Aryeh East · Artifact Electrics
Writing on the engineering principles behind the electric guitar: coupling, neck joint design, bridge mass, material selection, and the ideas that inform every Artifact instrument. The actual thinking, written down.
August 2, 2026
Somebody designed that guitar and other people copied it, and that fact seems to disappear whenever the subject comes up. On the asymmetry in who we defend, the difference between shared vocabulary and a direct copy, and what gets lost when the argument is only about corporations.
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May 18, 2026
The three dominant neck joint designs, what each one does to sustain and coupling, and why the Bolt-Through™ represents a fourth option, one that takes the contact area of a long-tenon set-neck while preserving the serviceability and tonal character of a bolt-on.
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May 2, 2026
Why the Artifact original three-piece bridge is built the way it is: the relationship between bridge mass, sustain, and the fundamental of the note, and what happens when you design a bridge around acoustical engineering rather than cost.
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September 17, 2023
The concept that underlies every decision in Artifact's design: how string vibration transfers through the instrument, what interferes with it, and what the engineering choices made at the bridge, neck joint, and body actually do to the sound. A full history of how the electric guitar arrived at its current form, and where it can still go.
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The decision framework behind every vintage restoration: when to preserve, when to repair faithfully, and when a modification is actually in the instrument's best interest. Written from 20 years of putting old guitars back in players' hands.
The Instruments
Every principle in these articles is applied directly in the design and construction of every Artifact instrument.