I have started a project and i think this might be a good way to start before I start building. About 15 years ago my apartment burned down with all my guitars in it. They were all on stands so when the second floor fell thru there went the necks. Well my ibanez iceman I had laying around for a couple of months and I decided to do something with it, I mean it was already trashed so what the heck. I had no experience with this kind of stuff cause I was just a guitar player. The neck was broken at the 1st fret but the fretboard was fine just the neck was bent back, so I drilled some holes and glued it back with some dowel rods. the binding was pretty much all burned so I just took it all off. well heres is the big bonehead idea, I decided to put a tremolo in it. I used some pretty crude hand tools and started cutting away. Then I painted, again with no experience and the paint was real thick including the neck, I know I know....IDIOT!!!!!! Oh yeah and I just painted over the empty binding grooves. So the thing was FUGLY and unplayable.
Before the fire
After I tarded it up
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/9776/icemanafter2vq2.jpg
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/3735/icemanafter1it1.jpg
Anyway, I decided to make this my first project. I am going to try and fill the trem hole back in and make this thing playable again. I am toying with the idea of a string through. I spent most of the day today sanding it down to bare wood. It looks like a mahogony back with a maple top possiblely, too bad I cut that hole in it cause with a different peice of wood there I will have too use a solid finish. So Iwould really appreciate any words of wisedom and tips.
Back then I didnt know what I had, I bought it in a pawn shop for $150, now I have found out that it is a 1978 but not sure of the model number but because of the finsh I think it is an IC400 from some of the research I did but still not sure.