Official Luthiers Forum!

This question gets into an area that requires me to study and read, so please refer me to a good Luthier book. There are books that show how to construct a guitar from ready-made bodies and necks, but I'm about to launch into woodworking territory.

So my starting point is a basic question. When a lam top piece is added to a solid body stock, do I have the body thickness planed thinner to accommodate the lam top?

Ed

The book you seek is Make Your Own Electric Guitar by Melvyn Hiscock.

Let's say you were building a strat with a basswood body and a 1/4" maple cap. Since a strat is 1 3/4" thick you would need 1 1/2" of basswood.

Yes. Here's a shot or two of a tele style I'm working on. The New Guinea Rosewood body has a Silky Oak cap at 1/4". The body was taken down to a 1/4" less than the finish thickness...

Another vote for Hiscock's book - he builds three different instrument showing the three styles of neck attachments (set or glued in, bolt on and thru neck) on both flat topped (Fender style) and carved top (Gibson style) bodies. He talks about all of the geometry issues as well as tools, materials, finishing and wiring. I built my Les Paul copy using only that book and a good set of plans.

Tell us more about the instrument you want to build - are you using plans and if so which ones? There are some very good build threads for different kinds of guitars - those can be very helpful.

And yes, the total thickness is whatever is called out on your plans. Often the body is hollowed out to remove some weight and/or to provide channels for wiring. Top plate is usually a fancy piece of wood that covers the channels and of course looks good. Here is my Lester - it is flamed maple over a mahogany body



One thing to think about if you are going to use a cap is whether you will put a binding on it - the binding frequently will cover the glue seam so the thickness of the cap should be less than the height of the binding. Hiscock explains all of this and you can see the binding around the edge in the picture.

Thank you all for posting the pictures of your lam-top guitar projects. They are beautiful instruments. You are truly a generous group here. Ed

Verhoevenc, Thank you. Interesting, I decided my first step was to make the templates to route out the body blank and you cover that right away. Great instructions. Ed

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"The Mystical Mumbo Jumbo About Looferin Around."

by ?adma

Published by
The ?adma~pa Institute for Woodbee Loofers.

Dis be a really good mimeographed book~let on all the
crapola a beginner really don't needs to know about building.
Includes a chapter on Bondo and one on how to changing strings.

Just shove 20 bucks in an envelope to ?adma C/o
dis here web site and Lance will send you out
one asp.


blessings
?adma

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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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Lol Padma. I would buy your book; something tells me it might be fun.

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http://www.PeakeGuitars.com

Just be sure its a Lam top....not a Lame top. That would be unfortunate