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I've been having a really hard time finding much information about using larger than normal bodies in solidbody electric guitars. Has anyone built or played such a guitar? If so, what was it made of and how did it sound?

The reason that I ask is that that I am considering making one. I am looking for a guitar with good deep bass response, with enough brightness and to balance it out. I want a nice full, open sound. Relatively speaking, I do not want quite as much midrange; very lower-midrangey guitars sound muddy to me, and upper-midrangey guitars sound piercing and harsh to me. I was going to go with a swamp ash body, as a quality swamp ash body meets this general tonal description and also resonates very well for a guitar wood. I was thinking that I could go with a maple neck/ebony fretboard to enhance brightness and clarity (you can only get so much low end out of the neck), and then balance out that brightness by making the body larger than normal. My understanding is that (as with most instruments in general), a larger body tends to produce a stronger bass response, but can result in a certain amount of muddiness in electric guitars due to the bass to lower mids range getting overcrowded. I was thinking that since swamp ash bodies and maple/ebony necks both tend to stay tight well, that they might be able to handle it without muddying up.

The problem is that, as mentioned above, it seems like almost no one makes guitars with larger bodies. (Pointy, narrow ones like some BC Riches don't count!) As such, I haven't been able to find much of anything on the topic, and while it sounds great in theory (to me, anyway), I don't have much evidence of how it will work in practice. If anyone has any experience with guitars with larger bodies, I would love to hear about it.

Thanks!

orpeus

Define "Larger than normal". How bass heavy is a Gibson Explorer or an ES-335? I would consider thse to be larger than normal, but trying to predict exactly what it will sound like when you're finished is an exercise in madness. It will sound how it sounds, no matter what you do. I made a purpleheart telecaster once that weighed 10 pounds without any hardware, just the wood, and it was very bassy and full sounding, with good clarity on the top end. Someone told me it would be extremely muddy, but it wasn't muddy at all. I used Seymour Duncan Nashville Studio pickups (now called the "5-2") for it, and it sounded great.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

i thinkee you thinkee too much about the wood volume in an electric.
i've thought and have done much on the tonal characteristics of wood in an electric.
i made a solid bod out of solid maple, a chambered git out of koa, one with mainly mahog with a maple cap, a douglas fir bod with a koa neck, a solid redwood one, and they all sound great.
i think the pickups are more important.
just my opinion.
they do sound different unplugged though.
unplugged, doug fir wins, or maybe the chambered koa, redwood sounds good too, small bodies.
sorry if this didn't help.

Yeah, I tend to have that problem. I tell myself that it is justified because if I optimize 10 things that each make a tiny difference, it will end up being noticeable. But really, I just enjoy obsessing over stuff.

I do agree that the pickups are far more important to the sound on solidbody electrics than anything having to do with the body. However, I plan on using some relatively transparent pickups that aren't super-high-gain, so I would like the natural guitar tone to be close to what I want.


Bigger than an Explorer. Closer to the size of an ES-335 (maybe even as big as an ES-335), except not hollow. Has anyone messed around with this kind of beast?

Thanks!

orpeus

I have never tried a large body, but a multiscale instrument can deliver the characteristics you described.
I posted a telecaster a little while ago that is a multiscale, and even though the body is modified and even smaller than a normal telecaster the bass is super deep and full, and the trebles very bright and clear. The scale is 26.25-24.75.
I was actually quite surprised at how full the bass is, it almost seems to be bordering on bass guitar tone.

hey, i been thinking that a big bodied chambered would be very cool.
probably be nice and light, and nice weight balance too.
if you like good passive single coil pickups, i like the emg ones stewmac sells.
i think it's the hrtz line that's, the more expensiveones.
7.5 k ohms, or thereabouts.
they are like hi-fi pickups to me.
oh, i thinkee way too much about this stuff too.
way too much......

I don't believe the size of the body makes much difference in the tone of a solid body electric, assuming we're talking pretty "standard" sizes(not mini sized bodies). In an acoustic, yes, but there I think you're dealing to a large extent with box volume, ie; the volume of air the top has to work with. I don't think that transfers to a solid body. I think they're two diffent animals alltogether.
I also suspect that the reason you don't see a lot of larger than normal electrics is that the weight factor prohibits it (unless you chamber, which kinda defeats the purpose of that big 'ole slab of wood, no?).
I'm of the opinion that probably the biggest thing that affects tone in an electric is build quality(how tightly fitting the parts are, especially the neck to body joint) followed closely by the pickups/electronics. If I were you I'd choose a standard wood combo, good pickups, and concentrate on the quality of the construction. It's my belief that that is where you'll find your tone. MHO.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

schrecter did a stratish guitar for the Cure's Robert Smith

ultracure it was called

I did a setup on one once.

come the end of the world.......

it'd be the LAST guitar I'd reach for to play.

it's too big even for a canoe paddle.

HORRIBLE!!!

IMHO of course!

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