Cavities too deep on Mighty Mite Body?

[SixShooter]

I bought a pretty nice looking Mighty Mite swamp ash strat body. Needs a few adjustments to the cuts/contours but that's no big deal. I was doing some poking around in the cavities however and noticed the the wood between the bridge pickup cavity and trem spring cavity is paper thin. The depth of each of those cavities is nearly 7/8". I measured the trem spring cavity on my '82 and it's only 5/8" deep. Should they be this deep? Will I run into any problems?

BTW, do Strat build topics belong in this forum?

[boris bubbanov]

I see two concerns, basically, on too deep routs:

1) I like being at liberty to finish, then strip and refinish a guitar as I see fit. There's no thickness to spare and a paperthin area is very prone to perforation or damage;

2) The other concern is, to an extent that paperthin layer is carrying all the string load, from the neck pocket area to the bridge. At some point, the whole structure is liable to collapse like a cheap overseas acoustic guitar body. If the guitar remains under string tension in the future, the neck pocket may creep towards the bridge and make the guitar impossible to intonate. I would not worry on a Tele body because the control rout area is totally separate and very small. But the Strat control rout is large and deep. At some point the honeycombing comes back to bite you, on a few bodies if you remove too much material.

[SixShooter]

I am considering gluing in some thin peices of wood to beef it up. Good idea?

[rjhalsey]

Its no big deal. Mighty Mite bodies ave been used in several of the high end Squires for years without any issues. That area between the pickup route and trem cavity does not support anything. Its not carrying the string load, nothing will shift etc... it is strictly cosmetic and no need to beef it up. The reason it is so deep is to accommodate humbuckers. Build it and play the hell out of it.

[SixShooter]

I imagine it will be fine but it just seems so crappy. I could put my finger through it if I wanted too. I understand needing the depth for a humbucker (though I'm not sure how deep it needs to be), but the trem spring cavity on my '82 is only 5/8" deep. So why does MM make theirs deeper?

[jkingma]

Originally Posted by SixShooter

I am considering gluing in some thin peices of wood to beef it up. Good idea?

This is what I would do on the trem claw side. It would be pretty easy to make a piece of wood that will fit in snug and then glue it in solid. An 1/8th of an inch should do the trick.