9956 Posted January 20, 2006 Report Share Posted January 20, 2006 Thought I would photodocument and post all of this since I can imagine if I read a similar thread i would laugh. I have no experience with modding guitars/woodwork/anything, I have played for a year and a half on a epi les paul special + a gibson SG. I bought myself a used RG505 (essentially an alder 550 I am told) and i intend to convert it to something (body wise) resembling this mother****er Obviously, my finished project will not be as gorgeous, and the neck will be dot inlays, but I am in love with the red flame...phwoar. So I received the guitar today and about 5 minutes after signing the delivery form, it was looking somewhat like this http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f119/9956/DAY0.jpg update: After checking the neck and neck pocket, I believe this is simply an RG550 (both stamped RG550 in red, serial number F97 35240), Im not particularly bothered, I didnt buy it on the strength of its body wood, although alder would have been a bonus Later today I will finally get a correctly sized allen wrench and remove the strings. I anticipate asking a lot of questions on this topic, as I may ask these in other areas of this forum or possiblyt even on UG, I will document the important ones. My plan is as follows. Remove all electronics Strip paint off the body using paintstripper Drill entirely through the routing for the pots and add a blank piece of wood for the veneer to stick to I am unsure of the best way to do this, could anyone possibly point me in the direction of rerouting style tutorials? Fully sand body Paint back and sides the brightest red I can find Veneer the front with maple as detailed in the tutorial on PG Drill new holes for the pots, switches etc Put a new style (probably Gibson style) switch in OTHER DESIRES Have an EMG SA pickup in the centre position of the guitar....I would love this, has anyone seen how to blend passives and active SCs before. I do not want to replace the passive pickups, I am on a budget. At some point I will replace the neck (stock V7) but I think the x2n in the bridge will serve me well. If I manage to complete this, I would be interested in making the headstock match the flame veneer, it doesnt seem ridiculously more difficult. Make the neck faster, it isnt "all that" I have found, has some kind of shiny coating. PROBLEMS Need cheapish flame maple veneer available in the UK Need to persuade my school tech teacher to let me do all this crap without taking his subject Have probably missed millions of things out, hack me to pieces guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nitefly SA Posted January 20, 2006 Report Share Posted January 20, 2006 it is more trouble than its woth to blend actives and passive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
9956 Posted January 20, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 20, 2006 I dont actually want to blend them, I was thinking of having a single EMGSA with no volume control, and switch between that and any passive combo of neck and bridge. I was thinking this could be achieved simply by a switch from the input jack that could select each circuit? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorecki Posted January 20, 2006 Report Share Posted January 20, 2006 First, I can pretty much assure you a few searches (upper right of the forum page) within the forums will produce answers to all the questions you've asked.....not discluding that YES YOU CAN MIX passives and actives, I do it all the time...and also has been answered more than once.... Second, welcome to the forum.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WezV Posted January 20, 2006 Report Share Posted January 20, 2006 heres a veneer company that iuse that is located in wales www.marquetry.co.uk here is a the that has rippled sycamore (a close relative of maple) and quilted maple: http://www.marquetry.co.uk/main/acatalog/1.html They sell by the square foot but that doesnt mean it comes square, i.e. a square foot may be 24" x 6 ". They are usually at least 6 inches wide so you will need to tell them the dimensions you need to make sure you get 2 peices wide enough. Email them and tell them what you are doing and they should be able to get consequetive veneers from the billett for you, that way it will be bookmatched. I would reccommed the rippled sycamore as it will most closely match the red guitar above. Veneering headstocks is probably easier than doing the body Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RGGR Posted January 21, 2006 Report Share Posted January 21, 2006 I'm not sure I understand the project. You say you're in love with the above pictured red J-custom. And now you want to add maple fineer to your newly acquired black RG 550. I hope you understand that the first guitar (the J-Custom) is a rear routed guitar. And black guitar you have on hand is front routed one. Meaning...with adding fineer to 550.......a pickguard would cover most of your precious fineer again. So....the guitar you bought to start this process with is the wrong one. You would have been better off buying old RG 570, or similar. All is not lost though. A way out could be to order a nice maple flame/alder body from EKGguitars.com. (although I see his website is down at the moment.) Just my thoughts..... Even more rewarding would be to build your own replacement body. Pick nice slap of alder.....check out Durewoods on ebay for nice 1/4" bookmatched flame set.....stain red and you have a awesome guitar. Staining (and backsanding) Fineer is bit tricky process. From what I have seen and read it's better to use the real thing (1/4" thick slap).... Just my $0.02. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
9956 Posted January 21, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2006 (edited) Yes I plan to go all the way through the control cavity and cut out a blank piece of wood to "swap" the side of the routing. I had not resolved to start this project until the guitar arrived (I decided it was in bad enough condition to warrant me doing whatever the hell I wanted). I do not have enough money to buy a new body, and I do not really want to make my own body, when I already have one. In retrospect I completely agree, a 570 body and neck separately would have been a far greater idea, but hey adding a piece of mdf cut to size that will be eventually covered by veneer can only add an extra....day at most to the project? I plan to strip the body, add the blank piece of wood, fill in all the screw holes etc....in essence make the guitar rear routed. I appreciate your input, thank you for posting, I agree completely. How much would an old 570 body run me then? If its cheap as chips I will certainly look into it. This project starts properly on monday, as I finish all my exams on monday EDIT: In addition, this body came with an original edge (have seen go for £100+ separately, )was AANJ, came with a good condition wizard neck, and had a pickup upgrades (to x2n....I couldnt resist Edited January 21, 2006 by 9956 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
9956 Posted January 21, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2006 Just slapped the paint stripper on...leaving it for half an hour now... The pics I took were sundrenched unfortunately, couldnt see a thing. Will try with my dads camera when I go back to it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitar2005 Posted January 21, 2006 Report Share Posted January 21, 2006 but hey adding a piece of mdf cut to size that will be eventually covered by veneer can only add an extra....day at most to the project? I plan to strip the body, add the blank piece of wood, fill in all the screw holes etc....in essence make the guitar rear routed. Yuck. MDF? You can't be serious. Sell the thing and start with a proper body. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
9956 Posted January 21, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2006 (edited) What wood would you suggest for the cavity then? I suppose I could find a piece of basswood to match the body. No, I am doing it on this body, as I explained I am on a tight budget and this combo of body neck and hardware was too good to miss. Control cavity this morning After applying stripper http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f119/995...pperapplied.jpg http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f119/9956/stripper2.jpg Edited January 27, 2006 by Kevan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitar2005 Posted January 21, 2006 Report Share Posted January 21, 2006 What wood would you suggest for the cavity then? I suppose I could find a piece of basswood to match the body. No, I am doing it on this body, as I explained I am on a tight budget and this combo of body neck and hardware was too good to miss. What I would do if I absolutely had to use the same body is put a 3/4" flame maple top on it. Run the body through a thickness sander and glue to the top on. Then, you pretty much have an RG body blank to work with. Like I and many others said, you'd be better off starting with the proper body. The path you're going down will cost more money and time, guaranteed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RGGR Posted January 21, 2006 Report Share Posted January 21, 2006 (edited) You're way too trigger happy. Projects like this need proper planning. You're currently running around as a chicken without a head. You bought the guitar and decided on the project. That's all great....... but again......planning is key. YOU SIMPLY GOT THE WRONG BODY!!!! Yes, you could turn it into a rear mounted body.....but you have to adjust a whole lot more then just slapping up 1/4" of flamed maple on the top. (NOT EVEN TALKING ABOUT MDF HERE!!!) MDF has no use in a guitar. Never. The route you're proposing will leave you with trem cavity to be re-routed, adjustment of neck pocket, sanding off the backside of guitar....... to make long story short...just a mess. Resulting in piece of cr*p piece of fire wood that's gonna cost more effort and money then it's worth. Solution. Get yourself a proper RG 570 body of ebay. They can be had for $50-75. Make sure you got the right AANJ body. Go o ebay and search for "Ibanez rg". Couple of these bodies are even on the bay right now. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/Gui...s/J1570bd04.jpg Get proper body, read on tuterial here on PG, get fineer........do a little dance and end up with an awesome guitar. Again...finding deal guitar is alway great. as whole guitar is mostly worth less then sum of parts. The trick though is finding and combing right parts for guitar you're after. If you weren't so trigger happy you could have found yourself a nice replacement body and posted the black front routed body on ebay itself. The whole deal would have cost you nothing more then some shipping. Again. Think before you do. What you're doing right now is just plain stupid. Hope you're smarter on your exam stuff...... Edited January 21, 2006 by RGGR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
9956 Posted January 21, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2006 I do not intend to put 1/4 of maple on it. I inted to put 1/40 maple laminate on it. How would this affect my trem cavity routing, whether it was rear or front routed. Maybe I have missed a bigun, but the only difference seeable to me is the control cavity.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RGGR Posted January 21, 2006 Report Share Posted January 21, 2006 Would be hard to glue fineer over cavity. You almost have to fill the cavity first.......with thin piece of wood......giving it support on the top. (making sure it doesn't glue on to this support), and then sand total top of guitar incl. piece of wood smooth again, and then do your fineer. Could be done.....but still ..... I would have done a ebay body swap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorecki Posted January 21, 2006 Report Share Posted January 21, 2006 Here's a reasonable thin vaneering tutorial on PG. http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/veneer.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
9956 Posted January 21, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2006 Yeah thats what im working from, cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jay66 Posted January 21, 2006 Report Share Posted January 21, 2006 What wood would you suggest for the cavity then? I suppose I could find a piece of basswood to match the body. No, I am doing it on this body, as I explained I am on a tight budget and this combo of body neck and hardware was too good to miss. Buy a 1 gallon can of BONDO it holds a tone almost as good as MDF! It worked on my ford! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
9956 Posted January 21, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2006 Oh hilarity, lets all be droll to the new guys dumb idea. Ok i wont ****ing use MDF. Dont be a jerk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Los Guitaros Posted January 21, 2006 Report Share Posted January 21, 2006 (edited) Hey i like ur idea and enthusiasm, it's a shame though you clearly have not thought this through, can't follow a simple tutorial properly and have no real idea about anything you want to do. What the others suggest is clearly the best thing - throw this piece of EDIT LANGUAGE away and get something, anything, off e-bay. Your like a bull in a china shop with this and frankly it looks like it's heading for the dump, MDF and all. read up on it a bit more and follow the tutorials, theres another a good one linked to your previous website (which you may or may not have found) although your pretty crap at following any instructions so it might not be worth it. Try not to make it as EDIT LANGUAGE as it looks like it's gonna be, i.e. stop. and start again properly with something that isn't garbage ****Watch the language and the attitude.....1st warning**** Edited January 21, 2006 by bluespresence Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
9956 Posted January 21, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2006 (edited) What tutorial am i not following properly?? I am stripping the Language paint off it at the moment, how would you LIKE me to do it. I have caused no wood damage, scraped with a plastic scraper along the grain, applied along the grain etc. I am planning to leave the greyish manufacturers coat on to paint over, apparently this can simply be scuff sanded and then painted onto. Help, not unconstructive criticism would be appreciated. Edited January 21, 2006 by bluespresence Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Los Guitaros Posted January 21, 2006 Report Share Posted January 21, 2006 (edited) I'm just removing this whole post. Los Guitaros you have been warned. Check the language and the attitude at the door.....offer constructive thoughts to the post, not demeaning garbage. Next one earns you a vacation. Looks like you just might be trolling too......if you are then go away. Edited January 21, 2006 by bluespresence Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FasterthanFriedman Posted January 21, 2006 Report Share Posted January 21, 2006 Wow we have another nutjob! The number of times I have seen people on this site blindly shelling out £1/200 for an old guitar then trying to make it in some way redeemable is incredible. Asides from the fact you have ignored all the potential problems above, you doused that guitar in PAINT STRIPPER. Taking it that you didn't know this, paint stripper actually has a tendancy to draw any moisture out of the wood, not only creating a significant loss of tonal range, but also possibly causing the wood to shrink! I wonder how much thought was put into that... based on everything else im guesing none..... Also ur idea about active/passive p/us is possible, but bearing in mind you will have to fit a new slot between your humbuckers, consider where the battery pack will go, and then the little problem of inevitably touchign wires (cos its so small) possibly shorting and causing interference with one another. And the cost of that top u wanna put on is gonna be astronomical..... My idea: get ur hundred wuid back from that thng u have now if its sellable still and save up for a real one Could just make it all out of MDF (might as well do p/us at same time, will sound the same ) Oh and did you ever think of how u are gonna re-set that bridge on top of a new layer of maple? lmao, love to see u try and set the innotation on that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
9956 Posted January 21, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2006 (edited) No the top costs about...£15 at most. VENEER NOT A SOLID TOP. VENEER IS 0.6 MM THICK YOU IDIOT AND THUS DOES NOT SCREW UP MY BRIDGE. YOU, FOR ALL YOUR POSING AND a whole ONE POST are a complete MORON That sorts most of your dumb objections. There is a single coil slot routed already behinf the pickguard...I can solder perfectly well thanks, there is space for a 9v battery. Do not offer criticism without reading the post? Jerkoff The wit of some people here is truly amazing and deep, seeing as they obviously take the time to read my posts explaining what i am going to do TO CLEAR UP I AM ADDING A VENEER TOP, NOT A SUPER EXPENSIVE INTONATION MESSING UP MAPLE CAP. OK FINE, I WONT USE MDF. I HAVE A SINGLE COIL SLOT ROUTED ALREADY BEHIND THE PICKGUARD. Edited January 21, 2006 by 9956 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegarehanman Posted January 21, 2006 Report Share Posted January 21, 2006 (edited) Everyone duck, it's a nub battle. Just chill out guys. If you can't handle what's supposed to be a civilized conversation, just turn off the pc and take a nice, relaxing walk. Afterall, it's just a recreational forum . Oh and did you ever think of how u are gonna re-set that bridge on top of a new layer of maple? I AM ADDING A VENEER TOP, NOT A SUPER EXPENSIVE INTONATION MESSING UP MAPLE CAP I suppose you two have not discovered the wonders of rulers and other assorted measuring devices. Giving you a bit more credit...we'll assume you meant action and not intonation. If that's the case, 9956 should have enough adjustment on his bridge as long as it's not currently bottoming out. However, I still recomend against this mod. I really don't think it's going to turn out the way you want it unless you verse yourself in accurate woodworking and plan every cut and route thoroughly. If I were to attempt this, I would direct mount the pickups to avoid any rear routing for the pickups, leaving only the control cavity needing a rear route. Although a veneer really isn't designed to take the kind of weight it will endure if it's spanned across a control cavity like that. I'd recommend some bracing simular to what you'd see on the inside of an acoustic. Again, you're probably better off just getting the correct body. peace, russ Edited January 21, 2006 by thegarehanman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FasterthanFriedman Posted January 21, 2006 Report Share Posted January 21, 2006 Sorry, I only signed up to this forum because i realised how much of a train wreck your project in particular was. Oh yeah i forgot you were doing the bodge job with veneer, another reason why the only thing your new guitar will have in common with that 3280 is that it was assembled by a poor chinese guy. What are you gonna do, stick a slab of veneer over the body and hope it holds with a can of no more nails? i wonder if the veneer will add any sound quality...or existance...seeing as now u have ejected paint stripper all over it you have what sounds like plugging a jack into an ikea wardrobe. If you dont want to buy a new body just throw that one in the bin, at least then you wont lose any more money/respect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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