28 replies to this topic

[Trail of Dead]

This is a project I have had in the works since Summer of last year. I was slowly building up the parts when the right ones came on eBay, so last May I ordered the custom body. I got it from "Chris Woods Guitars" who hails from Covina, California. I custom order the body to be made out of 2 piece solid Mahogany, have the Monkey Grip/Tilt Jack, one volume knob, one humbucker in the bridge, to be a hardtail, and be setup to run the Japanese Ibanez neck screws/ferrules. Well, I just got the body today after a long wait and let me say.....honestly the first words out of my mouth when I opened the box was "Holy S#!%" it was so awesome....I am still extremely "chuffed" about how great the piece is.

The only things left to do is:

Order an F-Spaced Seymour Duncan Blackout, buy a can of Tung Oil, order the Schaller Strap-locks, order the No. 1 Stretch Strap, a wiring/shielding kit from StewMac, a left handed top mount Japanese Ibanez nut for the neck, and try to track down a genuine left handed Ibanez J. Craft Prestige case....oohh and I need to buy some D'addarios for it! Then intonate, tune and enjoy!

So far it has a genuine Ibanez/Gotoh black hardtail bridge (through body setup), brand new jack (the good kind, not those crappy ones that always get loose!), genuine Ibanez left handed "Prestige" Wizard neck, genuine Ibanez Japanese style neck screws/ferrules, Wilkinson trim-lok tuners, and all new hardware and covers. I can't wait to finish it! It is going to be great to play a good guitar again! (Look how thin the neck is.....it just plays itself it is so thin!)

Edited by Trail of Dead, 01 March 2010 - 08:30 PM.

[Trail of Dead]

Well here is an update. I took it apart again, was only checking for fitment reasons and so far everything fits fine. I applied the Tung Oil.....HOLY CRAP did the grain really pop! Check it out!









I love a nice dark Mahogany body. I have to let it dry for 24 hours before I can apply another coat, this time with fine sandpaper. I'm going to apply 3 coats and then let it dry. Then I have to order the Seymour Duncan Blackout humbucker and a few other odds and ends. Can't wait! "You can't kill the METAL! Metal will live on!"

[Trail of Dead]

I take it none of you guys/gals play guitar???

[Mini-Mad-Craig]

I do mate, that looks brilliant.

Ibanez isnt for me though, Im a Fender man on guitar and Hofner on bass

[Burnard]

Someone at school is makeing a telecaster bass guitar, and hand makeing an oak body. It looks simply amazing

Yours looks sweet as

[luiji89]

that is a beaut!

[Trail of Dead]

I do like the Fenders too, have to buy one sometime. But I mostly play metal and some blues so Ibanez guitars feel great in my hands. I have an Ibanez Bass too. Actually I have 1 2003 Ibanez RG1570L (halfway through rebuilding), 1 1989 Ibanez RG550L (not complete), 1 1989 Ibanez RG560L, 2 1998 Ibanez RG470Ls (one is complete...the other it just a spare body), 2 Les Pauls, and finally 1 Randy Rhoades style V. I left the latter ones back home.

I just applied another coat of Tung Oil tonight and have one more to apply tomorrow then I'll let it dry for awhile. I'll keep you posted!

[Jim_Jam]

That thing looks unreal...

It's gonna be super special when it's all done and put together!

[JR.]

Just finished building this:-
Walnut & Maple

[Blayney]

Looking good, here's my collection;


From left to right

Random Encore Strat-a-like, Ibanez GRX70, Ibanez RGT42DRFM (Dimarzio Breed Bridge, Dimarzio Air Norton Neck, Hudson HD-1

[Trail of Dead]

Looking good, here's my collection;


From left to right

Random Encore Strat-a-like, Ibanez GRX70, Ibanez RGT42DRFM (Dimarzio Breed Bridge, Dimarzio Air Norton Neck, Hudson HD-1

Nice! My cousin has the Ibanez RGT42FXQM.....VERY nice Korean RGs! They rival the MIJ RGs in EVERY way. I just got lucky and scored a left handed Lo-Pro Edge trem on eBay for $80.00! The guy had it listed as an Original Edge so apparently nobody was interested....I examined the horrible pictures for about 4 days and determined it was in fact the much rarer/nicer Lo-Pro Edge so I shelled out the money and sure enough....I was right! SCORE! While I was back in the states on vacation My cousin and I built me another Ibanez RG....lefty of course. It consists of a RG5EX1L body, INF1/2 pups...and an S1 in the middle (sure they aren't great but they aren't bad either...perfect for a budget build), right handed Edge III from an RG320, and an RG470L neck. The hardware is all new (most of it came with the body....I happened to have the matching tuners here in England so my wife sent them over). The hardware is powered Cosmo, the trem is Cosmo. Body is a satin hammered gray, rosewood fretboard, black headstock. I didn't get pictures, and I left the guitar at my Mother in laws in a gig bag in the closet before I left. It turned out SWEET. I'll post some pictures in 2 years once we get back home. The best parts is I only paid $45 for the "loaded" body on eBay, my cousin gave me the pups (and they were new) and I already had the rest of the stuff needed to finish it!

I also scored a pair of Active IBZ-LZ humbuckers on eBay for $38.00......I *think* they will end up in my '87 RG550L but I'm not sure....they may end up in my RG1570L project instead. We'll see....right now I'm lacking the 2000 grit sandpaper needed to really polish the JEM body up, but the tung oil really dried/cured nicely while I was gone. The JEM will be complete in a few months, I'll keep you all posted. Nice collection of guitars by the way!

[joshoconnor1]

looks awesome man,,, im planning on making an acoustic soon,,, being a joiner i can get nice wood and friends dad had woodwork workshop ..... i mainly play acoustic but i had an ibanez for a while then got myself a prs se custom veryy nice guitar but as i say mainly play acoustic so got a tanglewood folk electro acoustci and a lag electro acoustic

[Trail of Dead]

looks awesome man,,, im planning on making an acoustic soon,,, being a joiner i can get nice wood and friends dad had woodwork workshop ..... i mainly play acoustic but i had an ibanez for a while then got myself a prs se custom veryy nice guitar but as i say mainly play acoustic so got a tanglewood folk electro acoustci and a lag electro acoustic

I used to have a nice Acoustic. It was an "Art & Lutherie" Cedar Dreadnought. It had a Cedar top, Cherry sides/neck and Spruce back. Very nice sounding flat top. I used to play Sublime tunes on it quite a bit but.....just one day it sat in a corner never to be used again. I eventually gave it to my Brother in Law as a wedding gift (he is in a pretty successful Acoustic Band). Late last night I scored the ULTIMATE left handed Ibanez RG. I found a nearly complete 1987 RG550L in the EXTREMELY RARE and basically impossible to find "Road Flare Red". This thing even tops the old "Desert Sun Yellow" RG550L I used to own (and was dumb enough to sell). I'll finish up this custom JEM, post more pictures and then dive into the Road Flare 550 build! Can't wait! I'll keep you all posted. (I love 80's shred machines!)

[josh370]

Nice, I'm a lefty. I have one of these (rg370dxl) and a couple others of course hehe. I'm going to be doing a conversion on an acoustic soon .

keep the pictures coming

Edited by josh370, 02 June 2010 - 07:07 PM.

[ajperry]

awesome! I'm thinking about taking my bass apart and sanding it down to get the wood grain aesthetic. keep going man. gonna be real sweet when its done!