Hi, not sure if this is the correct place to post. What methods would you all use to arch the top of a guitar. Is it best to do it with the rectangular slab of wood and fully radius it, or to do it once body shape is cut. How would you do this
You’d typically do all the top routing - neck pocket and pickup cavities and the rear routs with the flat body for stability and accuracy. Then cut the body shape, snd then do the arch curve.
Are you talking af a Les Paul or PRS type top here?
It's kind of like that, but more of a radius across the whole guitar body, front and back. I'm thinking of two slabs of wood, arched on one side each, then control cavities cut out, then laminate them together and then cut out the body,
There is no right or wrong way to do this, but some ways will be easier than others. It really is a lot easier to rout on a flat than a curved surface, so you really want to rout when the body's still flat. Also any holes for posts unless you have a pillar drill/drill press.
Whilst you could do some rough shaping while the two body halves are separate, to get curves on the two halves to match up, they will really need to be joined together for the final shaping.
It is far less important when the cutting out of the body shape occurs, though I'm thinking that a binding channel may be easier to cut with a flat top if there is any binding and it follows a straight line around the edge of the body, rather than follow a more contoured path.
I see what you mean. If I had a pin router it would be easier to route the neck join and cavities after. The middle of the top section will be flat, as it needs planed to a certain angle for the neck and the bridge. I imagine it would be much easier with some kind of machine that could plane/sand the whole body blank to the radius in one go
My knowledge here is very limited, so I'm just trying to point out the most obvious things that occur to me. Hopefully some of the people with some arched/carved-top body experience will be along later to help.
Is there a particular guitar that looks close to what you're trying to achieve, so others can get a better idea of exactly what's involved?
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