9956

Yeah precisely, I have a piece of wood roughly cut to size. I am planning to rout first however, so (crude I know) I can draw "through" the hole onto the piece of wood and thus get a perfect shape fairly quickly. Awesome guys, thanks Mattia, that has sorted the plan out. I need to do a tiny area more sanding of the paint (inside the horns some paint didnt strip) so I am nicking a little bit of dowel from the school shop today and putting sandpaper round it to get the curve right. I block sanded the whole body, apart from the rear chest contour which I did with the pressure coming from the heel of my hand, I could feel no inconsistensies that i have felt when I have sanded other things with my fingers as pressure. Many thanks about the whole wax confusion, I will just sand the back and sides to 320 after I have finished paint removal on the horns and epoxied the blank in. One thing I think I screwed up on, is I let a bit of water drip onto the neck pocket. I am paranoid this will completely screw up the neck angle (wood warping and all) I brushed it off as quickly as possible. Im fairly sure this is a basswood body, do you know the effects this would have? Was a small patch of water, probably about the size of "a quarter" (Im a Brit) and it was on about 30 seconds. Thanks to ALL who answered helpfully

It seems you have to treat exposed wood in some way...Many people talk about rubbing wax in. Essentially what should I do, I dont mind buying a pot of wax or whatever product needed, but if its unnecessary then screw it. Painting Question I am planning to paint this with automative red paint, should I then buy a can of spray on laquer and spray + sand it. OR should I sand the paint after spraying then laquer and sand. A brief simple 1, 2, 3, 4 would sort me out SO much regarding finishing.

Its got to be the veneer...for the same price as I was going to spend I can get 2 bookmatched veneer flame tops (the website has a stupid minimum order thing). So either I have a backup piece, or I can test a HELL of a lot of finishes I would love to show them, but my motivation is to make this good for me....not to own some forum people. Peace

This is how its looking after stripping and sanding down the front. The back was especially resistant to stripper, eventually I sanded down. Tried not to sand too much of the grey primer paint off, can I simply sand this smooth, apply some wax to the exposed wood and paint in a car shop (my friend works their)? Ordering the maple soon. http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f119/9956/DSC_0411.jpg Looks dark/weird as I just washed it down with acetone, it is definitely down to the grey + wood.

For those interested, here is the front surface down to the factory coat. Any tips on getting the back off? It is proving far more durable.

Quoting from the stripping using chemicals tutorial hosted by this site: Next comes the most boring part which is pictured on the bottom left! Just let the body lay there coated in stripper for at least 15-20 minutes. Go watch TV or listen to the radio or what ever, just give the chemical stripper time to do it's job which the longer you wait generally the easier it will be. Sounds like mr Brian Calvert doesnt mind using stripper on his bodies, maybe you would like to question him? Veneer bodge job huh? Take a look at this page http://projectguitar.com/tut/veneer.htm theres a good picture on that, if mine looks anything close to that I would be satisfied. No, not no more nails...i intend to use exactly what he did, Titebond 2. No im not VENEERING my guitar to add tone, you idiot, it is purely cosmetic. Throw it in the bin? I think a better use would be to smash it repeatedly into your cranium until you pass out bleeding and I unleash this beast onto you He will maul you back to hell hopefully. I dont give 2 "cents" about my online forum reputation. I do care about my money, this is a fairly low cost project. Burn in hell

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.

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.

Oh hilarity, lets all be droll to the new guys dumb idea. Ok i wont ****ing use MDF. Dont be a jerk

Yeah thats what im working from, cheers

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....

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

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...

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

Cool, thanks, I just phoned a shop and went to buy one. Can close this topic now

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?

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.

I received my 550 today, I am stripping it , repainting etc etc. I need to know the size of allen key to unscrew the locking nut, as one wasnt included. Many thanks

Yes hopefully (rerouting from back), as i would like to be able to show off the flame in all its glory without a pickguard. None of this has even begun by the way, I was just working it out in my head. Any tips on how to put the control cavity on the other side? I will definitely try all processes on bits of veneer and wood, im not screwing up my new guitar...its just not my main one and I have caught the modding bug.

Is it possible? tips for making sure the veneer doesnt crack etc. Basically i want to drill holes for the pots, posts etc etc, after somehow filling in the control cavity (i want to convert a pickguard ibanez to a non pickguard veneer version)