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I have heard that a few folks set thier fox bender up for cutaways. Anyone have pics of this setup?

Can any shaped cutaway be done on a fox?

I just built the mold for my archtop and it will use a nice fluid-looking round cutaway style (florentine?). I styled it off of a 1959 Gretsch 16" guitar for shape. Can a fox bender be built to do this shape or do I need to set up and iron instead?

Right now I have only used the old "pipe and torch" method of bending sides. It seems to work good, but I am looking for something a little safer to use in the garage or basement.

Thanks,
Joe

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Joe

Esentially this is the shape I am after...



J

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Joe

if you google fox bender you'll get a whole bunch of them.
you build the bending form with the cutaway you like and add a cutaway ram to the jig.

florentine, ain't that the 'pointy' kind?

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Frank

Sure - people use Fox benders to bend cut-aways and the one that you show is not a difficult one.

Check out John Hall's site (Blues Creek - link above) and either on his site or eBay pages he sells Fox benders that are fitted with a ram to do the cut-away. That's how it's done with a Fox bender.

Yep florentine is pointed and jointed not a continious single bend. It is a 2 piece side rim

So I guess that make this one a Venitian? ( i am quite sure I spelt that wrong).

Thanks for the repsonse. I wasn't sure that this shape could be done on the fox bender as one continious movement while bending the rest of the side. Most cutaways I have seen appeared to have had a much more gentle radius.

Thanks,
Joe

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Joe

As long as the cutaway ram will fit the return bend of the for, any countinious bend is doable. My cutaways are differnt in shape, radius, and return depth than the next guys. But if the ram will fit the form and the wood will take the bend there is no set standard shape. That said most of us want the return bend to flush out with the fretboard at the 16th of 17th fret on a 25.4 scale neck, The rest is just pudding on the cake.

Kathy Matsushita shows how she had some problems with a venetian and how she dealt with it. Here's the link!

Kathy's side bender

Great little site, by the way! She's very straight forward, about building, as a beginner!

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)