Advice on Body work

  • Thread starter Thread starter stratjacket
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stratjacket

stratjacket

Well-known member
I had this made a few years ago from Skervesen. It's a 24.75" scale length 4AP. I love the guitar, it plays amazing, sounds amazing, etc...HOWEVER, there is no arm contour on the body. It's a hard edge, like a 90 degree angle. So after some time of my arm resting there, it starts to hurt my arm where it rests on the knife edge.

I am thinking about sanding down the edge to round it off. I've never done any body work like that on a guitar. So I am wondering if I should take the plunge and try to or should I find someone who can do it without fucking it up?

McDaniel-Auth-Release-of-Info - 1.jpeg
McDaniel-Auth-Release-of-Info - 2.jpeg
 
If someone hasn't done anything like this before, a nice instrument is the LAST place I'd tell them to start. If you screw up, you can't put the wood back on, and whole instruments can get ruined fast when you start messing with the body wood like that. Also, let's say the sanding gets done. What next? Leave the raw wood bare or refinish? Raw wood is going to feel noticeably different than the rest of the guitar, and likely not better. If you want to refinish, do you know the finish of the guitar now so you can match it? There's almost zero chance you'll personally be able to paint it at all in a way that doesn't look awful. Nothing against you but the setups the pros use to paint guitars takes a ton of dedicated hardware, materials, specific techniques, entire rooms built just for that purpose, etc. Also, do you know if it's a nitro or poly finish? That's something you'll want to find out before a potential partial refinish. Also, it's hard to tell from the pic but is that a satin or gloss finish? Different techniques for that too.

First thing I'd do is contact Skervesen and see if they'd be willing to contour the body for you. If not, I'd try to find the best luthier you can, check out their work, including mods to other guitars, and start a conversation to see if this is something they would be willing to do.

Good luck!
 
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Try wearing a sweatband on your arm.
I used to get a welt on my arm from the edge of my King V (long gone), and started wearing them ever since.
Unleash your inner Hetfield!🤣😁
 
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If I guess the the beautiful figured top is only as deep as the un-stained maple 'binding' on the edge of the body, that may not provide enough material to remove for a traditional forearm contour - unless you don't mind losing the last area of the figured top where it would contour down into the core wood.
 
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