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

chinjazz

chinjazz

Sep 11, 2002
3,924
1,919
Atlantic Beach, FL
mtmash.wordpress.com
#1
Hey All,

With the recent higher volume of chat about making lighter weight basses, I’ve come up with some interesting questions.

I’ve made two body blanks (both of which I think are kind of heavy so chambering is in order), and I’m not 100% sure I like the grain patterns for clear coating.....

Mahogany
26FABF64-6D1B-4572-BFE4-1C6C7A1F47CB.jpeg

Northern Ash
8A0AD3D7-DF8E-49B6-835B-F5C90F65CFF1.jpeg
2B72B401-2D22-4A76-9219-3DB09E485579.jpeg
1F79222B-C756-4619-9BE3-7CD42F6935F4.jpeg


Questions:

What’s the most ideal goal of wood choice to make drop tops if I were to paint solid colors? I think this would relative to the body wood.

Back top
Should it be a harder wood than the body on the back if I were to opt for a big control cavity slice out of the top?

Thanks!
 
#2
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?
 
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#3
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!
 
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#4
Bruce Johnson said:
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?
Click to expand...

Hey Bruce,
I meant to say top and back. Thanks for the clarification on terminology :).

I see your points on starting with how soft the body wood is (I guess I was on the rightish path).

In my case with both of these 2 body’s are pretty darn hard and weighty. I’m basically looking to remove extra weight this go round.

I’m getting a digital postal scale to do some comparisons with other body’s tonight.

Thanks!
 
#6
dwizum said:
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!
Click to expand...

Thanks Dwizum!

Poplar could be just right for this, or maybe some soft maple. On a related note, I was shopping around for figured tops and they can get pretty pricy fast. But I’m good with resawing once I find the right wood.

Yes, I really appreciate Bruce’s clarifying as it helps me speak the right language :)
 
#7
dwizum said:
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?
Click to expand...

No dumb questions here on TB:LC :)

Good question actually!

These just happen to be the first body blanks I’ve made and I have a feeling they may be too heavy. My first single cut bolt on came out on the heavy side and I’m basically exploring at this point for another. I could in fact get some lighter wood for that.

I’m also making a jazz style bass which the Northern Ash body may be great for.

Thanks for asking :)
 
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#8
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.
 
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#9
charlie monroe said:
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.
Click to expand...

Hey Charlie,

Good idea! That may be an option for the Mahagany. I’d have to re-cut the center join as my band saw isn’t big enough to resaw that tall. Cool!

Thanks!
 
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#11
Paulabass said:
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.
Click to expand...

Yes, that's been clarified for me. I don't think I'll do anything like that in the future even though I can bend wood pretty good now.
 
#16
Paulabass said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
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