What would YOU use?

[canuckguitarist]

What tool would you use to shape the body bevels and armrest on a Musicman John Petrucci?

Thanks,

Aaron

[YDoesGodMockMeSo]

someone had a simliar question ..and someone else suggesting a 45 degree chamfer bit on a router.

Whatever that means.

[canuckguitarist]

I thought about that but I don't think that would work because the bevel isn't at a constant width/depth/angle around the edge.

And I'm still wondering about that armrest....

[bluespresence]

I use a belt sander and a lot of finesse.......just touch it lightly and walk along the edge with it. Repeat until you get the angle and depth of bevel you want.

Don't laugh....it really works. Use 120 grit and be gentle. My avatar bass has very similar bevels on the body.

[bluespresence]

This is what I mean.....

[canuckguitarist]

Anybody know of any other ways? Preferably with hand tools? I don't think I trust myself with a belt sander yet....

[bluespresence]

Try using a file or rasp. You'll have a lot more control and there will be less chance of making an unrecoverable mistake.

[Southpa]

I would use a woodrasp, WITH the grain, and varying sandpaper grits from 80 to 400. Draw out both edges, where the bevels begin, on the guitar with a marker. ie. top and side and don't do over the lines. I stress WITH the grain because you don't want to tear out any wood by going across the grain.

[Defiled]

I put an arm carve and a stomach(?) contour on my Epi LP using a palm sander, which is a lot easier to control imo. I'm sure you could just run it at an angle, although it might be somewhat difficult to keep a bevel that runs around the whole body looking equal.

[darren wilson]

The outer contours of the horns you can easily do with a spokeshave and planes.

The inner beveled cutaways are probably best done with a router or drum sander.

The arm scoop is tricky because it's so big and it's concave. I think the belt sander is pretty much the only way to go for that. Except maybe a concave spoke shave or small hand plane.

[Little Bit]

Post pulled by author.

[krazyderek]

if it's all a constant 45 degree bevel, just cut out the body bigger in some places, then put the whole body thru the router, then trimm off the excess to get regions that only have a bit of the bevel... follow me?

other then that.... i'd say 3 hours with a spokeshave and a little straight edge ruler(arm rest) to get the whole thing looking acceptable

[VanKirk]

Router to basic bevel shape then use a cabinet scraper to shape the rest of it.

Rasp, file and again the scraper for the arm contour. Just an amateur hack's 2 cents

[KramerKrazy]

I used an angle grinder to take the meat out of the deep stuff. Then a rat tail rasp and a two sided rasp(flat on one side, radius on the other) 60, 80, 100 & 220

grit sandpaper.

I'm not even close to done yet though.

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