whisky182 Posted December 13, 2003 Report Share Posted December 13, 2003 k, i've got an electric guitar and i wanna hollow out the body, can i router off the front and back of it, hollow it out then just replace the front and back with a sheet of maple (with f holes in it?!) will this work and sound okay?!?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drak Posted December 13, 2003 Report Share Posted December 13, 2003 1) Be easy on the chambering, if you chamber Too much, you can make the guitar neck heavy and piss yourself off. 2)If you're going to do any binding, make sure you don't come too close to the edges when making your chambers. 3) If your top and back are at least 1/4" thick, you should be OK. If they're thinner, you should add in bracing (ala acoustic tops) to prevent the wood from warping. 4) If you use water stains directly onto the bare wood for finishing, don't go overboard with it, it could start your Maple to warping el-pronto. Be sure to apply the stain and wipe off the excess immediately. 5) Are you planning to route the whole thing, or leave a centerstrip as wise as the pkps and/or bridge? I also leave a good fat slab all around the bridge area and towards the rear of the body. If you route too much from the back-end of the body, that can make it neck heavy too. Funny you should ask this now, I just walked in from chambering a Tele body. In that case, I just routed the 2 upper horn areas. The body is 1-piece Poplar, and is fairly light to begin with, and I'm going to put a rear body bout on it, so I can't route away too much on the upper side, routing away the rear body bout will remove another fair amount, along with the rear control cavity. It will have a Koa top and Indian Rosewood rear (damn close match colorwise, I didn't want to put the extra pair of Koa on the back too, it's freakin' Gorgeous!) I like to be able to chamber AND have the rear bout too. Soooo comfy! PS, you should find someone with a planer to remove the top and back, you'll be in for a time of it trying to make everything flat again after removing the top and back with just a router...ugh! (I like to let Mr. 'Lectricity do most of my work fo' me) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
www Posted December 13, 2003 Report Share Posted December 13, 2003 DRAK! You are a font of information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drak Posted December 13, 2003 Report Share Posted December 13, 2003 Well, I've made a lot of firewood! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whisky182 Posted December 14, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 14, 2003 yes, i do plan on leaving a center strip! if i just have one f hole in the top of the front of the guitar will i need to drill/cut a small bit through the center strip to join up the two routered out bits?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Setch Posted December 15, 2003 Report Share Posted December 15, 2003 I just took the back off a guitar using my router. I took away thickness around the edges of the body, taking several passes until I had an area around the perimeter which was at my chosen depth (3/8"), and extended about 1.5" in towards the middle of the body - like a really massive binding ledge. I then took a strip the same depth away running from the rear strap button upto the neck. This left me with a flat perimter and reference along the center of the guitar, so I could use a handplane to remove the rest of the thickness and keep the back close the perfectly flat. This was a quick and controlable way to do it, and the results where very accurate. ...Course, if I had access to a planer I'd have done like Drak said Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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