Jupiter Posted March 14, 2003 Report Share Posted March 14, 2003 Aloha! So, i'm planning on building a body from the ground up in a few months, and i was just wondering... Would it be safe to route out some tone chambers in the body to increase the resonance of the guitar, then just put a veneer top over it? What i'm worried about is if the veneer would be strong enough to support itself over the tone chambers. I plan on using the average, super-thin veneer { can't remember the measurements, sorry! }for the top. Please help! Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted March 14, 2003 Report Share Posted March 14, 2003 I would plan on using at least a 1/4" thick veneer to do that, the 1/40" stuff simply would be to easy to damage and would also expand and compress with the changing season's to much giving your finish a less than desirable look in the long run. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitar_ed Posted March 15, 2003 Report Share Posted March 15, 2003 Hi Jupiter, I concur with Brian, but more strongly. Veneer is just way too thin, too light. Think of it as paper. If you look at Warmoth you will see that they use 1/4" caps on all of their chambered bodies. Good luck, have fun, and take lots of pictures. Guitar Ed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jupiter Posted March 15, 2003 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2003 Well, poo! I thought it would be a neat touch! Oh well, in the back of my head, that's what i figured would happen { about the veneer flexing and such }. So, i guess if i was going to do the tone chambers thing, i'd want to make my body 1/4 inch thinner than i want it to be, cut the tone chambers out, then put on a fat 1/4 inch top, right? I guess i'll just try and keep it simple, with this being my first project and all. Thanks for the help! Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulNeeds Posted March 18, 2003 Report Share Posted March 18, 2003 Hi - these tone chambers. How are you going to decide where, what size, shape, etc? Is there a means of working out all this info? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jupiter Posted March 19, 2003 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2003 Hi - these tone chambers. How are you going to decide where, what size, shape, etc? Is there a means of working out all this info? Haha, funny that you ask me that... that was going to be my next question! Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulNeeds Posted March 19, 2003 Report Share Posted March 19, 2003 Haha, funny that you ask me that... Reason I asked is I've always liked the Tele Thinline, but not the p/u and scratchplate cobination. Also quite fancy a strat with an f-hole also, both with ring-mounted single coils, and rear-inserted controls and maple veneer tops. So the routing of the space behind the f-hole comes into play, before the veneer is added. Can I just whack some hole there as a cosmetic to give space behind the hole, or should I consider the effect - if any - this may have on the eventual sound of the instrument? I intend both to have the Graph-Tech Ghost piezo bridges, so it won't effect that, just the electric sound I'd have thought? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted March 19, 2003 Report Share Posted March 19, 2003 I know you need to worry about the stress factor's where the bridge is placed and also the more wood you route out the more the resonance will be affected through the body changing the tone but the science behind controling it is beyond my own personal knowledge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DStahl Posted March 21, 2003 Report Share Posted March 21, 2003 I don't have much solid info to offer on chambers, just some thoughts-- 1. I've heard and read that some people don't think small chambers (under 3/4 inch deep and less than maybe 4 inches on a side) do a great deal for tone. They're useful for lightening and balancing the body, though. 2. That said, I routed large chambers in a deep body and capped them with thin fir, more or less like an acoustic's soundboard, and I tend to think that the guitar gained some resonance from all that. (These chambers total maybe 60 or 65 cubic inches.) 3. All told, I suspect that a single large chamber will probably resonate at a deeper frequency than two or three smaller chambers with the same total volume. That makes acoustic sense to me but I could be wrong. 4. Be careful routing too near the edge of the body, especially where you're cutting across the grain. Leave plenty of wood for structural strength--I cut too close to the edge near the top horn cutaway and the wood cracked. Oh, and this guitar has a heavy laminated center beam so the bridge in this case is well supported. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Setch Posted March 21, 2003 Report Share Posted March 21, 2003 'Tuned' tone chambers are pretty much BS. Chambers can change the sound of a guitar, but any attempt to tune them for a specific resonance is stepping into the realm of physics way beyond most peoples' capabilities. To paraphrase a pretty experienced builder on the MIMF "The chambers in my body are all tuned to very specific frequencys. I just have no idea what they are ". Just leave plenty of meat for the bridge to sit on, and enough round the edges to ensure you don't break through when you radius the body edges. I also leave a solid section behind the bridge, but this is based on nothing remotely scientific. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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