Radius sanding, cavity covering

Category: Guitar building

2017-01-02 15:20:52

Next job on the bass was to curve the top of the fretboard. I didn't have any curved sanding blocks, so made some from scratch. This involved routing a curve by anchoring the router at 18 and 14 inches, then using that as a template to curve a block of wood underneath.

Next, curved the bridge end of the board to 18 inch radius, and the neck end to 14 inch. It might not look like a lot, but it took a fair amount of wood off the board. I then had to redo the fret cuts, as the sanding had made them too shallow.

I've also finished the cavity cover on the back. More routing templates and sanding involved. I tried two options - one was the original unmilled wood that I've used for the body, as that has a nice bit of history to it. The other option was the same wood as the fretboard, which is what I've gone with in the end.