Professional Guitar Side Rib Bending Iron - Luthier Tool for Violin & Acoustic Guitar Making - Perfect for Wood Bending & Instrument Repair Workshop

This side bender works very well at half the price you would pay at a luthier supply store. I've been using it to bend mahogany, maple and rosewood guitar sides as well as ebony binding. The temperature settings are accurate and it holds heat really well. There are a nice array of curves on the heating element, but tight bends (such as in a small-bodied guitar cutaway) can take a bit of work because of the width of the unit. Note that the temperature controller is in Celsius, not Fahrenheit, and you can adjust the temperature high enough to melt the controller. How do I know this? Because I did it accidentally, and basically slagged it. The controller housing is plastic and it's just below the heating element. Even though there is insulation between the heating element and the base, the base is metal and will get too hot to touch barehanded, and the controller housing will melt if you overheat it. The seller was kind enough to send me a replacement controller unit for free. Definitely went above and beyond given that the mistake was mine. It took a while coming from China but that's on the post office - the seller sent it out the replacement the day after I informed him of the issue. I may install a wider spacing block between the heating element and the housing to help keep the new controller unit safe but so far it's been fine at 200C or less. The only other issue is that there's no automatic shut off, but you can plug it to a timer and make sure that you don't accidentally leave it on. This works really well at a bargain price.