Body Sizes

bronzehydra · #1 10-26-2008, 10:28 PM

Hi Everybody,

I'm in the process of designing the body of my instrument.

My question is:

"How big is the body supposed to be?"

I'm building a baritone guitar, so I'm guessing the body needs to be bigger than a guitar, but smaller than a bass.

XylemBassGuitar · #2 10-27-2008, 03:25 PM

Have you determined the baritone's scale length yet?

If so, dividing it by the golden section (AKA divine ratio, phi, etc.) will give you a rough dimension for the length of the body.

You can also divide the body length dimension by the golden section to get a rough width for the body.

lunarpollen · #3 10-27-2008, 03:54 PM

There is no "supposed-to-be" body size for any given guitar. Just look at the huge variety of basses and guitars out there. Some have massive bodies, some hardly have any.

At minimum, you'll need enough body size to physically accommodate the hardware and electronics and provide the correct scale length for what you are building. I believe anything else can be up to your aesthetic or ergonomic preferences.

Now if you were building an acoustic instrument, then body size plays a more important role...

bronzehydra · #4 10-27-2008, 06:26 PM

Thanks for the help guys.
I have another question.

How do I determine where to place the strap buttons?

UncleBalsamic · #5 10-27-2008, 06:29 PM

I think the top strap button is normally placed in line with the 12th fret although I could be wrong as my bass is rather weird in that respect (it's at the 15th fret on mine).

bronzehydra · #6 10-28-2008, 07:33 PM

Sweet thanks.

The guitar design is fairly standard. If you can imagine a Les Paul, with more edges around the body, and with a part cut out from the bottom, and the horn that sticks out farther, which is similar to a mocking bird. That's what it looks like,

I'll try to upload my drawing of it.