RestorationAD

Neck Scarfing

SuperRG Zebrawood/Ebony bodied SuperStrat for my brother. This body is based on a cross between an RG and a Blackmachine. 8/4 Zebrawood with an Ebony center strip. The 5 piece neck is maple/zebrawood with an ebony fretboard. I am experimenting with a longer tenon on this one. Neck : Flamed Big Leaf Maple/Walnut Fretboard : Flamed Big Leaf Maple Scale : 25.5 Frets : 24 Trussrod : Warmoth Body : Zebrawood and Ebony strip. Tuners : Gotoh Vintage RG Tuners Pickups : V1, S1, V2 Vintage Ibanez RG pickups Bridge : Fixed Strat bridge Electronics : standard RG style 5-way, Volume, Tone

Early results

Scored mine for $15.60 Ibanez ACT Tremolo Some mock ups

Shaping with Dragon Rasps

More Neck progress

Neck Progress

Body rebuild Something in this pile belongs to this project

Red Star Red Star started as a 20 year old block of Ash glued together in 1989. And I did a bad job... I have been carrying this block of Ash around from house to house forever. I have drawn 15 different shapes on it but it was always intended to be an RG. So after years I finally cut out the RG shape and brought it in the house. The next day I noticed a little crack in the center joint. So I took it out to the shop and hit it with a hammer a few times. It cracked right on the seem and fell into 2 pieces. That sucked. Not to be defeated I jointed the halves and cut a piece to go in the middle from the original board. I had this last piece of Padauk that was just big enough for a neck... It also became a 7 string. The plan is to stain the body Black. Neck : Padauk Fretboard : Pau Ferro Scale : 25.5 Frets : 24 Trussrod : Warmoth Body : Northern Ash Tuners : Hipshot Pickups : Ibanez 7 string (Maybe Seymour Duncans later) Bridge : Hipshot 7 string Electronics : Volume and 5 way rotary switch with Red Chicken head knobs

This is an attempt at a Vigier Marylin style guitar. The project is waiting on finish. I am going to do a bright yellow stain with tru-oil. Vigier built some inspiring guitars in the 80's. My personal favorites were the Arpege and the Marylin. I doubt I will ever find a real Marylin on eBay. So time to build one... I was not able to build the carbon fiber neck so I used wood. I also changed the scale length to 25.5. This was a mistake as this guitar should have been a 24.75 , I managed to pop through the back while drilling between pickups and tear out during the tremolo route. Well I guess that is why I haven't finished it yet. Neck : Maple/Zebra Wood Fretboard : Pau Ferro Scale : 25.5 Frets : 24 Trussrod : Warmoth Body : Flamed Maple Top/Padauk wings Tuners : Gotoh Tuners Pickups : Vintage Ibanez Artcore pickups Bridge : Ibanez Tremolo Electronics : Undecided...

Couple of mock ups

Routing Pickups and Tremolo

Body Cut Out Neck Pocket

I started the neck in the winter. And it has been sitting around while I decided on what to do with it. I used a walnut veneer laminated with the Big Leaf Maple to put the lines in it. I am not sure it is as sexy as I thought it would be. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Results

Project RG I takes me forever to finish projects ... but I might be close enough to post this one. I needed an RG to play after retiring my heavily modified RG470. I never really liked the feel of a stock RG but I have always loved the wizard neck. Some of the things that needed attention are the volume knob, the arm bevel, the belly cut and weight. In order to retain the look I kept the edges sharp, while drastically increasing the bevels. I still need to work on the heel transition. Since I always hit the volume knob on the stock RG I moved it to a more Gilbert like position out of harms way. Next was to simplify the electronics and the looks. I used a strap jack instead of a regular RG input, removed the middle pickup, single push/pull volume knob to switch pickups, and replaced the edge with a wilkinson. I might add a coil tap switch later but it is not in the plans right now. This is a very personal RG. The set neck is laminated big leaf maple and walnut with a maple fret board and a bigger Ibanez style headstock (like my 82 destroyer). The big leaf was a little soft but has proven to be quite stiff. The body is poplar, while I should have used basswood I didn't really care since it will be painted and I like the way poplar works. It is currently sealed with thin CA and a top coat of thicker CA. After I assemble it and make sure it is worth keeping I will paint it. No need to paint it to find out it needs a major adjustment. Neck : Flamed Big Leaf Maple/Walnut Fretboard : Flamed Big Leaf Maple Scale : 25.5 Frets : 24 Trussrod : Warmoth Body : Mostly one piece poplar, small side sections glued on Tuners : Gotoh Vintage RG Tuners Pickups : V1, V2 Vintage Ibanez RG pickups Bridge : Wilkinson Electronics : push/pull volume swith, strap jack The biggest issue I have now is painting it. The poplar looks better than I thought it would.

I have seen minor tang size differences in smaller fret wires.... I get your point. The only thing I could say at this point in the discussion is buy it and try it, return it if it sucks. Post your results. I could have used it on my last 2 maple fretboards because the StewMac saw left lose fret slots.

The stewmac saw makes a perfect slot in pau ferro, the padauk is close in hardness if not more brittle. I __might__ adn I stress __might__ try it with a medium fret wire but probably not with jumbo. I would be more inclined to use it on a maple fretboard as I have found it to compress more when pressing in frets.

Great!!!!! Awesome. I like the knobs ... even though I told John to use Chicken Head knobs on the Dragon.... Thanks... I feel like my sense of style is OK now.

This thing needs chicken head knobs.... ok no more posting after drinking.

Man Drak... that thing is begging for a couple of Gold plated Humbuckers. I know you are the king of Teles and have I faith in your creative ability, but man I see some nice PAFs in that beast. Thanks for sharing the CA low down. Inspiring as always.

Anyone try these yet? Fingerboard_Band_Clamp

Chrome P-90s and black rings. I had some issues with sanding sealer, laquer, and padauk earlier this year. I wonder if I am missing something info about finishing Padauk? As for the control placement... I agree with Drak. I do not place my volume knobs close because I hit them when I play but this looks a little extreme. Still John you have come a long way and should be proud of this build. Very Nice work.

Steal your mothers straight pins and use them. Locate your fretboard. Drill holes with a really small drill bit though the 1st and 12th fret slots into the neck. Use the straight pins stuck through the holes to locate the board while gluing.

Drilling side dot markers Project needs a scrap square block scrap square of lexan drill bit 2 1/4" stove bolts 1 1/4" wing nut 1 1/4" fender washer Use a nice square cutoff at least 3 inches tall and 2 inches thick Cut the piece of plexi/lexan to be the same width of our block and about 1/2" taller. Make a 1/4" slot in the plexi by drilling 2 - 1/4" holes on center and use a dremel/scroll saw to make the slot. The top 1/4" bolt is just a guide pin and can be epoxied in. The other bolt is used to set the depth of you guide. Drill the holes in the plexi with the drill press so they are square. I have 3 sizes of side dots, and in turn drilled three different size guide holes. When finished use the guide and a battery drill to drill your side dot markers. The pictures below are of a quick version I made using my fret bevel block. I also posted this on my blog...

Don't like to glue up in the winter cause I have to move the pieces from the sop to the house and that causes bad things.... I don't like to finish guitars in the winter because they take forever to dry and do funny things. So I am trying to finish the 5 guitars I am working on in the summer when the paint and oil dry faster.... What is your season for finishing?