I have built 6 license plate reso's, but all have been made on purpose-built red oak plywood boxes with an open top - just the plate on top of the box, with a thin wooden brace under the bridge. I have two fine 12 1/2" long Padron boxes I am wanting to top off with license plates. One is a real "off a car" plate, the other is a thinner aluminum vanity-type plate. The box is @ 1/4" larger in length and1/2" larger in width than the 12" x 6" plate. I have cut out both boxes to be neck-through-box gits. Here's my question - What has worked for you all in plate-to-box assembly? Leave the top intact, and screw the plate to the intact lid, adding a sound hole through the plate and lid? Cut out a portion of the lid to allow for the metallic resonance of the plate? Another method I haven't considered? For these two builds I would like to keep them as acoustics. I have used both proper wooden bridges and bolt bridges on past license plate reso builds and found both to be satisfactory. What has worked for you?
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Mostly, I've built my own boxes... the first was pine, the other 2 have been 1/4" jatoba and purple heartwood, with thin plywood backs. For the acoustics, it was neck-TO (to the end of the box) the electric I added cross-pieces to support the end of the neck to make room for the pickup.
I recently finished a solid body guitar neck-to, out of poplar with a maple neck and a Gitty 3-string hard tail. It is awesome!
Box is made out off old palette timber i found laying around, neck is maple and fretboard is Afzelia (Doussi) from West Africa (hardness close to Bamboo).
Very nice looking build. I love old lumber with funky broken patina. I have found some old ratty oak shelves that I have used for git box building and I am always looking for more. Again, a very tasty build!
My plan is to drill a hole in the neck right below the bridge. Thru this hole i connect (without any contact to the neck) the back with the license plate to support the bridge and forward the vibrations to the back. One piezo will be right under the bridge, the second on the back right where my reinforcement piece is conected with the back.
If it is an older plate it could be stiff enough to go without a brace. New ones are to thin but the plate I used was only supported around the edges with small blocks at the screw holes. I used a floating bridge and a piezo underneath. It is about a year old and no sag to my eye.