Cool Acoustics started as a PhD project in industrial design by Owain Pedgley in 1999. It is now a guitar innovation project, hosted by Loughborough University in the UK.

Acoustic guitar soundboards are traditionally made of spruce or cedar softwoods, but Cool Acoustics soundboards are made from foamed polycarbonate (a type of plastic). These soundboards are cheaper high grade tonewoods that are less vulnerable to tonal and structural changes caused by fluctuations in temperature and humidity. The finishes and colours of our soundboards result in strongly recognisable and differentiated instruments.

Pedgley and his PhD supervisor Eddie Norman are the core of Cool Acoustics, but they also collaborate with a wider group of industry/marketing experts as well as luthiers Rob Armstrong and Alan Marshall and guitarist Gordon Giltrap. Cool Acoustics technology is available for license by commercial guitar builders. For a fee they will provide guitar consultancy services including: product design, industrial design, CAD, CAM, prototyping, destructive and non-destructive testing, and sound quality evaluation.