Thursday, 12 September 2013

DLP Les Paul Prototype - 32 - Pickup Cavities

Over the past couple of days I have been preparing the pickup cavities.  I am chiselling them out by hand and I start by laying out the neck pickup position relative to the bridge.  The neck is mounted further into the body than a vintage Les Paul so the pups will also be further down the body.


After scoring the outline of the cavity to prevent the varnish chipping too much I used a forstner bit to take away the vast majority of the material and then chiselled away the rest until I have a snug cavity for the pickup.


Once I finished the neck pickup I laid out the position of the bridge pickup using the pick guard as a spacer.


Now the two pickup cavities are finished I can more onto the rest of the holes that need to be made in the front of the body for the bridge, tail piece, pots, switch and output jack.


It's a nice neat job however the pickguard does not sit flush next to the neck (mainly because my neck is not quite as wide as a standard Gibson Les Paul neck), so I might have to make one bespoke if it looks odd.


Any chipping around the neck cavity and pickup cavities will be hidden with the sunburst I plan to paint and the pickup mounting rings.

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