I'm doing a build for a friend: nothing as involved as theones I built for myself. Just getting a warmoth body and neck, shooting it with nitro and throwing in a set of 57/62s and a fender 2 point trem. The guys asking about the chambered bodies, and I'm at a loss, I've never heard or played one. Can someonne enlighten me?

Hi windwalker: if it's a Warmoth body then this is the page to look at:

http://www.warmoth.com/Guitar/Body/Stra ... Chambered/

Mind you, as chambering goes that is quite limited and also rather complicated. Most people do larger, open cavities.

Like on a Thinline Tele. And that's the concept you need to have in your mind as far as construction and tonal implications are concerned.

Except it is more tricky on a Strat because of the belly and forearm contours in the body. Different makers have different solutions to that - you can't just glue a front on, like on a Tele. The whole thing was started by James Tyler of Tyler Guitars, who literally sawed the body in half down the side and then routed matching chambers in the front and back halves, avoiding where the wood sloped in for the contours. Then he glued the two halves back together again et voila, hollow S-type guitars.

Others do it a different way: Suhr for example cut the chambers out of a blank nearly the full thickness of the guitar, again avoiding the belly contour. Then they glue on a quarter inch or so thick front which is bent downwards at one corner to produce the forearm contour. They call that a "drop top".

Everyone is chambering guitars these days. Even many Les Pauls have cavities inside them. For some reason Fender haven't caught up with their own Strats yet - but I bet they will.

Cheers - C

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Yeah, I know as far as Les Pauls go, you have to search for ones. THAT AREN'T chambered in one way or another. I think besides the Studios, and classics, they all have holes in them. Some are called. Chambered, and the others have the swiss cheese bodies, yet they don't advertise it. I saw the photos of Warmoths chambered bodies. They're odd, tghey seem to have about 20 different channels in them, with a top glued on. My question is how does it sound compared to a solid body? Say you have 2 side by side, same electronics, same hardware and fretboard material, both with the tremolos set flush so the springs don't come into play. I've played a studio w/out the. "Weight relieved body" (swiss cheese), and an older standard that was solid. They both had. The same pickups, aluminum stoptail, etc. It seemed that the weight relieved appeared to have more sustain, but I think it was more likely that it was louder acoustically, so it seemed to have more sustain at practice levels. But when I cranked them through an Orange amp, the solid body had more sustain. I don't think the guy I'm building it for is going to be playing venues bigger than his basement, so he won't have loud volumes.I haven't played any thinlines more than in passing, so I don't really know how they respond. I have a ES345, so I know how that does, but its apples and oranges. Does the chamerfed body w/ single vcoils make it thicker sounding? Thinner? Anyone?

Yeah, I. Did a setup for a couple of the single cut Taylor solid bodies (btw, their sweepable tone control is ingenious, I need to get one and deconstruct it). Anyways, they both looked the same, but 1 was lighter, and I'm not talking about how 2 strats can differ in weight a bit, it was significant. As I was stringing it up, my knuckle knocked the top just below the bridge, and I could tell it was hollow. I knocked on it like looking for a stud in the wall, and rfelized one was chambered, the other wasn't. Ut I can't extrapilate from the taylors how the strat would sound, too many other differences.

I did my own. This is it inside.

Hi Jim: tidy work! Has that build proceeded further? Care to show us? We love photos of guitar building round here.

BTW: no belly or forearm contour, I guess?

Cheers - C

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nope...no contours, but suprisingly comfy, very resonant, ash caps front and back, maple core.

not the greatest pic

The pic is fine - thank you!

Love that top wood. I presume you made an opening with a cover in the back to access the control innards? And did you make a channel for the pickup wires before gluing on the front?

A maple center, you say? That's interesting: a gentleman wants me to make an all maple body for him but I'm having a heck of a task finding a plank of plain, straight grained maple to do a two piece bod with. I can get any amount of highly figured "tonewood" maple (at the appropriate price) but simple, plain stuff just ain't to be had in the right dimensions near me just at present. Frustrating.

Anyhow. I like how your knob tops go with the stain on the front. And the black hardware works nicely with the look of the thing. Great job - congrats!

Cheers - C

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Neat! ...and of course we shall, I hope, be treated with a proper show-and-tell story again, right Mr. C?

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Stay tooned...

Cheers - C

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Yes, on the control cavity cover....back is bookmatched too. Finish is 2 stages of dye and French Polish. Thanks for all the kind words.



and I added my own logo/decal

I have a guitar made with the Warmoth chambered Strat body. It actually works better than large open cavities for improving resonance: Warmoth spent three years developing their chambering scheme to produce a specific result.

Mine is a chambered mahogany body, and it retains the focused fundamental of a solid body but resonates with an open, woody tone: people who have heard it being played clean say it sounds like the love child of a Strat and a 335.

This is a sample of the guitar being played into an Egnater Rebel head and an open back cabinet.

http://www.gravitymusic.com/audio/BorderTown.mp3

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Jim Bordner
Gravity Music - www.gravitymusic.com
Composer, producer, Egnater Artist

Thats what I wanted to know about; the way Warmoth chambered theirs. So you got mahogany huh? I different really consider that. Do you have humbuckers? P90's?

Singlecoils. EMG SVs, passive tone controls, "blender" wiring.

BTW, the natural resonant sustain of this guitar is remarkable. Warmoth thinks the chambering works best with mahogany, and advised me so.

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Jim Bordner
Gravity Music - www.gravitymusic.com
Composer, producer, Egnater Artist

I just late listened to it, I like it. I've heard Egnaters a thousand times too, so I can kind of filter out that tone and can hear the guitar itself. It definitely has a lot of personality. Id like to hear it with some overdrive to see how it handles that. I hear that 335/ Strat sound too, actually it sounds like a 335= tele more. really warm, but focused. I thinkv that may be the next project. They make themn look like a regular Strat body right?