carbon fiber top

[shaddoe]

i'm wondering if anyone has ever heard of someone putting a carbonfiber top on their guitar? i have a rg570 that i filled the neck and middle pickup hole and was going to lay up a layer of carbonfiber on it. the thing i'm wondering about is that carbonfiber will conduct electricity so i'm not sure if this will call noise problems. i don't want to put it on if i'll have problems because taking it off will be a mess. thanks for any advise.

[darren wilson]

Yes, it's been done... and then some.

As far as gluing a layer of carbon fibre on top of a wood body, you probably wouldn't have much of a problem, other than the fact that it's a) a hell of a lot of work; and b) it will likely be permanent.

As far as i know, you have to use epoxy adhesives for attaching carbon fibre to anything. Forget about ever removing it. You'll have to do a lot of sanding to get it smooth, and likely will have to use marine epoxy gel coat to get a smooth, clear finish. Lots more sanding. But it will look SUPER cool.

Mind you, i've never done this, so i'm just guessing. You can probably find out a lot more about carbon fibre out there on the Interweb... loads of hobbyists are using it for boats, automotive parts, bikes, etc.

As long as you don't have the carbon fibre come in contact with anything that's carrying a live signal, you shouldn't have any problems at all with its conductivity. If anything, it'll give you some pretty kick-ass shielding if you wire it to ground. (If you leave some bare fabric in the holes where your volume and tone pots go, it may make enough contact to be grounded that way.)

[shaddoe]

i lay up a lot of carbon fiber for the cars we build and was planning on using the clear epoxy gel-coat to first put on the wood, lay the carbon fiber cloth over and then use the same clear gel-coat over it. i don't want to lay up a piece and then glue it because i feel i'll get a better bond laying it up on the wood. the reason i want to use the clear gel-coat is because even the clear resins have a slight yellow tint to them. i could probably lay up small wires under the cloth and ground them to everything metal if that would help. it'll give a almost 3d look, http://www.exoticglass1.com/images/finished8.JPG here is a pic of the interior pieces.