Refinishing Project: Ibanez RG $75 Pawn Guitar Pix/Video

[Brandon Breeze]

I picked up this RG several months ago. When I got it most people likely wouldn't have bought it, one of the most grimey guitars I've ever seen, nasty dirt everywhere, rust all over, lots of dings and dents, some of them really deep.

I cleaned it thoroughly and set it up to play real nice, polished it as much as I could. It looked pretty decent, but at the same time really blah. Plus some of the "dings" we're gouges really deep, we're talking like 1/8" deep, through the poly finish, through the sealer, and into the wood.

Specs Are:
Basswood 4 piece body Tung oil finished
Maple 5 piece neck quarter sawn center
Bartolini LCE60 bridge pickup
V7 Ibanez neck pickup
All parts 3 way blade
All parts 500k tone pot
Jumbo frets
Schaller locking tuners
Everything else is the Ibanez hardware that came on this guitar

Some Heavy Riffs:

5 piece neck with mostly quarter sawn center!


Removing the poly via heat gun. I have tried a few chemical finish removers, and they didn't do anything to this stuff.



After lots of sanding, ready for oil



I found out quickly that the flamed maple, was a veneer, so thin that the dark stain was all the way through, so when trying to sand it off, I sanded through the veneer almost instantly

 

[Brandon Breeze]

Bad ass custom 4 piece body


The only thing that sucks now is that the finish was so thick, many things are much lower or higher than they used to. The bridge, pickups, neck, neck ferrules, electronics cover etc I can recess the ferrules a little further, and re route the electronics cavity lip if I want to, just gotta be careful not to have the neck screws go in too far.

 

[sixstringking713]

wow that came out great

 

[Brandon Breeze]

wow that came out great

Thanks, much appreciated, such a pita sometimes with all the sanding. I find though, that no matter how blah the wood is, it looks better natural than with colored finish on it, well IMO

 

[sixstringking713]

is the tone more open?

I did an experiment with my franky replica. I put it together before I painted the body and played it. Painted the body and assembled.. W/ paint on the body, it definitely changed the "attack" of the guitar. Made it a lot more mellowed out, the more paint that was on it

 

[Brandon Breeze]

is the tone more open?

I did an experiment with my franky replica. I put it together before I painted the body and played it. Painted the body and assembled.. W/ paint on the body, it definitely changed the "attack" of the guitar. Made it a lot more mellowed out, the more paint that was on it

That's going to be a tough comparison. Previous to the refinish I had a Duncan blackout in the bridge with the factory pickup in the neck, this time I pulled the active pickup and went with a passive Bartolini pickup in the bridge. Plus I haven't wired it back up yet, I just assembled it, then got lazy since the wiring was so mixed up. While playing it unplugged it definitely seems more vibrant, and louder, not so muted. The finish that was on there was super thick.

 

[Brandon Breeze]

Finally got it wired up yesterday, added a quick video with some heavy riffs. Seems a lot brighter than it used to be for sure.

 

[Johnny LaRue]

nice job! I kind of inherited that same guitar, great player but the stock "designed by EMG" pickups were awful. swapped those out and I have played it on stage a number of times.

 

[LunatiBSW]

Love that look. I scored a Japanese lefty rg in the $200s if I remember correctly. Dude worked on furniture, so stripped it down and tung-oil'd it really well. I put some Dimarzio's in it and set it up properly, it's an awesome axe!

 

[Brandon Breeze]

nice job! I kind of inherited that same guitar, great player but the stock "designed by EMG" pickups were awful. swapped those out and I have played it on stage a number of times.

Thanks, so much sanding and burning of poly.

V7/V8's? Or did yours have different pickups?

Love that look. I scored a Japanese lefty rg in the $200s if I remember correctly. Dude worked on furniture, so stripped it down and tung-oil'd it really well. I put some Dimarzio's in it and set it up properly, it's an awesome axe!

Thats a good looking guitar! Looks like the japan models get a solid one piece body instead of the patchwork of my indonesian model. Doesnt bug me at all, still sounds awesome. Im gonna make some clean sound vids when I have some time.

 

[Johnny LaRue]

V7/V8's? Or did yours have different pickups?

nope, they just said designed by EMG on them, they were passive, but looked like regular EMG's, sounded horrible.

 

[Brandon Breeze]

V7/V8's? Or did yours have different pickups?

nope, they just said designed by EMG on them, they were passive, but looked like regular EMG's, sounded horrible.

The V7/V8 set actually sound decent, just too low output for my liking. That bartolini rips though, perfect!

 

[itsme]

Beautiful work...

 

[Chester Nimitz]

IDK why someone would put this much effort in a $75 dollar guitar but im glad u like it,

I had an RG EX something with awful pups but a good neck.

Problem is there is no resale value in those types of guitars.

 

[Brandon Breeze]

Beautiful work...

Thank you, I appreciate that!

IDK why someone would put this much effort in a $75 dollar guitar but im glad u like it,

I had an RG EX something with awful pups but a good neck.

Problem is the is no resale value in those types of guitars.

You answered your own question! I was trying to sell this one for awhile after I cleaned it up really good. There was very little interest, and it played really good, so I figured I might as well make it more my style. Yes, there was a lot of effort into the new finish, but very little $. I now like this guitar a lot, so I don't want to sell anymore, but if I did it would likely be easier to sell. Plus at an initial investment of $75 putting in a few bucks isn't a scary thing. Next I'm going to re-crown and polish the frets, then this inexpensive guitar will play and sound as good as much more expensive guitars. Win/win for me.

 

[Chester Nimitz]

Found a pic of that RG, it was a cool guitar, i put a Duncan JB in the bridge.

 

[Brandon Breeze]

Found a pic of that RG, it was a cool guitar, i put a Duncan JB in the bridge.

Yup, very similar, looks like you got a quilt veneer instead of the flamed veneer. Mine is an indonesian built one and still plays really good, so did my old indo DeArmond.

I put a jb/jazz in my korean S Ibanez that I recently refinished too. Its a decent pickup set, wouldnt mind a little more output, but I think I can live with it.

I'm sure it's a lot of work, but I love the look of the natural wood. Nice job!

Thank you, it really wasnt that much work in the grand scheme of things. The heat gun made pretty quick work of the poly finish, sander took care of most of the rest, but you always have to hand sand the horns, which isnt much fun, and takes awhile. I should've added up my time spent, probably 10 hours or so Id imagine. Well worth it for the result.