Carbon Fibre Guitar Build

[AJones]

Hi

I am starting to build a Carbon Fibre bodied guitar.

First of all i need to make the mould from wood. This is hopefully where u guys will come in.

i have a shape that i am going to use but i need help with the trem.

can anyone help me with changing a regular strat trem fitting (the hole) to a floyd rose (by this i mean routing the wood to make it fit)

Does anybody know if you can convert a regular nut on the neck to fit a locking one?

Any advice is gratefully received!

Thanks

Alex

[digi2t]

I am starting to build a Carbon Fibre bodied guitar.

First of all i need to make the mould from wood. This is hopefully where u guys will come in.

i have a shape that i am going to use but i need help with the trem.

Are you sure you know what you're in for? Will you be vacuum bagging? Have you ever molded before? The reason I ask is because I worked in composites (marine and aviation) for close to 8 years. Firstly, your "mold" will have to be gelcoated, sanded and polished. Also, you will have to calculate rather precisely (understatement) your pre and post layup thicknesses. These figures will have to be transfered to your mold. Shrinkage is an other factor. This will depend on your matrix (resin). A "solidbody" CF will be prohibitively expensive, not to mention that it will require an overhead crane to lift, but a hollow bodied guitar will still need to be gusseted for strength, attachment points, cavities, and tonal reasons. Stengthwise, easy to figure out if you have stress analysis software such as Cosmos DesignSTAR. Sorry, can't have my copy. Tonally, I wouldn't even hazard a guess as to how it would work out. Resin to fiber ratio will also be critical. Too high on resin, you add weight, and risk stress fractures in the resin. Too low, and your looking at delaminations. Of course, this isn't a problem if you decide to use prepreg, in which case you'd better start building an autoclave first . Keep in mind as well, any defects in molding in stressed areas will not react kindly to "dressing" i.e. sanding it out. Doing so will cut into the fibers, and CF does not take kindly to that in stressed areas. The reason for this is that when CF fails, it does so catastrophically. If you stay within it's bend modulus for a given structure, no problemo. If you weaken the structure, or exceed the modulus, SNAP.

If you plan to use the wood as a core, you can forget that. The CF layers will absolutely destroy any tonal qualities of the wood. Kind of like those cheap plywood Les Paul knockoffs with 50 coats of buffed polyurethane.

I know graphite works quite well for necks, I currently have a Flying V with one. But graphite necks are monoblock injected, so density, structure, and strength are predetermined and stable.

Insofar as the trem is concerned, Floyd Rose's website has all kinds of template drawings to choose from. Look there and choose the one that fits your needs. For the nut, it depends on the neck. If it's a Strat style neck, Floyd has different types of locking nuts available to fit. Again, consult their website, all the info is there.

Cheers