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My RG550


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Some of you remember a loooooooooong time ago, before I thought Jemsite was stupid I started working on a replica of the prototype BSB Jem.

This is that guitar, it's not like the original BSB.

The body is Kevan Geier's very first Ibanez, a (Kev, what was the year again?) DSY RG550. It had been stripped and refinished three times by the time I got it. Since I wasn't a big fan of the brown shellac that was on it when I got it I stripped it, burned the frag out of the body and stained it with Minwax "Midnight Blue" stain, which Kevan assurred me would DEFINITELY dry lighter.

It didn't.

So much for the burning.

The Humbuckers pickups are from Kirk Slossar's first Ibanez a similar vintage 550 which was converted to a LNG Jem then to a white Jem. He sold them to Dennis Secord who was going to put it in his project 550, but soon realized he hates them in basswood. They're evolutions and I'm iffy on them, they don't suck, but they lack a certain *umph*. the single coil is "some Fender thing" that the guy Keve sold the guitar to (that would be the guy I bought it from if you're keeping score) put in it.

The pickguard is from WD.

My fear of soldering irons kept this one in pieces for a while after I got the actual guitar. For our anniversary my girlfriend took it to a local shop and had them put it back together.

I will never go to said shop again as their work was a little less than *good* (the grounded the pickups to the trem claw SCREW). The pickups are wired, as far as I can tell, like this

1 - Neck

2 - Neck front coil/Mid

3 - Neck/Bridge

4 - Bridge - Parallel

5 - Bridge

This is similar to the wiring of the PGM10. It's not what I asked for. But it's not bad.

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The 550 was a 1987 model. I got a lot of notes out of that guitar. It was "well played" or really "broken in". LOL

If you ask G.E., the stain *DID* dry lighter. Not as light as he would have wanted, but it was, technically, lighter.

And, "Midnight Blue" is a very dark stain to start with.

Remember: when staining wood, start LIGHT and work your way darker.

No one should be afraid of soldering. Jacking up your car is more dangerous. :-)

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I have not used JW but I do owe someone an answer on that very same type of operation. There's a guy here in Titusville that powder coats anything metal, to any color.

I need to drop by and get him to give me a price quote to see what kind of range he comes up with on trems and tuners, lock nuts etc..........

I'll post it here when I find out.

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Man oh man haven't seen you around in age's.....................

How have you been doing?  :D

Nice to see an axe with a history like that as well  :D  to bad it isn't Kirk's old LNG we could hold it for ransom  B)

Kirk's old LNG (#770) had a stint in my hands for a while, as did most of his other guitars :D Nice job on the faux-BSB. That guitar has worn many disguises B)

Nice job on the new forum. Hopefully the discussions will remain sane :D

--Bob

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