Semi acoustic project

[crane550]

People are idiots sometimes.

At our church we have a few. (We put a GPS on them, don't worry, your safe.)

Case in point: We were having loudness issues with our drums. With the way our stage was set up at the time we could not get a good mix on stage without cranking everyone way up in the monitors to get louder then the drums. I'm sure you have dealt with this too. We tried a couple things, one of which was an electronic set. We got it all set up and and noticed that it was a lot bigger then our old set, but guess what, it solved our problem. Great mixes for everyone.

Next Sunday we got a flood of comments that the drums were too loud. Funny thing was....we had no drums that week. They were set up on stage, in their full and bigness glory, but we wtill didn't have the kinks worked out. We just had a guy on a bongo and did sorta of an acoustic set.

Perception is everything.

Anyways, I'm on this team right now for this special gig we are doing, and we tend to do a lot of coffee house acoustic type stuff. Think the Dave Matthews / Tim Reynolds album, just for Jesus. I have been playing my Brian Moore, which is an electric with Piezo pickups. It's great. Acoustic sound, with electric playability. The thing is I have heard a few comments on the "electric" guitar not really suited for an acoustic set. I don't lose sleep over it, in fact it kind of gave me the idea to try something.

I was inspired by the Taylor T-5, which is a beautiful instrument IMHO. Some don't like it, and while I have never played it live, the few times I have picked it up I fell in love.

So what if I make one?

Here are my goals:

1. Acoustic looking. I designed this body shape in illustrator. It's 18" long and 14 wide. Just between my acoustic and electric. Between 2 and 2.5" thick. With a Strat neck. Oh yea.

2. Lots of resonance. I wan't to hollow this sucker out.

3. Split outputs. I wan't to put a lipstick single coil on the neck, and a nice high output humbucker on the bridge. On the ring, I was thinking the Graph Tech Ghost system, or maybe the L.R. Baggs setup. These both can come as a Tune-O-Matic or standards saddles. Maybe even blend that with a transducer under the bridge. Get a good full sound.

4. Controls will go on the top to keep the front clean looking.



Now I know what I want. Question is, how. Routing out the chamber with my CNC and gluing a top on seems simple enough. (Not easy, but simple)

My main question now is dimensions.

First question is now much material do I remove? I offset from the main body lines by 1/2" in this drawing. Anything green gets routed out. I can change it to whatever. I guess what I am wondering is for some insight to how thick to leave those solid walls?

Next, is how thick do I leave the bottom and top? Have a two inch blank, route out 1.75" and then glue another 1/4" to the top for a total thickness of 2.25?

In my file I show the thru holes for reference. If I do go thru the body they are in the right spot, but I guess what I am wondering is if I wan't to go with an acoustic type bridge paired with the tune-o-matic or do a tray? And is this setup over the hollow chamber or on top of the solid section?

Basically, the green is where I route. Where do I route, and how deep.

[Maricopa]

I built this for the last Challenge. Looks 'acoustic' and allows you to use different sound hold pickups. Easy to add a piezo too.

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tdpri-201...sticaster.html

[crane550]

Originally Posted by Maricopa

I built this for the last Challenge. Looks 'acoustic' and allows you to use different sound hold pickups. Easy to add a piezo too.

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tdpri-201...sticaster.html

Wow! What a great build. That has to be my favorite so far on this site. Bravo.

And yes, that looks very much like what I want to do. IIRC, you left 3/8 on the back, the top was .12 and about 3/4" on the sides? Doing it again would you have changed anything?

[Maricopa]

Yep that's pretty much right on. None of those were anything more than just random, "Ahh this looks about right"kind of things except the top. .120" is about standard and I never even measured it.

I would do everything about the same and when I get time again probably will. I donated it to an auction to raise money for a buddy in Nashville and really hated letting that one go. It made some of the best slide noises I've ever heard. Not an 'acoustic' by any means but it had the look and gave some woody tones when amplified.

[crane550]

Worked on my model a bit more. Maricopa, I like how you did your so I might just steal your idea a little...

Here she is. Only thing holding me back is no piece of wood to start on yet.



Not that I don't have too many project going at once right now anyways.

Does anyone know any good low profile pots that can go on the edge on the guitar? I want to keep my controls off the face.

[cellocaster]

First, you've got to decide whether you want turn or draw pots. Draw pots are flatter but use more place on the edge - and then, their shape doesn't match the curves of the edge.
You could install retractable turn pots, but a brief googling showed that they may be sold out. Anyway, here's one link to get you the idea. Good luck on your search!

http://www.pollin.de/shop/dt/Njk2OTU...97111TD2L.html

[crane550]

Thanks for the info.as I said before I plan to add a peizo bridge. Can anyone recommend a good way to do this and maintain an acoustic looking setup? I want to avoid a saddle looking setup and try to incorporate a tune o matic with a wood bridge. Or something similar. This is my main holdup right now.

[crane550]

Just talked with graph tech and they have a petty decent acoustic bridge setup. It's an insert that goes right into a normal acoustic bridge slot in place of the bone. This will allow for a normal acoustic looking bridge, and get my peizo pickup.

The idea of a fixed bridge makes me nervous. That is why I am contemplating an adjustable bridge with two screws on each side that week allow for intonation adjustment. The bridge will rest on the cap but not be glued.

[crane550]

Here is what I mean