Made to fit: Technology helps musicians find the perfect guitar

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Summary

This project integrates over a decade of research conducted by CIRMMT and Godin Guitars, through a series of NSERC Engage grants.

The work encompasses the development of a novel vibrational measurement system for quality control, large-scale acoustic data collection on factory-produced guitars, novel robotic systems for time-domain evaluation of guitar response, and research on how players perceive differences among nominally identical instruments.

Later stages led to public-facing innovations highlighted in videos produced by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), including technologies that support player‑instrument matching and customized instrument selection.

Objectives

• Develop a robust, factory‑compatible system to measure the vibrational characteristics of acoustic guitars.
• Quantify variability among nominally identical guitars and identify physical features linked to perceptual categories (bassy, mid‑even, treble).
• Investigate how experienced guitarists classify instruments and whether their perceptions align with measurable acoustical features.
• Build tools and datasets that support both manufacturing quality control and improved customer instrument selection.
• Contribute foundational research to later technologies enabling musician‑specific instrument matching, as highlighted by CFI.

Timeline

• 

  2013-2014: Initial NSERC Engage Project (development of QC measurement system – performed at McGill University’s Computational Acoustic Modeling Laboratory (CAML))
• 2014-2015: Follow up NSERC Engage and Engage+ Projects (development of robotic measurement system – performed at McGill University’s Input Devices and Music Interaction Laboratory (IDMIL))
• 2014-2016: Post‑classification and perceptual studies
• 2017: Public-facing CFI phase and outreach videos

Approach

This collaboration began with a wish from Robert Godin, the founder of Godin Guitars, who sought to tailor the marketing of his instruments to musicians’ playing styles. According to Robert Godin, certain guitars, owing to their acoustic properties, are better suited to fingerpicking, whereas others are better suited to strumming. In other words, guitars should suit players’ musical demands.

Guitar manufacturers face significant challenges in ensuring consistency across instruments due to natural variations in wood properties. Traditional human play‑testing is subjective and offers no quantitative baseline. Similarly, guitar buyers are often overwhelmed by subtle model differences. This project addresses both issues by combining acoustical engineering, perceptual research, and manufacturing processes—creating one of the first large-scale acoustic datasets of factory-produced guitars and pioneering measurement methods suitable for industry use.

Outcomes & Impact

• Created a prototype measurement system capable of capturing vibrational responses reliably in a factory setting.
• Built one of the most detailed acoustical datasets for nominally identical steel‑string guitars.
• Demonstrated potential for automated guitar classification and improved Québec processes.
• Created a robotic system for guitar strumming, validated and duplicated by the manufacturer, and deployed at one of its factories in Québec.

People Involved

Lead Researchers

• Prof. Gary P. Scavone (CAML, CIRMMT, First Engage grant)*
• Prof. Marcelo M. Wanderley (IDMIL, CIRMMT, Second Engage and Engage+ grants)*

Researchers & Students

• Hossein Mansour*
• Vincent Fréour*
• Charalampos Saitis*
• Maryse Lavoie*
• Marcello Giordano*
• Bertrand Scherrer*
• Loïc Billoët (visiting researcher ESIEA, Paris)*

*CIRMMT Regular and Student members

Partners

• Godin Guitars (lutherie, engineering and fabrication support)

Granting Agencies / Funding Sponsors

• Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC – Engage & Engage+ Grants)
• Godin Guitars
• McGill University

Resources

• CFI Video (English): Made to fit: Technology helps musicians find the perfect guitar, March 2017
• CFI Video (French): Des instruments à votre mesure : la technologie au service des musiciens, March 2017
• Mansour et al. (2015): Post‑classification of nominally identical steel‑string guitars
• CIRMMT facilities and datasets
• Factory measurement prototypes and test rigs deployed at the Godin factory in La Prairie, Québec.

Keywords

Industry, Guitar quality control, Vibrational measurement system, Robotic strumming, Player-instrument matching, Acoustic variability analysis

Learn More

• Contact Prof. Gary Scavone or Prof. Marcelo Wanderley [firstname.lastname@mcgill.ca].