Round Overs

[MrMuckle]

I'd like to hear your opinions on when a round over is just too big. Does anything more than 5/8" start to look odd? Guess it depends on the body shape, for sure, but curious in your thoughts.

[DC Ross]

I'd say anything more than 1/2 the thickness would be too much

[MrMuckle]

Sort of hi-jacking my own thread here, but if anyone has Martin Koch's "Building Electric Guitars", can you take a look at the router bit on page 97, figure 8. That large bit, second from the left that he describes as an oval bit, is that what you'd call a table edge bit? Has anyone used these before. Seems like that would be a comfortable shape as opposed to a regular roundover.

[Woodenspoke]

Sort of hi-jacking my own thread here, but if anyone has Martin Koch's "Building Electric Guitars", can you take a look at the router bit on page 97, figure 8. That large bit, second from the left that he describes as an oval bit, is that what you'd call a table edge bit? Has anyone used these before. Seems like that would be a comfortable shape as opposed to a regular roundover.

Remember router bits are in Radius not Diameter so a 1/2" bit is a corner of a 1" circle. Pretty big curve. In all honestly even though I like to keep my radius small on most guitars, it depending on the design. It may need to very big. Your best best on most instruments is start small you can always make it bigger, but not smaller. I think someone suggested 3/8" as optimal? Not sure this is true.

[Prostheta]

I've used a 18mm radius roundover on a 40mm thick body before, and frankly it was SCARY. That's safety though, and I wanted a fully rounded edge. Basses like older Ibanez SDGRs need a hefty roundover IIRC. As Spoke says - totally dependant on the design, but I think Ross said it better than that!

[MrMuckle]

But if I want a veneer to have this almost binding type of look when viewed from above (I'm talking about the thin black veneer NOT the burled top) I have to use a pretty big round over, right?

http://www.bassexchange.com/catalog/images...asses%20top.jpg

[Southpa]

The roundover in your pic looks like about 3/8". But it does not look like a full corner as you can see the upper sharp edge. I figure anything over 1/2" is getting into toilet seat country. I prefer 3/8", a little big for a tele, but makes a good balance for your average guitar thickness. For a bolt on neck I will do the whole body in 3/8" and then switch to 1/4" for the approaches to the neck joint.