theQuestioneer Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 im makin a body, or i plan to. i know that 1 1/2 is the standard thickness, is it possible to make it thinner? im going to use a TOM and a set neck (les-paul like, no deep set tennons or anything) and how much wood of what size will i need to make the neck? (assuming i do a scarf joint on the headstock to be able to use thinner wood) please help, remember you were all newbies once too.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 1 7/8" is standard thickness......1 1/2" is too thin,but with a t.o.m. you can make it work.....but 1 3/4" is the thinnest iwould personally go Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluespresence Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 westhemann Posted on Jan 6 2004, 09:46 PM 1 7/8" is standard thickness......1 1/2" is too thin, Hmmmm, Wes, my Southern Pearl is 1-1/2" and she sounds fatter than a standard P with all the sustain you could want. I'm also making a 1-1/2" Strat (remember the trem prob's thread ) Am I doing something wrong? I'm actually being serious and not sarcastic (which is hard for me to do most of the time ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluespresence Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 Are you typing or sleeping wes?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 1 7/8" is what the manufacturers do and it works well with th whole floyd routing thing...you have to have enough wood to rout the front and back and still have wood in the middle. you can thin it up if you have a fixed bridge because then the back is not routed in the same space as the bridge pickup,but you still have to be careful to leave enough wood in the bottom of the neck pocket to support the neck rigidly. you can get around that if you do a neck through but really all you are doing is taking away the wood that gives the guitar it's full tone imo 1 3/4" is plenty thin especially if you have the belly cut and an armrest,or a v or an explorer where your arm rests on the top of the body comfortably. it just requires extra engineering and higher possibility of routing too deep and breaking through Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 also keep in mind that a bass is already fat sounding from the thicker strings,so thinning it up adds snap,which imo sounds better...but not on a guitar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluespresence Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 That makes sense and I was actually worried about losing tone on the pearl. Prob is that mahogany is so dang heavy at 1-3/4 it darn near pulled you to the floor. Now it's down to probably 7 lbs (just the body!) and still quite heavy. The grovers help balance it out but that's because they weigh a good 2 pounds themselves! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 i prefer the body to be heavy rather than the neck..seems to stay where you put it better Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theQuestioneer Posted January 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 1 7/8" is standard thickness......1 1/2" is too thin,but with a t.o.m. you can make it work.....but 1 3/4" is the thinnest iwould personally go really... oops lol now i feel stupid... i swear i heard that repeadedly.... thanks wes and bluespressence. what about the neck? my guitar (i didn't build it) here looks like the neck is like 1 3/8'' with a 1 3/4" body.... plus fretboard- is that right for me? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MzI Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 im makin mine like 1 3/8 roughly inch of mahogany and 3/8 of maple top i dont see why it has to be so thick sg's are pretty thin i would think it would be thicker then the neck and joint but other then that the thickness shouldnt really matter if ur using a t.o.m. just my thoughts MzI Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saber Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 My Ibanez S540 is exactly 1 1/2 inches thick at its thickest point but I think that's about as thin as guitars get. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hotrock Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 My mahogony is 26mm thick and my maple top is about 10mm. It's a Les Paul and I didn't want it too heavy (hollowed out the body a bit too). I think thats a bit less than 1 1/2 of whatever those old drakonian units are . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krazyderek Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 he's refering to a TOM bridge and 1 1/2" thickness the first thing that comes to mind is an SG cause they are (or at least i've seen quite a few that are) 1 1/2" with your standard gibson TOM and 2-4 degree neck angle.... but they're usualy neck heavy, other then that about a couple of basses i've seen that were also 1 1/2" the standard, like wes said, is 1 3/4" - 1 7/8" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveq Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 I'll measure it again tonight but I could swear that my RG550 is 1 3/4" (with paint and finish). I always thought that was the standard? I guess the world doesn't revolve around my RG550? Damn it! Just curious, what's the reason why you want a thinner body? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mullmuzzler Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 Have you guys seen Mark Knopfler's Pensa Suhr guitar? I think that it is the thinnest back-routed Floyd-type guitar that I've seen. I have some pictures but I can't seem to post them in topic so they can work. mullmuzzler | OSSMT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krazyderek Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 this is kind of a random thought, but wouldn't the longer the block on a floyd best best? gives the springs more leverage, and the longer the block is the more accuarately the same springs can go back to the same position, does that make sense to anyone else... kinda how you use a long stick like a crow bar to move something.... it's the hole concept of levarage.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeB Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 krazyderek Posted on Jan 7 2004, 03:26 PM this is kind of a random thought, but wouldn't the longer the block on a floyd best best? gives the springs more leverage, and the longer the block is the more accuarately the same springs can go back to the same position, does that make sense to anyone else... kinda how you use a long stick like a crow bar to move something.... it's the hole concept of levarage.. yea, makes sense to me! i think the 1/4" you take of the sustain block wont make too much of a difference tho! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeB Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 also on the bass sounding fatter when thinner. its because the wood will vibrate more easily with less wood mass to oppose it, so it will be bassier, but bass definition can be lost, this is what happens on a guitar, the bass can get muddy. it depends on the density of the wood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krazyderek Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 lol true, this was probably already calculated when floyd's or the first fender Trem's where introduced and was probably on of the determining factors of fender's standard electric body thickness... just cool to kinda think about stuff like that sometime..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeB Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 why dont i say everything in one post!!!!! hmmm, im tired... that Suhr of Knopflers looks really thin to me! beaut of a guitar!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeB Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 krazyderek Posted on Jan 7 2004, 03:36 PM lol true, this was probably already calculated when floyd's or the first fender Trem's where introduced and was probably on of the determining factors of fender's standard electric body thickness... just cool to kinda think about stuff like that sometime..... im sure they had it sussed out. remember tho that the orig trems werent floating, i think (correct if im wrong) so it was less critical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saber Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 this is kind of a random thought, but wouldn't the longer the block on a floyd best best? gives the springs more leverage, and the longer the block is the more accuarately the same springs can go back to the same position, does that make sense to anyone else... kinda how you use a long stick like a crow bar to move something.... it's the hole concept of levarage.. According to the laws of physics, you would need more spring tension for a shorter block. To be more precise, if you decrease the distance between the trem's fulcrum (at the knife edge) and the end of the block by 10% then you will need 10% more spring tension, but there would also be around 10% less travel at the block's end so there would be less change in spring length as it is stretched. I can't see why that would negatively affect precision though. Shortening the block might have a slight effect on sustain though since it will have less mass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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