This is a set of updated images and a diverted discussion from a thread about feedback. The last message I posted in that thread is pasted below, you can link back to the feedback thread from there. The internal parts are not yet in their final form in these images.
I'll post a full description of this project a little later but briefly the body will be all aluminum with a bolt-on wood neck. It is based on an ES-335.
One thing mentioned in the other thread was my need to come up with a weight budget for the body. If anyone has some numbers for a dual-humbucker guitar with a bolt-on neck, that would be very helpful. Specifically I'd like an all-up weight and a weight for the body only -- finished but stripped of all removable parts.
I wasn't even sure I was going to do this build but it now appears that it's at least possible based on my CAD model. Whether or not my skills are up to the task is a separate question. This will require machined parts, 'shaped' sheet metal parts, welding and some tricky assembly work. The body will be polished so if I don't do a proper job on the panels, it will look like s--t.
Those two guitars were aluminum necks on wood bodies, correct? My project is more like a Normandy or Alumisonic were the body is metal and the neck is wood. Are those guitars selling? I don't know, you don't commonly see them but there are a lot of guitars from small shops you don't commonly see.
As to the linear characteristics, that may well be the case with my design, I'm not experienced enough to have any intuition here. What you're saying (I think) is that wood acts as an EQ device that colors the tone in a familar way that makes a more linear instrument sound 'funny'. I wonder how much of that is the neck and how much is the body. Again, no intuition here but logic says the neck is a bigger part of the system that supports the strings so it might have the larger effect. I'd love to hear comments from anyone that has heard a Normandy or Alumisonic in a live setting, or better yet, played one.
Does a pedal steel have a linear tone response? Those are very rigid with tons of sustain and some designs feature non-wood construction. Or does a pedal (or lap) steel guitar's tone sound OK because it's a different instrument with it's own character?
Another aspect I had not considered -- differential thermal expansion. The structure in my design's body may take a while to stabilize because it's inside a shell and somewhat isolated from the shell by the adhesive I intend to use in lieu of visible fasteners. The bond joints will be thin and have a lot of area so there might be decent heat transfer. Until it all finds a happy temperature the tuning may want to wander a bit. That's probably the case with any instrument, it will be a little worse with aluminum.
As far as feel goes, the player interacts primarily with the neck so I'd expect my guitar to feel somewhat familiar.
Yes, I think .050" (1.25mm) is getting pretty thin. I can weld thinner metal successfully but the result would be more prone to dents where the metal is soft (near the welds). What I can do is lose weight in the braces to allow thicker panels. With CAD, I can apply loads to the brace parts and see what I can remove without losing much rigidity. At some point you'll be hurting the structure by removing too much material. I have not optimized the structure yet but it looks like my 3.5 lb initial target is going to be too low. I'm a little over 4 lbs now and I'll be fighting to get that below 4 lbs, I just don't see it getting much below that number. There's not much structural contribution from the body's shells so I don't get anything back by shifting the material to the panels.
Thanks Rob.........Bill