# Can/should you change the fretboard on your guitar?



## Ironside (Aug 24, 2010)

Hey guys,

Still waiting for my RGD to arrive but I had a couple questions;

Is it possible to change the fretboard to something different than what comes on the RGD 2127z? I don't particularly care for the dots and would prefer a nice blank fretboard with some kind of symbol to mark the 12th fret.

1.) Is this possible?

2.) Is it expensive?

3.) Would I risk ruining a perfectly good, brand new, EXPENSIVE guitar?

Also, I prefer the look of blacked out pickups versus the kind that come on the guitar where you see the metal circles (the actual pickups I assume)

I like the simplicity of having solid black pickups... how do I go about doing that? Are there decent ones that are blacked out? Is it expensive?

Thanks!


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## techcoreriffman (Aug 24, 2010)

I can't help you with the fretboard, but Allparts sells pickup covers for everything. But, most Ibbies need pu replacements anyway. Possibly look at some covered pickups in the first place?


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## fistacuffs (Aug 24, 2010)

Emgs are all black, you could do that.

As for the fretboard, you can do anything you want. Have the rosewood removed and go for a blank piece of ebony.

but most people would say wait untill you need a refret before you do anything. or you are just throwing away brand new frets


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## noob_pwn (Aug 24, 2010)

Bareknuckle make fantastic pickups for 7 strings with covers. A good luthier could perform that neck operation, ET guitars comes to mind, I'm sure he's don't stuff like that before, especially on ibanez's


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## Ironside (Aug 24, 2010)

techcoreriffman said:


> I can't help you with the fretboard, but Allparts sells pickup covers for everything. But, most Ibbies need pu replacements anyway. Possibly look at some covered pickups in the first place?


 
So you can get pickup COVERS rather than replacing the pickups? 

I don't know if these pickups are anything to write home about but I know the Ibanez website says they are specifically designed to really capture all the heavy low-end sounds this guitar can produce so I didn't know if I should jump into different pickups right away before trying these ones out first.


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## GeoMantic (Aug 24, 2010)

Ironside said:


> So you can get pickup COVERS rather than replacing the pickups?
> 
> I don't know if these pickups are anything to write home about but I know the Ibanez website says they are specifically designed to really capture all the heavy low-end sounds this guitar can produce so I didn't know if I should jump into different pickups right away before trying these ones out first.



Ibanez stock pickups always suck. But if that doesn't bother you, you can just buy pickup covers for pretty cheap.


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## Ironside (Aug 24, 2010)

Josh Geohagan said:


> Ibanez stock pickups always suck. But if that doesn't bother you, you can just buy pickup covers for pretty cheap.


 
I'm afraid my newb ears probably couldn't tell the difference yet between crappy pickups and nice ones.


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## Customisbetter (Aug 24, 2010)

Ironside said:


> Hey guys,
> 
> Still waiting for my RGD to arrive but I had a couple questions;
> 
> ...



Yes

Hella yes

Yes

Those are called EMG Pickups. You can get those plastic covers from HERE

Got Guitar Parts? : Guitar Jones USA


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## RideFour15 (Aug 24, 2010)

Ironside said:


> I'm afraid my newb ears probably couldn't tell the difference yet between crappy pickups and nice ones.



Then don't worry about it and just get covers. If they sound fine to you then why replace? Tone is subjective.


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## Xaios (Aug 24, 2010)

Ironside said:


> I'm afraid my newb ears probably couldn't tell the difference yet between crappy pickups and nice ones.



You'll know it when you hear it. I had no real qualms regarding the pickups in my RG1527 until I decided to go with Dimarzios. Night and day, man, night and day.

Can a fretboard be changed? Yes. It is expensive? Hell yes.

You may want to get someone to build you a neck from scratch, to be honest.


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## Hemi-Powered Drone (Aug 24, 2010)

I think, by blacked out, you mean you want *Blackouts*?


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## MaxOfMetal (Aug 24, 2010)

1) Yes, fretboard replacement is actually relatively common as far as "serious mods" go. Understand though that it's not about just slapping another piece of wood there. 

2) Typically, yes, it's quite expensive as it involves A) professional removal of the original board, B) prep of the neck for new board, C) cutting a new board out of a quality piece of wood, D) proper radius sanding of the new board, E) new fret job. That doesn't even include inlay work which depending on the materials and complexity can be even more expensive than the new fretboard. 

3) There is always risk when performing such a procedure, regardless of the guitar. Though, a lot of that will come down to who you choose to do the work. The guy on Craig's List with a misspelled ad offering "Guitar work for great prices." doing the job in his kitchen, used to simple set-ups, might not be the right choice. You're going to have to do a fair amount of research on which luthier will do the best work. Typically, and this goes without saying, the best luthiers and techs are far from the cheapest, or fastest.


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## Ironside (Aug 24, 2010)

Xaios said:


> You'll know it when you hear it. I had no real qualms regarding the pickups in my RG1527 until I decided to go with Dimarzios. Night and day, man, night and day.
> 
> Can a fretboard be changed? Yes. It is expensive? Hell yes.
> 
> You may want to get someone to build you a neck from scratch, to be honest.


 
Alright, well... changing the fretboard seems like it's a hassle I would want to avoid (and an expense I'd care to avoid for that matter).

As far as pickups go, is THAT a fairly easy/inexpensive process? (I kinda figured the fretboard would require some heavy construction).

...and yes, blackouts, that's what I was referring to! I always hear a lot about people drooling over Dimarzio pickups; are they really THAT good!?


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## jl-austin (Aug 24, 2010)

It would almost be easier (and probably cheaper) to order a custom neck from one of the Ibanez clone companies (guys who make replacement Ibanez bodies and necks).

Although, I am not sure any of them are set up to make a 26.5 inch scale neck that your RGD2127 will have.


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## scherzo1928 (Aug 24, 2010)

I agree that Ibanez stock pick ups suck. But ive heard good things about the ones on the rgd2127z.
If what you want, are just BLACK pickups, you could probably look into Bareknuckle... They got an awesome black cover now, like this:






If what you want are BLACKOUTS (by seymour duncan btw), you will need to do a bit of modding, since they are actives and require a battery.

IF what you want is something from Dimarzio, you could look into a Crunchlab/Liquifire set. Rather cheap (compared to bareknuckle) but man those sound great.

Blackouts are amazing, but IMHO, a pair of covered coldsweats (by bareknuckle) and that guitar would turn into a complete beast.

my 2 cents.


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## Chris Bowsman (Aug 24, 2010)

Ironside said:


> Alright, well... changing the fretboard seems like it's a hassle I would want to avoid (and an expense I'd care to avoid for that matter).
> 
> As far as pickups go, is THAT a fairly easy/inexpensive process? (I kinda figured the fretboard would require some heavy construction).
> 
> ...and yes, blackouts, that's what I was referring to! I always hear a lot about people drooling over Dimarzio pickups; are they really THAT good!?



It might have been a better idea to get a guitar with no inlays from the get-go. As far as the pickups go, yes, DiMarzio, EMG, Seymour Duncan, etc... will be an improvement over stock Ibanez pickups that aren't made by one of those brands. 

Regardless, it might be a good idea to get the guitar and play it for awhile before you decide to rip the thing apart.


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## Ironside (Aug 25, 2010)

Chris Bowsman said:


> It might have been a better idea to get a guitar with no inlays from the get-go. As far as the pickups go, yes, DiMarzio, EMG, Seymour Duncan, etc... will be an improvement over stock Ibanez pickups that aren't made by one of those brands.
> 
> Regardless, it might be a good idea to get the guitar and play it for awhile before you decide to rip the thing apart.


 
Yeah true, I don't think i'll mess with it until I get a good feel for it.

I was looking for an Ibanez 7-string and as far as I can tell, the RGD seems to be the best bang for the buck right now.

Unless I missed a better option? It looks like all their 7's right now have dot inlays.

It's too bad Munky's guitar looks kinda gay with the stars on the fretboard because that would have been 1 sweet guitar.

They need to bring back something like the K7's.


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## guitarplayerone (Aug 25, 2010)

i recommend buying new pickups instead of covers regardless...

past that you could just buy any pickup and an EMG bass housing to fit over them

or just get a covered pickup

i would SO highly recommend a K7. the neck is freaking sweet... go pick up one used, you won't regret it

even better go look for a used RG2027


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