Scratch: Electrics cavity depth question

[Cliff Rogers]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucalyptus_resinifera

[fender3x]

https://www.business.qld.gov.au/indu...s/red-mahogany

Looks like it would make a good neck wood. Considerably harder than Mahogany (Honduran). Heavy in a body, but SG's are relatively thin. It'll be indestructible I bet.

[GregLane]

Cliff and Fender
Thanks for your interest. I had missed the reference to Red Messmate in my earlier research.

I guess it will be pointless trying to smash this guitar against the wall when I keep missing those chords then. hihi.
At this stage I have shied away from building a neck. I purchased one from ebay for this build. If I get brave it could easily be replaced.

While on the subject, I have had a fleeting thought about building a Telecaster with the Red Messmate But I can only get a thickness of about 35mm from the plank. A Tele is thicker 35 to 45mm is appears. Raises the question is the "resonance" caused by the volume or the density.
I could add a cap of course. Build up the old muscles.

[Simon Barden]

I wouldn't be too concerned about 'resonance'. 35mm is going to be rather on the thin side though. My 'Emicaster' Tele with a mahogany body made by a friend was originally about 45mm thick. Being mahogany it weighed a ton. So when I re-finished it I sanded it down on the top of bottom to reduce the thickness and weight. I then ended up taking a bit more off in order to get the surface level, and it ended up at 38mm thick, and much, much lighter. It looks fine on its own, but when I compare it to my two Fender Teles, which are both 42mm thick, it looks quite anorexic. 35mm would really be pushing it, and you'd probably have issues with control cavity depths with a very thin section of wood left at the bottom of it.

You would certainly need to think about what controls you want to fit. Both CRL and Oak Grigsby selector switches are 34mm deep, so ideally for those you want a cavity that's 35mm deep, and at least 36mm it you want to copper shield it and leave a decent gap to avoid electrical shorts. The import switches are slightly less deep, but obviously the quality generally isn't so good. I managed to source a decent 27mm deep switch for the Emicaster, but it was still a very tight fit once the wire and solder depth was added on.

So 35mm really is too thin to be practical. I'd be looking at between an 5mm and 8mm cap. 8mm would be ideal as it allows for some sanding flat of both pieces to get to the fairly standard 42mm thickness for a Tele.

[GregLane]

Thanks for the detail Simon.
The Tele will probably be next years project as this SG is taking a lot of time. I take a lot to time trying to build up the courage to get out the drill or router for each stage. About to cut the electrics cavity now I have been bolstered by all the support in this post.
Then the neck pocket (uh oh)