[Chris]

Gonna stick this, because a) I can, and b) It'll keep me off my ass and getting to work on it.

So here we have my RG550. Well, it's body, anyhow. I've had it since I was about 14, and over the years it's been dropped, beat, lit on fire (no shit) and just straight up abused. It played godly up until last week when I took the strings off and started working on the neck. As such, it deserves to be pretty again.

Right now the plan is to swirl it in the spring with Steve, but depending on how the grain looks under all this shit, I may go natural.

Anyhow, today's Day 1!

March 3, 2007:




Just about everything off, need to hit the store for some sandpaper and assorted wood goodies (filler etc), and then I'll take the trem and output jack off, and start sanding her down.

March 10, 2007:

New body, rear-routed. I'm still planning on sanding down the old body for a swirl-tester, but it's just too far gone to salvage without way more work/filler/effort than it's worth.

Edit: Body is from a 570.






March 18, 2007

Been working on the neck lately. It was NASTY, and I'm still not sure if I can avoid dying the board itself. I've sanded the hell out of the frets, and the damn black goop of doom is still there. It's just a 17 year old 'axe.

Gonna see if I can hit it again and clean the fretboard up, but the back is coming out great. There were some gouges in the headstock that I've got mostly gone, and the paint and muck on the sides is all but forgotten. It's got a really, really nice grain to it.

After sanding for an hour or so, I tossed a little tung oil on it to clean it up and keep it fresh.

Pardon the bad pics, it's gloomy out and the lighting sucks.

Before:







And After:



Gouging on the bottom of the 'stock. It's a LOT better than it was, just going to need to work it a bit more:



The fretboard after a LOT of sanding. I'm afraid to go anymore because I'm not sure how thick the inlay actually is. I'm not hitting it yet, but I'm damn close. I figure I'll give it one more shot and if I can't get the sucker clean, I'll dye it jet black.



The back of the neck is coming along fucking awesome. This is after only 100-120 grit, going to go up to around 300 before I'm through:






To Do:

- Finish resto on the neck.
- Final sanding on the primer
- Swirl, black/grey/blues (3-4 shades of dark blue)
- Final clearcoat (professionally done by Steve's brother)
- Buff, polish
- Pickups: Air Norton neck, Steve's Special bridge, unsure about the single coil right now.
- Wire it back up.
- Slap on the new cosmo hardware: pickup rings, knobs, strap buttons
- Clear pickguard
- Forge metal.

[Carrion]

That's pretty metal...

[ohio_eric]

Fuck sanding it. Light it on fire again.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Chris

then I'll take the trem and jack off

[Ken]

Originally Posted by Chris

then I'll take the trem and jack off

Excellent, my brotha. Do you perhaps have room in there for the other foot?

[Chris]

Dude, what's wrong with jackin' off?

Fine, I'll fix it.

Originally Posted by Chris

then I'll ban Adam

[darren]

If it's got nice grain, try doing a light stain-and-burn job. I always loved the look of the JEM 7RB.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by darren

If it's got nice grain, try doing a light stain-and-burn job. I always loved the look of the JEM 7RB.

The body is pretty beat, especially on the edges, so I'm not even sure it'll be worth the effort once it's all sanded down. At the very least it'll be a practice piece for Chris n' Steve's Crazy Springtime Swirl-O-Rama.

[Ken]

Originally Posted by Chris

The body is pretty beat, especially on the edges, so I'm not even sure it'll be worth the effort once it's all sanded down. At the very least it'll be a practice piece for Chris n' Steve's Crazy Springtime Swirl-O-Rama.

I read somewhere (prolly in a porn mag) that one can raise dents in the wood by, um, putting a damp rag on it then touching it with a, um, er, soldering iron.

Hmm. Sounds painful.

[Carrion]

Paint it marbly-swirly style like Paul Masvidal's Steinberger