Anybody have any experience building guitars?

[LeftOfSelf-Centered]

6. Thanks for the info

I am worried about weight, but not in the way you might think: I have no real experience with semi-hollow bodies and I'm worried that the guitar will be neck-heavy. So a heavy body is actually sounds good to me. But I definitely want a semi-hollow body.

I wear my guitar fairly low, so my normal playing position is with the neck pitched up at maybe a 30° angle, and ideally the neck would stay in the position if I let go. It's an issue with my Epi Les Paul, which I believe is all mahogany and has chambered body. The guitar levels out to horizontal (at best, it might pitch down if move too much) and I have to reach down to bring it back up for playing. I've done some reading and mahogany could be an interesting alternative for the body, but I'm worried about the balance.

I'm pretty set on the Birdseye Maple top, because I want the top of the guitar to have transparent red finish, which should look good with the grain coming through. Actually the paint job, is probably gonna be another problem which could bring this whole project down: I was imagining transparent red top, cream or white binding and solid black back and neck. Don't know if Warmoth would actually do a combined paint job like that, and whether I could afford it.

In the end I probably wouldn't even be able to tell the tone differences in the woods...

As for the rest I was thinking about going with a Seymour Duncan Custom SH-5 in the bridge and either a '59 SH-1 or Jazz SH-2 in the neck, Tuno O Matic Bridge with stop tail piece and GraphTech nut. Someday in the future I'd also like to add a piezo bridge, but for now Ill keep it simple(r).

Again thanks for your input.