Advice on hollow body build please

Andysoundbass

Andysoundbass

Sep 7, 2017
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#1
I am thinking of a hollow body fretless 33" scale build. I am wondering if i only put a top on (i have an 8mm thick piece of zebrano, though will prob be 6mm by the time rough bandsaw marks are removed) and make the body from mahogany (at least what is often sold as mahogany, maybe Khaya?, i purloined from leftovers my neighbour was having some work done). Leaving 15mm thick sides, thicker around the neck join, possibly a singlecut with a fair part of upper horn left solid. How thick should the bottom be if i don't use a seperate back, 15mm or is 10mm enough? Also would it be wise to leave extra thickness at the bottom around where a center block would otherwise be for strength/stability? What about enough height to mount a mag pickup leaving a pickup sized hole in the top with 2mm or so gap to allow the top to vibrate? I am planning to have string through body ferrules from a chunky section leaving a bridge overlapping where the body is not supported where a wooden saddle would sit. I am also wondering about bracing the top, similar to an acoustic e.g. two full width bracings? I am inspired by some other basses/designs = Safran hollowbody bass, Adamovic hollow 33, Rob Allen Deep 4 (although i have never been happy with piezos), Liutaio Mottola Mezzaluna acoustic electric and other builds i have seen on talkbass. I am intending to use as much as possible wood i have already (Mostly junk i find, offcuts, pieces from wood recycling centre (Brighton UK) and possibly an Ebanol fretboard. I am keen on not directly using any rainforest.
Many questions i know!
Anyone made anything similar and have tips to share?
 
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#2
I've made 2 guitars with zebrawood. The one on the right being a semi hollow body. The neck is a solid 2x4 of bird's eye maple, that runs just to the bridge, the rest of the top is quite thin, perhaps 1/4" thick (3-4mm?) The back is shallow bowl shaped (kind of like a thin ovation maybe 4" deep from the front) between 13-15mm thick or so.

Resonates pretty well. The single bridge pu gives it a jangly strat like sound (which I wanted) the neck humbucker rounds out the sound with a fat woody tone, together they sound very much like an acoustic.
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#3
Beautiful Zebrano! Thanks for your experience Videojunkie.
It may be some time until i get this project started, i have plenty work on and its cold and damp here in UK. I don't have a worjshop and nade previous instruments outdoors in the summer.
 
#4
Be careful with it, as it is among the family of toxic tropical hardwoods and you don't want to breathe the sawdust. Also I found that it was very specific about which way it wanted to be cut (or machined) on the solid body, you can see the ogive at the edge of the body, and I had to work the router in opposite directions to keep from splitting things out or burning the wood. There is also a subtle relief around the pickups and bridge that I had to carve 'uphill' on one side, because it would not carve in the other direction.
 
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