Semi Hollow Prs

[oblaty]

hey there, Im building a PRS copy and I want to make it semihollow. The top is flame maple and it will be around 18mm thick, center is mahogany (30mm) and Im considering of using flame maple for the back (4-6mm). Can you give me some advice? Should I make it just Maple top with mahogany back, or should I use the maple back too?

Photo of some projects would be great too...

Thanks a lot :D

[Mattia]

Depends, it can be done both ways. If you do the maple back, IMO you should carve both top and back. I do this anyway with pretty much all my builds, but I'm weird that way.

Easiest way to do this is simply hollow out the mahogany block, leaving about 6mm at the back and a block in place under the bridge, and if you want a belly cut do that first and carve carefully. If you're crazy like me, you get something that looks like this, roughly:

That guitar had a tailpiece and a braced top, for standard electrics I leave a block under the bridge, and I'd leave the block under the neck pickup to assure there's enough meat to the joint. Also remember to leave enough wood to screw the straps in place and such. You can also decide whether or not to carve the top from the inside or not.

[oblaty]

Thanks Mattia,

I´d like to build something like yours, but with block under the bridge. I´m using TOM bridge and run strings through the body. The block does not need to be under the bridge pickup, right? I want to carve the top from the inside, because I want to make some custom sound hole How thick is that piece of mahogany you´re using?

[Mattia]

I've done electrics like that (and various other semi-hollow configurations) before. You don't need wood under the bridge pickup, neck pickup only 'needs' it to make sure you have a good neck joint. Carving inside and out's not that hard, shoot for 5-6mm finished thickness is my recommendation for a standard-sized electric in maple.

That hunk of mahogany was about 45mm thick, if I'm not gravely mistaken, and the back has both a carve (about 8mm high or so, gentle, no recurve) and a belly relief cut so rim thickness is about 45mm including the top/binding.