This site is killer! I had to get that out of the way.
I am building an ambiguous project guitar. In the resonator world, you only get wood or steel. I am building a black lexan (sides) and stainless steel resonator guitar.
The neck is almost finished (stewmac neck, rosewood fretboard), the top and bottom had been cut with a waterjet. The coverplate has also been cut. Working on the tailpiece.
The ingenuity. The guitar is built mostly of stainless steel kitchen supplies. The body was cut out of a 18x24 flat pan for baking. The coverplate is a 11.5" pot lid (looks killer). The soundwell is a 10" cake pan that fits perfectly on the top, no welding. This is the problem, I am not a welder, so I had to figure out how to build a bolt on body, without welding (like a national).
This is where I need help:
I bought a piece of recycled black lexan (rough on one side). It is .25" thick 5" wide and plenty length for bending. I will glue strips in the inside to screw the top and bottom pieces to the sides, and a thicker piece for the heel and butt (for the neck and tail).
I built a jig for the body (.25" smaller than the top and bottom) to bend the plastic using a heat gun and alot of muscle. It looks like I need to go to a .125" thickness to make it work.
Here's the question: Has anyone tried to build a guitar using plastic/lexan for the sides? Has anyone built a guitar like this? Any suggestions on the sides that is not wood?