Instead, Jacob's guitar can quickly produce more than 50 sounds, and he says he has only begun to tap its full potential, both in sound and marketing.

"Most guitars don't explore range. They stick with tried-and-true combinations," said the budding entrepreneur and associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park. "I wanted something that was dead simple."

His brainchild is the Coil guitar, which joins a circuit board with the guitar's pickups, which are magnets wrapped in copper wire that pick up string vibrations and convert them into electrical currents before sending them through an amplifier. Changing the wiring of the pickups alters the guitar's sound. Coil's circuit board addition allows users to adjust the sound further by covering or uncovering the board's pegs and thereby configuring the pickups.

Jacob, 43, initially set out to discover the five best guitar sounds, after purchasing his first new guitar in 20 years and learning that its sound choices were more limited than the ones he remembered from his childhood. The son of Bruce R. Jacob, a lawyer and orchestra violinist, Jacob started his musical education at 4 years old.

His plans changed when graduate student Joseph Gross came upon the project and asked why Jacob was focusing on only five sounds.

It was one of the many "aha!" moments Jacob said Gross provided during Coil's development. From then on, Jacob shifted to providing guitarists with optimum customization, without resorting to the usual practice of manually rewiring everything.

More than $100,000 of Jacob's personal money went into his company, Coil LLC.

"I have a very understanding wife," said Jacob, a former champion place-kicker at Harvard University who lives with his wife, Dorinda, and three children in Columbia.

Coil involves just a handful of people at the university. Future plans could include marketing his technology to other guitar makers.

The company also studies audio electronics development at the university through a $135,000 Maryland Industrial Partnerships grant.

"All progress is the result of unreasonable behavior, those people who look as something and ask more than ‘Why?'; they say ‘Why not?'" said Patrick O'Shea, chairman of the industrial partnerships project.

Jacob's labors have produced guitars with options that range from the basic five-way, seven-sound switch to the advanced combination of three-way and five-way switches to make 15 of 22 possible tones available.

U.S. musicians spent more than $1 billion on almost 3 million guitars in 2008, according to the International Music Products Association. The association also describes guitars as the most popular and best-selling music instrument.

"Guitar players are always looking for the next invention," said Tony Litz, owner of Victor Litz Music Center in Gaithersburg. "Once they get past a certain stage, they're constantly modifying it."

Victor Litz is one of the stores where Jacob hopes to sell his product.

Litz predicts Coil's guitars will become a niche product, saying he would be surprised if the company becomes a major player.

Guitar technology has gone through many changes, from improvements in noise reductions and finishes to the ability to link instruments with computers, said Scott Robertson, spokesman for the association.

Legendary guitar maker Gibson recently released Dark Fire, a digital guitar that uses a knob to change its settings and can be further customized through computer software.

"Musicians are artists, and artists want to do it their own way," Robertson said. "Musical instruments are living, breathing things. You have to touch them and play them to understand that."

Coil has also designed a device that can be built into its circuit boards to compensate for volume changes that can result from switching among music styles. Musicians can adjust each switch setting volume.

"They're absolutely beautiful guitars. What first draws people to guitars are the visuals. Once you learn about the actual circuitry and what it does for you, you're just amazed," said Justin Ahmanson, a Coil partner and also a guitarist with the band The Once-lers, based in College Park. Ahmanson often tests Coil's guitars.

Coil guitars sell at $1,000 for the basic model to $1,700 for the full-option version. Jacob said the latter has generated the most interest.