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I wanted to make star shaped holes that would be filled with resin for lights to shine through. would this hurt the soundboard? If yes, what are some alternate methods to achieve this same affect? I just want led stars. Thanks in advanced

I hope you try that. I would like to see the result and the concept sounds interesting. Alternative ideas can be cool.You often see tops with holes in unusual places, so I doubt that it would be a structural issue, unless you try to put the whole solar system on there.. I've never worked with resin the way you are taking about, but some builders have used it in rosettes, so that is probably workable too. No way to tell how it will effect the sound. Everything you do to the top will affect the sound. I'm guessing the guitar might have a pickup in it anyway, which would midigate some of the effect, if any, on the acoustic volume and tone. Good luck!

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“ The meaning of life is to find your gift and the purpose of life is to give it away” Pablo Picasso

How many, how big, and where?

Generally the rosette area and upper bout are fair game for this kind of thing. Down around the bridge I'd be more wary, as the soundboard bends under string tension and could pop them out, and they will have some acoustic effect (though maybe not enough to worry about if they're small and not too numerous). Humidity change may also pop them out regardless of where they are.

I'd rout out slightly larger pockets around the stars on the inside of the soundboard, about half way through the total thickness. Round over the corners on the pockets, to minimize the chance of starting cracks from the sharp points. This will also give the resin more glue area, loaded in shear which is stronger, and not stressed much by bending due to being in the middle of the thickness (on the neutral axis, in engineering terms). Use cedar or redwood since they're opaque. On spruce the thinner area of the pocket would likely show through when lit from inside.

I would also like to see the finished result Though I'm sure it will be a lot better in person than in a photo.

+1 for Dennis' idea about recessing the inside of the top. Try your resin first to make sure it will polish to be transparent. Or leave them open without the resin. You could paint the inside of back black where it can be seen through the stars.

Ed M

I didn't consider paint. The resin I have is from ac moore. The brand dries transparent and polishes really well so that's not a problem. At the time of typing, I'm trying to find a picture of my old guitar for everyone because that's where the idea came from. They were little glow in the dark stars also from ac moore.
EDIT: Here it is. It was a really cheap guitar but it was pretty good for it's price and lasted longer than I expected. https://photos.app.goo.gl/QSX75uALC3H5wfKE6

https://www.technoglowproducts.com/glow ... nt=Generic

If I understand the ad, you can get this glow in the dark paint in clear, colorless paints that glow in the dark. Paint your stars on the soundboard and dim the lights, or add a black light lamp to the room.

I didn't want to go glow in the dark again. I wanted to be able to switch the lights on and off. Sorry for the confusion.

"I wanted to make star shaped holes that would be filled with resin for lights to shine through. would this hurt the soundboard?"

Yes, most likely it will hurt the ability of the board to vibrate as a plate. How much is hard to say.
Personally, I wouldn't do it to an instrument of any real value, but might do it on one that I would not have any heartache replacing the top on. Most of us are amateur guitar builders who can easily re-top a guitar, so if making the top holy didn't work out we would just replace it with another. If you aren't able to do this, then maybe you might want to reconsider.
Many of us are old geezers that have been fooling around building instruments for 40+ years and might offer encouragement to each other to try something unusual, and not a 20something in south Philly looking for advice on how to make her guitar unique without hurting it's ability to make music, so consider what we say from that perspective.

Check this out. The holes aren't filled.

I've heard this guitar live. On stage with a pickup it sounds great. Acoustically, well....let's just say there's something missing.

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Trevor Gore, Luthier. Australian hand made acoustic guitars, classical guitars; custom guitar design and build; guitar design instruction.

http://www.goreguitars.com.au

Trevor - the link didn't come through

Ed M

Strange. Works on my computer. It's not a secure site, (but neither is this site) so you may have to "approve" it in your browser. (It's linked via the word "this", which you may have missed).

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Trevor Gore, Luthier. Australian hand made acoustic guitars, classical guitars; custom guitar design and build; guitar design instruction.

http://www.goreguitars.com.au

Trevor’s link works for me.


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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I'm sorry if I came off as upset, in previous replies. I had an idea, thought it would be neat and don't want to accidentally destroy something I made on my days off.

Link works for me. This would actually be perfect for the original led set up. I was using a adafruit led uke tutorial for the lights, making the instrument from scratch and upscaling it to fit a guitar.

Hi Geneva,
In my youth, many years ago, before there were home computers, much less the internet - when there were "old" guitars rather than "vintage" guitars I used to modify them to make them more playable and make changes to them that I later regretted.
Some of us amateur guitar builders are old retired guys who like to build instruments with unusual "experimental" features and accept they may fail either structurally of sound wise, but it is only our time and a small amount of low cost materials we are wasting. When one of us proposes a design that is unusual to the group, most of us offer encouragement but point out possible pit falls, as the posters on this thread have done. Again - it is with the assumption that the person has been building for some time and if it is a complete failure that it is no great loss.
I hope my original post was not too off putting and can assure you it was made with the best intentions - I didn't want you to do something you would later regret to a guitar you value.
Musical instrument making is a fun and rewarding hobby which I encourage you to pursue. Hearing the first musical notes from an instrument I have built still gives me a thrill. If it is something you want to do you can hang out here and learn a lot about guitar making - we are generally a friendly bunch.

I haven't been active because I've been working. So far I had to change the wood since the stuff I had wasn't suitable. At the end of the day, I'm just here to get help making my own instruments. I'm going to start it off with my original acoustic/electric idea and then work in the lights. Maybe instead of full blown stars just little holes forming constellations, but that's pretty far away as I no longer have nearly as much time. I might put the lights on a removable panel on the soundboard. I'll try to update everyone on how it's going. You've all been really helpful.

Some archtop guitars have "floating" pick guards that people mount volume and tone controls in when they don't want to cut holes in the soundboard. No reason you couldn't add a few LED's also - maybe your favorite constellation.

https://www.guitarcenter.com/Gretsch-Gu ... -Guitar.gc

This is almost exactly what I was thinking but across the majority of the soundboard. The guitar that gave me the idea is here https://hackaday.com/2018/09/01/led-ifying-a-guitar/ just instead of being removable, it would have the electric guitar controls mounted on like in your example. If I do this right, I can make the lights invisible until tuned on.

It's fine. I thought I was coming off as somewhat upset. I'm currently waiting to test a mix of the ideas on a cheap kit guitar I found. It should finally be getting here later this month.

Go for it!

I'll look forward to seeing what you come up with.