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So I am starting out on my first guitar build in the next couple of weeks (I say "guitar" build but it is really a guitar body build). What I have so far is...my material (ash with maple top) I picked up a neck it is maple, with abalone inlays (bolt on). I have my body shape I drew up in auto cad it is a repo of a Ibanez artist. I have my finish worked out in my head, I'm using black water based stain I picked up to do a sanded grey burst. I will then do a Lacquer finish. I sourced nitro lacquer which is really hard in Canada as it turns out. I think I will do a semi hollow, now here is a super noob question, the difference between a solid and a semi hollow is just simply the cavities yes? The biggest thing I need help figuring out is what pickups to get and what wiring setup to do. I am leaning towards Gibson 57 classics as I want a warmer sound rather than a heavy rock sound if that makes sense. Now is there a difference between a neck and a bridge pickup or is it just placement? I am sure there will be more questions but this is what I have for now.

Thanks guys!


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Hey Tyson,
Yes, a semi-hollow has cavities in it, and the top is usually glued to a block running down the center of the body or a block under the bridge.
Usually, a bridge pickup has more copper wire turns and outputs more signal than a neck pickup.
This is because the strings near the bridge don't vibrate as strong as at the neck.
Best wishes!
Dan

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Glad you are moving forward, Tyson. FWIW, here is a picture of a solid body with a cap - this is a LP and shows the routing from the switch in the upper bass bout to the electronic cavity. I'm ready to glue the cap on, once that is in place I'll carve the top and then route the pickup and neck cavities



Here is a similar guitar, also a LP but is "chambered" which means that the solid body is largely routed away. It makes the guitar much lighter and has an affect of the tone



This is a semi hollow body - more or less like an ES-335 altho most of them have the center block extending all the way to the end. The center block will hold the pickups, bridge and neck, the rest of the body is built sort of like an acoustic (kerfed lining on the rims). In this picture the top is glued on, that is the back next to the body



Yes, there are differences in the impedance of neck and bridge pickups - for humbuckers bridge are often around 9 Kohms and neck around 8, but check with the manufactures specs.

Edit to add an interesting observation - those three guitars all ended up the the same pickups in them, however they do have a difference in sound largely due to the air volume (or lack of) and resonance of the wood (or lack of).