Pyroiguana Posted June 15, 2008 Report Share Posted June 15, 2008 So, im building a 12 String Vox Teardrop, as you might have guessed from the title. It's for my brother. I've just started the woodworking on this build, decided to post a topic so I can ask some questions as I go along. Here's the plan: The body will be chambered, so I am cutting out a top and bottom out of cherry at the moment. There will be a f-hole, design undecided at the moment. The top will have a medium-shallow carve. Two Phat Cat P90s, gotoh 12-string bridge, most likely standard les paul type electronics. Bolt on neck, made out of hard maple and a undecided fretboard wood (still need to take a trip down to the store and let my brother pick something out). It will be hand painted, we'll see about that when we get to it. Expect some kinda interesting psychadelic design. All I've done so far is glue up & roughly cut out the bottom half. After the chambers and control cavity are routed out, I'll start work on the top. After I get the f-hole and areas beneath it and above the control cavity to the right thickness (the layout and mounting of the controls still needs to be designed), I'll glue the two together and then router the edges with a template. Then comes the neck, and then after that I'll route out the neck pocket and pickups. Then carving, and controls. That's the plan. I'll start posting pictures of my progress soon. Probably will get around to the chambers and control cavity tonight or tomorrow afternoon. Okay now for my first question. I've seen alot of warnings about chambers and feedback. What are some good tips to minimize this? My brother does use quite a bit of feedback in his playing, but his current guitar is a solid body and the feedback is restricted to the strings so it's easily controlled. Heavy body feedback is very much not welcome. Is it better to have multiple serperate chambers, or one or two large ones? Now, another question just popped into my head about feedback. What elements contibute to causing strings to feedback? For example, my brother's solid body gretsch can feedback extremely easily but my strat and my last custom guitar dont. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geo Posted June 16, 2008 Report Share Posted June 16, 2008 Okay now for my first question. I've seen alot of warnings about chambers and feedback. What are some good tips to minimize this? My brother does use quite a bit of feedback in his playing, but his current guitar is a solid body and the feedback is restricted to the strings so it's easily controlled. Heavy body feedback is very much not welcome. Is it better to have multiple serperate chambers, or one or two large ones? Now, another question just popped into my head about feedback. What elements contibute to causing strings to feedback? For example, my brother's solid body gretsch can feedback extremely easily but my strat and my last custom guitar dont. My suggestion... keep the top pretty thick (1/4" or more?), and it shouldn't contribute to feedback. I don't have any answers for your second question. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pyroiguana Posted June 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2008 Hmm. Well, the top will be around that thickness over all the chambers except for the f-hole one, which will probably be as thick as a normal semihollow top, maybe a little thicker. I was planning to route the chamber for that to take up the whole left half of the body, essentially. So I guess it would basically be the same as a semihollow interior, albiet with thicker walls and rear. Would that be that prone to feedback? If there's a good chance of uncontrollable feedback, I'm totally willing to forget about the f-hole and instead just keep the top above it nice and thick. I was planning on doing the chambers like the thinline: Thanks for the response. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted June 16, 2008 Report Share Posted June 16, 2008 As long as you're keeping a center block, you should be okay. The real uncontrollable feedback comes from fully hollow guitars -- I had an Epiphone Sorrento that was awesome for that...you could feel the entire guitar vibrate as you stepped closer to the amp....had to keep your hands on the strings at all time...problem was, it would squeal (microphonics) sometimes, and you never knew when. I didn't sell it because of that, though. I love the teardrop shape, can't wait to see the picks. I imagine he won't be trying to play this sitting down? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geo Posted June 16, 2008 Report Share Posted June 16, 2008 Hmm. Well, the top will be around that thickness over all the chambers except for the f-hole one, which will probably be as thick as a normal semihollow top, maybe a little thicker. I was planning to route the chamber for that to take up the whole left half of the body, essentially. So I guess it would basically be the same as a semihollow interior, albiet with thicker walls and rear. Would that be that prone to feedback? If there's a good chance of uncontrollable feedback, I'm totally willing to forget about the f-hole and instead just keep the top above it nice and thick. I was planning on doing the chambers like the thinline: Thanks for the response. If you do it like that picture, I can't imagine the body would feedback. The pickups, neck, and bridge are still attached to a solid hunk of wood, so structurally, that's a solid body guitar. I suppose the chambers on the sides might influence something, but I doubt it. The top wood above the sides is what's vibrating. I doubt that that can impart much in the way of vibrations to the bridge. In a fully hollow archtop, the vibrations are feeding straight back into the bridge. Just my take on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pyroiguana Posted June 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2008 Alright then, that's great. I'll do the thinline style chambering. I just picked up some jacaranda cara for the fretboard. The piece looks alot like rosewood, which was our first choice, but they said rosewood was hard to get in their area... The piece is nice. Might possibly be able to get 4 fretboards out of it, even. It's got a little sapwood on the back which I might use on a practice neck i'm making (i love sapwood, my brother doesn't so.. woohoo!) The practice neck is for some future build. I might as well post a few pics of that here, too. Wouldn't have been my first choice for a fretboard (IMO it's a little boring) but my brother wanted it, so.. Can't do the routing till tomorrow maybe. Our planer leaves quite a bit of nicks in the wood, so i'm gonna thickness sand it to get a nice and flat gluing surface. Cept, I don't have a thickness sander. Fortunately, the guy at the store said that he'll do it for 5 bucks. Will bring it down there tomorrow afternoon. Im fortunate to be doing this when I'm young, I have ALOT of time on my hands Mickguard - Yeah, he pretty much never plays sitting down. No worries about that. Mexnoob - Haha, if you read that little description, he starts out by saying stuffing foam in your f-holes is ugly and totally ineffective, and then goes on to recommend a product, which, strangely, involves stuffing foam in your f-holes. In any case, I think I'll be fine without em. Thanks for the tip, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pyroiguana Posted June 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2008 (edited) : P Well, here's a pic of the jacaranda, and the bottom half of the body at the moment. The final, smooth shape will be routed after gluing, it's just a rough cut now. I couldn't really get a nice pic of the jacaranda wetted down... dries too fast, and my camera kind of sucks. Couldnt get it to look like it does IRL on the picture. Basically, it's got the same coloring as rosewood. Don't mind the scribbling on it right now, I was trying to figure out what the cavity cover was gonna look like and how it'd work with the chambers. Halfway through doing that, I realized I had to sand it anyway XD I think I got a good control layout planned out in my head, though. Edited June 16, 2008 by Pyroiguana Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geo Posted June 17, 2008 Report Share Posted June 17, 2008 I'll be watching your project! It looks pretty cool! A 12-string with P-90's should be awesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKO Posted June 18, 2008 Report Share Posted June 18, 2008 Awesome, I love teardrops... well all italian guitars! The solid block should mean you get almost no feedback, but I imagine the f hole will weaken its resistance a lot. As it said in the PDF those plugs work by sealing the body from the outside air, which foam doesn't do. I can't wait to see more progress. Have you decided on a colour? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pyroiguana Posted June 18, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 18, 2008 It's going to be hand painted, in some sort of psychadelic design. I'm still waiting on him to figure that out, though. Progress is going a bit slow now... I was planning on beginning the routing today, but we couldnt get it down to the wood shop for thickness sanding today. So yesterday I glued up the top, and I'll bandsaw that today. Routing will begin tomorrow, instead. I'll also cut out a routing template for the pickups today. I also gotta plan out the carve. I was gonna use the drill press method, so do you think it's a good idea to glue up some pine, and do a prototype carve on it? So I could see my first plan flows nicely. Would also get some practice carving. But. I need some advice: The top is currently 3/4 inch thick. The carve will take up the top 1/2 inch of it. The left chamber, with the f-hole, needs to have a top to match the carve. What's the best way to do this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geo Posted June 19, 2008 Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 But. I need some advice: The top is currently 3/4 inch thick. The carve will take up the top 1/2 inch of it. The left chamber, with the f-hole, needs to have a top to match the carve. What's the best way to do this? Not quite sure what you're asking. Are you asking about routing/carving out the underside of the top? Or something else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pyroiguana Posted June 19, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 19, 2008 Yeah, that's exactly what I was asking. Sorry for the wierd wording... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pyroiguana Posted June 22, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2008 Still need a answer to that question! : ) ^ Update: I've been really busy with quite a few projects that have priority, so I don't have all tat much time to devote to this right now. But it is inching along, I expect I'll be able to work on it pretty much full time in a week or so. Still tyring to figure out the depth lines for the carve top... In other news, I just stopped by radioshack and built myself a piezo pickup for my sitar! It work amazingly well. The simplest project in my life... Get the peizo out of the casing, solder the two wires to a jack, and presto you got a pickup. Being a sorta quicky project, it doesn't look too hot but hey, it works. The circut board & peizo crystals are seperated by a bit of caulk, and the peizo and jack are held to the sitar by duct tape XD Next time, I'll design something more classy. The parts for the whole thing only cost me 5 bucks! I don't see any reason why you would buy a 50 dollar transducer when you can make it yourself with 5 bucks. It sounds excellent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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