Semi-hollow Body Thicknesses

[boundsteelblues]

Is 1-1/8" too thin to start with for the bottom board and 7/8" too thick for the top. This is before any planing. The book I have has a bottom body part of 1-5/8" and 1/4" for the top.

[low end fuzz]

why not?

if anything you'll have to hollow it 1/2" less, but its still a semi hollow;

[Doug 59]

No, I don't think so.

Presuming that you're routing / carving out both pieces to create the hollow, you'll be taking out up to 7/8" from the bottom, and up to 5/8" from the top, that leaves you with a 2" body,with a hollow of 1-1/2".

Depending on how you want to shape / carve the actual body, especially the top will determine how you go about the internal carving... how much you shallow it out internally, as you get closer to your edges, so as to compensate for how much you carve off the top.

If you leave the top flat, for example,the join between the two pieces will be harder to hide, as it's 7/8" down from the top, than if you carve the top down towards the edges, that way you can use a binding or an accent lamination to hide the join.

Gee, I hope what I'm trying to say here makes sense!

[guitar101]

Is 1-1/8" too thin to start with for the bottom board and 7/8" too thick for the top. This is before any planing. The book I have has a bottom body part of 1-5/8" and 1/4" for the top.

Out of curiosity from reading this post I measured my Yamaha semi hollow and it has a top that is only .11 of an inch thick. .125 is 1/8th of an inch. I measured an acoustic and the top is essentially the same thickness. I don't know if this is a help but I thought I would let you know.

[low end fuzz]

No, I don't think so.

Presuming that you're routing / carving out both pieces to create the hollow, you'll be taking out up to 7/8" from the bottom, and up to 5/8" from the top, that leaves you with a 2" body,with a hollow of 1-1/2".

Depending on how you want to shape / carve the actual body, especially the top will determine how you go about the internal carving... how much you shallow it out internally, as you get closer to your edges, so as to compensate for how much you carve off the top.

If you leave the top flat, for example,the join between the two pieces will be harder to hide, as it's 7/8" down from the top, than if you carve the top down towards the edges, that way you can use a binding or an accent lamination to hide the join.

Gee, I hope what I'm trying to say here makes sense!

im having trouble understanding this; not sooo much that i dont know what 'your' saying;

but you could put a 1/4" forstner hole under the top and still be 'technically' a semi hollow;

so if its an origainl design, just base it around your supply;

i read this thrice , so i might be missing the 'spirit' of what your trying to say , but i think your saying the problem would be profiling the edges of the body and start digging into the hollow of the body, right?