Thread: 1st attempt at Solid body

Looking good. Are you going to put the SG bevels on the sides of the body ?

Good luck with the build mate. Looks good thus far. My only advice would be measure it twice and then when you think your ready to go look at it again. Making guitars is really rewarding but it can be pretty darn frustrating at times. Don't do any work when your tired either..I learnt the hard way more than once trying to rush things. If you check out my recent build I also used the schaller bridge. It is a pretty impressive bridge and I can only recommend it https://www.woodworkforums.com/f98/build-3-a-148669/

cheers
Andrew

Originally Posted by Penfold4140

I've went with the SG body shape, but I really like the shorter les paul type neck(which I've ordered for this first build), so I think I'm even going to mount the neck further in to the body as per the les paul (around 16th fret). This should just shift the bridge and pickups further down the body. I'm going to stick with the 24.75" scale length.


Open to advice/comments!!

Hi, The only problem that I can foresee by mounting the neck further in to the body as per the les paul is that the Les Paul has a bigger cut away to facilitate playability at the 22'nd fret where as the SG doesn't. Just some thing to consider.

regards

Wal

the two weak points with the SG are:
the neck to body join - [theres not much wood there]
the weak headstock [shared by all gibson guitars]

mounting it further into the body would help but as wal points out fret access will be less
the long tennon idea goes some way to solving the problem

i often thought that a deeper body would be a helpful option - the SG is a thin guitar
that way you could have a deeper tenon with a larger glue area

a scarfed headstock join solves the weak headstock - or a laminated neck with a deep volute if you like that sort of thing - a lot of players don't like a deep volute and prefer the smooth transition from neck to headstock

Thanks guys all good comments. I will be adding the SG bevels to the sides. Cagsy, I saw your Build 3 thread, and that's what made me think about using the schaller. It's a sexy piece of kit.

Walcen, I did think about the problem with the loss of playability around 22nd fret, but as per Old picker mentions, mounting the neck further in will provide a bit more strength. I will keep an eye on this when it comes to trial fitting the neck, and worst case, I might take a bit more out of the lower cutaway.

Also regarding strength, the body is currently 6mm thicker than the standard SG, and I think I'm going to leave it that way for the sake of the neck joint. As I said, this will be a bit of a Mongrel being my first build. I'm just experimenting.

Thanks folks, I'll update when I get more done.