Contriver Guitars

Directions Website

Contriver Guitars Computational Lutherie
by Brett Bailey
———
play with ingenuity
——
Learn | Commission

Battleworn Pain Killers 👀Bare Knuckle Pickups Official
10/22/2026

Battleworn Pain Killers 👀

Bare Knuckle Pickups Official

..Making noise ⇏ Making an impact.Appearance ≠ Association ≠ CausationAttention comes and goes, perceptions change, and ...
10/21/2026

..

Making noise ⇏ Making an impact.

Appearance ≠ Association ≠ Causation

Attention comes and goes, perceptions change, and distinctions become more obvious when there’s something tangible to show for the time invested.

Back to things worth making.

Black Limba. all day, every day.
10/20/2026

Black Limba.

all day, every day.

“We must face the fact that we are on the brink of times when man may be able to magnify his intellectual and inventive ...
10/19/2026

“We must face the fact that we are on the brink of times when man may be able to magnify his intellectual and inventive capability, just as in the nineteenth century he used machines to magnify his physical capacity. Again, as then, our innocence is lost. And again, of course, the innocence, once lost, cannot be regained. The loss demands attention, not denial.”

- 1964, Notes on the Synthesis of Form, Christopher Alexander

.Foundation Series - Sig 7, 2025-26Built in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. 🇨🇦 FINGERBOARD:- 25.75” Scale Length- Ebony w/ Un...
10/19/2026

.

Foundation Series - Sig 7, 2025-26

Built in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. 🇨🇦

FINGERBOARD:
- 25.75” Scale Length
- Ebony w/ Underlays
- 11-20” Compound Radius
- Jescar Music 47095 Fretwire

NECK:
- 3 Piece Maple+Sapele
- Redwood Burl Front+Back Head
- Carbon Fibre Reinforcements
- Ebony Logo Plate
- Bone Nut
- Luminlay Blue Side Dots

BODY:
- Redwood Burl Top
- Black Limba (3.0lbs/BF)
- Matching Pickup Covers
- “Bound” Pickup Routes
- Matching Magnetic Back Plate
- Ebony+Redwood Retainer Block

ELECTRONICS:
- Volume 550K CTS
- Barrel Output
- Bare Knuckle Pickups Official Pain Killers

HARDWARE:
- Hipshot Products, Inc. Fixed Bridge
- Hipshot Products, Inc. Open-Gear Locking Tuners

FINISH:
Tru Oil.

Weight: 7.5lbs

It’s been a while since I’ve shared a guitar here.A lot has happened this past year. Some of it tested my patience, trus...
10/18/2026

It’s been a while since I’ve shared a guitar here.

A lot has happened this past year. Some of it tested my patience, trust, and willingness to give people the benefit of the doubt. Others took it in directions I never anticipated.

Lessons about boundaries, independence, persistence, and the value of my own work. Years of learning my craft, making mistakes, recovering, and standing behind what I create. I’ve learned to trust that experience, to distinguish constructive criticism from disrespect and attacks on my reputation, to be selective about whose opinions shape it.

I’ve always approached challenges by digging deeper. Not just solving the immediate puzzle, but understanding the systems that generated it. How decisions propagate, the synthesis of form, the Lorax to the Once-ler.

Bait n switch, forced scope creep, machine motion and precision problems on equipment 500 miles away landing in my lap. Working through them led me into differential geometry, non-Euclidean spaces, and higher dimensions, then into bigger questions about the software we use to design and make things.

What followed was research in algebraic geometry, topology, representation theory, and formal ontology, alongside the foundations of an independent CAD kernel and my own representation of geometry.

Identity comes from what is forbidden to collapse. Separating form from context, incidence cause from causal authority. A seemingly endless cycle of distinctions.

It’s been a strange year, one of the hardest I’ve known, but also one of the most intellectually rewarding. I’ve met people, reached milestones, and explored ideas I couldn’t have imagined a year ago.

Through it all, reminders of why I started building guitars: taking an idea and making it real, understanding how things really work, and pursuing precision, discovery, and better ways of doing things.

My work has changed enormously. In other ways, not at all. Finding the vocabulary and philosophy to express these ideas, however semantically overloaded, has been incredibly freeing.

I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished, grateful for those who’ve supported me, and excited to see where this independent research converges.

If every part of something can change, what has to remain for it to still be the same thing?
10/06/2026

If every part of something can change, what has to remain for it to still be the same thing?

Convex Top. Concave Back. Autodesk Fusion
10/04/2026

Convex Top.
Concave Back.

Autodesk Fusion

09/14/2026

Contriver Systems.

Patent Pending Kernel Architecture and CAD Software.

This months class has me roughing out a tele..? Convex TopConcave BackAutodesk Fusion
09/12/2026

This months class has me roughing out a tele..?

Convex Top
Concave Back

Autodesk Fusion

Address

Hamilton, ON
L0R, L8E TO L8W, L9A TO L9C, L9G TO L9H, L9K

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 9pm
Tuesday 9am - 9pm
Wednesday 9am - 9pm
Thursday 9am - 9pm
Friday 9am - 9pm
Saturday 9am - 9pm
Sunday 9am - 9pm

Website

, ,

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Contriver Guitars posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category