Vade

Lovely! I can't believe that there were no initial responses to these test-fit pics back in November. The upper horn tear-out area does, as you say, look a bit manky but not that bad. Good on ya for soldiering on with your original finish choice. I'm not keen on burst finishes myself regardless if they are done for desired look or for covering up less-than-ideal sidegrain or core woods. If, over time, it really gets to you for some reason, you could consider adding a "guitarist's eyes only" inlay in that area that would cover up/remove the old tear-out. A wee bit of flash in an out of the ordinary area... and none would ever be the wiser. Class work so far; eagerly anticipating the full final stringing!

This is kinda funny actually. A few weeks ago I visited some friends out of state. Due to some scheduling snafu's, I wasn't able to return on Sunday as planned and was "looking forward" to spending a whole monday doing absotively nothing while my amigos were busy at work. I was wondering what to do when the answer practically fell in my lap. One of their neigbor kids, about 7 or 8 years old, had a first act mini acoustic that he got from his cousin a while ago. It was a ganky piece of crap but little more than a toy. But when he saw/heard me playing my guitar outside, he suddenly became very interested in becoming a guitarist. He was upset cause his little guitar only had 3 strings and he thought the flames on black paint looked "dumb." With his mom's permission, I took the guitar saying I'd have it back to them in a couple days with new strings and maybe some modifications to make it play/look better. Then a trip to the local music store and walmart. I gave the POS black-painted-with-cheesy-flames guitar back tuesday evening, sanded, stained cherry & clearcoated, fret burrs filed smooth, tuning machines oiled & bent back to straight, new rosewood pegs with fake MOP dot inlays on them, nut & bridge carefully dressed & a set of bargain-bin elixirs freshly strung on. Oh... and a vinyl guitar strap. AMAZINGLY... the guitar actually sounded pretty good for the little piece of crap that it was. Once it was tuned up, it stayed in better than I would have thought and the intonation was miraculously almost spot on. I printed out directions for his mom and dad on how to tune it & told them to try and teach their son so he wouldn't have to run to them a couple times a day. <lol> I knew that I was just polishing a turd, and I'm sure that it'll be trashed pretty soon if it isn't already but it felt really cool to do it, it was a lot of fun and the expression on the kid's face was priceless enough to make the whole thing totally worth it.

Okay... this may be offtopic but... "wow." After viewing that one guy's strat body auction on eBay I HAD to go check out his entire site. Firstly, he gets his mitts on some jaw-droppingly amazing strats! Secondly... "what a curt, self-righteous, pompous ass." The only thing that overshadowed the awesomeness of his items was the condescending tone of his "my opinion is law" writing. I'd liken him to a used-car dealer or a midway barker but he's WAY past those stereotypes. That guy has the all the social grace of a tornado full of rabid dogs. And the fact that he presents himself and his wares as the be-all-end-all of the Stratocaster Universe is offset by the fact that HE WRITES HIS ALLCAPS DESCRIPTIONS with more "typos" than a bloodbank. The best thing that he could do would be to pay someone to re-write his item descriptions to fix his spellig, punctuatio!n and personality. Not that he needs it of course; obviously he's making enough money to wipe his backside with but I can't be the only person who feels that any guitar that passed through this man's hands would be somehow "dirty." ::shudders:: Again... I realize this isn't on topic for the thread exactly, but after linking thru to that auction & the resulting site from this thread, I just had to say something lest I explode. I can't believe there are people like this out there not just surviving but THRIVING in this world. And now, completely ON-TOPIC: Since I haven't commented on this thread, I just want to say that your aged fenders are "Freakin' Sweet" Alex! I never thought of doing something like that but the result is unbelievably cool. I'll bet it's a LOT of fun distressing an instrument like that, huh? I'm working on my Ibanez mod right now and can't help but wonder how a modern-styled guitar would look carefully distressed to appear as though it had been around since the late 50's

"Hijack?" Dude, are you kidding? This info is awesome! Plus all this talk about trems (all of which I am now going to be looking into for the final version of the project) keeps *bumping my thread! Nope; no complaints here!

Zounds! That's a nice bit of information in that ranking and the info leading up to it! I will almost certainly be accessing this thread again when the project is more or less completed in terms of the initial physical rework. Budget restraints force me to maintain the original hardware for the time being. Beyond that, I want to make sure that the RG is in full playing condition after I've had my way with it before I go sinking three figures into a better trem. I have a good deal of confidence that I won't be making any glaring & irreversible errors with the recarve but one never knows, after all. I don't have a second guitar that would benefit from a higher-end FRT if this one winds up in no condition for the upgrade, so I first need to be 100% positive that if I sock out the bucks, it will be used. This is the one area where the mod will have multiple stages of "completion." Major hardware improvement will be an upgrade after the initial project is successfully finished, but it's really good to have this kind of clear info so I know what to look for on the 'Bay! Thanks GBT. And, of course Westhemann, I hope there's some feedback on your ZR inquiry as I myself am now curious about that!

THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKIN' ABOUT! Thanks, both you guys for correcting me! I was hoping to get criticism on stuff I mess up, whether it's the project itself or the stuff that I write about it. (( and "guilty as charged" on the heavy-handed writing... When I start, it's hard to stop and I tend to go off on tangents. I realize though that seeing such a ridiculously long Blog can be kind of intimidating when it comes to someone's internet surfing time... I'll try to keep that in mind and truncate future posts. )) I appreciate the info on Cosmo Black Finishes... I'm off to remove the offending statements right now! ~~Vade

Hey Tom! Love the post-title. Funny enough to make me not not read your "hello my name is" paste. Looks like you and I have the same basic approach to introductions: USE HUMOUR or, alternatively, HUMOR You're gonna love this place... it rocks the trailer. I've already gotten so much good advice and ideas I can't even begin to tell you. These guys really know their stuff and are ready, willing and able to share what they know to help ya!

Just a thought... I appreciate that I've had like 100 views in 2 and a half days and I'm sure that a good number of those have been people who wound up saying to themselves "oh... it's a link to another site. I'm not gonna go there." But of those of you who have checked it out, do any of the rest of you have any thoughts so far? Feedback is a good thing.

Hey GBT! Well, to answer your 2nd question first: This is a complete headstock-to-strapbutton mod. The only thing that won't really change much is the fretboard & fretmarkers (save for the scalloping on the high 5 frets) and so since all finish is being removed and redone (including headstock painting, staining the neck and possibly some carving or other re-shaping) everything attached to wood had to go! As for question 1: WHY DID I LOOSEN THE TRUSS ROD? It wasn't to loosen the strings before removal... I have a half a dozen string winders laying about in guitar cases, bookshelves, the floor, etc... it was so that when I undid the strings, the back tension on the neck caused by the trussrod wouldn't have a detrimental effect on the neck itself while sitting for godknowshowlong without the reverse tension created by the strings. I haven't the foggiest clue if this was A) a clever and logical move on my part, possibly harmful, or C) completely pointless. When I got the RG, it required a considerable amount of truss-tweaking to get the action right but I felt that the additional tension might be a little much for a neck without the forward pull of the strings. Just a guess! Good to have a line on Ibby parts if I need them, thanks!

Well, I've been several stages into this project for awhile but only recently have begun taking the photo documentation and resizing it for the interweb. After that there's been a lot of typing. (( carpel tunnel setting in )) Any-the-who. . . Since when I first brainstormed this thing I couldn't find any detailed DIY's on the web for a similar project, I decided I would blog the whole process so that other potential modders have something that will come up on a Google search to reference. "COOL! Thanks to this guy, I know what mistakes to avoid!" Already Project Guitar has been a wealth of valuable knowledge for me so I wanted to make sure that I shared a link to my "guitar modding with vade" blog with all of you guys! Here ya go: http://vadeking.blogspot.com/ it also exists on livejournal http://vadeking.livejournal.com/ but I like the look and feel of the blogspot version better. However, for anyone who are users of LJ and prefer that layout. . . there ya go. I was considering whether or not to post pics and simplified progress stats here as well, but I'm proving to be quite image-intensive and I know there are a lot of rules & limitations on number and size of images posted here. I might sit down, confirm all the forum specifics & figure out how best to post while conforming to all of them eventually, but for now you can see where I'm at and the mess I'm making at those links above. Not that there is much to comment on at this point, but to anyone who has any questions, thoughts, corrections or ideas, I'd be thrilled if you shared them either in this thread or as comments on the Blogsites! Wish me luck... "This guitar is SO in for it." ~~Vade

Err... yeah, Matt. ***? Sometimes ya gotta break a few eggs, right? I totally agree with Verhoevenc! The tear-out might be a bit ganky, but seriously, I'm looking at carving a body INTO the shape you're so upset about to emulate Warwick in a guitar... believe me, that's not a problem, that's what Bob Ross would call "A Happy Accident." I'd shrug off the tear-out and add a few more to create an uber-distressed beast thats full of holes. When it's finished, you can call it "BATTLE DAMAGE" howzzat? And seriously, if you're just gonna chuck the whole thing, for gods' sakes, send it to Verhoevenc and let him see what he can do with it!

Hmmm.. BOTH good ideas, Godin & Jens! I'm diggin the string-thru idea from the LTD, for schwah! And I've never seen a grain-fill finish like that before. How exactly would one go about doing that? Is there a how-to somewhere on the forum for that finish? Though a trans-red would look really sweet since the walnut already had a very reddish natural hue. I've been thinking on this project thru the whole cabin weekend I just returned from and I think I'm definitely gonna go with a guitar over a bass. I'm pretty happy with the basses in my collection already and don't really need or even want another right now unless it's an acoustic. A seven would be pretty interesting to play with! I'm thinking few if any fret markings on a jet black ebony board. Possibly a single central inlay and that's it. Double humbuckers though, no doubt about it!

Sorry, RG. this question temporarily slipped my notice I guess! It's Walnut, actually. I found it underneath an old broken bandsaw in the storage area of my high school woodshop. It was at least 10 or 15 years old back then and had a lot of worm damage so my teacher just let me have it. Fortunately, I was able to work around the worm holes and squeak a body out of it! The new question is going to be "what the living hell am I going to MAKE with it?" Back then I was an aspiring young bassist and I had intended on making a bassguitar out of this thing eventually. But now that I'm more of a lead & rhythm player, mayhaps I should turn it into a solidbody electric 6?

Hmmm... Good point, Tommy. ::ROUTES OUT NECK WITH PHOTOSHOP & REPLACES PICTURE WITH MANIPULATED VERSION:: (( if only I was as good at woodworking as I was with photomanipulation )) How does that look to ya? Wholly Carp, that DOES look similar, doesn't it? Cool & neat/Neat & cool! I've definitely never seen that LTD before, so I know for certain I couldn't have thought the butt end up from that axe! I've never been big on stabtacular guitars for my personal instruments, though I do appreciate a lot of the design and like looking at them! Don't misunderstand me, Kiem... I'm not really worried per se but curious as to where the heck the shape idea came from way back when. I remembered that I had that old body over at my dad's house but having not seen it for a good 8 years, I remembered it quite differently. When I dug it out i was like "is THAT what I made? I thought it was just an ordinary looking strat/ibanez kinda hybrid deal but that wedge at the bottom definitely doesn't qualify as that!" It's really only curiosity to see what my old inspirado was, though now that I'm getting into this whole modding/building thing, I think it's high time that this little bod was put to good use and given a voice!

Errrr... the first one seems to have posted the title and description, but no actual post. Is there a way to delete that? Anyway. I just dusted off a guitar body I made when I was like 14 or 15, blowing time in the woodshop after an assigned project. What I'm wondering is if I got the idea for the heel from a guitar I'd seen somewhere or if I came up with it as a result of my not liking the flat-BUTTED* syndrome most gweeters seem to have. (( "nothing new under the sun," right? chances are SOMEONE'S made this exact shape. )) * *photo manipulated & edited for claritiy So does this look like something you've seen, especially a mass-production instrument? *self-edit to conform to the rules I'm reading right now before I get slapped

Ahhhh... crap. I've been focusing so much on this area I forgot there even was a section devoted to finishing and inlay. (my bookmark takes me straight into solid body/bass chat) I can delete or move this thread if you think it best. sorry. There are two problems with me stopping short of that layer, though. One is that this mod is going to involve a recarve, so I'll be loosing a LOT of that stuff anyway and the Other is that the very first bubble that came up while swirling the heatgun around was underneath that sealer or poly coat. The instant my paint scraper touched it, I had the hole you see above (though there was a larger expanse of black paint surrounding it at first.) ----------- All I know of the "history" is that it's a 2001 Ibanez RG 270-DX. Aside from that, ya got me. I know the previous owner isn't a modder so up until today, the whole thing has been stock. The layer doesn't seem to be a series of thinner coats. When it comes up, it does so either by scraping it all away or cracking up in one. Usually the former. *sigh* Mick Guard is definitely right that this stuff is a royal pain to take off. Making me fight for every inch, that's for sure. Oh well. Anything worth doing is worth a lot of time and effort! ~~Vade

Not that this is a problem or anything since I've already stripped past a lot of it to get to the bare wood beneath, but it was a surprise to me to find that there was a thick layer of . . . er, "something" beneath the black paint. When it bakes a little under a heatgun it seems to take on the color and consistency of amber. This is, i'm sure, something really common that I was just unaware of, like a smoothing basecoat that precedes the final painting but it was a LOT thicker than I would have guessed somthing like that would be. So what exactly is this? What's it made of? Should I be putting a similarly ludicrous-thick series of coats of this when I get to the refinish stage? ~~Vade

What you have is a Japanese copy of a Gibson ES-335. There were a good deal of these produced by different companies back in the "Hippy Daze." The Bruno pictured in your post is the same thing, but by a different manufacturer (that is, an ES copy of Japanese make... although Bruno was originally an American company) With the little info that you've given, it's hard to say more but even if you'd posted say, a serial number, I don't know that I could be of much help. Pan made their version of the 335 from at least the early 60's to the early 70's but it's a relatively uncommon guitar to stumble across. I hesitate to say "rare" as people read that word and see dollar signs; I don't believe this axe has much monetary value but from what I've read it is a VERY well made copy and a versatile instrument. They seem to fall into people's hands for around $200 (USD) though I couldn't tell you what the POTENTIAL value is. It could be exactly 200 bucks... could be a bit more, but the kicker is you're not likely to find many people looking to "pick up a sweet 1960's PAN!" Even though they made some quality instruments, they are neither well known nor sought after by most collectors or players. (( hence why you've not gotten a reply before now. . . most likely no one knows what the heck you're talking about. )) If the guitar is clean and properly set up, you should have a pretty good instrument of higher quality than most new guitars of that style, regardless of brand. It's not all about the name. You might not have bragging rights, but you do have (at least the potential for) a relatively decent instrument! All the best, ~~Vade

((DAMN you're quick! That reply took you all of what... 30 seconds after I posted the topic?)) ------------------------ ------------------------ That's great news, thank you both for easing my concerns I had guessed that due to the bolt-on, everything would stay in place just fine, but I'm not so stupid as to go purely on my gut instincts when I know so little about the finer aspects of this whole thing. I really appreciate the feedback! And do most of them have break-throughs like that too? I guess I can see the likelihood of there being an intentional opening there and that only a small corner chipped off the left side after the painting. There seems little reason to have such a thin piece of wood running all the way across the top of the neck pickup in this design, I suppose.

Hokee-Doke. Hey, how ya guys doin? Good, good. Great to hear it. (cause small talk is notably lacking on the internet.) As out of character as this is for me, I shall endeavor to be brief. Whilst disassembling the RG270, I discovered some wood had been cracked away (most likely during manufacture) at the base of the neck between the join and the uppermost pickup. Okaaaay. . . I’m seeing this as a design flaw when compared to other setups (see comparis pic between the Ibanez in question and an old Dean body I had laying around.) The body is as it appears in the image; there is no loose piece, the wood just wasn’t there. Today’s questions (for those brave souls with two cents to throw in... or pence in the case of some of you) are: How big of a problem is this? / Does this require replacement of the missing wood?

That's about what I figured, concerning a veneer top, thanks for the info, Rich. I'll still be going ahead with the other repairs/modding though. The harsh fact of the matter is that she plays really well but doesn't SOUND good enough to even be a backup for me at this point. The guitars I'm looking at now would put my GRETCH into the "backup" category. A lot of good will come out of replacing the nut and saddle, bridgepins and the like, all of which are pretty low-grade plastic. The bridge itself is in a pretty sad state of repair I think, being made of what appears to be a really soft type of rosewood, so definitely requires replacement. Though she does have sentimental value, when it boils down to it, she IS one of those flea-market (car boot sale) specials. The best I'm hoping for is to turn her into a traveler for camping. At worst, even if she never plays again, I'll still keep her cause she's not playing now anyway. Thank you for the advice, I'll be sure to study up on Bridges till my eyes cross!

My bass teacher "back in the day" bought a lot of secondhand guitars and redid them to sell at a profit. He would do his own pickups and hardware, but everytime he did a painted refinish (which was almost every single time) he would mask the body off and take it to a local automotive paint shop where they would do the job for him. He said it was actually really cheap since they use so little paint (compared to a car) and since those guys REALLY know how to handle a spraygun, the results were absolutely astounding. I say if you don't know what you're doing and you want a top of the line paint job... do what he did. He sold some of the most gorgeous guitars I've ever seen this side of a natural finish!

Okay. I've had my first go in the solidbody forum and have gotten some good advice. However, my grandmother used to tell me "why ruin a perfectly acceptable guitar when you could ruin TWO at the same time?" So although I haven't bought, borrowed or stolen the tools etc that I'll need to mod my Ibanez RG, I'm going to go ahead and ask a question I haven't found on the forum reguarding ACOUSTIC guitars (though I only went back about a year and a half, admittedly) ::does a quick search for "top":: Nope, less than 4-letters ::tries LAMINATE top:: Nuh-uh, nothing matching what I'm wondering. Alright then, here we go! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ((Let me state before I begin that my guess is this will be a no-go... just seems too easy and one would think you'd hear a lot more about it were it feasible but it never hurts to ask!)) Since I've yammered on, let me slap out the basics to start with. ~Galveston Acoustic-Electric 6 string with lower cutaway ~$130 USD in 1997 ~bought as a way to "expand beyond the bass" ~became primary instrument, owner went from metal bassist to folk guitarist in 6 months ~replaced with Gretch historic in 2004 Now, "Gally" is not a nice guitar by any stretch of the imagination but what she IS, without a doubt is a trooper. She has always stayed in tune, taken her share of abuse, performed on several albums, many shows and around more campfires than I care to figure. She's a slimline, so doesn't offer much low-end or volume but I love her dearly for introducing me to a whole other musical realm and staying with me as I wandered down that new path. Her action is astonishingly good, her frets fast and true and, having since played a number of other Galvestons that I've run into since finding her (the first of her brand I'd ever even HEARD of) I can honestly say that she is one of those "happy accidents" that rolls off a low-end assembly line from time to time. She has consistently out-performed all other members of her family and I'm proud to call her my first. My wife said a few months ago "why do you need TWO acoustic guitars? You never play that other one anymore." After shaking off the initial slap, I told her that to begin with, Gally was my first real guitar and I wrote a lot of songs on her so she was special and secondly that she was a lower-end instrument that I bought for less than 150 bucks new which meant that she would have practically no resale value anyway... she was only valuable to me. Finally, I pointed out, it's always a good idea to have an emergency backup at a show. "Well," my wife said, "I still don't see the point in having two guitars. I think you should just sell that other one to a kid or something." ...So I divorced her. Okay, I know. "too much information, dude... get to the point!" Well then, fine, Mr. Fussy-britches. I'll never get rid of my first guitar no matter what happens to her. But I don't have to leave her in the dark. I figured on upgrading all of Gally's hardware with high-quality replacements (including a hand-carved bridge I'll be making myself) and giving her a whole new finish so she not only sounds and plays better, but looks better too. A run-in with a pub table flaked off a chunk of veneer on her headstock, so I was planning on peeling the rest of it off and applying a new veneer. All fine and dandy, but that got me to thinking: FINALLY THE QUESTION!!! "Is there any reason why one couldn't (or shouldn't) apply a veneer to the top of an acoustic? I've seen it done on solidbodies before... would it deaden the sound even on a lower-end piece that doesn't really sound THAT good anyway? Is there any chance that in that sort of instance it might actually IMPROVE the sound somehow? Gally's top is in fine shape, it's just very bland and VERY thin. I thought that if it were possible, a veneer would not only make her sparkle but give her a little added strength as well. I doubt I have the skill (and know I don't have the tools) to remove and replace the whole top, but I do have what it takes to glue a flat piece of wood to another flat piece of wood and trim off the excess. Am I a n00b, an idiot and way too fond of my little "junker" for wanting to do this? Can it be done? SHOULD it be done? ( shouldn't it be done?) Gally eagerly awaits your opinions!

Yeah, pretty cool, huh? I really liked that!

Apologies if someone else has posted this, but a search for the show "Made in America" didn't return any results in the forum. So, for any and all who have tried their hand at making their own instrument, (or successfully do so on a regular basis) prepare to drool over the top of the line machines for doing just that! Sure, this is a how-to of "mass production" but still... yummy stuff!