super lightweight body?

[swarfrat]

So I bought this 25" scale P-bass for my kid. He loves it. Adores it. Almost as much as drums.  Only it's still way too big and heavy for him.  Thinking about a lighter body for it. Like, balsa light, small body, but with a long upper horn.  Tone isn't really a concern, strength is.

I'm kinda thinking about a plywood or fir center block, like a neck through (only this one is bolt on), and styrofoam skinned with luan. Not really sure about edging it though. I could make a body, hollow the wings out, then fill the cavity (foam, cotton balls, just something to kill the ring).  Is plywood even strong enough to take the neck stress in the flat direction, or should I butcher block it?

Any mad scientist ideas?

 

[rgand]

How about just routing the back of it to remove as much as a hollow body would be and put covers over the cavities?

 

[swarfrat]

I guess I was thinking it would actually be less work to make one than trying to fit covers.  I'd also like to take some meat off the bottom (towards the leg) side of the bass too. Just enough wood to hold the bridge, strap button, pickup and controls.  Heck, maybe a frame skeleton like that is what I need anyway. Won't resemble a p-bass anymore, but, it should certainly knock together fast.

 

[Cagey]

Basswood is generally pretty light, and while it's a tad spongy relative to most hardwoods it would certainly take a lot more abuse than Balsa or styrofoam.

 

[Jesse]

Basswood guitars are extremely plentiful in the shredder market. The only real issue people ever have with them is the trem stud anchors loosening up over time on Floyd-equipped guitars.

On the bass front, John Myung from Dream Theater uses a basswood bass.

 

[swarfrat]

I'm kinda pondering something along these lines.

The retro-futuristic upper horn is more for construction ease than weight savings. It means I can glue and screw parts on instead of routing it out of a much bigger blank.  Same with the leg rest.  Figure out where it should go, glue & screw.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Basswood guitars are extremely plentiful in the shredder market. The only real issue people ever have with them is the trem stud anchors loosening up over time on Floyd-equipped guitars.

On the bass front, John Myung from Dream Theater uses a basswood bass.

If the stud anchors are properly installed, this shouldn't be an issue.  I've got 2 basswood bodies that are 20+ years old, never had an issue with the studs, and I'm a bit hard on them.

I think treating the holes with superglue helps to strengthen the walls, so whenever I encounter a situation as described above as I did with a recent Hamer XT, I reinforced the holes as such prior to re-installing the bushings.  It's a trick I learned when I worked at Warmoth on how they strengthen fret slots.

 

[swarfrat]

I'm thinking I can probably make it out of fir or yellow pine (cheap, available, sufficient for purpose at hand)  Hardest thing should be making a template for the existing neck pocket.  (Not rocket science since I have a negative pattern already - the existing body).

Here's the player and instrument as is. It's an $80 ebay kid's instrument, but it's his. Part of making a new one was to not screw up "his" or take it away until the project is done.  I recently sold some of MY drums, including a set of hats and a cymbal that he was using. He noticed, and was very disappointed.

Yeah, seeing this picture again, getting rid of everything below the 1st string is a Good Idea (TM).  That and the weight are largely what makes it so unweildy.

 

[bagman67]

I would go with basswood.  Any fir or pine you get that is not specifically marketed for instrument building may well be insufficiently aged, and may ooze sap for some time to come. Basswood's cheap, too.

 

[swarfrat]

Hadn't thought of that aspect of dimensional framing lumber. Yeah. http://hardwoodstore.com/ is a couple towns over,  8/4 Poplar Surfaced 3 sides runs $4.15/bf in minimal quantities, and this would be like 2bf.  Basswood is similar.  Of course they also have seasoned white,yellow pine even cheaper, but poplar looks like a good choice.

 

[Jesse]

Basswood guitars are extremely plentiful in the shredder market. The only real issue people ever have with them is the trem stud anchors loosening up over time on Floyd-equipped guitars.

On the bass front, John Myung from Dream Theater uses a basswood bass.

If the stud anchors are properly installed, this shouldn't be an issue.  I've got 2 basswood bodies that are 20+ years old, never had an issue with the studs, and I'm a bit hard on them.

I think treating the holes with superglue helps to strengthen the walls, so whenever I encounter a situation as described above as I did with a recent Hamer XT, I reinforced the holes as such prior to re-installing the bushings.  It's a trick I learned when I worked at Warmoth on how they strengthen fret slots.

It definitely doesn't affect all of them, but it does come up fairly regularly.  I've seen it on more than a couple Ibanez guitars, which are predominantly made of basswood.  It's not usually a super obvious problem.  The guitar will suffer from some tuning stability problems and when you look you'll notice that the paint all around the anchor is cracked.

The fix with CA is exactly how people generally fix those.  If it's real bad, I know of people who will build up the front wall of the hole with filler prior to reinstalling the anchor.

Poplar is popular for the wings of a lot of those old 80's guitars, particularly Jackson.