My Mystery Ibanez EX Series ...

[elburromjf]

Hi All,

My ancient Ibanez Ex Series Guitar needs some loving. I got this guitar for 50 bucks U.S. about 10 years ago from a total stranger who was standing on a bus stop, and desperately in need of 50 bucks. I had never had an Ibanez before and as it turns out, me and this old axe have been best pals ever since that day. The neck is fast and easy. The sound is pretty good if you consider I have no clue what pickups it has in it. I wanna upgrade the whole axe. Maybe even refinish it.

The pickups are an H-S-S configuration similar to a "Fat Strat" with the 5-position swtich (B-BM-M-NM-N). It is a 22 fret neck and thats about all I know about this guitar except that it says Ibanex Ex Series on the head stock and has a neck plate that says Ibanez with a serial number.

Heres what kind of love I wanna give this axe and the questions I have about doing so:

1: New pickups and wiring:

I have no use for the middle pickup, so I want to eliminate it. I want to have a Dimarzio FRED in the bridge position, wired so I can turn off the furthest coil from the bridge at will. I would like a Fender Lace Sensor in the neck position. I would like these two pickups to be wired to a three position switch like this -> B-BN-N with either a push-pull pot or a mini toggle for spliting the F R E D. Can someone please point me towards a schematic so I know how to wire this? I've used a soldering iron before and can do good connections so long as I Know what goes where.

2. New bridge/Tremolo:

It currently has what appears to be a stock non-locking tremolo bridge. I do not know what the strng spacing is or how to measure it to find out. Please someone advise me on what might be as close to a "Drop In" solution as possible. Do these things come with the springs and everything? Help! Once I have the right parts, it doesn't seem all that complicated to install and intonate the thing.

3. Tuning machines:

Who makes good ones nowadays? When I was more active Grover was king. Whats hot now? Are these more or less "Drop In" installations or should I paya pro to install them?

4. Possible Refinish:

I actually can do minor airbrush work, and when I was into RC cars, I did many a decent lightning job for cash. I figure this guy would get shot black with an X-Files green lightning job. I stink at clear coats though and would have to find someone willing to do the clear for me before I would even consider stripping the guitar down to the sealer.

Anyone with thoughts on any of this is welcome to respond.

EB

Edited September 27, 2004 by elburromjf

[mattdowney]

want to give us some pictures? how will we know how much better you have made it without pictures ? haha

- electronics, go to www.guitarelectronics.com they have almost every wirering diagram you can imagin.

-if you are buying a new bridge bring the old one to the store you get it from and they will give you the one with the right spacing and fit.

-tuners, groverare still great tuners, so are fender. ping are also very good and fairly cheap.

i hope this helps, and good luck with the project.

matt

[Scott Rosenberger]

Wire it with the PRS McCarty Diagram. This will give you the switching combinations you want plus some

[crafty]

The tuners may not necessarily be a drop-in solution. If the holes are too small for the replacements, just drill 'em out. If they're too big, you can probably get bushings to make the new ones fit.

As for the electronics, either guitarelectronics or seymour duncan's website has some good schematics. Wiring it up shouldn't be too tough, either. Dimarzio will probably give you a schematic with the FRED in the box, too. You can probably reuse your old five way switch to give you the coil-tap function as well.

[elburromjf]

I dunno how the mods here feel about double posting so I'll incorporate a few replies in this one message.

Note: Sometimes I can be an idiot. The guitar in question is a H-S-H pickup configuration not H-S-S. I can pretty much do the whole Satrianni thing with the FRED and a PAF Joe.

Matt:

That also happens to be my name. I will provide some pictures sometime next week or maybe over this weekend. Of course they will be the "before" pictures. All I have done so far is make a new trem cavity lid and that came out, well ... crappy. But I'll go slower and be more patient next time. Using plastice that is less brittle would work better too.

Scott:

I'll take a look at that schematic you mentioned. I would like to keep the electrics as simple as possible and move to a three-position switch setup eliminating the middle pickup. I even thought about eliminating the neck pickup as well but decided in the end it was a bad idea.

Crafty:

I'll have to decide as I go with e machine heads if I'm gonna do it myself or have a tech install them.

Thanks for your insights,

EB

Edited September 28, 2004 by elburromjf

[elburromjf]

UPDATE: Stay with me boys and girls. I need your support.

I decided to closely examine the axe in question, particularly around the area of the bridge, which as of late has been a problem. The bridge is what appears to be eithe a TZ30 or an earlier model that the TZ30 may have been based on. The intonation screws are threaded right down the center of the saddles. Lately, the B-string has a habit of slipping out of the notch and up the saddle towards the bass strings, coming to rest on the saddle height adjustment hex screw. E and B are now far apart and B and G are closer together. This really bugs me. Whats worse is that my pal, the B-string gets itself stuck between the intonation screw and the inner wall of the saddle. I usually can't get it unstuck and the string ends up breaking. How annoying is this? This bridge has to go and with a little luck, it goes today. I have the little sucker with me right now and am going to take it to 30th Street Guitars to see if they have one that looks okay for me to drop in. Actually, if there was a kit I could get to convert this axe into a hardtail, I'd do it. I don't have the time, tools, or patience to do it the way Brian Calvert would (I envy that calm demeanor he has).

While I was removing the offending fulcrum with a gym sock and a needle nose plier (you heard me right, a gym sock. It was a clean one!), I took notice that the bridge pickup on this poor old axe is not F-Spaced and by the time you get to the low-E, the string is not even on the pole. The neck picup lines up okay though. Gonna need to throw an F-Spaced pickup in there in a couple of weeks (I gotta free up the cash). It'll be a Dimarzio FRED and I'll have a tech do a Satriani job on it. The bridge pickup not being F-Spaced could mean that this axe is older than I thought. I dunno where it came from or exactly how old it was when I got it (you already know the story). It might have been made before F-Spaced humbuckers where common or even available yet. Of course, it could have been Ibanez's way of offereing a half-decent axe for cheap by cutting corners on the stuff you don't see (like everything INSIDE the guitar) or might not really notice.

Looks like its gonna be the bridge first, then the pickups, then the tuners.

EB

UPDATED UPDATE: Looks like the honorable axe is going to be in a disassembled state for a few weeks. My Strat is gonna get some play time now. Seems that its gonna take a few weeks to get all the parts I need to do my upgrades. Maybe, just maybe, when I go back to 30th Street Guitars a second time (when the tech is in), I'll get a better answer than "I dunno if you can replace that bridge ...". I Just can't buy that from a guy who owns such an awesome shop (he has guitars you'd donate body parts to own).

EB

YET ANOTHER UPDATE:

I decided to stop kidding myself and I called Brian Calvert who will help me figure out what I need.

EB

Edited September 29, 2004 by elburromjf