hey there!
well, this guitar has changed it's image few times by now. it was born in 2001 as one of the infamous jem 555s. it was bought 2 years ago in Germany from another jemsite member, Patrick Deno (aka Lord Jereth ). It was the best deal i could find at that time with money that i had (and it wasn't much). Patrick wasn't very picky, and did me a favour by selling it to me. the guitar didn't stick long with it's factory look. i founded a great deal, a brand new black edge trem. i also traded the neck for what i believe is older rg570 neck. after that i changed the pickguard, and did a binding on a body by using razor and sandpaper (you can see that stage at projectguitar gallery).
then one day i got bored with black finish always getting dusty and having fingerprints, so i decided to sand it down and practice with painting. "poor boy's burst" tutorial seemed pretty easy to do, so it ended being my first project with paint. when i get bored with this one, i'll sand it down again, and do a material top
btw, i also sanded the back of the neck down, and gave it just a super-thin coat of lacquer just to keep the wood clean. (yes, i gave it a good sanding later with fine steel wool).