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Post by j48johnson on Oct 24, 2006 0:23:02 GMT -5
First of all let me start with saying hello to all.
This is my first post here so please bear with me. I'm going to make my first guitar and I have a question for you. Sound wood will be mahogany with a 1/4" or 1/2" quilted maple top for the look. I am going to back rout all of the electrical rather than cover the quilting with a pick guard. Before I glue the two together, would it be a good/bad idea to rout some of the mahogany away to make the body lighter? I was thinking, (it's scary already), of routing human rib like shapes away from the mahogany where I could to make the body lighter. This would save weight but should be very rigid. Also, do you think it will hurt the tone of the guitar?
I like the low mellow tone and I am setting this baby up with the finest to give me what I want to hear. I don't want it muddy so the quilted maple top and the bird's eye maple neck/fretboard should brighten it up but the mahogany body along with the pickups, pots and the cap. I chose should give it a nice groove. Help me with the weight savings.
If anyone is interested in what I'm whipping up, post here and I'll give you a rundown on the hardware.
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Post by RJB on Oct 24, 2006 12:16:21 GMT -5
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Post by ranchtooth on Oct 24, 2006 14:45:04 GMT -5
Tell us MORE!!!!
I think routing out the body internally would really help keep the weight down and well as adding some resonance, though I myself would shy away from routing the rib shapes and go all out for full tone chambers, but your mileage may vary.
but again.. tell us more! Fill our vacuous lonely lives with guitar tech talk!
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Post by j48johnson on Oct 25, 2006 9:12:08 GMT -5
Here's the rundown on the parts I am using. I am hoping that with the mahogany sound wood chambered along with the pickups, and the capacitor, I'll get a low mellow tone with a bit of attack.
Parts List O’Rama
Fender 5-Way Switch
Fender Output Jack
Fender Switch Tips (For 5-Way Switch)
Gibson 300kOhm Pot. Linear Taper Long Shaft (Tone)
Gibson 500kOhm Pot. Audio Taper Long Shaft (Volume)
Seymour Duncan SH-1 ‘59 (Neck)
Seymour Duncan SL59-1N Little ’59 (Middle)
Seymour Duncan SH-8 Invader (Bridge)
Hovland .047@1000V capacitor
Copper shielding for cavities
Q Parts Shell Dome Knob Black w/ Natural Abalone
Black Gotoh Locking Tuners (Left Hand)
Dunlop Dual Design Straplok System
Black neck plate and screws
Black Strat Jack Plate
Black Hipshot Baby Grand guitar bridge
Mighty Mite Fender Strat. Neck (MM2925)
Black Pick guard Material .090 (electrical backplate cover material)
Black 3/16” Metal Humbucker Mounting Rings
Black Metal Mounting Ring For Single-coil Pickup
Black String Retainers
Qtr. Sawn Philippine Mahogany Lumber
Quilted Figured Maple Top ¼”
ColorTone Concentrated Vintage amber Liquid Stain
ColorTone Water base Grain Filler
ColorTone Aerosol Guitar Lacquer
ColorTone Clear sanding sealer
Preval Spray Unit
Pipettes
Mixing cups
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Post by Runewalker on Oct 25, 2006 11:18:07 GMT -5
One thing that gets neglected in the rushing train of chambering guitars is that there is a critical balance between the weight of the neck and weight of the body.
I knew a bass player in the 80's cranked up on meth who decided to customize his P-bass. Got out the jigsaw, got arty and "improved" the aesthetic lines of the P-Bass's body. Painted it, re-installed the electronics and proudly "Strapped her on." Then.......
He hogged out so much wood the thing was neck heavy. Did some more meth and shot through to another brilliant idea --- just add a leg strap.
So to play live, he had the regular strap, then an auxiliary strap to tie the low weight body to his leg, sort of like a Western gun slinger.
He was quite proud of his invention, but a lively night of playing risked "nutburn."
The moral of this story is to carefully assess the neck to body ratio. I don't know the optimum ratio, but I intuit that it should be in the order of 60:40 Body:Neck. You don't want to be holding the neck up while you are shredding. You want the body to do the neck lifting.
Unless you plan on "chambering" the neck, and that casts even further doubt on the whole process.
Rather than using a heavy wood and lightening it with chambers, why not use a lighter wood, which is essentially chambered naturally at the wood cell level. If you argument is that you want a heavy solid pickup channel, then use your denser wood there and add lighter weight wood wings.
The whole chambering notion seems like over-thinking the concept. A hollow core door is chambered. Does it have more "resonance?" Do you really want acoustic resonance in a solid body?
If the objective is lighter --- use lighter wood, while attending to balance ratio.
If the objective is "resonance" there are a number of threads in GN2 history that argue for and against resonance in solid-bodies, with many debunking the myth and fewer holding forth with faith.
It is always dangerous to engage in religious discussions.
I listened to an interview yesterday with Carl Rove, Geo Bush Jr.'s ubermind, and his best quote, was: "you're entitled to your math [opinion], and I entitled to the math.
RW
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