Wood thickness on custom RG style body similar to les Paul deluxe?

[KLINKDETROIT]

I am considering replacing the body on my basswood Ibanez rg560 with another body that's shaped similar but with different wood. I want it to sound as close to my les Paul as possible while still retaining the Ibanez shape. I have a person to cut the wood slab on a cnc machine and have a mill to laminate the 2 pieces of wood. The slab has to be 1.75 thick before going into the cnc machine. How thick should the Honduran mahogany be and how thick should the maple be before the machine cuts it? What type of maple should I get for the best tone? Should I get one solid piece of mahagony and one solid maple or multiple pieces? The guitar is going to be painted so I'm not worried about it looking flame maple or ? My favorite les Paul is the deluxe with the pancake body. Should I bother getting the pancake slice of maple in the center? I will be having it clearcoated with nitro after paint. Should I get dense heavy wood for the best tone? I play mostly rock and metal although alot of clean sounds as well. Thanks in advance for your insight and advice.

 

[GM Reszel]

Not to discourage you but it will never sound like your LP no matter what you do. A bolt on guitar with a 25 1/2" scale and Floyd will be its own animal apart from LP tones. I do think it will sound great with your mahog/maple combo - certainly tighter attack and longer sustain than the original basswood but build with the thought you won't copy your LP tone.

Your slab can be 1.75" as long as the surfaces are marr free. The cnc will just take away (do routs and cuts - unless you're going arch top like an LP in which case your mahog slab would be 1.75" with a 5/8" maple cap). I personally wouldn't make it too heavy on either piece. Too dense = impractically heavy/no appreciable sustain gains.

 

[KLINKDETROIT]

What type of maple sounds the best? It won't have an archtop so should I still get the 5/8 maple cap or 1/2 or 3/8? I have 2 les pauls and the heavier one sounds better to me and a few of my friends have a few les pauls and the heavier ones sound better. That's why I ask about weight or density of the wood being equivilent to better tone

 

[GM Reszel]

If no arch then yeah, make your body slab 1 5/8" and your maple cap 3/8" - that's plenty of maple surface to do the trick. Use hard (as opposed to soft) maple. That sound like 'duh' but in some situations soft is good but given what you're trying to accomplish go hard maple.

As to your question, 'which sounds best' that's totally subjective but like I said I think you're leaning towards the heavier maple for your app.

 

[KLINKDETROIT]

Thanks