Contouring A Telecaster Body

[Jody]

Hello Everyone,

I am wishing to add the body contours of a strat to my tele. I visited the project guitar site, and I have a spokeshaver, I am in need of a little assistance on the steps one would take to accomplish this task. My goal is to add the arm rest contour, and the back contour at the top of the guitar.

I appreciate everyones help,

Jody

[Acousticraft]

Hi Jody,

I'm about to do the same soon on my Tele body.

I did the body contours on the last guitar I built which was a Strat.

I have an old Strat body, so I took measurements off it and drew out the contour shape and depth onto the body with pencil and when they looked about right I used my belt sander with 60 then 80 grit to rip it off. Make sure it is well clamped to the edge of a bench otherwise it will go flying. Use the front of the sander to cut out the belly contour and the middle to carve down the top. I did the final belt sanding with 120 grit. It was pretty quick doing it that way too.

Once I was close, I used a large half round, double cut file to do the final shaping then sanded it well to blend in the edges and curves. It would take ages to remove that amount of wood with a spokeshave but not impossible.

[zyonsdream]

I do most of mine with a hand files and not spokeshaves.I use a half round for the belly cut and a flat bastard for bevels on the face of the guitar. I've also been known to emply my random orbital sander too.

I love belly cuts on Teles but the strat style arm rest on a tele looks off to me but that's just my opnion.

[dugg]

All suggestions are good. Actually, a sharp, well adjusted spokeshave might be faster than a sander or surform. I rough out contours with a drawknife and hand chisels then smooth with the spokeshave. Very fast, and the curves come out smoother with less kinks than if you use a belt sander or files. Besides, I dont like all the sawdust and noise.

[Jody]

Thank you for all of the help. I am going to give it an attempt tonight. I will let you know how it turns out.

Jody

[borge]

i route a "staircase" then clean it up with spokeshave and/or planers, by far the fastest way I've found.

[Geo]

If you want to use the spokeshave, start with a steep cut (say 45 deg) on the edge. Take it all the way to the depth you want. Then blend that contour in by creating a new facet on the edge formed by your cut and the flat surface. Repeat the process to rough it out, and you can also use the spokeshave to clean it up. Hope that's clear.

FYI, a spokeshave doesn't work so well on a concave carve (like a belly cut on the back of the body). Yes, the sole is pretty short, but you'll probably come to the point where the cutter just won't bite any wood because the sole keeps it from getting down there.

The other methods are probably faster, as a spokeshave cutter isn't all that wide.

Edited July 14, 2008 by Geo

[j. pierce]

Last time I did carves like that on a body, I used a small handplane for the arm bevel, and spokeshave for the belly carve. I have a spokeshave with a convex sole that allows it to get in for that curve. I follow it up with a card scraper.

I used to use rasps or surforms followed by files and paper for those carves, as my first spokeshaves were such junk (10 dollar harbor freight specials) that I spent more time fighting with the tool than doing work.

I'm not convinced either method; using planes and shaves, or using rasps and files was that much quicker than the other.

I'd use the flap-disk method folks use for carving tops, or a belt sander, if my limited work areas were better set up for these sorts of things, but using hand tools like that allows me to work on my porch, and it's something I enjoy anyway.

[Southpa]

I did both body cuts, ala strat, in about 2 minutes (seriously) with one of these.

A flap wheel on a grinder is the ticket. Just mark out your borders and have at 'er!

[Tim37]

i used rasps and files but my wood working tools are limited and so is my extra cash flow so well that what i used because thats what i could aford to buy. i guess it depends on what tools u have.

[jmrentis]

You can grab a 4" angle grinder for cheap, like less than $20 at some places and the disks are fairly cheap. A disk like the one shown will do a number of carves. So that method is not bad price wise, I was very surprised at how cheap I found the items I needed to do a carve and bevel. I will say be careful, as Southpa was getting at, that setup makes carves in a hurry. Also as he said, make sure all your lines are drawn out so you don't end up doing too much. Other than that, its fun and easy, I do like using hand tools at times like spokeshave on the neck and such, but for carves that setup works so well and so quickly I prefer it. J

Edited July 15, 2008 by jmrentis

[dugg]

Soutpa's method would be good too. Reminded me that you can also buy those log sculpture carving tools that fit on a hand grinder, the ones that are like a disk with chainsaw teeth around the edge. Grizzly sells them, called 'lancelot and percival carving system' on page 328 of the '08 catalog.

[Mickguard]

I see no reason to rush the job with power tools. Unless, of course, you've got a half of dozen to finish in the next day. But one of the real pleasures of building guitars for me comes with carving the wood.

I like to use one of those Stanley surforms...the littlest one, with the teeth set so that you pull it towards you. This gives me lots of control over what I'm doing, it's pretty precise too, and it doesn't chew the wood up so much that you have to spend hours with sandpaper after. I also use a rasp for some points too.

I agree that the tele looks weird with a strat-style forearm rest. What I did was to add a slope to the face at the point --it's not really visible from the front, since it remains more or less flat. And it's not very extreme, just 5 mm deep or so.

[zyonsdream]

I did both body cuts, ala strat, in about 2 minutes (seriously) with one of these.

A flap wheel on a grinder is the ticket. Just mark out your borders and have at 'er!

That's what I use to rough my necks and yes, I've done a bevel or two with one as well. Makes quick work even quicker but be careful, it's easier to take wood off than it is to put it back on!