MAE2250: Swiss Guitarmy Knife

For my MAE 2250 course, Introduction to Mechanical Design, I designed the "Swiss Guitarmy Knife" with my Open Design Project group. This was a semester-long design project that involved customer research, brainstorming, designing, iterating, and ultimately creating a functional prototype.

Summary

What:

• A product that makes guitar maintenance easier

• Reduce the barrier to entry for beginning guitar players

• Reduce the pain points experienced guitar users have with routine maintenance 

How:

• Designed with Fusion360

• I shared design work with another group member

• I was responsible for manufacturing our prototypes 

Result:

• Created a functional capo multitool

• Included five tools, a pick holder, and functioned as a capo 

• Won second place People's Choice design award out of 14 teams

To summarize the design project, I created a webpage to showcase the Swiss Guitarmy Knife, which is included below:

Introducing:

THE SWISS GUITARMY KNIFE

Greetings, Guitarists!

Five Tools, Infinite Possibilities

The Swiss Guitarmy includes five tools; three hex-shank bits and two allen keys. 

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When you order your Swiss Guitarmy Knife, we'll help you pick the tools that are right for your guitar. Got a new guitar? No problem! You're always welcome to buy more tools, at any time, to fit any guitar. With our tool choices, you'll be ready to adjust your bridge height, adjust your truss rod, tighten screws, or fix whatever else comes your way.

Fix Your Guitar Effortlessly, Everywhere 

Whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting out, the Swiss Guitarmy Knife is the key to your guitar maintenance needs. Our custom digital instruction guides make it easy to perform any maintenance, and our compact and versatile design allows you to take the Swiss Guitarmy Knife with you, wherever you and your guitar may travel.

OUR PRODUCT

The Swiss Guitarmy Knife is a product we're proud of: it's a high quality guitar multitool that looks great and is built to last. Made from only the highest quality materials, the Swiss Guitarmy Knife will be there for you and your guitar, through it all. 

Features

01.

Capo

02.

Pick Holder

03.

Digital Instructions

04.

And so much more!

01

Capo

The defining feature of the Swiss Guitarmy Knife: it's a capo! Easily change key when playing, and store the Swiss Guitarmy Knife on the head of your guitar when not in use.

03

Digital Instructions

With the purchase of a Swiss Guitarmy Knife, we provide access to our extensive library of digital instructions, available online and in our mobile app. Our custom instruction guides allow you to quickly access maintenance and repair instructions for your guitar. Never let fixing your guitar confuse you again.

02

Pick Holder

Always keep a pick in the custom pick slot, for easy access while playing and great storage while on the go.

04

And so much more!

With the versatile tools included, there is no obstacle (screw) you cannot conquer (tighten)!

See the Swiss Guitarmy Knife In Action:

Our Team

We are a team of five Cornell Engineers, who worked together to bring you the best possible guitar maintenance product, for new and experienced guitarists alike.

Charlie Cohen

Ava Ianuale

Chloe Reidy

Margaret Gates

Owen Sharp

We can't wait for you to join us.

Join us as we conquer the future of guitar maintenance.

Skill: Customer-Focused Product Design

We started this project with customer interviews, which helped us decide what problem we were going to solve through product design. Throughout this design project, we were guided to return to our customer interviews when making design decisions and justifications. The course structure challenged us to design a product that the customer wanted to own, not that the engineer wanted to make. Overall, this course provided an introduction to customer-focused product design and best practices in industry.