Thickness of the body of a semi acoustic electric guitar
Hi all,
Having made my first electric guitar (posts down below this thread somewhere) plus also the kit Les Paul Gibson guitar that I made also. I went out and purchased another kit form for a double neck electric guitar, the price was pretty good. From the USA on ebay. The two neck seem excellent made from maple with a rosewood fretboard, very nicely fretted etc. But the body which is made from basswood is a bit so so.
I had to do a bit of work on the neck socket, it was way to high and then the bridge tail piece posts pulled out upon tensioning the strings. Anyway I have it all finished now, but I have decided to can it totally.
I now intend to keep the two necks and make two more guitars.
What I have in mind is a hollowed body semi acoustic electric guitar, maybe even for both of them. I've looked through youtube videos etc, seen one where the inner body was cut out with a bandsaw, leaving solid timber for where the pick up cavity and bridge will sit. Then a top with nice F Holes and a bottom were clamped/glued onto the inner body. Seems simple enough,.!!!!
So my question is, what would a good overall thickness for this type of guitar be. For example 10mm top and bottom, 30mm inner body,total 50mm..? I will just do a flat body, I think a raised curved body might be testing me bit to much.
Any thoughts......Paul
Paulownia for musical instruments
I am not a musical instrument builder but a great fan of Paulownia. I know it is used for this purpose because it has great tone qualities. Before you discount it do some more research on the timber. I think there is a guitar builder in Singapore who sells his for $1,000's and he uses paulownia. Can't tell you what part of the instrument but it is worth checking it out.
Whitewood