I then used one of the chunks I sawed off from the body to try to calculate the approximate density of the wood. It weighs approximately 35g, and having immersed it in a jug of water, it's approximately 70cc - so the wood is about 0.5g/cc.
I'd like to remove about 300g, so that's 600cc - but having marked out some possible cavity locations (see pics below), and assuming I go to a depth of 3cm then they'll remove about 460cc, therefore about 230g. Not ideal, and obviously I'll then re-add a little of that weight when I cover the cavities with some thin pieces of wood.
So the question is, is it really worth the hassle for what probably won't be a huge weight gain? It's going to be a pain to do, and it'll certainly be a pain to do well - not just creating the cavities but adding recesses around the edges, cutting and gluing the covers over the recesses.
Well, I've decided it is worth the hassle. It's still pretty heavy so anything I can gain will make a difference, and frankly this project is about the experience as much as anything else, so why not do it now when it doesn't really matter if I mess it up? Nothing ventured nothing gained and all that! I'll do one cavity first and see how close my calculations were, and then I'll have a better idea of what the end result will be - and whether I can do a little less or a little more to achieve what I want.
Stevie-Steve,
ReplyDeleteJust a thought. Cavities can be good, and bad. You could affect the resonance of the body. And the reasons we LOVE heavy guitars is that they have a deep DEEP sound (Jackson Kelly). But here's an idea... instead of removing great chunks... what if you put a series of fairly deep, long, parallel recessions in the back of the body. Like some sort of heat sink look. If you make them all go in the same direction you'll keep a lot of the cross-neck stiffness to the body. Who knows, it could be a design cue for all your guitars to come (I want in for 10% - my idea!).
Richie-Rich
I agree that cavities can be good and bad, but in a body made of plywood it probably won't affect the sound too much :-) This bass is always going to be a bit of a piece of crap (it was to start with!) so making it playable is the main concern to me really.
ReplyDeleteThe principle of the "heat sink" idea sounds like a good one, and you're right that it'd help retain stiffness, but I probably wouldn't lose enough weight that way. Also the plywood won't be as affected with its stiffness as a piece of "real" wood would be, as it's pretty rock solid anyway (hence the ridiculous weight of it).
You can be in for 10% if you invest ;-)
Steve
Get that weight off. You're just going to lose sustain, and who wants long sustain anyway. Be honest, ho often do you let a note go for a bar?
ReplyDeleteThe recesses are easy. Do your cavity, then use a rebating bit. It takes a minute, tops. I think you'll be surprised at how much difference you'll make to the weight. Remember that you have an idea in your head of an ideal guitar weight, and you feel like this is heavy because it is more than that. Think of the 230g not as a percentage of total weight, but as a percentage of the difference between the weight of this guitar and the "ideal" weight that you have in your head.
Hi Jim,
ReplyDeleteSustain's not that important really is it, the weight is definitely the more important thing with this bass.
The percentages thing is a good way to think of it, yes. Certainly I'm a little bit influenced by how light my Aria 5-string is (~4kg for the whole bass, so the body is probably < 2kg), and although I'm aware that this one will never be that light, it does influence the way I think about it. But I think that whatever I can remove will be worth it - and thinking of it in percentage terms like you describe we're talking about 30-50% of the difference between "current" and "ideal", which definitely sounds worth it, rather than thinking of it as < 10% of the total weight.
I do wish I could afford a decent router to do this, but I'll be using hand tools - a basic hand drill to hollow them out (with tape round the bit to get the depth right), and chisels where necessary. Though as my wife always tells me, I'm a perfectionist and very methodical, so it'll take time but I'm happy to take that time to get it right!
Steve