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For those of you who put arm bevels on guitars, do you always make them at 45°. Has anyone tried a different angle to see if it affects the playing comfort? After all, that's what it's there for. 45° seems to be the obvious choice, but if it was reduced, say to 35° from the top, it would make the binding easier to do. It wouldn't have to be forced down so far to achieve the angle of the bevel.

Of course there are two styles of bevel. I'm talking about the faired in type (can't remember who to credit for its invention) which I find much more elegant than the Laskin style, but which does entail forcing the binding down into a dip in the bevel area.

There's also the size of the bevel to consider. Some are very large, others quite small, but they all claim to make a difference.

I've only ever made one, and although I hesitate to admit it, the one I'm working on isn't even on an acoustic, It's a sort of Telecasterish thing. Fender, in particular, seems to think that Stratocaster players all have pot-bellies and forearm tendonitis problems, so they carve the bodies appropriately. I can't do that, as this one will have binding and purfling on the front, which is why I thought about doing an acoustic style bevel.

Any obsevations, especially about the angle, would be most welcome.

Only observation I have is that is a sweet guitar.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

I agree with that observation.

I've also only done one bevel and the guitar is not finished yet but I did have the same question when I started. In the end I decided follow Kent Everett's directions since I trust his judgment. Two reasons really, one, he's done a lot of bevels so he has the experience and, two, when I did a course in his shop I found him to be a very detail oriented guy who considers design elements very carefully. A good reason to start with a 45 degree angle but over time I may decide to change.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Play a guitar and look at the angle of your forearm resting on the edge. In my case it tends to be just about 45 degrees, so that's where I put my bevels. But it would be interesting to do an actual study on it, with a bunch of players and 2 or 3 different guitar sizes, played sitting and standing.

Are all bevels kept flat, or are some rounded over a bit?

I'm doing my first now, and have had some people play it before binding and the final veneer. Everyone agreed it was extremely comfortable. I put it at about 20 degrees, measured from the top surface. This is on a standard sized dread.

Edges are rounded on mine. Probably about 1/16" radius

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I like it slightly rounded overall, and heavily rounded at the edges.

So how wide is it at its widest point, looked at from the top?

Lemme see if I can get a pic to be "postable". I usually have to try several times to get something small enough.

This is a pic of my bevel before I do the binding and laminate. When I do the first of a model this is typical so I can play it as early as possible and make adjustments as needed. At this point I will install the bindings, add the laminate over the bevel, remove the bridge, surface prep, spray, buff, glue on the bridge and glue the neck on, etc.

The widest point of this bevel from the top perspective is ~1 1/4". It's very "steep" from the player's view, but that seemed to be the best match for arm angle for sitting and playing. Most players I've worked with tend to keep their arms relatively close to the plane of the top.

Forgot to mention, this is a pic before I glued the bridge on and temporarily attached the neck for a setup and play.

Can someone point me to pics of a 'faired' bevel. I could not find one when I looked. I don't know what the difference is to a Laskin type.

The flatter the better. Rounding them makes veneer attachment a bear. Angle is pretty much determined by top and side depth of the bevel. I've never strived for a particular angle. On mine, I remove about 3/4" of side and a little less than that on the top (since I do not want to impact top too much). So I guess I am somewhere near 45 deg? Good luck!

One of the most important factors is the length of the transition (in and out). Or you will have a lot of trouble bending the binding. Longer is better.

Mike

I would love to see the rest of your process. Because I always have binding and purfling in place before I shape. Would love to see how you do that post shaping.

Mike