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Many 70's electric solid bodied guitars were/are uncomfortably heavy.
The use of Materials such as Hard Northern or White Ash for bodies,
while extremely durable and sonically pleasing for much of the music of that time,
loud and requiring sustain with out feedback.
The weight was a turn-off. Hence the trend towards other materials such as swamp ash...pine etc,
and other weight reducing things like the chambering of Les Paul's (tone chambers):-)?
Here is a guitar made from white ash the body of which originally came in approximate weight of 7.5 pounds.
After assembly the weight would be too heavy and not feel right-at least for me.
I thought of various ways to reduce the weight and decided to add lightening holes.
As you can see there were many.
the body also took on a more sustaining tone like quality when rapped.
I decided to basically "tune the body" in similar fashion to a carved arch-top guitar.
In this case it was rap-drill...drill a bit deeper-go back and drill some more etc...until tonal uniformity was achieved.
suprisingly the surface feel of the wood is appealing too-a bonus
-the assemble guitar now has the feel of comfortable balanced weight-
to save money instead of weight; so to help pay for real important parts...(bareknuckle Cobras-awesome!)-
the metal pickguard and control plate were made from re-purposed silver-plated engraved copper/brass
antique serving trays purchased from a thrift store for about 4 dollars...3 ply might have cost me 20-
In the end I came up with a rather odd industrial looking but interesting instrument,
but more importantly-
it is comfortable to play-which I think is the most important feature.

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You just pick up a chord, go twang, and you're got music. -Sid Vicious

WOW. That's a lot of drilling. How many drill bits did you end up using? They seem fairly well lined up. Did you use a CNC?

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Yes, lots of holes.
I used a hand held power drill and a perforated aluminium template held loose so save time.
-there are many holes and it took quite long time hours in fact...
my wife thought I was going nuts out in the garage over
several sessions a period of 3 or 4 days
I have no CNC. If I did maybe I'd try it.
I saw pictures of Trussart guitars and it inspired me, those of course I think are steel.
)

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You just pick up a chord, go twang, and you're got music. -Sid Vicious

I like it.

Me too, It's a fun project.
-guitars have all the components of a great hobby
-woodworking, metalwork , electronics and of course the mechanics of the whole thing.
I'm really enjoying working with the metal.
Here I have made some insert covers. I had to take the edges down to frame and elevate the ornate part as there was minimal clearance which made them to tight to put back together. Copper grinds away easy with a dremel.

Another fellow in seeing these covers said it may cause them to make odd noises and weird harmonics
and I thought to myself...well that's the whole point of electric guitars aint it?


I still have to "vacuum" the holes and clean it up a little. I'm Kinda liken the "steampunk" look.

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You just pick up a chord, go twang, and you're got music. -Sid Vicious

UPDATE added ...the covers although interesting and ornate do affect the sound a whole lot.
They change sound at although is not bad, it stifles the open, almost reverb like quality of the single coils.
The bass although a little clearer did become less pronounced as well

-A cool look though not a good idea to muzzle those blade style single coils.
Better to remove the covers in this day and age.
Overall I'm am happy with this hobby project and learned a lot.

the holes removed over a pound of the original weight.
From about 7.3 to 6.

Just for interests sake of how the new p/u's fit in these old parts
Heres a shot of what the old oversize surrounds and rings look like on the flipside.
Mods had to be done to the steel bottom plates to accommodate any protruded parts on the underside of the p/u's. similar to the bottom plates on a fender tele bridge p/u Keeping the inductor plates helps them go in easily as well as affect the tone.
The pickups themselves remain in the original condition.

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You just pick up a chord, go twang, and you're got music. -Sid Vicious

Very cool!