Solid body or semi-acoustic guitar construction techniques

[rallen]

I have an old Les Paul Custom, serial no 82759563 , so it was made in Nashville in 1989. It is quite heavy, by far exceeding the weight of other 2 guitars we have. Its body seems to be made of 3 pieces at the top and 1 piece at the bottom. The neck is attached without screws so it is glued into the body.

 

I had a look at Vox's Virage construction techniques, and they talk about :

 

 

*********************************

 

Special body that has two separate mount points for the bridge posts so that the resonances of the top strings will not steal from the bottom ones

 

Very light (2 ounces, whatever that is) aluminium alloy bridge to allow the string energy to be transfered and not dumpened. Bridge sits on special posts to transfer all the string energy into the body.

 

Specially cut body and neck fluidly attached to allow playing at the last frets easily.

 

*********************************

 

So then I looked at my Gibson trying to see what "elements" it might have to be proud of.

 

One thing my son noticed is that if one person strums a chord and another person places two hands on the guitar body, the resonances can be felt through the body. Comparing with the other two guitars we have, they do not even come close to the Gibson.

 

The Gibson also has a more bassy and mellow tone, but in this respect the pickups and other electronics play a huge role.

 

But is there any special techniques or materials used in the Gibson that are worth mentioning?

[LPguitarman]

Long or short neck tennons, depending on the year made.

 

Weight relief holes in the Mahogany body (Swiss cheese)

 

Chambered Mahogany body on some models. (More acoustic tone)

 

Top Cap Solid Maple, not veneer, glued to the Mahogany back. Both are great tone woods.

[rallen]

what is a neck tennon ?

 

how do I find out if I have a chambered body ? Actually, talking about "chambers" do the pickup and pots cavities not count?

[LPguitarman]

The neck tennon is the extension of the neck that goes into the body of the guitar. Gibson had two designs that I know of. The longer one obviously extends farther into the body and provides better tone transfer from the neck to the body. With the body being made of mahogany & maple (good tone woods) the sound resonates better for more sustain and richer tones.

 

Pickup and pot cavities do not count as chambers. Gibson actually routes out specific areas of the body to provide weight relief. These cavities have been scientifically designed to provide tone enhancements.

 

There is a thread that goes into more detail. Here is the link:

 

http://forums.gibson.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=18137