Ultimate Thinline Vs Solidbody Test

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Ultimate Thinline Vs Solidbody Test

Post by Deed_Poll » Wed Nov 03, 2021 4:07 pm

Hello all! It's been a while since I've made one of these more typically forum posts, and it feels good to be back!

So I've been talking with Lord Fuzzman about collaborating on a video - the aim of which is to explore the differences between Solidbody and Thinline construction.

The premise is this - I am making two bodies as near identical as I possibly can. I'm even using a single length of ash for the bass side of both guitars, and a single length for the treble side . Essentially, we're making it so that each body is directly upstairs / downstairs of the other in the tree they came from!

Here are the pieces I chose in raw form. You can see the continuity of grain:

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And here is the same shot with a quick and dirty superimposition to show roughly what the orientation of the bodies will be:

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My Thinlines have both contours, so I use a pancake construction to precisely machine out a 3D interior, and this allows me to get an even thickness for the top and back regardless of what the contours are doing. This is how I'm able to wrap the f-hole over the arm contour! This means I'm having to slice the Thinline blank in half like a piece of French toast, before eventually joining it back together (pretty much) where it was.

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Here's the final bookmatch - of course, in this case, I will eventually be gluing these bookmatched faces back to each other, maintaining the same wood orientation as the solidbody. But in normal circumstances, it's something I can do with my Thinlines if desired.

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I only photographed this for one board, but the process was the same for the other one. I was really pleased we managed to keep the thickness variation down to about 1/16" at the maximum deviation. I should say, we started with lumber 54mm thick, so that left a little breathing space for planing and thicknessing - top and back of my thinlines are 21mm thick.

These were added to this week's pile and planed down - the solidbody to 42mm, and the bookmatched pairs to 21mm.

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Here they are after the thicknessing, back in alignment again:

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And here they are clamped up and gluing, after planing a clean 90° edge for the glue joint

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I left them overnight, and released them from the clamps for their date with the drum sander. I actually thickness down to about 21.5mm, and take the last half-millimetre off with this tool. This also helps to remove completely any glue residue that might have dropped out and dried around the sash clamps.

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Finally, here are the blanks now, again oriented in line with their original boards

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Once more, with the overlay

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Next job is to hollow out the interior cavities of the Thinline and then to do the pancake join, I'll post about that on here when it happens!

To continue explaining the methodology of the test itself, Lord Fuzzman will be building an identical guitar out of each body in turn (same neck, pickups, pickguard, bridge, wiring etc) and recording comparison clips. I can't wait!

Cheers, and stay tuned!

Dan
Owner Operator of GuitarForm - Custom Offset Guitar Bodies
www.guitarform.com ◈ @guitar_form

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Re: Ultimate Thinline Vs Solidbody Test

Post by alexpigment » Wed Nov 03, 2021 7:51 pm

This is a really cool project - I'm looking forward to how this turns out! I'm going to place my early bet and say that they sound very different in the room (acoustic and electric), but sound largely identical through the recordings when using an SM57 (or other cardiod) straight into the speaker. That being said, I think the thinline will be the one with the most mojo. Always enjoy a build-from-scratch post with pics :)

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Re: Ultimate Thinline Vs Solidbody Test

Post by marqueemoon » Wed Nov 03, 2021 9:25 pm

This is going to be cool.

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Re: Ultimate Thinline Vs Solidbody Test

Post by Shadoweclipse13 » Thu Nov 04, 2021 2:10 am

This is an awesome idea Dan!!!

Also, that planer is HUGE!!! Is that like 18" wide?!
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Re: Ultimate Thinline Vs Solidbody Test

Post by The_Sad_Panda » Thu Nov 04, 2021 8:16 am

Great idea for a thread, can't wait to see the outcome.
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Re: Ultimate Thinline Vs Solidbody Test

Post by Deed_Poll » Thu Nov 04, 2021 8:21 am

Cheers guys!

J, the planer thicknesser is 10", but the drum sander is 16" / 32" (drum is 16", but one side is open, so theoretically material can be sent through one way and then the other, with half poking out of the side).

Alex - you might be right, I think along similar lines. Although I do find thinlines / hollows have a kind of "peaky" quality that some people like and others don't. It can cause "dead spots" on the neck, but I find it also means that transposing something or altering the tuning gives it a very different quality, and sounds more unique to the particular guitar. I guess some of that could be filed under "mojo"! :)
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Re: Ultimate Thinline Vs Solidbody Test

Post by kdanie » Thu Nov 04, 2021 10:32 am

This will certainly be the most "scientific", apples to apples comparison ever done. I like it. I'm sure I would like the thinline best... Now I have a reason to visit the mods & projects thread again.

ken
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Re: Ultimate Thinline Vs Solidbody Test

Post by muffonrat » Sat Nov 06, 2021 12:14 pm

Cool project, subscribed! ;D

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Re: Ultimate Thinline Vs Solidbody Test

Post by vpich » Sun Nov 07, 2021 6:11 am

looking forward to the results. I just put together a Thinline tele and I'm pretty sure difference will be plentiful. middle position sounds super acoustic, but the major difference should be in feel and weight. it's way more apparent playing, I'm sure I'm hearing the unplugged sound bleed into my ears.

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Re: Ultimate Thinline Vs Solidbody Test

Post by gibs » Fri Nov 26, 2021 9:04 pm

Any news on this? Curious how far in you’ve gotten on this project

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Re: Ultimate Thinline Vs Solidbody Test

Post by øøøøøøø » Sat Nov 27, 2021 8:43 am

My bet is that the two sound substantially similar, but that the Thinline is much more comfortable to hold

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Re: Ultimate Thinline Vs Solidbody Test

Post by Deed_Poll » Sat Nov 27, 2021 9:16 am

There will be in this coming week! Things have just been a bit mad these last few weeks launching the website :)
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Re: Ultimate Thinline Vs Solidbody Test

Post by BTL » Sat Nov 27, 2021 12:35 pm

This looks like a lot of fun, nice work!
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Re: Ultimate Thinline Vs Solidbody Test

Post by solfege » Sun Nov 28, 2021 3:05 pm

øøøøøøø wrote:
Sat Nov 27, 2021 8:43 am
My bet is that the two sound substantially similar, but that the Thinline is much more comfortable to hold
Yep, this.

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Re: Ultimate Thinline Vs Solidbody Test

Post by Maggieo » Sun Nov 28, 2021 5:36 pm

øøøøøøø wrote:
Sat Nov 27, 2021 8:43 am
My bet is that the two sound substantially similar, but that the Thinline is much more comfortable to hold
That was Fender's thinking when they introduced the Tele Thinline. So, yep!
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