Svento

Visually I'd like it to be a bit longer. More wood at the upper end.

If humans were 100% rational yes, but I understand the desire. There's something special with only one pu. No, that became wrong - Specials are actually the ones with two pu:s... However, making a pick-guard covering the cavity should be a good solution.

I've been talking with some makers, players and sellers of electro acoustics. The big problem doesn't seem to be the jackplate, but that the sides should be reinforced around the jack. This would require taking off the soundboard which I'm not very interested in. Best compromise is probably a chinrest with integrated jack. The main reason for all this is the aestethical issue. I wan't the instrument to look electric. I'd like a volume knob in the soundboard too but I've dropped that idea because I'm not willing to sacrifice the acoustic tone. First I had the idea of an opening on the backside, then it would be easy to attach the volyme knob and reinforce the ribs, but it's a bit troublesome to make such thing on an arched bottom and besides I might damage the acoustic tone. The fiddle looks a bit like old jazz guitars or some semi acoustic Gretsch or whatever. It has a bit of rockabilly look to it and my idea is to go somewhere that way. I want an electric with full acoustic tone, not an amplified acoustic... In the future I also intend to replace the pegs with machine heads. http://www.sdc.org/~acahay/booklet.html, see the bottom of the page.

Yes, I have considered a chinrest with integrated electronics, it's just that I'd prefer a jackplate in the ribs for aestethical reasons. I don't have the skills necessary for making my own chinrest, so I'll have to spend some hundred dollars on one - that's an other reason I liked the idea of a jackplate in the ribs...

Indeed there are quite a few ways to handle this without doing any damage to the instrument. That's how I'll handle it if it turns out that I can't install the electrics permanently without destroying the instrument tonally. However, I'd prefer integrated electronics if that's possible. I'd like this instrument to become a true electric one, though with full acoustic tone ad output volume. Chinrest mounting is something i do consider but a normal chinrest wouldn't have room for anything like that. I'd need to mold the jack into epoxy or something and stick it to the chinrest. Acceptable but not elegant...

The only reason is that I don't wan't that. If electronics can't be integrated without ruining sound, of course I'll use some external electronics, but I'd prefer it permanently installed. Those electric chinrest cost fortunes too, I'd have to save money for some half a year... Compare that to a jack plate. Preamp won't be needed. I plug right in to a guitar amp. Done that for years and it works very fine.

I usually don't react much to how guitars sound. they sound strat or LP or hollow. More or less fat/sharp... But, man... I think this tele has a truely amazing tone. Maybe the best electric guitar tone I've ever heard. I'd like to make a semisolid fiddle with a solid neckthru centerstock and a singlecuttaway body made from bent and molded sheets. Carbonfibre fingerboard, singlecoil PU. Wood sucks!

No, "Tulip poplar" is not the same as the "Tulip wood" that is being discussed here. Confusing, yes, but they are very different woods. You're probably right. I made a search on American poplar and read somewhere that it's actually tulip wood. So that confusion seems to be well spread.

Looks very good. Would probably be even better without the wood on the body, just plexiglass glued to plexiglass.

I've seen Armstrong's stuff. My idea doesn't look the least fancy, as it will have a wooden block between the plasic... Didn't find the archtop, but I've had some semi-solid idea flashing around in my head the last few days, and it seems like I contamined some guy on some other forum. I don't believe my project will start to happen for quite some time yet. It's many different things about the overall construction that I must solve first, and then there's economy.

My latest idea is balsa with top and bottom of plexiglass.

Not if it is glued to a nice stable piece for the main body... If it's tulip wood it should work fine for a body. Tulip wood is what's called American poplar and it's commonly used for bodies as far as I know. They say it has a sound similar to basswood.

Should be a lot heavier...

It's built and I want it amplified. Ideally I'd install electronics permanently and integrated, but I'm not willing to sacrifice acoustic sound quality for those operation, for I really need a loud acoustic instrument that can be heard unplugged over the drums and over my voice. In that case I'll have it be an acoustic instrument with a pu instead of an electro-acoustic.

I think the sides are stiff for a different reason. I don't think that energy goes from the ribs to the soundboard. However. the sides should be fairly stiff not to absorb the vibrations of the soundboard. The bottom and the sides - as far as I know - are meant to contain the air amplifying the vibrations of the soundboard. A less dense material like mahogany would vibrate more than for example maple and some energy would be lost. Some of the highs would be cut and the sound would be warmer and less pronounced. There's a problem with the cylinder jack, I believe. Isn't it supposed to be fixed with one nut on each side of the wood? I can't get my hand into the body... The good thing with a jack plate, is that I can attach it there first, then attach the plate into the wood. I believe I'd have a slight extra reinforcement of the thin wood too.

Maybe I could epoxy-glue some nuts on the inside of the ribs and use metal screws...

This is the one I'd use: http://shop.textalk.se/shop/4079/art79/h5471/2245471-origpic-64a874.jpg I hope the plate itself is reinforcement enough.

It's the jack plate too.

This is interesting: I made an experiment to see what happens when adding some extra mass to the ribs. I took a table knife and wedged it in behind the chinrest holder. When I played a string with the bow, the knife vibrated, which indicates that the ribs do have some sound. I wedged it in a little harder until it appeared to be mute, and I experienced that I had a slight loss of tone. The volume became a bit weaker and the tone a slight bit shorter. However: I did the same thing with a teaspoon and got the opposite result! Still the difference was barely noticeable, but to me it sounded as if I got some more sound. Longer tone and louder output. Made me think of sustain blocks, perhaps the right amount of added metal sings along with the instrument?

Looks very interesting. Saying "neutral" I actually mean as high as possible, which means a minimum of the tonal spectrum is filtered.

Yes. Oak too and probably birch. But now I'm thinking about artificial materials.

That will be the next issue. I don't believe I'll make anything worse picking the right materials for the body. Any suggestions about composite materials with a fairly neautral tone?

Any suggestons then? I actually didn't imagine there would be anything perfectly neutral, but I want something that doesn't kill tone completly. I guess something with long fibers would be best if any such composite material is available to normal citizens.

Is there any composite material with a perfectly neutral tone that could be used for reinforcement? Something that won't dampen nor absorb the vibration energy?

I wouldn't worry if there weren't so many people saying that adding extra mass to the ribs and making them stiffer would mute the acoustic output considerably. I have very hard to belive that but I'd rather not take risks when the operation is irreversable... I do have a solidbody that I'm not very pleased with, and in time I will have a solid body made for me. In fact I have the instrument planned into the last little detail. The project will consume some money though and I'm not ready for that, especially as the setting up of this acoustic one has required some investments. Regarding playability, this very special acoustic will match all my need, so I don't believe I'll use neither my old solid nor my old acoustic anymore. So for a considerable time this acoustic will also function as electric and I have aestethical objections against cables hanging on the outside - I want it to look as a fullblood electric. I also like the idea of having one alround instrument that works for all purposes. Last summer we were going to do some small semi-electric gig where there were no amps, and I plugged right into the PA, which I'd normally never do. An acoustic body would probably have made it sound a lot better. Besides, on the way to the gig, we did a minor fully acoustic gig on a parking lot, which I did on my acoustic, an instrument having that very limited access to the fingerboard of a normal fiddle. Okay, the whole project was a big mistake, but with this new fiddle amplified, I'd had one single instrument that would have served me all the way. We might even had done a fully electric pub gig or something in the night - without needing to carry more than one instrument. But like I said, I will also have a solidbody made in the future.