Shaping Body Edges

[McFly]

I'm looking for recommendations on how to sand the edges of a tele body. I'm talking about the bare wood, not finish. The edges are a bit more 'rounded over' than they should be. I want to bring them back to the sharper edges it should have. I think I heard someone refer to this as an 1/8" radius 'turndown' but I'm not sure about that.

[mgdesigns]

If the exisiting roundover is too big, say 1/4" radius, and you're wanting asharper roundover, say 1/8" radius you can over do it by adding wood or body patching compound, or by making the body smaller. See the attach drawing.

[BAW4742]

How much over the standard 1/8" or 1/4" are the roundovers on your Tele?

I did this on a Tele last year by adding wood but it is a lot of work.

[Jack Wells]

I think you should just learn to live with the edges as they are unless you are restoring a vintage instrument. It would be easier to buy or build a new body.

[McFly]

I would say that it's about halfway between 1/8 and 1/4, it's also more pronounced in certain areas than others.

If there's a sanding technique that will get it closer to 1/8 I would probably take that approach.

Also, for those who added wood, how do you go about that?

[Jack Wells]

Sanding would require making the body thinner or smaller or a combination of the two. Might require routing neck pocket deeper.

If you're only sanding the top and the bottom you'd probably have to take off at least 1/8 in. from each. If it's a typical 1 3/4 in. Telecaster body, you'd now have a 1 1/2 in. body.

Adding wood requires running a rabbit bit all the way around the body to create a ledge top and bottom. you then cut wood pieces to fill in this ledge. You then rout and plane the added wood flush with the surrounding wood................ fill any voids with wood filler........... rout new edges with a 1/8 in. bit and repaint the guitar. Definitely not worth the effort if it's not a vintage instrument. And if it is, you have a refinished vintage instrument thus decreasing its value.

What guitar are you talking about here?

[mgdesigns]

How about adding a binding all around both sides?

[McFly]

Thanks all for the suggestions, the edges themselves are not problematic enough to warrant more routing etc. It's a 1975 body that I got on the cheap. It had been refinished and I'm restoring it to the original color.

I think I will leave the edges alone at this point.