redneckmother Posted February 23, 2005 Report Share Posted February 23, 2005 This site is killer! I had to get that out of the way. I am building an ambiguous project guitar. In the resonator world, you only get wood or steel. I am building a black lexan (sides) and stainless steel resonator guitar. The neck is almost finished (stewmac neck, rosewood fretboard), the top and bottom had been cut with a waterjet. The coverplate has also been cut. Working on the tailpiece. The ingenuity. The guitar is built mostly of stainless steel kitchen supplies. The body was cut out of a 18x24 flat pan for baking. The coverplate is a 11.5" pot lid (looks killer). The soundwell is a 10" cake pan that fits perfectly on the top, no welding. This is the problem, I am not a welder, so I had to figure out how to build a bolt on body, without welding (like a national). This is where I need help: I bought a piece of recycled black lexan (rough on one side). It is .25" thick 5" wide and plenty length for bending. I will glue strips in the inside to screw the top and bottom pieces to the sides, and a thicker piece for the heel and butt (for the neck and tail). I built a jig for the body (.25" smaller than the top and bottom) to bend the plastic using a heat gun and alot of muscle. It looks like I need to go to a .125" thickness to make it work. Here's the question: Has anyone tried to build a guitar using plastic/lexan for the sides? Has anyone built a guitar like this? Any suggestions on the sides that is not wood? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devon Headen Posted February 23, 2005 Report Share Posted February 23, 2005 Would it be possible to shave the plastic down to the size you need? I wouldn't give up on what you want to use until you've exhausted all your options. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redneckmother Posted February 23, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2005 Devon I cannot shave it down. It has a rough texture to the outside and dont want to compromise the look. I actually got it to form. I made a inside jig, which helped alot. I still need to heat up around the smaller bends to be perfect. I should have waited on cutting the top and back before moving forward, but I guess it is a learning curve. Especially since I have never built a guitar and on this one, there are no instructions. LOL. It acually looks pretty good. It looks like an Ovation reject. I will post pictures when done. Thanks. RM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devon Headen Posted February 24, 2005 Report Share Posted February 24, 2005 You could shave the inside. I'm not sure why you were asking if you've already done it, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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