cheap cheap tops for a guitar?

axisus

OK, to cut a long story short, I have a knackered old 7 string body, and I want to stick some kind of top to front and back which I will then paint over. Can anyone think of a cheap way to do this? I don't want to buy a couple of actual guitar tops off of eBay as it will be too expensive, and it's just a cheap project. 

Basic problem - It had a ton of ugly routing on the top, and trem cavity on the bottom. I blocked those in with wood some years ago for my son, and then used filler in the gaps, but the filler just cracked over time due to string tension. Ideally I want to skim a few mm off of top and bottom and put a flat bit of wood on.

Any thoughts?

mooncat

You could use very thin plywood to resist any movement of the filler and repairs coming back.

Slec uk ltd (www.slecuk.com) sells birch ply as thin as 1/64" (0.4mm in pre brexit measurements) so would not really require any wood to bee removed .

Its also good for neck shims!

Roland

Do you need structural support against cracking, or just cosmetics? For cosmetics you could veneer it.

ICBM

I would use ply, probably about 4-6mm. You can get some pretty decent quality stuff with void-free facings for not a lot of money.

phil_b

use an epoxy filler and paint it a solid colour.

axisus said:

 I want to skim a few mm off of top and bottom and put a flat bit of wood on.

Any thoughts?

unless you have access to a thickness plainer this would be more work than it worth.

axisus

ICBM said:

I would use ply, probably about 4-6mm. You can get some pretty decent quality stuff with void-free facings for not a lot of money.

Wouldn't ply have a horrible edge, particularly with roundover rout?

axisus

phil_b said:

use an epoxy filler and paint it a solid colour.

axisus said:

 I want to skim a few mm off of top and bottom and put a flat bit of wood on.

Any thoughts?

unless you have access to a thickness plainer this would be more work than it worth.

I do that with router/home made jig

axisus

mooncat said:

You could use very thin plywood to resist any movement of the filler and repairs coming back.

Slec uk ltd (www.slecuk.com) sells birch ply as thin as 1/64" (0.4mm in pre brexit measurements) so would not really require any wood to bee removed .

Its also good for neck shims!

Ta, useful site.

Roland said:

Do you need structural support against cracking, or just cosmetics? For cosmetics you could veneer it.

I think it will need to be more than veneer.

WezV

I tend to use thin constructional veneer for this kind of thing

Like this.. using 3mm basswood.  But I have done others with 2mm maple

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/118954/squier-strat-rebuild/p1

axisus

WezV said:

I tend to use thin constructional veneer for this kind of thing

Like this.. using 3mm basswood.  But I have done others with 2mm maple

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/118954/squier-strat-rebuild/p1

No surprise that you did an excellent job there! 

Where do you source constructional veneer from?

WezV

Here is some 3mm basswood, you would need 2 bits for a guitar top

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/250mm-Wide-Basswood-Panel-500-x-250-x-3-0mm-Solid-Wood-Panel-/172657994753?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292

normula1

As it happens, I was playing this guitar yesterday and it still looks great. 

ICBM

axisus said:

Wouldn't ply have a horrible edge, particularly with roundover rout?

It might be a bit rough, but you can sand it smooth. It shouldn't matter if you're going to paint it.

I did it to an old hacked-about Gibson SG200 once - filled all the front holes, ply over the top, re-routed as an SG Standard, and painted it bright red .