Building A Hollowbody

[possum1284]

i was thinking building a hollow body out of padauk and maple. rather then using bracing and kerfed lining im thinking of doing the following. i believe this is how a prs hollowbody is done. heres my plan: the body will be made of 2 pieces, a 2" thick piece of padauk and 1" thick piece of maple. the padauk will serv as the back and sides and the maple will be the top. dealing with the padauk first i will carve the bottom of it then hollow out the inside forming a proper curve, the same will be done with the maple. my first questions is: how thick should the wood be for the sides, i was thinking 1/4 of an inches? my second question is how thick should i leave the wood on the caved top and back?

i think this idea would work.

Also if anyone has the wood thickness measurements of a prs hollowbody that would be great.

[Ptt-Guitars]

i was thinking building a hollow body out of padauk and maple. rather then using bracing and kerfed lining im thinking of doing the following. i believe this is how a prs hollowbody is done. heres my plan: the body will be made of 2 pieces, a 2" thick piece of padauk and 1" thick piece of maple.  the padauk will serv as the back and sides and the maple will be the top.  dealing with the padauk first i will carve the bottom of it then hollow out the inside forming a proper curve, the same will be done with the maple. my first questions is: how thick should the wood be for the sides, i was thinking 1/4 of an inches? my second question is how thick should i leave the wood on the caved top and back?

i think this idea would work.

Also if anyone has the wood thickness measurements of a prs hollowbody that would be great.

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I wouldn't make the soundboard out of maple, it's way too dense and you'll end up with an earfull of treble. The sizes sound way too big...is it an archtop??

The dimensions for the sides are huge, are you planning to bend 1/4 inch Padauk or carve the back and sides out of a solid piece.

It's a bit unclear on what your thinking...unless its going to be electrified the woods you have chosen will look pretty but won't sound very good...

Think it over and give us some more info, or diagrams so we can get our heads around what ur planning.

[Drak]

My opinion is that with your wood choices, that guitar is going to be very heavy, awkward, extremely hard to carve/shape, and devoid of any tone at all. Those 2 woods are waaay to hard and stiff to get much tone out of at all, especially used together like that.

I would seriously rethink the wood selections for something a little more tone and tool friendly. wink.gif

Also, I don't think your basic idea will fly because there will be no room to carve the bottom, your carving tool, whatever you use, will keep hitting the sides since you are planning on carving the interior with sides being an integral part, there's simply no room to move your carving tool around, you're working inside a 'box', which will not work.

Additionally, if you keep your sides at around 1/4" you better seal that wood on the inside quite well, as if you only finish the outside, the interior walls will want to absorb moisture and it could quite possibly split since they're not quartersawn and will have grain issues.

Besides the fact that carving Paduak is INCREDIBLY hard, I don't think you fully know what kind of work you are laying on yourself, and even if you actually get it done, I think, as I already said, it will be too heavy and tone dead. A white elephant of a guitar.

Bent sides are usually quartersawn wood, with a good deal of strength. Doing it your way, you will have grain running in several different directions/orientations.

So bottom line, if you want to use those woods, make the guitar more like a chambered electric more than a real hollowbody.

If you want a real hollowbody, then you should reread your book and follow it's suggestions more closely.

Personally, I'd say if you want a hollowbody, just get over your fear of bending sides and get on with learning how to do it, and use something like Spruce for your top. Your 'answer' to sidestepping the side bending issue is not a good one for a real 3" tall hollowbody.

[possum1284]

My opinion is that with your wood choices, that guitar is going to be very heavy, awkward, extremely hard to carve/shape, and devoid of any tone at all. Those 2 woods are waaay to hard and stiff to get much tone out of at all, especially used together like that.

I would seriously rethink the wood selections for something a little more tone and tool friendly. wink.gif

Also, I don't think your basic idea will fly because there will be no room to carve the bottom, your carving tool, whatever you use, will keep hitting the sides since you are planning on carving the interior with sides being an integral part, there's simply no room to move your carving tool around, you're working inside a 'box', which will not work.

Additionally, if you keep your sides at around 1/4" you better seal that wood on the inside quite well, as if you only finish the outside, the interior walls will want to absorb moisture and it could quite possibly split since they're not quartersawn and will have grain issues.

Besides the fact that carving Paduak is INCREDIBLY hard, I don't think you fully know what kind of work you are laying on yourself, and even if you actually get it done, I think, as I already said, it will be too heavy and tone dead. A white elephant of a guitar.

Bent sides are usually quartersawn wood, with a good deal of strength. Doing it your way, you will have grain running in several different directions/orientations.

So bottom line, if you want to use those woods, make the guitar more like a chambered electric more than a real hollowbody.

If you want a real hollowbody, then you should reread your book and follow it's suggestions more closely.

Personally, I'd say if you want a hollowbody, just get over your fear of bending sides and get on with learning how to do it, and use something like Spruce for your top. Your 'answer' to sidestepping the side bending issue is not a good one for a real 3" tall hollowbody.

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youve all convinced me im gonna go with traditional archtop building with side bending. padauk sides are fairly cheap.as far as wood goes padauk and maple is what im using. ite exactly what the guitar im trying to build is made out of( trey anastasio ofphish guitar). its the guitar labelled 2.

Adam

[Ptt-Guitars]

Were not trying to kill your enthusiasm, its great to hear that your so excited.

However....if you planning on using maple for the soundboard, its gonna sound pretty tinny....better to stick with traditional materials and use your creative urges to make individual inlays and other pieces which don't affect the sound...

If its electrified its a different story..

[Myka Guitars]

I actually think that the design will work as originally planned. Padauk is not that heavy and it is very resonant. It will make a great body wood (and neck wood for that matter). Just be sure to hollow it until it rings and sustains the way you want it to. The top being maple is also not a problem. If you use West Coast maple it will not be tinny at all. On the contrary, it will have a nice warm tone. East Coast hard rock maple is the wood to avaoid for tops, in my opinion.

This guitar has a maple top with mahogany back/sides and neck. The mahogany was the South American variety and as such it was dense. As dense as Padauk. In fact Padauk would have been a good substitute. The sustain blows away S. American mahogany (although true Honduran would give it a run for the money).

Since you are building a PRS hollowbody type guitar this will work well. Have you seen Heatley Guitars? Check out

I am building a semi-acoustic out of Padauk with a maple top next month. We'll see how it works but the tap tests of my pieces reveal a very rich tone with complex harmonic content.

Just my $0.02.

~David

[possum1284]

I actually think that the design will work as originally planned. Padauk is not that heavy and it is very resonant. It will make a great body wood (and neck wood for that matter). Just be sure to hollow it until it rings and sustains the way you want it to. The top being maple is also not a problem. If you use West Coast maple it will not be tinny at all. On the contrary, it will have a nice warm tone. East Coast hard rock maple is the wood to avaoid for tops, in my opinion.

This guitar has a maple top with mahogany back/sides and neck. The mahogany was the South American variety and as such it was dense. As dense as Padauk. In fact Padauk would have been a good substitute. The sustain blows away S. American mahogany (although true Honduran would give it a run for the money).

Since you are building a PRS hollowbody type guitar this will work well. Have you seen Heatley Guitars? Check out

I am building a semi-acoustic out of Padauk with a maple top next month. We'll see how it works but the tap tests of my pieces reveal a very rich tone with complex harmonic content.

Just my $0.02.

~David

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i was told it was flame maple. but from looking at pictures on stemac i believe its quilted maple i will be using fof the top. is uilted maple west or eastcoast maple? how do i tell?

adam

[Mattia]

i was told it was flame maple. but from looking at pictures on stemac i believe its quilted maple i will be using fof the top. is uilted maple west or eastcoast maple? how do i tell?

adam

Simple: ask the vendor.

Quilt is pretty much always soft/big leaf/western maple (call it whatever you want, really), flamed maple can be either, although the figures tend to look quite different. I'd wager most of the figured stuff out there is big leaf.

[grommit]

ite exactly what the guitar im trying to build is made out of( trey anastasio ofphish guitar). its the guitar labelled 2.

Adam

i thought treys guitar was koa?

i was sure i heard that somewhere

[possum1284]

ite exactly what the guitar im trying to build is made out of( trey anastasio ofphish guitar). its the guitar labelled 2.

Adam

i thought treys guitar was koa?

i was sure i heard that somewhere

it is koa(current guitar). he has two others though one of which is padauk and maple(built around 1993). all built by lanquedoc with similar body and neck design. just changed up the wood.

Adam