design (not cosmetic) feedback...

[mistermikev]

so here is my cutout elevation for my 'delta-lectro'.  I'm planning on making this a set neck.  Looking for feedback on anything you see but also specifically the neck pocket and strength/stability issues.

I plan to make the heel area of my neck somewhere around 1-1.5" thick not including fretboard... plan to leave approx 1/8-1/4" on backside at thinnest points and will likely use a 1/4 bowl at the edges of cavity cutout.  body stock will be mahog and w/o the top should be somewhere around 1.75" thick.  planning to go 3/4" deep at the belly cut and do a 5/8-3/4 max depth on that bevel. 

should be enough surface area for a good strong joint and/or strength through the body?

is the belly cut big enough comfort wise? 

thoughts, concerns, things I haven't considered?

[ZekeB]

Its funny because I was asking all these same questions and after I actually built the body I ended up changing most of those variables because they seem to all be tied to each other.  If its an original design I think the best thing you can do is make a prototype shape out of some laminated cheap wood to see what it actually feels like and also helped me with how i wanted to do my cuts and see where I might have complications.

I think your neck pocket will be fine from what I've seen from other designs.  I actually had an engineer test and see if my neck would be structurally good.  I think the average neck pocket length is around 3.5+", 2" being the shortest I've seen.  I'd just make sure your design has the right cavity depth you need for the controls you want to use.  

I think the belly cut will really be found when you actually build it.  Mine was nowhere near what actually worked for me.  Looks like a cool design!

[mistermikev]

18 hours ago, ZekeB said:

Its funny because I was asking all these same questions and after I actually built the body I ended up changing most of those variables because they seem to all be tied to each other.  If its an original design I think the best thing you can do is make a prototype shape out of some laminated cheap wood to see what it actually feels like and also helped me with how i wanted to do my cuts and see where I might have complications.

I think your neck pocket will be fine from what I've seen from other designs.  I actually had an engineer test and see if my neck would be structurally good.  I think the average neck pocket length is around 3.5+", 2" being the shortest I've seen.  I'd just make sure your design has the right cavity depth you need for the controls you want to use.  

I think the belly cut will really be found when you actually build it.  Mine was nowhere near what actually worked for me.  Looks like a cool design!

thank you zeke, I appreciate your thoughtful comments.  I've built my template for the body shape and checked the belly cut... but good point - def something I may want to plan to tweak later.

Like you, I suspect the neck pocket should have plenty of surface area... but less assured of two things:

A - this is an 'almost' fully hollow build. 1/8-3/16" maple top and 3/16-1/4 min thickness on the back. with no bracing - structure is a bit of a concern.  This is based on a popular guitar but I've never actually seen the inside of this model... I've read that it does not have a central cross block like it's brother the dc59. 

B - Neck thickness: Not sure if getting thicker wood(3/4 neck heel vs 1.5") would be wasted here.  Ie I could double the side surface area while reducing the body thickness through the pocket.

 

another concern is that there will be no channel for the wire going to the 3 way toggle I plan on the top right.  on the one hand... loose wire may be annoying... on the other - assuming a wire channel somewhere, once this thing is closed up, if I want to rewire I'll never be able to thread it through. 

I know the gretsch country gentleman has a set of upper toggles and I wonder how they managed the wires.

anywho, thank you again