Create Your Own Guitar with 3D/AR Design TechnologyCreate Your Own Guitar with 3D/AR Design Technology

Craft your dream guitar using augmented reality and 3D visualization even if you have no familiarity with advanced design technology.

Rob Spiegel

February 26, 2024

2 Min Read
custom-made guitars
Dowina

At a Glance

  • Build a custom acoustic guitar
  • Choosing the rights woods
  • Design tools that don't require training

Two emerging technologies have converged to help musicians create the perfect acoustic guitar. Vectary, a no-code 3D and augmented reality (AR) platform has joined forces with Dowina, a Slovak acoustic guitar crafting company, to create endless customization for customers. Dowina is using a 3D configurator powered by Vectary to allow musicians to send digital twins with diverse personalization options to the guitar maker. Vectary makes its technology accessible even for Dowina employees and customers who have no prior experience with 3D design tools.

The platform helps users create individual instruments specifically suited to their needs. “Guitar building is a combined art of physics, design, and woodworking. Our clients are artists, too. The entire business revolves around high expectations and intense emotions,” Erika Marinova, CEO of Dowina, told Design News. “Having a tool like Vectary that allows our clients to be part of the design process, where they can see what they will actually get, simply bridges, no, it erases the gap between what they had in mind and how the final product will look. It is like an ultimate tool to ensure everyone's happiness.”

copy_image_Dowina2.png

Customization Is Crucial to Excellent Design

The customization offered by Dowina though the Vectary platform even involves the instrument’s material. The choice of tonewoods, such as cedar or spruce, and materials for the back and sides, such as Cocobolo or Indian Rosewood, play a critical role in shaping the guitar's sound. The differences are revealed in the instrument’s sound, ranging from a mellow tone to a direct and clear one.

The Vectary platform offers additional design preferences such as changes to the rosette, head shape, or the neck of the guitar. Dowina’s guitar expertise combined with Vectary's technology, provides a new guitar-making workflow where customer expectations are met and communicated precisely to the production team.

Marinova sees the design tool as a way to communicate with customers. “We will always be committed to communicating with our clients, as it is imprinted in our DNA and the way we approach guitar building,” said Marinova. “However, with the 3D image always at our fingertips, we can shift our focus to the subtle aspects of guitar making, such as sound quality and sustainability.”

Managing Extensive Customization

Dowina has a long history of offering flexible and high-quality products. The company strives to offer nearly endless customization possibilities. Yet the extensive individuality in guitar design creates multiple challenges, including the management of internal processes, pricing calculations, and intricate customer interactions. To manage this, Dowina uses Vectary’s technology for its production processes. Vectary has optimized workflows, diminished administration tasks, and minimized errors and client miscommunications with the goal of enhancing the customer experience.

About the Author

Rob Spiegel

Rob Spiegel serves as a senior editor for Design News. He started with Design News in 2002 as a freelancer covering sustainability issues, including the transistion in electronic components to RoHS compliance. Rob was hired by Design News as senior editor in 2011 to cover automation, manufacturing, 3D printing, robotics, AI, and more.

Prior to his work with Design News, Rob worked as a senior editor for Electronic News and Ecommerce Business. He served as contributing editolr to Automation World for eight years, and he has contributed to Supply Chain Management Review, Logistics Management, Ecommerce Times, and many other trade publications. He is the author of six books on small business and internet commerce, inclluding Net Strategy: Charting the Digital Course for Your Company's Growth.

He has been published in magazines that range from Rolling Stone to True Confessions.

Rob has won a number of awards for his technolloghy coverage, including a Maggy Award for a Design News article on the Jeep Cherokee hacking, and a Launch Team award for Ecommerce Business. Rob has also won awards for his leadership postions in the American Marketing Association and SouthWest Writers.

Before covering technology, Rob spent 10 years as publisher and owner of Chile Pepper Magazine, a national consumer food publication. He has published hundreds of poems and scores of short stories in national publications.

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