hollow guitar

[JasonRobert]

I am going to be building a guitar which I will hollow out so it isnt so heavy (it is my own design). I will be playing it in a metal band so there will be lots of high gain distortion, and I have heard hollow guitars cause feedback, and with high gain distortion this will be amplified quite a lot... is there any way of stopping the feedback, or will I just have to build a solidbody?

[sean79]

I'm not sure what you're thinking about doing exactly. If you leave a solid block down the middle, I'm guessing you'd be okay. Maybe someone who actually knows something around here will chime in. Is it going to be a deep hollow body, or just a hollowed out standard solid body depth guitar?

[eryque]

Any guitar with an open sound hole will be prone to feedback at high volumes. If you're going to be cutting cavities out of a solidbody and covering with a pickguard you'll be fine. If you build a hollowbody design with no f-holes(like a Gibson Lucille model), you'll be fine.

If you're building an actual hollowbody guitar design with f-holes you may have issues. Center blocks help mitigate the problem by damping the top somewhat, but don't solve it.

[JasonRobert]

Originally Posted by eryque

If you build a hollowbody design with no f-holes(like a Gibson Lucille model), you'll be fine.

Thats what I was going to do. I do not want the F holes as I am only hollowing out to make the guitar lighter.

[JasonRobert]

This may explain better what I am going to be doing. It is just a rough outline of the body and cavitys....

It will be 1 3/4 inch thick.

[sean79]

Originally Posted by JasonRobert

This may explain better what I am going to be doing. It is just a rough outline of the body and cavitys....

Don't think you'll have a problem. Good luck.

[eryque]

Originally Posted by JasonRobert

This may explain better what I am going to be doing. It is just a rough outline of the body and cavitys....

It will be 1 3/4 inch thick.

Cool design! So you're going to hollow that out and then glue on a cap?

You should be warned that cutting out that much wood will only save a few ounces at most. Seems like it would be more, but I did the math once.

[Ironwolf]

Originally Posted by eryque

Cool design! So you're going to hollow that out and then glue on a cap?

You should be warned that cutting out that much wood will only save a few ounces at most. Seems like it would be more, but I did the math once.

That will depend on the type of wood. I hollowed out the twelve string I'm working on in precisely that manner, and it took off more than a pound and a half.

[JasonRobert]

Originally Posted by eryque

Cool design! So you're going to hollow that out and then glue on a cap?

Yup, thats basically what I am going to do, but I am using 3 layers of plywood ( ). I know people will say something along the lines of "plywood is rubbish, you wont get any sustain, bad tones, etc....".

I had a guitar I used in my metal band which was a good guitar for metal and when I stripped it down for a respray I found that it was infact plywood.

As plywood is cheap, and I find that my tone isnt comprimised too much from the use of it, I thought why not? The only problem from my other plywood guitar is that it is too heavy, hence this thread....

Originally Posted by eryque

You should be warned that cutting out that much wood will only save a few ounces at most. Seems like it would be more, but I did the math once.

When I hollowed out a body before, although I didnt weigh it, I could feel a noticable difference, and i am sure it saved my back a few pains. even if it is only a few ounces, if it is the loss of those few ounces that will make it more confortable for me, it is worth it.

I will also add that I have started making this guitar. I had to make the bottom half bigger in order to incorporate the bigsby I have lying around. It turns out the three layers of ply makes it 2 inches thick, which is the thicknes of the thickest part of my les paul copy. So I have just started carving the top, and adding contours to make it feel more confortable, and to lose a little bit more wood (it may not be much, but it all adds up at the end).

[RomanS]

Danelectros are made from plywood frames hollowed out like that (and topped with masonite) - and they sound GREAT! So, 'd say go for it!

[JasonRobert]

I have started hollowing it out now. I suppose I could have routed it a bit neater, but no one will see inside.

I have done this a little differently to how ive seen this done before. Instead of hollowing it out at the back and glueing a top on, I have hollowed out the top and I will glue a back on. I have done this because when I come to route the control panel on the top, I wont need to route hardly anything to break through to the chamber. Also, If i had hollowed the back, I would have a higher risk of coming through to the tummy cut.

This is the front which just needs a little bit more shaping. The plywood is acutally quite good to shape, each layer acts like a contour line and you can tell how much is needed to take off to make each horn look the same, although it does chip when shaping as you cannot go with the grain because in each layer the grain is going in different directions, which is why there is quite a bit of filler. You may also notice the shaping where the control panel will be...


and the back of the front where I have hollowed one half.

[JasonRobert]

Just finished hollowing out. It is certainly much much lighter.



And I have glued the back on... I felt the weight of it and as it is about 2 inches thick it is quite heavy. I cant imagine how heavy it would be without the chambers.


Theres not much else I can do today but sweep up all the saw dust. Its amazing how much dust can come from one guitar.
Tomorrow I will round over the back, cut the neck pocket and hopefully align the bridge. But I may only have time for cutting the neck pocket as I have my last ever exam in the morning.

[TheGoodTexan]

Man, I've gotta see this thing when it's done. Very interesting to me for some reason.

Painting it black I assume? Flat black that is....

[JasonRobert]

Originally Posted by TheGoodTexan

Man, I've gotta see this thing when it's done. Very interesting to me for some reason.

Painting it black I assume? Flat black that is....

Black is certainly very high on my list of possible colours but I have got at least 4 guitars that are black. I am playing around with the idea of a car themed paint job either with a car logo on a black base, or with the paintjob of a car that is recognizable such as the Gulf oil porshe 917


or the dodge from the dukes of hazzard


something like that....


EDIT: oh by the way any suggestions for the paint job are very welcome...

[superbadj]

That gulf paintjob looks even better on these:

[eryque]

Originally Posted by JasonRobert

I can't believe that they use a fancy car like that to tow a big trailer!

[JasonRobert]

[guitarzan13]

I thank that you will be OK.

[Steveinthesticks]

I have seen some amazing light weight guitar builds here:

http://buildingtheergonomicguitar.com/

Just been way too busy to start 'another' project

Steve

[63dot]

when i play metal/punk with my ibanez 335 copy with dual humbuckers, i have to stand just right or else i will get feedback

i turn up the marshall jcm 800, 900, or 2000 way up on the gain channel and stand fairly close to them...between songs, i turn the volume down

i don't get much issue on the clean channel with that semi-hollowbody, but i rarely use that for the type of music i play in that particular band

but when i play my solidbody guitar (esp/ltd viper 301 with dual humbuckers), i never have issues with feedback

you may have a suitable loud and lightweight guitar design idea in a gibson sg, a gibson melody maker with humbuckers put in, a jackson randy rhoads, or an ibanez joe satriani signature model which seems quite a bit lighter than a tele or a strat

of course, you can go the steinberger route, too and avoid feedback

[JasonRobert]

Originally Posted by 63dot

i turn up the marshall jcm 800, 900, or 2000 way up on the gain channel and stand fairly close to them...between songs, i turn the volume down

Thats given me an idea, if I had a problem with feedback between songs I will install a kill switch. either that or make a new body. The ply only cost me 10 pounds, and I havent bought any new parts for this, its just made of stuff I have lying around from other projects.

[63dot]

Originally Posted by JasonRobert

Thats given me an idea, if I had a problem with feedback between songs I will install a kill switch. either that or make a new body. The ply only cost me 10 pounds, and I havent bought any new parts for this, its just made of stuff I have lying around from other projects.

if you could make a kill switch operate quietly, that would be great

when i practice or play, it's usually in close quarters so i get the feedback problem

i am sure for big stages, the feedback isn't as big an issue

with the scorpions, the lead singer sometimes uses a standard 335 with f-holes but he is standing very far from the amps as they have a large stage, but most of us can't get that type of space

same with dave grohl of the foo fighters and his semi-hollowbody

as for ted nugent, in the old days with a full thinline hollowbody, i have no idea how he did what he did at those volumes?

and all these artists predominantly play with lots of distortion

[tiktok]

Originally Posted by eryque

I can't believe that they use a fancy car like that to tow a big trailer!

The original SUV!

Hell, when Jo Siffert died, they used one to carry his coffin in the funeral procession.