Sonics Build No.6 - The Triple Black-O-Caster

[Sonic Mountain]

Bit more done in between work this morning. Sprayed a very light 'Guide Coat' on the body to help me block it back (if you do this make sure the paint is compatible with what ever you are finishing with later!). Using 120grit as the basswood is pretty soft, and a big flat sanding block.

You can see how the low points stay dark, this is something that will absolutely be evident under a gloss black finish. It's just a matter of working at it. It's also important to change directions with the block. So follow the grain, then do it at 90 degrees to the grain, then cross hatch at 45 both ways. This will give you the flattest possible surface.

You can see it's shown up some wobbles in the radius around the body and where the forearm relief is. I worked back and forth on the forearm relief with the block until it closed up the low point and gave a nice straight transition. I'm going to round off the bit I scalloped off the back as well to make it suit the rest of the guitar a bit better.

Next task will be to go around the radius and make sure it's consistent. Then I'll start using a softer block and finer grade paper to blend all the edges.

[phrozin]

Bit more done in between work this morning. Sprayed a very light 'Guide Coat' on the body to help me block it back (if you do this make sure the paint is compatible with what ever you are finishing with later!). Using 120grit as the basswood is pretty soft, and a big flat sanding block.

You can see how the low points stay dark, this is something that will absolutely be evident under a gloss black finish. It's just a matter of working at it. It's also important to change directions with the block. So follow the grain, then do it at 90 degrees to the grain, then cross hatch at 45 both ways. This will give you the flattest possible surface.

You can see it's shown up some wobbles in the radius around the body and where the forearm relief is. I worked back and forth on the forearm relief with the block until it closed up the low point and gave a nice straight transition. I'm going to round off the bit I scalloped off the back as well to make it suit the rest of the guitar a bit better.

Next task will be to go around the radius and make sure it's consistent. Then I'll start using a softer block and finer grade paper to blend all the edges.

interesting way of doing it mate, i use a 6" random orbit and a 120 pad and then a 220 pad and finish with block and 360 then 3 or 4 coats of high fill then block back with 240 then 400, buying a 150mm random orbit capable of low speed will save you a lot of sore arms Sonic specially if you do a lot of builds mate, i use a bosch gex 150 can go super slow so wont take more off than needed, black is an arse of a colour can look excellent or really bad depending on how much prep you do, give your clear a few extra coats to block out any minor flaws which is unavoidable