If Apple Made a Guitar, It Would Look Like This

Relish Guitars’ new Jane lets you select a pickup with touch sensors next to the volume knobs. Relish Guitars

If the MacBook engineers in Cupertino had decided to focus on musical instruments instead of computers, their efforts would probably look something like “Jane.”

Guitar makers Pirmin Giger and Silvan Küng of Relish Guitars in Lucerne, Switzerland have designed a stunning addition to the world of electric guitars. Jane is an impressive new design in a market which doesn’t often see much in the way of viable component and construction innovation.

Most notably, the pickups are turned on and off not via your typical 3-way selector switch, but with touch sensors on the body of the guitar. They’re accompanied by small white LEDs, and they sit where the pickup selectors would normally appear. To turn the pickups on or off, one simply touches the sensor. This cuts power to the pickup, muting it. No need to fuss with volume settings, push-pull knobs, or rocker switches.

The pickup selectors are sensors that are activated by touch. Relish Guitars

The rest of the guitar is beautiful, too. Sporting an aluminum frame, a bamboo fretboard, and a smooth natural wood finish, Jane is gorgeous. More importantly, she’s built with quality components and she sounds great (Watch a demo video).

Though the design is reminiscent of a modern Apple product, the philosophy with regard to user-accessibility is vastly different: you’re actually allowed to take the back off and tinker with the insides. Jane’s back panel is attached with magnets. Pop it off using a guitar pick for leverage, and you can take a look under the hood.

From here, all the electronics are easily accessible, meaning that if you want to swap out the pickups, it’s as simple as connecting a few wires, securing the pickup’s screws, and replacing the magnetic back panel.

The body is a semi-hollow construction, made up of three layers: a wood veneer on top, the aluminum frame, and another veneer on the bottom. The frame is one single piece of aluminum, and the bridge is part of that single piece. This increases the resonance throughout the body.

All this comes at a price, though: Jane retails for over $5,000 USD (4750 Swiss Francs).