[Leon]

Originally Posted by GuitarGod1036

Just look at the grain of the wood. Does it look like one big piece? If it does, it's veneer because it's actually three or four pieces that make up the body. That's the easiest way to tell without doing any sanding.

that's how my natural finish guitar looks. no veneer, just 2 or 3 (or 4?) planks of wood :p

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Chris

IMO, based on this image, it looks like there is no veneer.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by wildealien

that's how my natural finish guitar looks. no veneer, just 2 or 3 (or 4?) planks of wood :p

That looks absolutely awesome.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Chris

That looks absolutely awesome.

you know, about a month ago i looked at it, and just flat out decided to NOT get it refinished or anything. the headstock on it, though, maybe i'll get that worked on, as it's black with the Ibanez logo (and the Ibanez 'swoosh' blacked out with permanant marker ).

can't wait to see pics of this one when it's done!!

[Drew]

Originally Posted by GuitarGod1036

The "wood" you see there isn't even the wood, it's veneer.

That makes no sense to me- why would they veneer a body that they were going to finish with a opaque paint anyway?

anyway, I think these pics shoot Ed Roman's "wood filler" theory pretty much to holes... a really low-end Ibanez stripped looks much better than the "JS1000" (clearly a 100 to begin with) with white filler all over it- filler that somehow didn't pick up the slight red tint that the rest of the body still had after stripping...

My vote? A nice rich cherry stain, oil finished. Nothing dark, it'll hide the grain, and that's the whole point, right?

-D

[GuitarGod1036]

Originally Posted by Drew

That makes no sense to me- why would they veneer a body that they were going to finish with a opaque paint anyway?

-D

That was the first question that fell out of my face. Look, I don't know why, but they do.

On this picture look at the edge where the bevel for the forearm lays...there's a distinct line there because I oversanded it and got closer to the real wood. Also look at the upper edge of the smaller horn. You see where I oversanded it and the wood is lighter and more yellow.

Also notice the grain is consistent and makes it look like a single piece of wood.


Now, look at it COMPLETELY stripped and you see that the grain is not the same at all, and there are four distinct pieces put together to make up the body. This is the same guitar body.


I mean, it's not like I'm making this shit up to start an argument. I've stripped 4 Ibanez RG's. Three RG7620's and one RG550 and they ALL had these same characteristics.

[Digital Black]

Interesting stuff......

[Metal Ken]

Originally Posted by Drew

anyway, I think these pics shoot Ed Roman's "wood filler" theory pretty much to holes... a really low-end Ibanez stripped looks much better than the "JS1000" (clearly a 100 to begin with) with white filler all over it- filler that somehow didn't pick up the slight red tint that the rest of the body still had after stripping...

Ed roman is a tool lol

[Virtue]

[darren]

Originally Posted by GuitarGod1036

That was the first question that fell out of my face. Look, I don't know why, but they do.

On this picture look at the edge where the bevel for the forearm lays...there's a distinct line there because I oversanded it and got closer to the real wood. Also look at the upper edge of the smaller horn. You see where I oversanded it and the wood is lighter and more yellow.

Also notice the grain is consistent and makes it look like a single piece of wood.

...

Now, look at it COMPLETELY stripped and you see that the grain is not the same at all, and there are four distinct pieces put together to make up the body. This is the same guitar body.

Interesting... the photos do not lie. Maybe they do it to prevent the glue lines between the body laminations from showing over time. Nothing looks worse on a guitar than a solid-colour finish starting to buckle and show the wood grain or the glue joints over time. You also don't want your customers finding out their $700 guitar has a body made up of 4 pieces of wood. The veneer probably conceals that a lot better.

But i can't see them going to that effort on a $300 guitar.