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Reduce weight of electric guitar

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mario
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Hi,

I am working on building a guitar with an esthetic like a Stratocaster.

For the body, I have two blocks of ash glued between themselves of 45mm of thickness. I will not include a tremolo, and not a pickguard. The wood is at this point only one block without anything else made.

I did not realize at the beginning that the guitar weight will be too heavy with this ash.

I have seen that guitars can be semi hollowed. In a Strato, there are curves in the body so I am not sure how to make such work. I have seen mostly builds of semi hollow Telecaster.

Another idea I thougth was to make the semi hollow from the back in order to maintain the wood of the ash in the front. Anyone have this experience?

What about the tone of the guitar between a solid-body and semihollowed?

Do you recommend me another wood with less weight?

Many thanks

 

 


   
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Russ
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@mario

Hi Mario,

Ash is commonly used wood for Stratocasters so it shouldn't feel too heavy once you have cut it out and finished the carving. If you follow the steps that Mark demonstrates in his course for body carving you should find it easier than you think. He also has videos on his YouTube channel demonstrating how to do it. 

I believe that Alder is a little lighter than Ash and Basswood is even lighter than both...... although I have heard of some pieces of basswood being heavier than expected.  

Good luck with your build......and enjoy yourself. 

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Rocknroller912
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@mario

One problem I think you might have with creating a hollow body is creating an acoustic chamber which will cause vibration around the body. Pick ups are slightly microphonic so the vibration will cause feedback. Gibson do it on the Les Paul models to keep the weight down but use a series of small chambers and not one big one, so it’s not creating a chamber where sound waves can build up at frequencies which cause feedback.
You could route out a hollow in the back as if you are putting a tremolo with a cover plate but just not fit a tremolo bridge, so it will still look authentic. 

i think I have a pic of how Gibson does it but it does have a carved wedge to cover the hollows.

Once you have cut the shape with body and arm cutaways the weight will be reduced a bit, and remember it should balance the neck with tuners fitted. If it’s too light the head will be dropping down while playing. 

 

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mario
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Thank you for your comments. 

I have finally weighed the wood blank, and obtained the density of my wood.

Then I have weighed the neck and fretboard, I have weighed also apart the electronics, mechanisms, bridge, etc... 

To this total, I have rested an estimation of the weight I calculated from all the carving and routing pending to do, using the density I have obtained previously.

I have estimated a total of 3.70 Kg for the complete guitar (I don't know how the finishing can increase this weight).

I could also reduce a little more creating the cavity for the tremolo as told @rocknroller912.

If I manage to finish this first build I will see if this calculation is correct or not (I did not see this method anywhere....)

For know, with this estimation the total weight is not the best, but I think I will continue with the build.


   
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Rocknroller912
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@mario 

Good luck with your build

Some people call me a tool, others are less complimentary. Tools being useful things.


   
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tv1
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Posted by: @mario

I have estimated a total of 3.70 Kg for the complete guitar (I don't know how the finishing can increase this weight).

That's *not* super heavy.  For me, "heavy" starts at around 4kg, and "light" is anything under 3kg.

With the Strat, if you're using a scratchplate, you can use a swimming pool rout to remove a lot of the weight under the scratchplate.  That'll make it nice and easy to change pickup configurations in future too.  Though, just re-read your original post, and that's maybe not an option here.

45mm is maybe a little thick (?) for a Strat too - I always think of them as being quite thin.  Another option might be to shave 5mm off the thickness if you want it lighter?

And finally - Ash can vary a lot in weight, and hardness.

Good luck with the build 🙂

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