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24th February 2013, 07:59 PM #1Intermediate Member
- Join Date
- Mar 2009
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- Brisbane
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- 33
Joining Boards to Make a Body .... ?
Hi all,
I keep toying with the idea of making a solid-body electric of some description. All the boards I have generally are around 25mm or so thick, and around 150 wide, although some are up to 200 mm wide. I have various pieces of figured myrtle, figured blackwood and some new growth blackwood.
The nett result of all this is I'm thinking the recipe for the body could be something like -
Cap - bookmatched myrtle (this would be a 25mm myrtle re-sawed, so would be around 10 mm or so thick)
Centre - 2 pieces of blackwood, from one board, not bookmarked, but two lengths with one "slipped" down so it is beside the other, would be about 25 mm or so thick
Back - bookmatched blackwood (this would be a 25mm blackwood re-sawed, so would be around 10 mm or so thick)
My concern is, if you were looking at the end of this "sandwich" of timber, I would finish up with a center join in all three pieces lining up. Intuitively, I don't think this is a good idea. It seems to me it would be preferable that there was not a continuous join running through all the pieces. I suppose I could make the centre piece out of three lengths and not two, so the joints would then not align, but I don't know if that would start looking pretty ordinary.
The other alternative is not to bookmatch the top and back, so then there would only be two pieces ( cap and a back) but they would still have a join lining up between both, and I think it would look even worse not bookmatched.
Does anyone have any comments on this (other than, you dunno what you are doing so don't start ... )
Kind regards
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24th February 2013 07:59 PM # ADSGoogle Adsense Advertisement
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25th February 2013, 06:26 AM #2New Member
- Join Date
- Feb 2013
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- chicago
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- 8
I'm not at all familiar with solid body electric guitars, but I'll throw in my 2 cents anyway. Why not just add a filler strip to the core layer. it could be a different or even contrasting wood of the same thickness. A picture is worth a thousand words.
Ray
rear view
rear-view.jpg
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25th February 2013, 06:30 AM #3Member
- Join Date
- Mar 2012
- Location
- Outer East Melbs
- Age
- 52
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- 51
It should be fine if you make nice clean joins but if you're really concerned why not make the centre from three pieces to stagger the joins like a bricklayer would?
Even just a pine 2x2 down the centre or something
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25th February 2013, 07:26 AM #4New Member
- Join Date
- Oct 2012
- Location
- Melbourne
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- 7
Most solid bodies are made with a centre join all the way through. I wouldn't be worried about it as long as the joins are good.
FWIW, I would consider putting a contrasting veneer between the core and the back - I think that having 2 different pieces of the same timber next to each other looks a bit odd.
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12th March 2013, 01:02 PM #5
Joining Boards
Cee Tee - I'm a very inexperienced elec guitar maker. Made two thus far for family only.
For what it's worth a join on the top is not too obvious once the guitar is fitted with all the hardware. It can still be seen but does not stick out like the proverbial. An inlay or piece between the two pieces of the top can be turned into a feature as some has already suggested. If you paint the top as opposed to a clear stain then all this becomes irrelevant as far as I can see. Not sure why you would want three layers other than aesthetics? It adds nothing to the structure that I'm aware of?
Hope you derive as much pleasure from the process as I have. If you have patients and like doing precise detailed work you're on a winner.......
Good Luck KerryKerry Larkan
Melbourne Australia
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