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Building JS-7 copy


RGGR

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Worked little on neck today. Sanded the volute down to spec. Waiting for top lock nut, before attaching Ebody fingerboard.

Found this great article on building a neck, and will be following almost exact same process.

Edit: Saw this neck caused some trouble. :DB):D:D:D

http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=11215

Edited by RGGR
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Did little work on my neck today. The wonderful!!! thing of wood is that it's alive, even when it's dead. There is always movement in the wood, as I discovered the other day when I layed my neck on perfect flat piece of marble.

I discovered my neck to have warped a tid bit.

Not something to worry about......but rather something to fix.

Followed tutorial on Projectguitar.com to fix problem. Some light passed with 100 and 180 grit did the trick.

All nice and flat again.

Edited by RGGR
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You refer to the small tunnel like pores in the Wenge???

Haven't made up my mind yet what to do with the neck. Tung-oil, or some clear coat on it. With clear I could fill those pores and then maybe sand it back down with 1000, 1500, 2000.....etc, to get rid of sticky feel a clear can have. I have seen some people getting some great results with Tung Oil on riffles/guns etc. Trouble is this Tung Oil doesn't have great pore filling capacity.

Will see.....first more work needs to be done before that decision has to be made. Busy period so hardly have time to work on guitar. Leaning towards Tung-Oil though...

Love the tiger like coloring and lines in the Wenge......really gives nice touch to the neck. Just in general are falling in love with this guitar.

Building one is whole different animal than handing over some $$$ and walking out a store. This guitar has more soul......more curses too. ;-)

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Building one is whole different animal than handing over some $$$ and walking out a store. This guitar has more soul......more curses too. ;-)

Amen to that brother! The pay off is huge, however, which makes every curse worth it. I think if you can pull off your JS7 you're really going to have something unique. Especially with that gorgeous laminated neck of yours. From the rumors I've been hearing you may be getting some competition from Ibanez themselves. Rumor has it they may be coming out with a JS7 next year. Just a rumor though. Yours will end up looking better than a stock Ibanez JS7 regardless.

Best Regards,

Mike.

Edited by 82DeanZ
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Rumor has it they may be coming out with a JS7 next year. Just a rumor though. Yours will end up looking better than a stock Ibanez JS7 regardless.

I have read those rumors too. Not sure if Ibanez is gonna bring out JS-7.

JSsss are bit of weird animal in Ibanez range. Heard Jem outsells the JS by 10:1.

You can see from JS guitar that Joe likes the strat type guitars. (22 frets, 25,5" scale...flat headstock, neck profile, etc.) Ibanez turned their great 540R into strange Fender clone.

Trouble is that Joe isn't a very innovative guy.........in his playing yes....in his guitars no. Haven't seen AANJ in JS.....haven't seen any really cool colors........JS1200CA really was necessary to bring some color in this dull line of JS guitars.

What Ibanez should do ....is bring cool 540R line back again, with AANJ, with some cool colors and a 7 string version, 24 frets.....angled headstock.....the lot.

The 540R has more potential than the JS, my mind.

The fact that JS isn't very good seller and latest experiences with K7 and RG7620....I doubt if Ibanez will bring JS-7 next year. If they do....cool......but still not as cool and 540R/JS clone I'm building. And that's just the fun of building your own.......it can be darn slick instrument if you do it right.

Edited by RGGR
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Visited local custom bike show today to meet up with painter.

Discussed different paint options on guitar. Serious leaning towards option of having finish professionally done. Finish kinda makes or breaks guitar.

I just don't see my self getting great results with metallic base and some transparent layers of Kandy Apple. Investment in gun and compressor is just too big for just one or two guitars. Just solid black or white I see myself do with Dupli-colors and having local car repair shop do clear over this, but Kandy's and metallics are little more tricky.

They had some great bike examples on show, also some nice Kandy Apples......Discussed some alternatives to House of Kolor......Kandy Apples.

All works under same principle......base of gold or grey metallic, then transparent Kandy's (balance between bringing up color and letting metallic shine through).

Final clear or clear with metallics and then final clear.

C'est tout.

Trick is getting the guitar smooth, but I knew that already. That's all my job.

After all this talk about paints it was time to take a brewski with my friends from the local chapter.

trailertrash.jpg

Edited by RGGR
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Thanks RGGR! I've gotta ask, though, what is happening with your JS7? I was kinda of feeling like we were a team there for a while representing JS lovers. Last I heard I think your were still working out the finish. Any news?

Just finished putting primer coat on LP project I started. Priming and sanding LP is kinda a test case for my JS-7. Just wanted to see how spray putty and sanding holds up. (how smooth I can get the surface, and how confident I am about the project of finishing it. ) JS will be notch more complex........Haven't really made any new progress since last pics. Have ordered sh*t load of stuff though.

Just completed order with Musicianfriends, and Music123 for Blaze 7 (br), Air Norton 7 (neck) and SD JB and '59 combo for LP.

Ordered most hardware and electronics for JS and LP from Allparts, and Stewmac. Also ordered some Epoxy 330 from Amlab.com.

Hoping to complete my order for chrome pick-up rings with Dave (fretsonthenet.com) next week.

Also ordered diamond hone block (read: fretwork) and long drum sanding set from Harborfreight.

Will order Edge Lo Pro 7 Trem and lock nut soon. I should have ordered them long ago..........but I am bit nervous routing the trem routes.......

Next up will be glueing fretboard to neck. With drumsander I will sand fretboard even with neckblank.......then the neck will be sanded to shape. Volute is done....but major curving still needs to be done. When trem arrives I will measure and measure and re-measure...and re-measure .....and then dig in routing the trem cavity out.

(did I mention this is making me bit nervous, yet!!!)

All in all.......I'm just taking my time. Sharpening my skills with some side projects.

Noooop, not taking my eyes of the ball.....just don't want to screw up.

And then last week I saw this

Dsc02299.jpg

Ibanez RG-PAINT1.....and now I'm also thinking turning a RG1527 or RG7620 into

Ibanez RG-PAINT-7 version.

Darn, I never should have started this guitarbuilding stuff....I can dream up the projects fasten then I can complete them.

But first 3 weeks of sunny Florida. Got date with my airplane. ;-)

Edited by RGGR
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  • 4 weeks later...

Just back from 3 weeks of sunny Florida. Was great to be back home.

And next to all the flying, fishing, hunting I did......I had brought with me a long list of supplies I needed for finishing up my guitar projects.

Buying goods in US would save me the additional shipping and tax charges that normally occurs when shipping goods to Europe from US. And the dollar is nice and weak to the Euro....so it was like buying everything on discount. ;-)

Bought:

- Set of SD JB and 59's pick-ups - at guitarelectronics.com

- Dimarzio Air Norton 7 pickup - at music123.com

- Dimarzio Blaze 7 pickup - at Musiciansfriends.com (but couldn't complete order)

- Some Epoxy 330 at amlap.com

- Completed order of aluminum 7 string pickup rings with Dave from fretsonthenet.com

Home Depot supplied me with some 000 and 0000 steelwool, some silicone glue, a long nose drill bit, some 1/4" and 1/2" drill bits..... 1/2" round over bit.

Radioshack had some Silver bearing solder.

Allparts and StewMac supplied me with most knobs, pots and switches, sanding blocks, tuners, etc.

So you can say I completed my X-mas shopping. ;-)

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Wanted to do little work on guitar today.

But with the wind and rain, hail, wet snow, and just above 0 Celcius, it was just unpleasant out there.

Quickly went inside again. Warmed my hands and started playing my RG2550GK.

I guess there is a time for building.....and there is a time for playing. ;-)

:D

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FWIW, I had some input on the wenge in the neck.

Warwick basses use/used to use wenge necks. They were more or less raw; if they had an oil finish, it was very unobtrusive. Anyway, despite the open pores, they felt -really- nice! Not rough or annoying at all. Whatever you do with the neck, I wouldn't worry about the openness of the wenge.

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Whatever you do with the neck, I wouldn't worry about the openness of the wenge.

Here is interesting write up I got from the Rampart Guitars website

Wenge

Experts say it takes a lot of work to obtain an acceptable finish and the edges can be particularly hard to sand.

Wenge takes a little getting used to. When sanding with course grit, it almost feels like you only take part of the wood away......feels very open after sanding......when following up with finer grit sand paper it get's nice and smooth again.

It's different and that's what I like about it. I guess, on this site somewhere, I read someone making a fretboard out of it. I still have nice fretboard size piece left.....and am thinking doing something similar on one of my next builds.

On small local woodworking trade show I saw someone make a vase out of wenge and maple laminates. It looked stunning...........I inmediately thought how great it would look on a RG type body (my favorite) when taking small 3/4" (about 2 cm) wide strips of maple and wenge laminates (parallel to neck) and making body out of that.

Just an idea.

Edited by RGGR
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  • 2 weeks later...

With the holiday season and tons of other projects going on, I haven't had time to work on my JS-7.

I did see that Ibanez for 2005 picked up on those Wenge stripes in the necks of some of their guitars. Damn, copycats!!

I also ordered a Original FR 7 string trem. Was planning to order an Ibanez Lo-Pro-7, but incl. nut this would have set me back a healthy 260-270 Euros, while the OFR-7 (incl. nut) can he had for 120-130 Euros.

Viper on Jemsite.com has drawn up a great JS-1200CA custom for me, according the look that I want from my JS-7. Although this one has 6 strings, 22 frets and a straight headstock, I think it simply looks awesome.

js1200ca-custom.jpg

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The body also isn't rounded enough... it almost looks "beveled" where the curves meet the flatter parts in the middle. It looks like its scale is a little longer, too. I would have also set the neck a bit deeper into the body. Having it sticking way out and with the 8-inline headstock, it'll never fit in a standard case. Having to carry a guitar around in a bass case sucks.

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