Guitar Body

[Eldon]

Here's what I'm pondering about my guitar body.

Construction:

Top - solid white birch 3/4 inch thick, 81/8 inches wide, length to suit
Front & Back Apron - 5/8 inch thick Height & Length to suite.
Aliminum rail the lenght of the aprons to mount what I call the cross rod blocks. I'm going to drill extra holes in it in case I want to add extra pedals or knees.

Have a look at the sketch: Normally as I understand it the apron are attached to the bottom surface of the top. The top that I have is 81/2 inches wide and I'd like to use that full width underneith. that means I need to attach the aprons to the front and back edges.

Am I looking for trouble???

[Eldon]

Darn - forgot the drawing.

Guitar Body Cross Section.pdf

(52.6 KiB) Downloaded 303 times

[Bent]

Hi Eldon,
The aprons are normally mounted underneath the top deck. I think it is normally done with screws and glue for absolute rigidity.
Mounting them the way you suggest would be ok I suppose except for the fact that you might have some unsightly circles from the wood plugs hiding the screws.
One other method would be to use biscuits instead of screws. It takes a bit of lining-up skills to get it exact with biscuits.

I can't see where you need both rails and mounting blocks. I drilled holes in the rails and mounted the shaft on a bushing. That's how it's normally done when using the rail idea.

[Scott Howard]

I like the MSA rails being angle. It could help in holding the front and rear aprons to the top if it was scewed to them also. Depending on how it was done I also would mount at least one end directly into the rail. Maybe by using the additional mounting block on the rear it could be done to make a easier removal of the cross rod , without having it have to go through a hole in the rear apron.

[Pat Comeau]

Hi Eldon, one suggestion...don't screw the top like in your drawing...you will have cabinet drop problem cause all the force is on top of the guitar and with the neck and changer, keyhead ect...will add alot of weight plus your hand with the bar when playing, one method would be to have a full rail inside the front apron and instead of the shaft going in the rear apron i would cut 1/8" or 3/16" thick angle peice by one 1"X1" with some sort of lock washer to hold the shaft, i've seen this method on alot of profesional builders and it seems like a logic method, that way you can take of any cross shaft by itself without removing anything else with just 2 scews holding the angle in place.

[Georg]

Eldon, since you're still pondering your options...

The only PSG I have contemplated buying new from builder in later years, was built with/on angle aluminum rails at front and backside that carried everything - changer and mechanics. This two/three rails - two rails for narrow and three for wide body steels, were screwed to the end pieces, so mechanically the PSG was assembled and set up on its feet before the wooden body was put on.

The wood-body with neck was screwed on from the inside, for appearance and to dampen/control the "aluminum sound".
On that construction the backside wooden apron could be taken off as a separate piece, so cross-shafts could be slid out.

Result: a very good and traditionally-looking steel, with top class tone and sustain and no audible body-drop. (I didn't buy one because the builder reported problems setting it up with my U12 copedent on the original changer.)

Yeah, I know, it breaks with traditional building methods, but most PSGs have aluminum enforcement inside their wooden bodies anyway so why not take it all the way and use an aluminum frame to remove all stress-factors. The wooden body, that is put on mostly for appearance and tone-tuning, can then be made to look any way one likes. The type of wood and how the "body" is assembled don't matter much, since there's no stress on the wooden parts.

I know I'll be going down this track when I finally start building steels, so thought it was right to mention it here.

[Eldon]

WOw, Great Ideas!

Thanks!

[Bill Ford]

here's how I did it. 1/4" thk X 3" alum angle full length of body, cut the inside radius square with aprox 1/2" lip for a stop, drilled for crossrod bushings, firm against top plate,screwed to front apron. You can see where the oprons were glued/screwed to top plate, top plate is 5/4" straight grain maple, front/back aprons 3/4" birdseye, neck 3/4" walnut....Bill

[Bill Ford]

Top/front view....How did I get the deeeeep red stain with one application?...Bent, your answer don't count !!!

[Bent]

Bill, I'll zip up.
Yeah, guys, make this a New Years guessing game. What did Bill use?