Ibanez Rg 321 Project.

[Firefox2551]

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!

[Reinhold]

You could always just make a template since you own the body.

[Firefox2551]

You could always just make a template since you own the body.

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

[sam_c]

If you plan to remove the top of the mahog anyway, why not place some template material over the guitar top and roughly measure / drill some marking holes for the p/up cavities and the neck pocket. You can then take the template and cut most of the routing pcokets away. Then re-attach it to the guitar and use a router with a flush trim bit to make the cavities a perfect match, then also run the bit around the horns of the guitar so you can align the template again once your maple cap is on.

Or, just make a mahog body from scratch