Bow Posted April 16, 2004 Report Share Posted April 16, 2004 Hello All! My name is Bow and I am in Houston, TX. About 6 years ago, I refinished/overhauled a mid-80's Ibanez Roadstar II. It use to look like this in 1993: http://www.s94381261.onlinehome.us./Guitar...om%20Before.jpg You have got to love that mid-80's Hair Band Lipstick Red Paint! LOL In the spring on 1998, I was unemployed and job hunting like a freak, my wife said, "Calm down and do something relaxing... like refinish that guitar you have always wanted to refinish..." Gotta love that woman.... So in 2 weeks of tearing down, heatgunning the finish and scrapping, sanding the primer... I finally it wood... I like the natural look, so I slapped on a coat or 3 of some Formby's [sp] walnut stain and a some poly sealer [i think, it has been a while ] I cleaned up the Ibanez Edge [floyd rose copy] and slapped in a Seymore Duncan "Screamin' Demon" and installed a mini-toggle for the coil tap. I used Dry Transfer letters on the Headstock and named it after my wife... "Kaori's Custom".. It now looks like this: http://www.s94381261.onlinehome.us./Guitar...;s%20Custom.jpg I am having urges of doing a little inlay work... maybe star fret markers instead of the dots and a Star under the strings on the body [i.e. Richie Sambora's no name Fender Strat from the 80's]... can anyone suggest any comments about this? Thanks and Great Forum! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted April 16, 2004 Report Share Posted April 16, 2004 Welcome aboard. Nice refinish! Why would you want to go an re-cheesify it with star inlays? Actually, it would look pretty good, but I'm half-serious. Now that you've toned it down a notch, you could either go all the way toward elegance with a more refined inlay, or you could do the stars as a 'tip of the hat' to the guitar's hot-rod origins. Either way, it looks like you have a winner. Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
www Posted April 17, 2004 Report Share Posted April 17, 2004 Welcome! Good work too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bow Posted April 17, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 17, 2004 Thanks Gents. This is actually the second guitar I refinished. I will try to get some pics of my other one this weekend. Refined Inlays with more elegance? OK... You have peaked my interest! What did you have in mind? Thanks again foir the comments, this is my Number 1 guitar and I leave the '93 American Standard Stratocaster in the case alot more than I ever thought would! LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted April 17, 2004 Report Share Posted April 17, 2004 Well, you could either do something like what PRS does with the birds (though I'd avoid doing a direct rip-off since it's such a PRS thing), a vine-of-life type (er, tree of life!) thing would look nice (though there are the obvious Ibanez comparisons, too), or some other sort of organic pattern. Perhaps some Celtic knotwork would look nice! Trapezoids or blocks might look a bit out of place. On the late 90's Samick (I know, ugh) guitars, there was a series with a neat inlay pattern that looked like two sort of leaf- or wing- looking thingies side by each, per inlayed fret. A set of ouroboros symbols? (the figure-eight 'infinity' symbol). I dunno! The sky's the limit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bow Posted April 18, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 18, 2004 Actually, to tell you the truth.... I am scared to death of screwing up the guitar by trying in inlay on it, espically the fretboard... A replacement neck will cost more than the guitar did! I guess I will entertain the idea... But to inlay the fretboard, you have to pull the frets, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted April 18, 2004 Report Share Posted April 18, 2004 I guess it depends on the inlay. I've never done it, so I'm not the right guy to say, but for anything intricate, you WOULD need to pull the frets so as to not f*** them up and also to avoid being accused of being an inlay cheater. ;-) My own twisted version of common sense (perhaps not so 'common' if it's my own, I guess) tells me that something like a bird inlay (just as an example) could probably be done without pulling frets. As for inlaying a fretboard... well, fretboard... headstock... whatever it is that you're contemplating inlaying, there's only one sure way to know for sure, and that's to give'er! If you f--- it up, well I guess it's time to weep and curse me for ever encouraging you to do an inlay. But if you pull it off, imagine the satisfaction! Priceless! Greg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devon Headen Posted April 19, 2004 Report Share Posted April 19, 2004 You're gonna need to refret with any kind of inlay. can't work around the frets enough. Nearly impossible to route the depth correctly, harder to level the inlay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boggs Posted April 19, 2004 Report Share Posted April 19, 2004 Looks GREAT, Bow! You may want to try Frets.com for some ideas on how to go about doing inlay work. I haven't done it before, so I can't be of much help to you there, I'm afraid... Boggs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bow Posted April 20, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2004 Thanks Boggs, I'll check that out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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