[Dendroaspis]

Just finished putting back together my 7321 that I stripped down and modded with all new hardware and pickups. So now what basically began with a good neck and body but shyte hardware, and mediocre pickups, has turned into an Ibanez with certain features that make it an ass-kicking axe for a reasonable outlay of dinero.

Since the guitar was all-black, the white binding looked a little stark, so I thought I'd just go with the whole monochromatic thing, and make all the other stuff white as well to balance out the overall look - but not too much. Kinda reminds me of something Paul Gilbert or Munky might use.



I took many pics throughout the process, which I think I'll maybe do a couple of hardware reviews for in that forum, after I've had a chance to set-up and tweak it a bit. The nut height still is not there yet.

What was done to this axe, from the head down:



- replaced cheap, sloppy tuners with six Schaller M6 Mini's in black, and installed white pearloid buttons. Kept the black button screws, and painted retainer washers white, for contrast of course. Classy or cheesy, still looks interesting.
- replaced horrible, badly cut plastic nut with Graphtech Tremnut. Great low-friction nut, excellent material for tuning stability.



- installed a Hipshot D-tuner on the low B, which allows you to accurately drop the tuning down to a preset note. By good fortune it also uses a mini-Schaller, heh heh. It was originally chrome, but I was not going to be put off by that. The body housing and shaft were painted black to match the other machines, and the lever arm was painted white - in keeping with our monochrome theme. I'm going to do some serious experimenting with this. I may even mod it again by expanding the note range drop even further to something like, um, say, F. Chug it baby! And then back to Bb at the flip of a switch. Hmm... we'll see...



- dressed fret ends, which were poorly filed and still sharp. The frets were crowned beautifully though, despite the shitty ends.
- 'ebonized' fingerboard with Fiebing's black dye and a post-curing follow-up rubbing with lemon oil. Dying bound fingerboards is a major masking bitch, and I don't relish doing it. Unbound, no problem. Not pure black, but almost - really dark.



- I thought these Graphtech V-strap buttons were pretty cool, and are made from the same graphite-like material as their nuts and saddles. There was no doubt in my mind to paint these white as well. Gives the axe a slightly odd, tech look about it.



- The back of the guitar, with the exception of the white tuner knobs and D-lever up top, was still all black on the body. We can't have that now, oh no... So to give it just that touch of contrast to break things up a bit, the neck retaining bushings were painted white, and the screws were left black. Mirrors the tuner retainer washers with that kind of 'owl eye' fastener look. Often it's the simple little details like this that really make a difference, i think.





- Now to the guts of the matter. Out came the mediocre Ibanez AH7-2 bridge and the sterile and lifeless AH7-1 neck pickups, and promptly replaced with a Dimarzio Blaze Neck for the bridge and an Air Norton respectively. Now were sonically talking....but still too much black. Oh yeah! White plastic Bobbin Toppers from Universaljems.com. A really cheap way to non-permanently change the color of pickup bobbins, look fantastic, and come in a variety of colors.
- The original standard, tall, black barrel knobs bug me, I prefer low profile knobs. My favorite profile knobs are Gibson bell knobs, which I painted matching white. And I prefer the satiny, plain look without the number indicators. Needless to say a mandatory switch tip change to white was necessary as well.



What's with the switch? Ah, the icing on the cake: a Graphtech Ghost piezo saddle system with the Acoustiphonic pre-amp. Look closely and you'll just see the piezo wires discreetly disappear into my modded bridgeplate. I think I'll write a little review of this system after I tweak it a bit. It may be something I may not use that often, but bloody cool to have at your fingertips. I'm going to try some experimenting with an A/B/Y box with my HD147 for the crunch, and my PODxt for the 'acoustic' sound in stereo. Many happy hours of sonic bliss await me, hopefully.

Sorry to be so long winded, but I thought you guys would like a gander at this puppy. I see no reason why Ibby can't put out something like this. Cheaper to do than the piezo-equipped edge trem they put out before. Now onto my next project: overhauling my old UV.

[David]

damn, looks nice!

[grim tr00 kvlt]

Looks great!

[shredfreak]

Ace man.

I wonder how a black and white swirl would look like with all that. Might try that one mine. But then again i still get tons of ideas to do with it. The tuner will have to go first though.

[evil]

Excellent job, looks super-clean.

[Leon]

hot damn! nice work

[Mastodon]

Wow nice, but I would have to dissagree with you on the stock hardware is crap comment.

[Nats]

damn dude, great job

[maskofduality]

did you have to route a new out put jack for the piezo system or are the piezos and magnet p/ups both going through the same output jack exclusively?

[Rev2010]

Very VERY nice mods!! Good work The only thing I don't care for is the shape of the knobs. Other than that everything is hot.


Rev.