Chambering a body?

[Jens]

I´m planning my next build which will be a wenge/ebony Warmoth neck on a wenge body.
The luthier that I´ll order the body wenge from can only get it in either 0,98" or 1,57" thickness.
I want it to be closer to 1,96" so I figure I´ll order two planks of the 0,98" and make the body chambered since I understand that wenge is pretty heavy.
Has anybody tried this and have any words of advice or warning concerning the building process?

 

[stefan]

If it's any help, I made my telestrat (rear-routed) this way. Bought one length of wood in half the thickness I wanted, cut in half and folded the two halves together to the grain was aligned. Screwed the two halves together somewhere non-critical (probably the neck pocket and pickup or bridge location, can't remember) and worked on the guitar like this until towards the end when I glued together and clamped (using 2 part glue that left a nice thin black line when dried).

This allows you to work on the guitar as once piece to get the shape and neck/pickup/control routes done, but separate the two halves as required to do things like the pickup wiring channels (simply a route in one half) and chambering (I did a little of this for weight reduction but should have done more).

 

[Jens]

If it's any help, I made my telestrat (rear-routed) this way. Bought one length of wood in half the thickness I wanted, cut in half and folded the two halves together to the grain was aligned. Screwed the two halves together somewhere non-critical (probably the neck pocket and pickup or bridge location, can't remember) and worked on the guitar like this until towards the end when I glued together and clamped (using 2 part glue that left a nice thin black line when dried).

This allows you to work on the guitar as once piece to get the shape and neck/pickup/control routes done, but separate the two halves as required to do things like the pickup wiring channels (simply a route in one half) and chambering (I did a little of this for weight reduction but should have done more).

Ah, thanks! That´s a good idea. I´ll probably do somthing similar. I´m not after the sound of a hollowbody, I just want the weight reduced, so I guess I´ll try to do the chambering like Warmoth does. I´ll post pictures when I´ve got the work under way.