"layered" body for build

I am going to be building my first body this spring/summer, and though I am handy with handwork and have a number of tools, I do not have a router. I was curious about the possibility of building a two layered body, a base with a thickness of 1 1/8th” and a top “veneer” of of 5/8th”. Then I can precisely cut my neck pocket and pickup holes into the top “veneer”. Is this a bad idea? Is it tone suicide? I want to use a fender villager neck, so the routing would be more complicated for the neck pocket then for a tele neck.

a laminating the top and bottom together will not make a tonal difference. There are two other cavities that are both deeper then 5/8" - the control plate cavity is 1.5" deep and the bridge pickup cavity is around 7/8" deep.

Thanks for the info. I am going to try and run just one split pickup (like half a maverick or electric XII setup), and I am going to run some tone tests before even running any controls, to see what it would sound like wired direct to output (thus no control cavity), and maybe cap. it to hone the tone. If it sounds like crud, then back to the drawing board, and probably pickup a second split pickup, and go for the Maverick setup, but with a less complicated switching system. I think I can get away with a 5/8" deep pocket for the pickups, if not, I will just drill deeper into the base layer, or buy a router already!

I've played some great 1970's Les Pauls that have all kinds of strange laminations - all with a transparent side coat for the world to see. I don't think anyone needs to go out of the way to have certain dimensions to the wood that gets laminated.

a few weeks ago there was a discussion of a laminated butcher telecoaster, it is probably rougher than you are planning, but an interesting discussion.

The guy was making it out of the particle board and butcher-block laminate from a kitchen remodel. Just search for butcher.

That's how I make my guitars and it works just fine. Sounds just fine too. If more people (non-TDPRI members, of course) about the technique, everybody would be making their own.

I am going to be building my first body this spring/summer, and though I am handy with handwork and have a number of tools, I do not have a router. I was curious about the possibility of building a two layered body, a base with a thickness of 1 1/8th” and a top “veneer” of of 5/8th”. Then I can precisely cut my neck pocket and pickup holes into the top “veneer”. Is this a bad idea? Is it tone suicide? I want to use a fender villager neck, so the routing would be more complicated for the neck pocket then for a tele neck.

I finished a build just like that (though with 5 layers) a few weeks ago. You can check out the build report here (http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home-depot/271510-plycaster-routerless-build-report.html). There's not much technical info in the thread, but at least it serves to show it is in fact doable. I also posted my findings about tone, and I can say they haven't changes since.

I'd say: do it - just remember to call it "laminated". :mrgreen: Much cooler, and better tone too :shock:

Great, I assumed all would be good, but it makes it seem easy! I guess I'll find out how hard it actually is soon enough.
Another Question, I believe the neck was fitted with early f-tuners, not the easiest to come by, and worse yet, I'm hoping to pickup a set of 3x3's, does anyone know where i can buy a set of 3x3's that won't require any new holes? preferably orig. I guess.