# RG 7620 Refinish!



## cyril v (Oct 6, 2009)

If you don't feel like letting all of this load or just want to see the pic, here ya go...






Inspired by Sean Babiniec's refinish thread of win!! 

I'm not entirely sure what the hell i'm going to do to it yet, probaby a stain or possibly even a veneer, even though doing that would probably be a bit out of my range. I've been reading up on all the things I need to do and pm'ing the hell out of dozens of people on here for ideas/tips (thanks!).

I suppose not really having thought this out much doesn't matter as I've decided to just jump into the project. I WILL cry like a lil' baby if i screw up this guitar. 
 

I'll just post my progress here...



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*10/04/09*
_here's a photo of the victim_... 




_...last seen taking up space in the closet and hanging out near scratching posts. Pickups are in the Gear for Sale section, I might be getting new tuners, so if anyone wants them, PM me to discuss._ 

*10/04/09*
_Probably redoing the headstock as well... i'm not entirely sure how the hell i would go about having a new logo on there afterwards if I'm doing a stain finish. maybe someone could clue me in..._ 





*10/05/09*
_I brought it to work on monday and I'm supposed to be helping to do deliveries, but since it's fall and I work in a summer resort town... I had plenty of time on my hands and plenty of help when I did have to take off for a bit.

I went home and like an idiot attempted to sand in my house... HA! 

TERRIBLE IDEA!!_









*10/06/09*
_Today I realized how much it takes to get through all of the gloss, paint, primer, and then filler. Yesterday I thought I was somewhat close to done with the back of the guitar... but if you notice on Monday the back looks somewhat yellowish and has a swirling pattern to it. Today I actually reached the basswood and its somewhat washed out looking and takes a hell of a lot longer to get to. It has a few blemishes, which I kinda think adds character to it._





_Up until this point I was sanding by hand and was stuck on the back of the guitar. I got a nice tip from Mattmc to cure my inadequacy with chem. stripper. thanks again! 

With that I started the front and got almost all of the paint easy as hell... so I figured, wtf.. "that was easy enough, might as well buy a sander and not kill myself". I went to ace hardware, picked up a cheap palm sander for about $30. Then proceeded to murder the top of the body!!!! _ 

*Also, please take note that my guitar tech took the time to sign my guitar in the neck pocket like he fucking owns it...* 




_...almost. New pickups on the way courtesy of Zimbloth! _


*10/07/09*
_Had to finish the sides of this thing today and finish off the top and back... I tried doing the sides with the palm sander and that was a pretty bad idea, if you look for it in the pics you might notice one of the side curves is a little bit more curved than it should be. Very slight, but I was pretty disappointed that I screwed that up, so I fixed that by hand and finished the sides by hand.

So far, the horns are the hardest part I've worked on as far as sanding... absolutely ridiculous hard to keep focused and finish that up. I was running out of sand paper, switching different tools to help... I was really trying to resist going back to the store and buying a wooden dowel, so I finally decided to wrap some of the sandpaper around a finishing sponge that I had laying around. That worked great... if I ever do this again, that'll be the only thing I use on the inner horns._

_Tools of the trade..._





_Here are some shots pre final sanding... _ 
















^_I'm glad I'm taking these pics, I need to touch up that lower horn..._





_I'm only calling it final sanding because thats what it says on the box. I really don't know how far I should go... I'm about to go back out and do a little more @180 grit, and I have a few 320g sponges? Then I have #0000 steel wool...? I dunno what the hell I'm doing., lol _

*10/07/09*
_A few hours later..._









_...this thing is getting pwnd next!!_





_I was advised the underneath this this wad of paint, it should look like the back of the neck pretty much, so thats very reassuring. One last pic before this thing gets shaved up._







_/SAND!!!_






_...sand. _ 






_this logo is pretty fucking resilient, I swear about 5-6 mins passed before the thing came off._





_^my cat is impressed. _ 




_almost^finished

I made quick work of this headstock... it probably took a total of 15 minutes to fully complete the sanding. If I were to do this part by hand, I can only assume it would've taken 1-2 hours, because there is a really really thick gloss coat on there... much thicker than anywhere else on the body. I'm done with I'd say 95% of the sanding I need to do and the only stuff left would be shaping and smoothing edges._

_Here she is..._








_...now I have to play the waiting game, because I have ordered absolutely *no* finishing products at this point because I really didn't think I'd be this far along by now.

Not a bad day for waking up @ 1pm. 

PS3 is collecting dust... what a POS._





*10/09/09*
_All of the finishing products are either here or on the way... I was getting a little bored, so I took a damp cloth to the body to see what it looks like and to check and see if theres any further sanding I'll need before I even begin to apply anything, it was suggested that I do this at least three times to make sure there are no other complications when finishing._





_The grain looks awesome for the most part IMO (save for the area on the lower horn whick looks like they glued another piece of wood to this build to fix something). I'll sand to 320 after this, even though it is smooth as hell right now.
_
*10/10/09*
_These pics are all from friday as well, I didn't have much time before I had to go to work so I just kept working on it and decided not to upload until today. The color came out a lot different on my test piece of wood, maybe I left it on too long or maybe basswood just absorbs the dye a lot faster than the random piece of wood I used... the headstock definitely didn't absorb much, but that was fine with me._




















^I would've loved to just keep it like this... girlfriend said I have too many black guitars though. 









*10/11/09*
Sanded down with #0000 steel wool and looks almost exactly how I thought it would compared to my test piece...









*10/12/09*
I figured it looks how I wanted to at this point so I might as well just start oiling it.... there are a couple of places where dye hit the back of the guitar and I tried my best to sand it off, but it was really deep. Next time I do something like this I'll tape newspaper to the back..

Anyways, I just put some oil on it... 45/55 mix with mineral spirits.









*10/28/09*
_Alright, I'm about as done as I can possibly get at the moment... I've got the trem at an alright angle, but I need to tweak it more, also I definitely have to get rid of one or two of these springs (I've got 4 at the moment and it feels like I'm wrestling a brick wall). I still need to lower the action as well and intonate (I'm going to wait to intonate until I get a lighter set of strings). I stripped a string clamp screw trying to get that big ass .70 in there, lol. luckily they're about 30 cents from stewmac.

It's currently set-up with la bella strings and these things are nice as hell (9-70 custom set)... I especially like the .70 because it's so cool how have it made perfectly for the scale length so that the thickness goes almost all the way to the tuner and then drops off right after the nut so the size is never an issue for the tuners. They play silky smooth to the touch and are loud as hell and ring clear as a bell. I'd definitely say check them out as an alternative to juststrings.com.

I'm definitely satisfied with how this came out and I really didn't expect it to come out nearly this well (for my tastes) and I like all the goof ups that I did, as they give it a lot of character. I'll definitely post up actual final shots when the time comes._


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## awesomeaustin (Oct 6, 2009)

lookin good so far, keep at it (especially with the pic taking)

for the logo Best-Decals.com, Your One-Stop Decal-Shop does Ibanez replacement logos


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## willybman (Oct 6, 2009)

awesome!!!

I allways love these threads, i got a pencil the other day at a college visit in my school, and after like an hour of boredom i picked it up and realised it had heat sensitive paint, all i could think about was how awesome of a guitar finish that would be!!!!


heres an exmple:
http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/BA04DD14-4952-4591-9AD4-4E630B2C433B/

also some other great application ideas in there.


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## Fred the Shred (Oct 6, 2009)

Nice! Keep the progress pics coming, mate!


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## SpaceDock (Oct 6, 2009)

I refinished my old 7421 and it came out really nice. I just sanded forever then used black stain and finally gloss sealer. Total cost = $30, excluding the glow in the dark pickguard.

I have read alot of thread with people discouraging the basswood refinish, but I think they rock!


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## cyril v (Oct 6, 2009)

^that thing looks killer! I agree with ya, the basswood does look fine IMO. I mean, sure it's not flamed maple or some ridiculous burl... but it looks good without all the bells and whistles nonetheless.



willybman said:


> awesome!!!
> 
> I allways love these threads, i got a pencil the other day at a college visit in my school, and after like an hour of boredom i picked it up and realised it had heat sensitive paint, all i could think about was how awesome of a guitar finish that would be!!!!
> 
> ...


holy shit, thats pretty cool stuff. but, WAY WAY out my price range.

If you do a project with that, be sure to post tons of pics. 



awesomeaustin said:


> lookin good so far, keep at it (especially with the pic taking)
> 
> for the logo Best-Decals.com, Your One-Stop Decal-Shop does Ibanez replacement logos



sweet, thanks.. my only question is, how well do these hold up? And I suppose to get the best out of it, you'd have to put some kind of clear coat or gloss on this?

---------
I stopped working on this after that last shot... I'll probably do some stuff tomorrow morning.


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## Mattmc74 (Oct 6, 2009)

Looks good so far Cyril!
If you have any more questions just shoot me another PM and I will be more than happy to help you out again. Good luck.


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## Sean Babiniec (Oct 6, 2009)

Heck yeah man. I think basswood looks better than people give it credit for.

Oh yeah, I also finished mine with an aerosol lacquer. If you have any questions about anything think feel free to ask me!


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## Harry (Oct 7, 2009)

Sean Babiniec said:


> Heck yeah man. I think basswood looks better than people give it credit for.



Definitely.
Some grains are pretty crap, but sometimes basswood can look really great IMO.


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## Baco (Oct 7, 2009)

Nice, I'm curious for the outcome. What pickups are you putting in. BKP?


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## jymellis (Oct 7, 2009)

awesome man!


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## Apophis (Oct 7, 2009)

Looks great


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## cyril v (Oct 7, 2009)

Thanks for the kind words, I'm about to head out and work on the sides right now...



Baco said:


> Nice, I'm curious for the outcome. What pickups are you putting in. BKP?



Just going for the Crunch lab / Liquid Fire combo... I originally intended on getting these three months ago for the swamp *ASH* Agile that I had coming (long story short, it came with on the holes for vol/tone drilled.... no other cavities routed and I don't have the tools to finish it so I sent it back.)

If the Crunch lab doesn't work out so well, my next step is definitely to go for the Cold Sweat or Miracle Man...


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## Sean Babiniec (Oct 7, 2009)

cyril v said:


> Thanks for the kind words, I'm about to head out and work on the sides right now...
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Those are the pickups I put in my 1527 and I love them. I have been using actives the past few years, and I was looking for something smoother and more dynamic. Doesn't get much more smooth than Petrucci's tone. Crunch lab still has some balls to it too.

I am sick right now (swine flu) but if you want me to post a vid of the pickups this weekend I can do that.


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## cyril v (Oct 7, 2009)

lol @ "Swamp Ass"

supposed to be swamp ASH.

...and yeah, if you could do a video that would be sweet as there are always people looking forward to them in the pick-up section on this site. Maybe you could just play some simple stuff like chords or palm muted riffs w/both pickups? That'd be awesome.

I've got two other guitars with both EMG's and Blackouts, I just wanted to try something a little different on my RG so I can have a reason to have more play time on it.


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## Sean Babiniec (Oct 7, 2009)

cyril v said:


> lol @ "Swamp Ass"
> 
> supposed to be swamp ASH.
> 
> ...




For sure man, let me recover another day or so, I have been sick as hell. And if you already have two guitars with actives, you will be very pleased with these pickups me thinks!

Also, here is a rough process that I followed in staining my guitar. I didn't buy Stew-Mac products because they were expensive, but there is a cheap alternative for each at Home Depot.

Free information : Finishing a Blue Guitar at Stewart-MacDonald


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## Konfyouzd (Oct 7, 2009)

SpaceDock said:


> I refinished my old 7421 and it came out really nice. I just sanded forever then used black stain and finally gloss sealer. Total cost = $30, excluding the glow in the dark pickguard.
> 
> I have read alot of thread with people discouraging the basswood refinish, but I think they rock!


I actually had the idea to do something like that to MY 7421... I've been beaten to it. I kept the cherry fudge paint job and added a smoked mirror guard. 





I thought it might look kinda sweet stripped with the mirror guard, but I already did that to a 7620 before I got a chance to.

As for suggestions to the OP for finish suggestions... I'm a fan of the heat gun, myself (although I don't think I'll use it on my next project. Wouldn't wanna become predictable...  )


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## Shawn (Oct 7, 2009)

Mine has been done twice!  I've had this guitar for 11 years and it was my first 7.


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## Konfyouzd (Oct 7, 2009)

i thought white on white would be overkill be it seems to have the exact opposite effect of black on black... 

that makes sense i guess but i wouldn't have figured. 

EDIT: Actually that's more or less a UV7PWH w/o the pickguard and inlays (sadly I had to look at your avatar to make the connection)... So I should have known.


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## cyril v (Oct 7, 2009)

doing finishing sanding now., the top looks awesome~! i took a few pics in the sun before hand.

*OP Updated.*













Shawn said:


> Mine has been done twice!  I've had this guitar for 11 years and it was my first 7.



That looks great with the matching headstock and pickups!!

It's a damn shame Ibanez didn't do this for their maple 1527. 

I updated the OP with a fuckload of pics again... I probably should've put a 56k warning on this thread? yep.


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## CrushingAnvil (Oct 7, 2009)

Dude, pretty 1337 sanding skillz


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## Izebecool (Oct 7, 2009)

Looking great so far. I really like the grain on that headstock. I think you should do a wood stain on the body and headstock and then finish it with Tung Oil. Keep it up!


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## mattofvengeance (Oct 8, 2009)

SpaceDock said:


> I refinished my old 7421 and it came out really nice. I just sanded forever then used black stain and finally gloss sealer. Total cost = $30, excluding the glow in the dark pickguard.
> 
> I have read alot of thread with people discouraging the basswood refinish, but I think they rock!



Speaking of the pick guard, where did you get it?


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## cyril v (Oct 8, 2009)

Izebecool said:


> Looking great so far. I really like the grain on that headstock. I think you should do a wood stain on the body and headstock and then finish it with Tung Oil. Keep it up!



Thats what I think I'm going to do... i'll have to hit up home depot or something tomorrow or Lowes as all of the paint shops close to me don't have any water or alcohol based stains. That and I can't find REAL tung oil anywhere, all the places I went to have stuff that has other chemicals and oils and such in it as well... unless of course thats what I'm supposed to be getting? I dunno. 

I decided to get decals off of Patrick from Sims Custom Shop... he's a cool dude and hooked me up with a great price, so I also decided to get new electronics off of him as well. 

I'll update the OP when the goodies start arriving!!


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## Elysian (Oct 8, 2009)

I'd recommend taking the neck off to making finishing the body easier. Looks good so far, keep up the good work.


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## SpaceDock (Oct 8, 2009)

mattofvengeance said:


> Speaking of the pick guard, where did you get it?


 
Jeannie's Pickguards. They'll do just about anything if you ask. It took about two weeks from order to in my hands. Really fast for a custom guard. This is actually a 7621 guard, but fits the same.


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## cyril v (Oct 8, 2009)

alright, I just picked up two different finishes... black ebony and some funky looking dark green color. one for the back and one for the front... also, i just realized one is oil and the other is waterbased, hopefully thats a non-issue. 

I plan on doing the back of the guitar a faded black color... the front will be green. as for the binding thing? I don't thnk I can pull that off.

only other thing i need now is tung oil.. anyone have any brand suggestions? I saw formby's low/high gloss and something called Behr, minwax and a fourth that i can't remember the name of, but i don't recall the name of it. I also just realized theres i'm having a bit of confusion over "tung oil" and "tung oil finish", which are apparently totally different things.. still unsure which one I need though.

edit: nvm... pure tung oil has been ordered, i've got mineral spirits to assist if I puss out on the rubbing part.

*OP Updated again...*


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## cyril v (Oct 10, 2009)

Izebecool said:


> Looking great so far. I really like the grain on that headstock. I think you should do a wood stain on the body and headstock and then finish it with Tung Oil. Keep it up!



go figure... the last thing I ordered is the first thing to arrive.. 

i ordered this yesterday and it arrived today, lol






do you guys think I bought enough?


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## Mattmc74 (Oct 11, 2009)

cyril v said:


> go figure... the last thing I ordered is the first thing to arrive..
> 
> i ordered this yesterday and it arrived today, lol
> 
> ...



You have enough to do a few guitars now! What are you going to refinish next?


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## cyril v (Oct 11, 2009)

^^it looked a lot smaller on my computer screen. lol 

I could've probably ordered their sample size and had enough to finish this...

Change of plans btw, the back of the guitar is going to be natural now. 


edit: lol, i'll post the finish fail pics after i add oil to it so theres at least something worthwhile to see (the back of it).


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## cyril v (Oct 13, 2009)

I probably should've kept it like this... *Original post updated with a few more fuckloads of pics.*


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## canuck brian (Oct 13, 2009)

I redid this one a whlie ago - bring the paint back to the sealer, get some material, seal it more, finish it. Pretty easy stuff!


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## cyril v (Oct 13, 2009)

canuck brian said:


> I redid this one a whlie ago - bring the paint back to the sealer, get some material, seal it more, finish it. Pretty easy stuff!



that looks great!! Are my eyes going crazy or are the inlays a different color (could be a slight reflection i guess).

I actually want to go buy a 7621 so I can try this again, but next time I'd use a veneer and i'll only bring it to the sealer (going to the bare wood was a bitch)... I'd probably go with a red burst next time.

It's pretty crazy to see all the different refinishes people have done... kinda makes me was to go crazy on my sc607 as well.


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## Leec (Oct 13, 2009)

Excellent stuff, dude. I can dig how much this means as well. Kudos, indeed. 

It's probably new inlays in Canuck Brian's guitar, his brilliant work is quite well documented on the site. He's posted some wicked build threads. 

I wish I had somewhere I could strip down my remaining 7620 body; I'd not sell it then. I'd love to have a crack at something like that material finish.


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## Mattmc74 (Oct 13, 2009)

cyril v said:


> I probably should've kept it like this... *Original post updated with a few more fuckloads of pics.*


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## Konfyouzd (Oct 13, 2009)

cyril v said:


> I probably should've kept it like this... *Original post updated with a few more fuckloads of pics.*



that looks pretty badass...


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## cyril v (Oct 13, 2009)

ARGGHHH! i knew i should've left it!! 

That took all of twenty mins to get that look... with 18 of those minutes being when the dye was drying.

It still has that same basic look now, it's just green...

edit: question for anyone that knows... is the floyd rose a direct drop in for the lo-pro or would it need a lot of work? any details/links would be helpful.

edit2: Third coat of tung oil is on... i'll post pics when I get closer to finishing, but the tung has definitely made the finish a bit brighter and way more vibrant... which is pretty awesome considering the green was a lot darker than i wanted after the dye originally dried.

My decals and electronics arrived today 10/14/09 from Sims. Now I have to decide whether I want the logo to be black or white.


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## Mattmc74 (Oct 17, 2009)

I think it looks really good with the green on it. 

Not sure about your trem question.

If your going to leave the headstock natural I would go with a black logo, if your going to stain it like the body than I would use the white.


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## cyril v (Oct 17, 2009)

^thanks bro, I've changed my mind about the floyd rose., apparantly there is just a little sanding/filing to do to make it wide enough for it to fit. thats not really the issue though, i'm just kinda broke at the moment and my lo-pro is actually in great condition, i'm almost sure it could pass as new, mainly because i use it very lightly (which is another reason getting a floyd might be pointless for me).

Heres the headstock right now, I wanted it to be a lot lighter than the body(sorry about the shitty light.. i've got 40watt bulbs everywhere) and it's been raining for the past four days so theres no natural light shots.









tung oil is like magic in a bottle btw... i don't know if it's possible for me to get a picture of the qualities it brings out in the wood.. but it's pretty awesome.


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## Mattmc74 (Oct 18, 2009)

Looks great so far!


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## ykcirj (Oct 18, 2009)

I love the look of the green man! good job!


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## Wi77iam (Oct 18, 2009)

The lo-pro is probably on par/or better with the OFR7. So really, no point in getting it  and plus as you said, you barely use it..
and you copied my colour scheme on the RG7  but did a better job


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## cyril v (Oct 18, 2009)

holy shit., i thought that was mine for a second, i just thought you just photoshopped it onto a guitar!! 

sorry, i didn't mean to ape your style (it looks eerily similar) but thats awesome though and very comforting to know it's going to come out nice.


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## Wi77iam (Oct 18, 2009)

Nah don't be sorry.  it's all good, the more, the merrier  (and metal-ler)


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## natspotats (Oct 18, 2009)

i cant wait to see this sexy beast


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## leandroab (Oct 19, 2009)

Amazing! Might do this to my RG7321 too


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## Fred the Shred (Oct 19, 2009)

Oh, yes! It's looking great!


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## Mattmc74 (Oct 19, 2009)

Wi77iam said:


> The lo-pro is probably on par/or better with the OFR7. So really, no point in getting it  and plus as you said, you barely use it..
> and you copied my colour scheme on the RG7  but did a better job



 very nice looking! nice job!


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## Metaldave (Oct 19, 2009)

Looks amazing dude! I wanted to strip the paint off my 7421 (CF) and do something with it but lost the will.. So I wrapped it in black pvc tape strips.. Looks cool but sure it was the best idea ever..


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## cyril v (Oct 19, 2009)

I took tried the decals out (white and black) by taking the wax off and comparing it on the guitar with most of the parts on. The white really clashed a bit, so I ended up going with the black decal. I printed out a few close up shots of my headstock and tried to line it up as best i could with how it was before. Taped it in place, used some credit cards to smooth the decal in place and then took it outside and misted it with a semi-gloss minwax polyurethane spray. Hopefully that'll keep it in place and if the headstock comes out fine, I might just use that on the body? not sure yet. I'll spray it again in an hour or so...

anyways... heres a few update pics. 

Crunch lab arrived today btw, liquid fire still in transit.  I also just got a flamed maple veneer (thanks daybean), so hopefully I'll stumble across a 7621 sometime soon. 
























Metaldave said:


> Looks amazing dude! I wanted to strip the paint off my 7421 (CF) and do something with it but lost the will.. So I wrapped it in black pvc tape strips.. Looks cool but sure it was the best idea ever..



post some pics in here if you have 'em!

i'd say go for it if you ever muster up the urge again, it's been pretty enjoyable so far.


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## Mattmc74 (Oct 20, 2009)

Looks good man!


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## Wi77iam (Oct 20, 2009)

Mattmc74 said:


> very nice looking! nice job!



Thanks mate 

Looks really good  .. Hurry up and finish it


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## cyril v (Oct 20, 2009)

minor setback... it appears one of my cats decided it would be cool to lay on the neck of the guitar while it was drying last night (i'm a bit unsure as to how they got in the room because the door was shut, so i'll just blame the gf for the time being). so, it's got asshatcat hairs on it and the finish is slightly clumped up in a few spots. i'll have to wait for that to totally dry and then carefully go at it with steel wool. 

luckily, the decal wasn't budged or messed up in any way.. also, there are no random cat claw marks on it at all that i can see.. so thats kinda good news?


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## cyril v (Oct 21, 2009)

Cool stuff today, I got a replacement part for my tremol-no pin that broke a while ago... Kevan was nice enough to send me the clamp part to replace it!! big thanks for that, i was going nuts trying to find a replacement part at hardware stores.

Also, recieved the floyd replacement arm in the mail today... i completely destroyed the lopro arm holder trying to get it out, that thing is a piece of shit, i probably could've broken it with my hands alone.

anyways, heres some shots of that...










as for the body; the last coat of oil i put on the guitar took probably 30 hours to fully dry, so i'm thinking one or two more coats and that'll be done. headstock is getting another coat of the poly in about five minutes.


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## Mattmc74 (Oct 23, 2009)

Coming along good man!


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## cyril v (Oct 23, 2009)

^thanks, I was about to head off to work but noticed the thread was bumped so i ran outside a minute ago and snapped off two more shots.

The neck has 5 coats of tung oil on it and it really didn't seem to be absorbing anymore so I let it dry and as of now it has two extra thin coats of the poly varnish on it. I plan on doing at least two more possibly when i get home today.

The body is on it's 7th coat of tung as of last night... and is looking better after each coat, so i'm thinking at least 2-3 more coats before I finally call it a day.










The only other part I need to finish this is project is the liquid fire neck pickup which will hopefully arrive sometime between today and monday. 
/fingers crossed.


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## Sean Babiniec (Oct 23, 2009)

That looks great man! I wish I tung oiled the back of mine...


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## bigswifty (Oct 24, 2009)

This looks sooooooo good 
Keep it up man!


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## Izebecool (Oct 24, 2009)

This looks 100,000 times better than the black finish. Good job so far man keep it up!


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## Metalus (Oct 24, 2009)

Cant wait to see the finished product. Its looking good. Makes me wanna take my old beat up Carlo robelli 6 string (basswood) out of the closet and completely refinish it (Ill have a friend of mine do it since he knws whatsup lol). Ive been thinking of buying a new neck for it too. Possibly ebony.


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## Groff (Oct 24, 2009)

Oh wow, nice job, that looks awesome!


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## cyril v (Oct 28, 2009)

^thanks for the kind words sir!

Alright, I'm about as done as I can possibly get at the moment... I've got the trem at an alright angle, but I need to tweak it more, also I definitely have to get rid of one or two of these springs (I've got 4 at the moment and it feels like I'm wrestling a brick wall). 

It's currently set-up with la bella strings and these things are nice as hell (9-70 custom set)... I especially like the .70 because it's so cool how have it made perfectly for the scale length so that the thickness goes almost all the way to the tuner and then drops off right after the nut so the size is never an issue for the tuners. They play silky smooth to the touch and are loud as hell and ring clear as a bell. I'd definitely say check them out as an alternative to juststrings.com. 

The electronics obviously aren't hooked up yet as you can see by the pictures... I'm still waiting on the neck pickup and it thats really the only thing holding me up at the moment and thats especially grating as I've taken my time with this refinish and just not touched it for days on end just to compensate (10 layers of tung over like 2.5 weeks+). I finally got tired of waiting and decided to put it back together last night... that has really been the only complication I've had. 

anyways... here ya go. really shitty and rainy day with no sun in sight.















and just for reference, he she goes about 5 minutes before I started the refin.





...now, about 5 minutes ago.





I'm definitely satisfied with how this came out and I really didn't expect it to come out nearly this well (for my tastes) and I like all the goof ups that I did, as they give it a lot of character. I'll definitely post up actual final shots when the time comes.


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## Konfyouzd (Oct 28, 2009)

that's intense, man. i approve.  

i'm sure it's in the thread elsewhere but is that a D-Sonic or a Crunchlab? I hear the Crunchlab is suitable to be turned upside down but i didn't know if the same was true for the D Sonic.


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## cyril v (Oct 28, 2009)

Konfyouzd said:


> that's intense, man. i approve.
> 
> i'm sure it's in the thread elsewhere but is that a D-Sonic or a Crunchlab? I hear the Crunchlab is suitable to be turned upside down but i didn't know if the same was true for the D Sonic.




Yeah, this is the crunch lab... Apparantly both of these work very well in both positions, I noticed Petrucci has most of his guitars with the bar facing the neck but on one of his baritones he has it facing the bridge and more often than not I've heard that it sounds great with the bar facing the bridge. I'll definitely try it out both ways when I actually hook it up, but it's only sitting in this position now so I could snap off some glory shots.


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## JeffFromMtl (Oct 28, 2009)

dude, that distressed finish looks badass. good job.


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## Konfyouzd (Oct 28, 2009)

cyril v said:


> Yeah, this is the crunch lab... Apparantly both of these work very well in both positions, I noticed Petrucci has most of his guitars with the bar facing the neck but on one of his baritones he has it facing the bridge and more often than not I've heard that it sounds great with the bar facing the bridge. I'll definitely try it out both ways when I actually hook it up, but it's only sitting in this position now so I could snap off some glory shots.



yea i have the D Sonic and i have the bar toward the bridge. i wanna try the d sonic now so i can see what that's all about. i hear it's a little warmer than the D Sonic which could be very nice.


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## cyril v (Oct 28, 2009)

Konfyouzd said:


> yea i have the D Sonic and i have the bar toward the bridge. i wanna try the d sonic now so i can see what that's all about. i hear it's a little warmer than the D Sonic which could be very nice.



Awesome, if you do, please send me a pm and let me know what you think of the difference.


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## SpaceDock (Oct 28, 2009)

Looks pretty good.


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## Konfyouzd (Oct 28, 2009)

cyril v said:


> Awesome, if you do, please send me a pm and let me know what you think of the difference.



oops... I meant I wanna try the Crunchlab. 

glad you understood anyway.


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## Mattmc74 (Oct 28, 2009)

cyril v said:


> ^thanks for the kind words sir!
> 
> Alright, I'm about as done as I can possibly get at the moment... I've got the trem at an alright angle, but I need to tweak it more, also I definitely have to get rid of one or two of these springs (I've got 4 at the moment and it feels like I'm wrestling a brick wall).
> 
> ...



Looks great man! Nice job!

The back of the guitar is just plain old tung oil? If so it looks really nice.


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## yevetz (Oct 28, 2009)

awesome work


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## cyril v (Nov 10, 2009)

Finally finished... I'll just let the pics do the talking instead of typing an essay.








































Right now, I just need to adjust the action and intonate it and it'll be all she wrote. I did the wiring on sunday and it being my first time, I think I did pretty good and it's nice and neat in there with mostly excellent solder joints all around. The push/pull is wired to bypass the volume and tone, kinda useful... i might try some other weird mods with that later.

At my job, 6/10 people loved it... two hated it and wondered why the hell I didn't just leave it black gloss(lol), two others just thought it was alright... my girlfriend likes it, but she's pretty much obligated to... let me know what you think.


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## Mattmc74 (Nov 10, 2009)

Looks great man! And if you like the way it looks than thats all that matters. If some others don't like it - no big deal! - it's not their guitar. 

Nice job man!


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## Groff (Nov 10, 2009)

Nice job!

The finish looks really good!


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## shadowlife (Nov 10, 2009)

I really dig the finish- great job!


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## Valserp (Nov 10, 2009)

I'm with the "It's OK" crew. I just don't dig the finish.
Still, great job.


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## cyril v (Nov 10, 2009)

cheers! I like the way it turned out; as its pretty close to what I was originally thinking... I don't really mind if anyone doesn't dig the finish, it is pretty fucking weird looking.. that part cannot be denied or overstated. 

I'm sure something a little more striaght forward would've gone over well in the eyes of others, but I figured that I would go for something highly unique... I ended up with Swamp RG7 knock-off, lol.


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## missingastring (Nov 10, 2009)

Looks incredible, IMO. Wish I had one just like it.


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## mattofvengeance (Nov 12, 2009)

I really dig the distressed finish, bro. Excellent work, especially being your first time. I'm about to embark on the tedious journey of repainting guitars myself.


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## cyril v (Nov 12, 2009)

mattofvengeance said:


> I really dig the distressed finish, bro. Excellent work, especially being your first time. I'm about to embark on the tedious journey of repainting guitars myself.



thanks! 

it's pretty fun to do honestly, i'm looking forward to picking up a 7621/7421 to try this again.


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## mattofvengeance (Nov 12, 2009)

Yeah dude, I understand that. I've been on the lookout for beaten up RG7s for that very reason. I would love to have an excuse to repaint something


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## Mattmc74 (Nov 12, 2009)

mattofvengeance said:


> Yeah dude, I understand that. I've been on the lookout for beaten up RG7s for that very reason. I would love to have an excuse to repaint something



 Right on man! I do it all the time. It's a fun hobby to have.


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## mattofvengeance (Nov 12, 2009)

Mattmc74 said:


> Right on man! I do it all the time. It's a fun hobby to have.



Yeah, and I've pretty much owe all that I've learned to you, although I haven't had a chance to apply it yet. I'm gonna grab a beat up guitar from somebody on craigslist or pawn shop to start practicing. I have something very special planned


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## SpaceDock (Nov 12, 2009)

For future reference I had the same problem with my refinish that this guitar has. The inconsistent acceptance of stain into the wood is due to the sanding not going deep enough. That is why sone spots are darker than others. This is very obvious inbetween the pickups. Ibanez uses some sort or primer that goes pretty deep into the wood and it is not obvious until stain is applied. I endup staining - drying - starting over with sanding - staining - drying ect maybe 3 or 4 times before I was satisfied. Getting a really good stain is very difficult with a previously painted guitar. 

Additionally, fine sanding the clear coat was the same issue. I had to redo it many times before I was satisfied.

oh, a picture of my refinish is on page 3 for those interested


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