Thursday 20 February 2014

DLP Les Paul - 9 - Getting Ready For Primer

I have continued working on he body of the past week or so, preparing the holes for the bridge and tail piece.  I want to get some primer on the body as soon as I can making it easier to see blemishes that may need filling.


I also took delivery of a set of Wilkinson Humbucker pickups so I was able to refine the two cavities for a perfect fit.


I was also able to drill the cavity for the pickup selector switch and carefully carve out a recess around the hole for the switch cover plate.  I marked the recess for the switch cover and then scored the live with a sharp craft knife and then carefully chiselled down about 2mm.


I also masked up the neck ready for primer, a job which took about an hour by itself.  I want to spray the back of the neck black leaving the face of the headstock and the fret board unpainted so it was a very fiddly job.


So finally I was able to spray a couple of coats of grey primer. It will take several coats to completely hide the grain so between each coat I lightly sanded the body with 220 grit sand paper.


The back is looking particularly smooth so shouldn't need quite as much work as the carved front where there is more exposed grain.


I had also coated the neck with primer.  Mahogany tends to be very porous and shows the tight grain if it is not filled before been primed so even after a couple of coats of sander sealer I can still see the grain.  It just means I have to put in a couple of extra coats of primer and spot fill were required.



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