Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

I had this Idea of making an electric with a top that only connects to the body at the very end and under the Bridge. All the controls and P/u's are only attached to the body leaving the 6 mm thick top to act as a bit of an acoustic panel. It was a bit of an experiment and has certainly shown a lot of potential. To my ears and others who have tried it it has turned out a very nice player.

Specs
27" scale, 22 SS jumbo frets, MickB's vintage 60's strat P/u's
Neck; laminated Wenge, Aframosia, and bleached ash white high lights.
Body; extensions are King William pine.
Top; Silky oak carved to a compound curve, with Ebony and Curly maple binding
Fret board; Lace sheoak, with ebony and curly maple binding. 16" radius.
Wiring is Super Strat , all combinations of parallel and series wiring.
SS / bone nut, and alloy H/M floating bridge, Sheoak and carbon tailpiece.
weight is 1.8kg , finish is Nitro
I think thats it.
























And the bare body showing the attachment points

And the corresponding points on the top


Cheers Mark

Wow

Steve

Awesome some one who thinks outside the norm refreshing (most likely would not call a strat of any kind ) I like the lace sheoak .

Hey Mark. That is not a strat - it is something way more interesting. I am not sure about the idea of the floating top because I just don't have the expertise to evaluate the merit of that idea. However, I am super-impressed with a lot of the other original design tweeks that you have incorporated. The tailpiece that hangs off a screw in the top is an idea that I have been playing with for an acoustic build that I am doing at the moment, but you have just nailed that concept already. The way that you have recessed the tuners into the headstock is very nice (are those Gotoh stelth tuners?). The timber choices, bindings and multi-ply neck are all very elegant. But the most intriguing thing is the bridge. I chased up your posts on another forum where you said you forged that metal bridge yourself? Can you tell us a bit more abot that?
Nice work
Mark M

Well that's something you don't see every day. Asthetically pleasing to the eye. I'll have to sit down and think hard about the theory behind the "floating" top. Nice work and thanks for posting.

Thanks Mark,
Yes Gotoh stealth, the short ones.
I'm a Dental tech by trade and make and cast things every day. Our trade is changing and is now done with a lot more digital milling and rather than metal high strength ceramics are being used. I originally wanted to mill the bridge from Zirconium, but the dimensions just wouldn't fit in our machine . So I decided to cast it in alloy.
The process was to make a pattern ( I had previously made a bone one so the dimensions on where the string should fit were already defined) I did this using 3mm acrylic rod with a combination of wax, this is pretty much standard in our industry. this goes on a base and a one piece mould is formed. This is the lost wax technique so a one off casting.
The metal I used is a Cobalt chrome alloy which is very hard. This is cast in a centrifuge, basically metal is melted in a crucible with a torch, the preheated mould is then added and the machine spins and forces the molten metal into the mould.
Once cool you break it out and clean it up using what ever tools to do so, and polish it.

This is the bone one used as a guide for the dimensions


And a close up of the Metal bridge

Hope that helps
Cheers Mark

Certainly the most interesting thing I've seen all day.

Very impressive. Nice application of your professional skills and training to a totally different application. So the obvious question from the luthier community - is it totally a one-off, or could you do "bespoke bridge designs" for other interested guitar builders? I see your next career taking off right here.......

Lost wax that explains it I have been sand casting to reasonable effect need to do a lost wax mando tail piece ...

Mark McLean wrote:Very impressive. Nice application of your professional skills and training to a totally different application. So the obvious question from the luthier community - is it totally a one-off, or could you do "bespoke bridge designs" for other interested guitar builders? I see your next career taking off right here.......

Certainly not something that's commercially viable, and why I would normally just buy a bridge. There is also the fact that all our machinery is dental purpose, so if it is bigger than what goes in the mouth it wont fit in the machine.

Cheers Mark

and thanks for the comments, good to step out of the box sometimes.

Man that's certainly outside the box. So impressive! Well done!

The idea of interchangeable tops is intriguing...Artistic, beautiful accurate workmanship!
I heard of a lost wax casting centrifuge made with an old Victor lawnmower spring loaded starter mechanism and a wheel. The kind you wind up then pull the release trigger. The operator had a string connected to the start trigger and stood well back in case of injury from molten metal missing the guard and being thrown outwards! -Ross

I remember those mowers

Now that's thinking outside the box.
Some really intricate detail throughout.
Awesome

Ross