# Major RG1527 Prestige Salvage!



## jordanky (Aug 12, 2011)

Hello dudes and possible women out there. As some of you may have seen, I just scored this sweet, pre-modded 2006 Ibanez RG1527 Prestige from Craigslist for a ridiculous price. It had a ton of paint chips, and some extra holes drilled in it, but luckily no cracks, busts and none of the chips even go through the sealer!. None of these small scabs are going to be a problem, and hopefully this turns out to be a fun and rewarding project. Anywho, I'm in the first day of this project and I've gotten a nice chunk of work done which is refreshing to me, as I thought this would take much longer. Here are some pics of the guitar before I started tearing into it. 



























I got into work today and started the dissasembly process. Working in a guitar store rules! I did another once over of the body and everything looked fine. A major relief that everything on this guitar was 90% mint besides the body. No pictures of this, because if you're anything like me, you'd be more psyched to see your guitar actually put together than in pieces.

After I got paid today, I hit up Lowe's, conveniently located thirty feet behind our store, and picked up some chemical stripper, a cheap scraper, a cheap brush and some nice heavy duty gloves, to save my fragile hands from the fiery hell held within this one quart steel can. I set up a work station on our loading dock out back and starting pounding the chemical stripper onto the body. Here we go! 






Stripped applied!






This chemical stripper sucks ass. I stopped by an auto parts store on my way home from work and grabbed a can of Tal-Strip, some sandpaper and a small can of Bondo, which rules for the tiny amount of body work I'm going to have to do.

New stripper! Finally starting to get somewhere.









This seemingly boring Royal Blue finish is actually a candy color, in simpler terms, a colored clear coat over a metallic base. You can see the silver metallic base coat in splotches. This is very thin, and although it wouldn't come off at all with the stripper, as soon as I hit it with a palm sander equipped with some 120 grit paper, it disappeared. 

!!!





Gross ass back of guitar.





Ten minutes later!





That's all I have for tonight! I plan on filling the extra holes tomorrow and getting the rest of the inner horns/AANJ hand sanded, and then possibly get this thing in a primer coat sometime this weekend! This is moving amazingly fast, here's to hoping that the rest of the project moves as smoothly. More pictures coming soon!


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## jordanky (Aug 12, 2011)

Also, any suggestions on colors? I am really leaning towards a candy orange, or maybe a twist on Fender Surf Green with a slight pearl topcoat. I don't know, the sky is the limit really. What do you guys think?


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## Xiphos68 (Aug 12, 2011)

Candy Orange.


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## Lucas_061287 (Aug 12, 2011)

Awesome to see the progress on this thing!!!

I still think a flat/satin red with some gold pearl mixed in would look phenominal and classy, and the pearl would make it look orange/gold in certain light.

EDIT: Kinda like this...






... only matte.


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## jordanky (Aug 12, 2011)

Funny you mention that!

http://boutiqueguitarresource.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/09-7-18-3.JPG


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## jordanky (Aug 12, 2011)

Lucas_061287 said:


> Awesome to see the progress on this thing!!!
> 
> I still think a flat/satin red with some gold pearl mixed in would look phenominal and classy, and the pearl would make it look orange/gold in certain light.
> 
> ...



That is awesome... I'm just not big on the way matte finishes feel/look after a few months. Gloss looks nice too!


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## Lucas_061287 (Aug 12, 2011)

Yeah, the upkeep required on matte finishes makes them a PITA, but DAMN do they look sexy (to me anyways) Gloss would look killer as well though!!!


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## Adam Of Angels (Aug 12, 2011)

jordanky said:


>



Dude, you should have clear coated it at this point.


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## jordanky (Aug 12, 2011)

Adam Of Angels said:


> Dude, you should have clear coated it at this point.



No kidding! I thought that while I was actually at this point. It kind of reminded me of some kind of Nike's I had when I was a kid for some reason, lol.


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## poopyalligator (Aug 13, 2011)

Definitely go with the orange. That would be sick!


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## toiletstand (Aug 13, 2011)

that burnt orange plus black/metal looking pickguard will look so fine.


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## Lasik124 (Aug 13, 2011)

So far looks great! I'll give a vote for the orange, sounds killer!!!


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## eurolove (Aug 13, 2011)

jordanky said:


> Hello dudes and possible women out there


i like that, i think the potential female audience of ss.org needs more recognition  seriously though, candy orange with tiger stripes or black streaks like spalted ash would be straight out the 80's


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## 7slinger (Aug 13, 2011)

are you repainting the headstock face also, or just the body?

orange is cool, but the suggestion in the other thread of a Ibanez Dargie Delight gets my vote

sweet deal you got too, I would've scooped it up in a heartbeat


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## BlackMastodon (Aug 13, 2011)




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## jordanky (Aug 13, 2011)

More updates!

For the lolz. I wish it was back together, but I have more work to do!





Got the inside of the horns and the heel sanded.





These two holes are going to get filled. I went to my local hardware store and picked up a 1/2" wooden dowel and some wood filler since I was out. 





I hacked the dowels down into these shorter pieces, then applied wood glue to the inside of the holes, and the dowels themselves, then I twisted them into place. It's a tight fit, but that's a good thing! Btw, I'm trying to not make any dirty jokes about filling holes through this whole thing. 









And here's a shot of the underside. Tried to get them as flush as I could, as I have to install the blade switch later and I want a level surface for it to rest against.





Next, I masked off the body around the dowels, and hacked the excess off with a hacksaw blade. I left a small amount of the dowels sticking up, which was my intention, so I could work them down flush with the rest of the body.













Dowels sanded down!





Layer of wood filler applied.





Quick coat of primer, body work barely noticable to the naked eye, nice!





That's all I have for now! I'm going to be hitting it back up in just a little bit after I grab some lunch.


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## JamesM (Aug 13, 2011)

Clean work.


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## jordanky (Aug 13, 2011)

Last pics of the day. Got the holes completely smoothed over, so the biggest part of work is done and over with. I have a couple of other small low spots on the back to fill up with some light spot putty, then it's on to more priming and wet sanding. Hopefully sometime within the next week, it'll be wearing a new color!

Holes smoothed over nicely, almost unnoticeable now. I have to trim out a little bit in the switch slot, but that will be cake, and I'm going to wait until I have everything else finished before I do this.


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## Quitty (Aug 14, 2011)

That looks gorgeous.
And i can't believe that's what i've got under my own 1527's sparkly-blue-puzzle-potential paint.
It's such a shame Ibanez have decided to ship these out with a cheap-ass, touchy paintjob instead of just going natural. yours would have looked amazing stained, if it wasn't for the holes.


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## JPMike (Aug 14, 2011)

Really nice work there.


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## jordanky (Aug 14, 2011)

No pictures, but I did get most of the finishing bodywork done today. It rained a shit ton, so my work time was limited. I spot glazed the small spots, got them all leveled out. I have some more priming and paint prep to do, then it's hopefully going to get painted sometime this week! I will get some more pictures up tomorrow!


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## apiss (Aug 15, 2011)

This guitar is going to thank you later.

In the form of record deals, women, a gigging career, and women.


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## jordanky (Aug 18, 2011)

A little update...

No news, lol. I'm just waiting on some painting action.


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## jordanky (Aug 20, 2011)

This guitar just left to get painted. Should be done tomorrow evening and back to me by Monday!


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## ibanezRG1527 (Aug 20, 2011)

thank you for saving this lovely guitar! any idea why the owner decided that extra holes were the perfect idea in his $1200 guitar?


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## jordanky (Aug 21, 2011)

ibanezRG1527 said:


> thank you for saving this lovely guitar! any idea why the owner decided that extra holes were the perfect idea in his $1200 guitar?



Thanks man! I'm excited to get it back and unveil it on Monday! 

But I'm pretty sure he was going for this Petrucci layout, but didn't want to put in the time and money to have it done right

Like this:


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## guitarister7321 (Aug 21, 2011)

jordanky said:


>



Paint it that color. That on a RG1527 would be so win.


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## jordanky (Aug 22, 2011)

It's going to be close to that, only a little less gold and more red-orange.


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## jordanky (Aug 24, 2011)

Got a word back this morning, the paint got pushed back, but as of today, it's done and I should be heading to pick it up later this evening!


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## sibanez29 (Aug 24, 2011)

Orange RUUULLLLEEEEESSSSS!


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## jordanky (Aug 24, 2011)

Okay, let's do this... Ran out during my lunch break and picked the guitar up. It got sprayed yesterday morning but I didn't get a chance last night to pick it up.

Anyway, I'm going to painfully let it hang around for another day or so before I begin wet sanding and buffing, but here are some pictures of the body with a new outfit on it! The sun is blindingly bright right now, so these pictures aren't the greatest. Also, you can also see that I re-used the same old junk-ass neck I used to paint my neon green S520EX if anyone remembers that, lol. Anyways, the color is Inferno Orange Metallic, it's a Chevrolet color used on the new Camaro's, except I had my friend mix the paint with a tad more red. Once it's buffed, the pearl/metallic aspect of the paint will jump out a whole lot more. But anyways, for now...


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## Razzy (Aug 24, 2011)

Fucking awesome. That red is SUPER bright.


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## jordanky (Aug 24, 2011)

Razzy said:


> Fucking awesome. That red is SUPER bright.



Thanks man! It's really not as furiously bright as it looks though, lol.


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## orakle (Aug 24, 2011)

thank you for saving this baby's life ! \m/


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## lefty777 (Aug 24, 2011)

Nice Job so far!


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## Floppystrings (Aug 24, 2011)

That color is magical.


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## jordanky (Aug 24, 2011)

Quick, hopeful mockup.


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## SilenceIsACrime (Aug 24, 2011)

^ You can definitely see more of the orange in that picture! I like.


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## jordanky (Aug 24, 2011)

An update, but no pictures... I got home from work and decided to test sand a small spot. It was a green light! Everything was good to go. So far, I've gotten the entire back of the guitar wetsanded as smooth as glass with 1500 grit paper. I'm taking a snack break right now to update this, but next I am hitting up the front of the guitar, then 2000 grit, then 2500 grit. Then, tomorrow morning I'll begin buffing this thing when I get back to work! I should hopefully have this thing back together tomorrow evening! Until next time...


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## jordanky (Aug 24, 2011)

A quick teaser for tomorrow!


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## Levi79 (Aug 24, 2011)

I <3 this.


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## Tranquilliser (Aug 24, 2011)

Very slick work 
Personally I'd have filled the blade switch and original volume pot, and left the Petrucci-style controls, but that work on filling and fixing them was impeccable


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## jordanky (Aug 25, 2011)

Tranquilliser said:


> Very slick work
> Personally I'd have filled the blade switch and original volume pot, and left the Petrucci-style controls, but that work on filling and fixing them was impeccable



Thanks! It would have looked nice that way, but it was much easier to just fill in the two extra holes. Plus, I run volume only, no tone control at all. It's kind of redundant, since I left the tone pot hole there, but I might end up wiring it in with a coil tap, even though I'll probably never use it.


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## jordanky (Aug 25, 2011)

I just got into work a little bit ago, and I took the 1527 straight back to my small repair cave in the back of our store and started in on the buffing. I haven't gotten too much done yet, because I'm the only one working right now, but I did start on a small section just to see how it was going to turn out. I should be able to jump back on this thing at around noon, and hopefully have it ready to assemble in a couple of hours!

Slick!






Here you can see more metallic action!


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## Floppystrings (Aug 25, 2011)

That color keeps looking better and better.

I was thinking of a very similar color for my RG7621 project.


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## jordanky (Aug 25, 2011)

A project wouldn't be a project if there wasn't a snag in the last bit of the work. The extra holes that I've filled in are now showing through a little bit. I have no clue why, as they have not shown at all under primer, it was still slick after the basecoat as well as the clear. Last night, it was even still slick after I had wetsanded the clear and even after I buffed over it today. I just went back to start buffing again and noticed that the two spots where the holes were filled in are both sticking out like sore thumbs now :/

My next move, I guess, is to continue buffing everything else out, (which is going nicely!) and just slap a pickguard on there. I'm too irritated to mess with bodywork anymore, and I think a B/W/B pickguard will look sweet! I'm going to truck on and finish buffing this and hopefully not run into anymore bumps in the process.


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## Wretched (Aug 25, 2011)

All the holes that were filled on my TC420 Talman project, as well as the filled in sections where the trem cavity were blocked up all show through really clearly. Happened not long after it was painted, although it has nothing to do with buffing as this is a satin finish. I've never had any luck getting filler on timber to finish properly. Is it even possible?


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## jordanky (Aug 25, 2011)

Wretched said:


> All the holes that were filled on my TC420 Talman project, as well as the filled in sections where the trem cavity were blocked up all show through really clearly. Happened not long after it was painted, although it has nothing to do with buffing as this is a satin finish. I've never had any luck getting filler on timber to finish properly. Is it even possible?



I filled in a volume hole on my S520EX and it hid perfectly. I'm stumped!


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## jordanky (Aug 25, 2011)

Here is the guitar buffed up. I went on and finished with the buffing all over and it turned out pretty good. I went ahead and slapped it back together, and I'm relieved because this thing plays and sounds great. I may just leave it the way it is until I absolutely can't bear the minor finishing flaws anymore. Also, I have a black pickguard on the way, so we'll see about that when it shows up. The visible bodywork isn't even noticeable at two or three feet away from the guitar and the rest of the paint is pretty slick. 

Anyways, here she is! Let me know what you think!


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## setsuna7 (Aug 25, 2011)

MORE PICS PLS!!!!


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## unclejemima218 (Aug 25, 2011)

this!^


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## Levi79 (Aug 25, 2011)

Wow, amazing job man. I'm stoked to see what it looks like with the pickgaurd.


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## nothingleft09 (Aug 25, 2011)

It looks good Jordan. I would just leave it till you cant take it. I think one of the problems may be the sealer. I've thought about it and thought about it. The only thing i come up with is the pieces were primed, but didn't have any wood sealer over them like the rest of the body. So, I'm going to redo the sealer step when I hit mine with the old WA608R (Camaro Synergy Green for you other guys). lol We will see if that happens to take care of it so we know what to do next time around.


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## exordium (Aug 26, 2011)

Looks great so far, awesome work! Loving the metallic finish!


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## Floppystrings (Aug 26, 2011)

Maybe the pieces of dowel wood soaked up humidity from the other side?

Either way the pickguard will make this guitar look even BETTER.


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## simonXsludge (Aug 26, 2011)

looks great already. i dig.

your pickguard plans make me wish it had a maple fretboard. shred!


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## ZXIIIT (Aug 26, 2011)

That is hot.

Throw some neon knobs on it


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## kmanick (Aug 26, 2011)

that looks killer!
you should send one of these pics to Ibanez.
This should be a standard available color 

nicely done sir, very nicely done.


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## brutalwizard (Aug 27, 2011)

such a neat color 

you should send a email to the person you bought it from haha


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## ibanezRG1527 (Aug 27, 2011)

king of the rg1527's. . . . . . . .


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## ibanezRG1527 (Aug 27, 2011)

fuck prestige logo's, MATCH THE HEADSTOCK!!!! you can always get one of the fake stocker logo's. they look nice too. MOP (style) with prestige written in silver. just like the original


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## Levi79 (Aug 27, 2011)

brutalwizard said:


> you should send a email to the person you bought it from haha


Dude, yeah. 

My dad once bought an old truck from the 70's, restored it and sent the 100 year old guy he bought it from some pictures in the mail. The guy mailed him back and was so stoked on what he did to it. About a month after that the old dude sent my dad an obituary of the original owner..... That was pretty weird....


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## HumanFuseBen (Aug 28, 2011)

YES!!!! Amazing work, dude, that looks SLICK!


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## degge (Aug 29, 2011)

That's beautiful.

You're a lucky guy to find a catch like that!


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## shanejohnson02 (Aug 29, 2011)

I vote for the pickguard. A BWB guard would set it off perfectly. Also, I vote for ebonizing the fretboard. Just because.

Fantastic job!


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## Konfyouzd (Aug 29, 2011)

So wait... Had someone never abused that poor guitar in the first place it would have never been this awesome? Also, I only vaguely read the thread. I was just looking at the pictures like a toddler. What did you do to fix that little bit of space where the blade selector should go that the dowel was kind of covering?


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## jordanky (Aug 29, 2011)

Konfyouzd said:


> So wait... Had someone never abused that poor guitar in the first place it would have never been this awesome? Also, I only vaguely read the thread. I was just looking at the pictures like a toddler. What did you do to fix that little bit of space where the blade selector should go that the dowel was kind of covering?



Pretty much, haha.

And I forgot to update that little bit of the build where I fixed the blade slot. I used a Dremel with a cutoff blade to slice through a tiny part of the dowel. Took like 30 seconds and worked out perfectly!


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## Strawberry Man (Aug 29, 2011)

That is one sick paint job! Hard to believe it's the same guitar as in the OP.


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## orakle (Aug 29, 2011)

great job


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## theo (Aug 29, 2011)

shit dude, that looks really REALLY nice, I was a little dubious at first, but I think you've made a great choice!


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## Solstafir (Aug 30, 2011)

Awesome work. You kinda made me gas for an 1527 again  
I wonder what it would look like with a maple fretboard... Mmmmm...


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## samu (Aug 30, 2011)

Absolutely beautiful! Can you take another pic with a flash so we can see more of that sweet, sweet shine?


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## cwhitey2 (Aug 30, 2011)

Im GASing so bad right now


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## atticmike (Aug 30, 2011)

wicked job man, congrats


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## jordanky (Sep 3, 2011)

I received my pickguard yesterday from Jeannie pickguards yesteday. Very nice product and quick shipping from them!


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## guitarister7321 (Sep 3, 2011)

That color is sick! Very sexy!


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## dr_game0ver (Sep 3, 2011)

look like an 80's ibanez!!


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## MetalBuddah (Sep 3, 2011)

Why can't ibanez find inspiration for guitar colors/designs from threads like this? 

Great work man....you better keep that thing under lock and key, i might just try to nab it from you


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