it got a lot of attention,

As a young boy growing up in the cold, wet Scottish climate, Dave Auld spent much of his time indoors. Fortunately he was surrounded by inspiration, including majestic landscapes and a mother who was a music-loving professional artist. This was the middle of the 70s - a new age of jaw-dropping guitar redefining British mega bands like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Deep Purple were sweeping the globe. Armed with a natural curiosity and hands-on aptitude for engineering, Dave built his first guitar at the tender age of 14.

Fast forward to the early 1990s, and Dave is a young man escaping the London weather by backpacking through Asia to the tropical paradise that is Australia. He desperately wants to take his electric guitar with him, but any serious backpacker

Outerspace Design’s resident guitarist, Dave Auld, is passionate about playing electric guitar, and wants to make it accessible to everyone, everywhere. See how he used the Innerspace Development Program to create the Fusion Guitar, the world’s first iPhone integrated portable, wireless electric guitar with built-in amp, battery and speakers.

Dave Auld at age 14 playing a Gibson les Paul 25/50.↑

Prototype number 1: Frankenstein’s Monster↑

including landing Dave a gig playing in a house band for a few weeks while travelling in Thailand.

However, Dave’s baby had teething issues including chewing through the disposable batteries, and audio feedback caused by the built-in speakers reverberating through the guitar body. The next prototype was restyled to be more recognizable and user-friendly. The technology was upgraded to include rechargeable batteries and a ‘floating’ speaker enclosure, enabling much higher volume without audio feedback.

A more powerful amplifier was incorporated which had built in effects like delay and reverb. More importantly, Dave included an on-board MP3 player to play backing tracks, or to record and overlay tracks to build up complex and impressive music.

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“For me the most appealing characteristic of these guitars is the simplicity and ease with which you can interact with them.”

Then in 2012 Dave discovered iPhone guitar apps.

“They were incredibly powerful with accurate amplifier modelling, guitar effects, recording, looping samplers and jam track players. They did everything you previously had to do with multiple expensive pieces of hardware.

The Fusion Guitar prototype↑

Prototype number 2↑

“For me, the most appealing characteristic of these guitars is the simplicity and ease with which you can interact with them, you can just pick them up, switch them on and play,” Dave explains. “All the controls which would normally be on multiple pieces of hardware are all on the instrument; there are no cables to plug in and trip over or multiple pieces of equipment to switch on.”

it. Dave recalls, “I realised trying to take the Fusion Guitar into production was going to be a huge undertaking both financially and in terms of the amount of time required.” Luckily Dave works at Outerspace Design and they just pushed the button on their Innerspace Development Program. Innerspace is a new initiative to support the discovery and development of innovative ideas within the Outerspace team.

“Innerspace supports entrepreneurial staff members who are passionate about an idea or project so they can successfully create a market-ready product, system or process,” says Fred Blochlinger, Director at Outerspace. “As we say, ‘when we see the potential in a great idea, we have to make it happen!’”

Although the core idea and functionality remained the same, the design of the Fusion Guitar went through a complete rethink with the diverse perspectives and experience of the Outerspace team behind the project. This guitar is a radical new kind of instrument, so it had to make a statement. The audience is broad, from kids starting out to seasoned professionals adding portability to their quiver, so it had to have wide appeal.

Antony Stolfo, Creative Director at Outerspace and the design star behind the new Chevy Camaro, led the aesthetic development. Drawing from automotive experience, a balance was struck between organic and hard-edged styling. Switches and knobs were made familiar, but well-detailed, like the headless rosewood neck. External hardware such a as the amp, speakers and batteries were brought inboard for a more refined and elegant appearance.

The latest prototype is not only user-friendly, but has proven to be one of the best educational guitars around. A host of tutorial apps, sheet music, fingering diagrams, and how to videos can be used and watched on the phone display without taking your hands off the guitar.

Suddenly your full electric guitar rig and recording studio was no bigger than your iPhone,” says Dave. “And the sound quality and effects simulations are incredible - virtually indistinguishable from traditional gear costing thousands of dollars.”

Innerspace and the final prototype.

This time Dave was determined to create the ultimate portable electric guitar, combining the best software and hardware with everything he’d learned from the previous prototypes. Only this time, he decided to commercialize

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Another interesting characteristic is that normally when you play an electric guitar the sound comes from a box in the corner of the room because the amp is remote from the guitar. With the Fusion Guitar, the sound comes directly from the instrument and you feel a much stronger sense of power and connection to the instrument.

Now a working prototype with multiple patent claims pending, the Fusion Guitar is about to go global to raise production capital on Indiegogo, the popular crowd funding platform. See the Fusion Guitar in action at www.fusion.guitars and back the campaign or pre-purchase your own Fusion Guitar. And stay tuned to www.outerspace.co to hear the rest of the story

To discuss your project, contact Outerspace Design

Melbourne

16 Harvey StreetRichmond, MelbourneVictoria, 3121, Australia

T +61 3 9427 0355hello@outerspace.co

San Diego

1525 Faraday AveSuite 250, CarlsbadCA, 92008, USA

T +1 (949) 228 4911jbarker@outerspace.co

Fusion Guitar↑

Dave Auld and the Fusion Guitar↑

Fusion Guitar bridge details↑

With the Fusion Guitar, the sound comes directly from the instrument and you feel a much stronger sense of power and connection to the instrument.