"Drop top" wood for solid and painted...

When you say "drop top" do you mean pulled down and formed in 2-D over a contoured body? Or do mean just a "top"; a thin flat board glued down over the cavities? That makes a big difference in what wood you choose.

If you are painting a solid color, then a tight-grained wood like maple would mean less filling of the grain to make a smooth surface.

Whenever you glue a top or a back onto a chambered-out body, you probably will be changing its stiffness. It depends on what wood you choose and how thick the top/back is. If you start with a soft light wood for the body, rout out a bunch of chambers, then glue on a 1/4" maple top, you may defeat the purpose of the chambering. It may end up stiffer and nearly as heavy as it would have been unchambered and no top. What do you want to do? Are you trying to just save weight, or are you trying to modify the sound?

 

When it comes to just about any woodworking project, the instant I hear "painted" my mind says "poplar." It takes paint well, it's close-grained so there's no grain fill needed, it's super easy to work with, it's dirt cheap, it's light, and although it's not the hardest or most durable wood out there, it'll certainly hold up fine (better than many softer woods at least, like basswood).

But I think Bruce makes some good points about clarifying your goals first!

 

Can I ask an obvious and potentially dumb question? If you want lighter bodies, and those blanks are so heavy, and you're painting anyways, why not use those for something else and go with a solid or chambered body out of a lighter wood?

 

I, for one, would be disappointed if any paint landed on those blanks. Pretty nice grain you have going there.

How about cutting 5/16” off the top, chamber the heck out of them and then glue the the thin stock you removed right back down on them?

You could do this with or without an accent veneer. If you do go without, you may even get an almost invisible seam.

Edit: just realized that the ash is a 4 board build up. So much for invisible seam, haha.

 

A 'drop-top' a la Tom Anderson is done by soaking the top in fabric softener, then bending it to fit the contours of the pre carved back. I've never done one, but saw them bending some tops at the Fender factory for prototypes.

 

Downy or Snuggles?

What's the best fabric softener for brootul metal tonez?

 

It was explained to me that bending tops is more difficult than bending side wood, as an Anderson top is just over a 1/4" thick. I thought is was really cool that they use fabric softener, and thought I'd share that.

 

I googled it. Downy. Article didn't mention metal.

 

If you're using fabric softener on the wood, I'll posit that the bass will never be good for metal. But it'll be nice to snuggle up with on a cold evening.

 

Yes, my late friend Mike Lipe put thick bent tops on the bodies of many of his guitar models. Flame, quilted, spalted, burls, all kinds of woods that were really difficult to bend. We fought with them, and he eventually got a reasonable technique down. It involved a vacuum bag, a bunch of big clamps, shaped wooden cauls, saw kerfs, pre-bending, a lot of profanity, many failures, and of course, fabric softner. I think he used a brand from the Dollar Store. Maybe that was our problem.

If you want to get into thick bent tops, be prepared for some heavy trial and error.

 

Can't say it better than that! Those ARE nice

 

I have chambered a few two piece bodies where I cut each of the sides like I was bookmatching them. I chambered both sides then glued the two pieces back together. You can see the join line if you look closely, but just barely. Just another option if you want to lighten things up, but not lose the look.