Feb Update

Since it’s technically still February for another day I’m getting this update in just under the wire.

While we’ve been doing battle with a lot of snow and cold weather outside, it’s been a good time to get some work done inside and we’ve made a lot of progress on the new guitar.

We’ve set up a Discord server for discussing the guitar and sharing feedback — if you are interested in joining the conversation drop me a line at guitar@bytearts.com

I’ve sent out a few mechanical prototypes to get feedback on the feel of the strummer and the frets. Feedback on the strummer has been very positive but I’ve gotten some mixed reviews on the fret buttons, mostly to do with the shape of the buttons and so I’m making some modifications. Luckily the way the fret buttons are designed we can easily make changes and even accommodate different button styles to suite personal preferences. New fret buttons can be installed by just prying off the old keycaps and putting on new ones.

We’ve built a breadboard system for testing the electronics and have “proof of concept” firmware working. This week I’m finishing the PCB layouts.

Here’s an example — it’s the fret circuit board with programmable LEDs for each button:

Fret Circuit Board for OFMG Guitar

Things are starting to come together and we should have some fully functioning engineering prototypes built in March, with an aim of going into production in April!

Pricing is undetermined at this point, partly due to the chaos caused by our current “government” and the almost daily changes to tariff policies and trade policies. Compared to the problems other people are experiencing my problems are pretty minor, but it just doesn’t seem like there’s anyone sane in charge right now and it’s really hard to predict what’s going to happen.