Firefox2551

Well thats the thing, it will definitely be easy enough to get the shape of the body, I'm just unsure as to how to get the neck pocket, pickup holes etc. perfect

Hey all, I have a couple of Ibanez RG's that I really love. I just like the shape and the feel, the first one is a 96' MIJ shredder style setup. I believe its got the first wizard neck, which I absolutely love. Problem knife edges on the trem are old and it doesn't really hold a tune anymore. Besides that its a bright green sparkle. The other is a fairly recent RG 321, nothing real special but the mahogany body really appeals to me, plus is has a nice solid hardtail. What I want to do, is mill off the thickness of a nice maple top from the mahogany body, so I will have a mahogany maple combo, and switch the neck and pickups over from the MIJ RG. To basically combine my favorite things about both guitars into one more or less perfect setup for me. My question is, what is best place to buy a decent quality maple top, rg sized, and how should I go about cutting it to fit on the existing body? I was hoping that mabye someone could direct me to a template for a hardtail rg body. Also, I want to convert the nut from a locking to a regular composite or bone nut. Thanks all!

Thanks for all the advice so far guys, I've been reading about building guitars for about 2 years now but things get real difficult when you actually try to do this stuff. So please excuse my ignorance. I actually like that recessed TOM idea very much. I think I'll end up going with cutting the wings off. And I'm still kinda fuzzy on the details, is there someplace I can go to for some pictures or diagrams for neck-thru's? This is turing out to be a bigger problem than I had initially thought it would.

So should I have to worry about any neck angle at all? The whole thing has been planed and sanded absolutely flat. Can I just just basically slap a fretboard and a strat style hard tail on it?

Hey All! I've been working on a neck through with my local luthier buddy, only he's never built a neck through and neither have I. Here are photos of what we have together. http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/4/22/1005704/MVC-001F.JPG http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/4/22/1005704/MVC-002F.JPG http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/4/22/1005704/MVC-003F.JPG http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/4/22/1005704/MVC-004F.JPG http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/4/22/1005704/MVC-005F.JPG We did make sure to mark a centre line before cutting the body sides, but what I am worried about is that we should have built the neck before gluing the sides on, it should end up being a normal PRS style 6 string. I was also planning on have a TOM style bridge but I'm afraid I may have to go with some kind of strat style hardtail because of the neck angle. Which I would actually be fine with. I guess in the end my question is what do I do now? Did we screw up or is this still fine? If you need any info like dimensions or anything I'll be happy to oblige. I just ordered Hiscocks book so I'll have a better idea of what I'm doing, but I'm getting anxious to hear from someone who's actually built these before. Thanks all!

I don't see anywhere on the neck saying RG 570, I haven't checked in the neck pocket though, I googled the color and some 517's did come up so you may very well be right. Thanks for the info!!!! Yeah, I just got it home today, spent about 5 hours polishing the frets, took the trem down to all peices and cleaned and polished everything I could, It sounds REALLY good. And I haven't even done intonation and pickup adjustment yet! I paid $225. I was more thinking of using it as a parts guitar, but.... it may just be a little too nice for that.

Hey all, I've just purchased this Ibanez RG-570 And I'd like to know what type of trem it has, pics below. The writting on the trem is as follows, on the bar with the fine tuners, "Licensed Under Floyd Rose Patents" on one side of the trem block in big lettering the Ibanez Logo and the word Edge under that in smaller letters "Japan" and on the opposite side there are two Large Letters "HS" I'd like to know what year the guitar was made if anyone knows how the Ibanez serial numbers work. Back of headstock says, Serial No. F602926 Made in Japan. Color is supposedly "Sparkle Green" Thanks Guys!!!!

Wow guys thanks! I'm a little more set on having Midi in the guitar than the sustainer so mabye its best to drop the Sustainer idea then.... What is the best solution for a Midi pickup system?

Hey thanks, I forgot to mention (kinda a big thing to forget) I'll be using a Floyd style Trem. About the midi then? Thats why I thought of the Roland pickup, I know Godin must use some kind of saddle thing in their trem equipped guitars....

Hey all, I haven't posted in a while but now I'm getting a little closer to actually being able to build my dream guitar so the questions are popping into my head again. I want to build a 7 string neck through and I'd really like a sustainer and Midi output (really sweet for those midi violin sounds and stuff) I understandably haven't been able to find a 7 String Midi pickup, so if if anyone knows of one let me know, otherwise I was thinking of taking the Roland 6 string midi pickup (or something similar) and using that, as long as the string spacing is alright I should be able to use that but I'll lose the 7th strings use in Midi... Should that work? And a 7 string sustainer, I know there has been ALOT of discussion in this forum about sustainers, but I am really too lazy to go through 126 pages on sustainers, so quick and simple, is it possible and how difficult will it be? Thanks guys!

Myself Personally, I would get an Ibanez. Gibsons lost my favor long ago, I go to a music store regularly where they have 10+ New Genuine Gibsons available to play at any one time. I've played a few of the Les Pauls and Sg's and was genuinely unimpressed. I've compared them side by side with the same model but an epiphone, and as far as build quality goes they are VERY close, with the Gibson leading by a hair, The sound was considerably different although I feel that could be fixed with a swap for Gibson pickups. I have always loved the les paul shape. Its always seemed elegant to me. I Owned an Epiphone les paul for a long time until I discovered that the neck really wasn't suited to me. I now use a Strat for my main axe. But I would never buy a Gibson because I'm not that type of person. I've always been very frugal and will only purchase something if I feel its really worth it. For that Reason I was considering a Carvin Guitar for a long time. I've now decided I want to build my own guitar as I feel that will be economical and fun. The way I will accomplish this is... I will buy an Ibanez RG, Take it ALL apart including the fretboard and all parts, then I will build a Neck/through body and neck and simply throw the Ibanez parts into it. After I have that experience I will go on to building scratch builts. But if I was to actually save my money and BUY a guitar from a company it would be Carvin or Ibanez.

I doubt a pro would do it cheaper than $150, they would probably have all the parts and tools already but still, changing out a fretboard can be time consuming especialy with having to do all the fretwork over. At My Local shop they charge $285 for a fretjob alone. I'd suggest looking around at your local luthiers and guitar shops see what they are charging, and ask yourself is it worth what they are charging or could you accomplish it yourself?

Sounds like a truss rod probem for sure, basses usually have more relief than a guitar neck would. Like Primal said, if that don't work, but instead of buying a dean bass, I'd shop around for mabye a used Ibanez or something. More for the money.

True, but I don't have the kind of money to have someone else do all my repairs, I have 6 or 7 guitars now so just the price to set them up, I could buy a whole NOTHER guitar You only have to many when they are on every wall in the house, then you start building additions

$30!! Dang Up here they are getting $100 for a deluxe setup (Truss rod, intonation, fret leveling, crowning, polishing, saddle and nut adjustments "tightening hardware" examination of electronics and restringing) A nut replacement is $95 A refret is $285....... I'm just glad I'm learning how to do the stuff myself.