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Hello this is one of my first posts, and my first topic. I'm totally new to guitar making.

This is an experimental guitar project. It has been difficult to get good information on the internet, because it seems most experimental guitar searches produce guys who experiment with making what sounds like noise to me on the guitar, or guitars designed to make strange noises and wailing sounds. I've got nothing against that, controlled feedback is cool, but I'm focused on making conventional music right now, or at least making regular string vibrations tuned to a scale. Also I might mention that I still might be interested in making kit guitars or modifying existing guitars with some of my ideas. I have a donor Squier Strat that I might modify once I get an idea of what I want to do.

Excuse me for rambling on, but whenever I mention this project I get a lot of questions so I'm just providing some robust information to start off. I would be interested in what other experimental guitar ideas you have tried, and to what results. There doesn't seem to be a forum for that that I know of.
I'm being a little bit secretive here, because I'm inventing stuff, so sorry if I'm vague. But you should get the idea of what I'm doing here. I think I have a simple question, which is basically what kind of wood is best for exprimenting. I guess it would be a hypothetical question like "If you were to experiment with how the frets, and neck work, and wanted to work with one piece of wood for the whole guitar what would you use?" I think Maple is the right answer from what I've read. The problem is that I would not be using a truss rod, because I'm drilling holes in it like swiss cheese so I need something that won't bend. I might be winding the strings really tight, however this might not be full scale to begin with. I've so far been working with 22" scale, sort of like an octave mandolin(?). I might need to use some metal to re-inforce the swiss cheese neck though. It would be perfectly fine if the neck was flat as a pancake, no need to adjust because of the way the frets work, like a lap guitar.

I am totally new to guitar making (I have done some mods, and my grandfather made mandolins as a hobby), but I want to make some experimental guitars and stringed instruments, probably starting with something like a dulcumer. I have some way out ideas that don't utilize the conventional construction of a guitar. This would be mainly electric guitars though.

These kinds of things would be mainly useful for finger picking styles.

I'm going mainly for something that has sustain and volume, and I can worry about how it sounds later. I'm going for functionality first, then improve the sound later. So we are talking about probably one cheap single coil pickup, crude homemade bridge and nut. I've seen old guitars with built in amplifiers, and I'm thinking of a built in speaker at the end of the headstock, or near the bridge. It would be played similar to a chapman stick like a tap instrument.
I have been using Red Oak so far with some mystery wood from a piece of furniture. The Red Oak seems to sound alright, but it is difficult to drill, it tends to be brittle. I had another piece of Maple, but I messed up on drilling holes in it. I'm drilling holes in it to place temporary frets on it and things like that.

Poplar and alder are soft and easy hardwoods to deal with, paint nicely too, MDF? Familiar with http://www.megatar.com/english/home.html

I will recommend some lurking to get to know some of the people here. No one is really interested in stealing any ideas, however I can understand your wanting to keep the cards close. Choose some one you are comfortable with, PM them, tell them your ideas, and if your lucky they will short cut you to the pros and cons of your idea.
Best of luck with your project

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There is an article in the current American Lutherie magazine about RM Mottola that briefly touches on how he makes prototype instruments - I believe that there are some back articles by him on this subject. Alan Carruth and others make a lot of experimental instruments to test concepts - it is nice if you can change one thing at a time to see how it affects the overall sound (Alan's acoustic soundports are a good example).

I prototype a fair amount with MDF for shapes, cauls, forms, and jigs, birch plywood for thin plates that I'll make out of spruce or koa or something expensive later, and plain old (but good quality) fir for solid objects. I also use Autocad and Solidworks for some shaping, and have access to a couple of cnc machines that are really good at making templates.

If I think that the choice of wood is going to affect the sound (acoustics mostly) I use that wood. I happen to think that starting from a known base and changing one thing at a time makes a lot of sense - for example, if you are experimenting with scale length, try to keep the string tension "normal" so you won't have two variables.

I'm also going to add that if you are new to guitar building (and maybe woodworking in general), you might want to concentrate on your shop chops before you get too wild with design - just making good tight joints and accurate measurements and all that stuff takes a long time. Don't ask me how I know LOL

So what exactly is the swiss cheese for?

Experimentation is awesome but it could be disappointing for a first build. It would probably benefit you a lot to start with a more simple guitar or bass design first, then when you've built that and played it, you'll have a better reference point for what to expect. It certainly helped me a lot. I jumped straight from a standard bolt-on neck to a guitar built out of a solid piece of wood.

Sustain and volume usually work sort of against each other, just so you know. If this is an electric instrument though, you can always just turn up the volume, although if you're using single coils, I would consider some lace noiseless pickups or to wire a humbucker in parallel.

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I'll have 200grams of swiss cheese holes, please.

Sounds like a monthy pyton's phrase

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

I can't really figure out what you are asking, Casey.
I would start with building a guitar out of whatever kind of wood,
and do your ideas on that.
Better yet, start with the Squier.