# Refinish of my RGD 2127z(first project!)



## Antiproduct (Jun 26, 2014)

Hello guys,
first of all: english is not my mother tongue so please excuse my sometimes strange way of expressing things or lack of words 

This is also my first modification of a guitar at all and my first refinish project so please be gentle with me, this thread is also a way for me to ASK first before doing something wrong.



So I was tired of my old Ibanez RGD 2127z as the finish had some chips and it was also polished at some places due to constant moving of my arm or fingers. I first wanted to sell it but the low price I would've had to go pissed me really of so the idea of modding the thing came into my mind. After reading some other threads and tutorials I came to the conclusion that I could handle it and make it more badass looking so that everytime I pick it up I have this "custom guitar" feeling like with my Jaden Rose.

*These are the things I plan to do:*
-change the color of the body
-change some parts of the tremolo because they look nasty 
-change some of the hardware(new pots, switch, maybe new tuners(open-back))
-new pickups, don't know which one but I think it will be medium-output Bare Knuckle(suggestions?)
-sand the neck down and give it a oil-finish (feels great)

I would consider installing a piezo but I don't know if this is possible to install on a Ibanez tremolo  probably not

Here is the current guitar:




and here after "tearing it down":




The wood in the neck pocket actually looks nice and promising:




The color of my choice is RED
Something similar to this to be precise 






or this





Maybe a little bit brighter


BUT if the wood actually looks nice I could consider it staining it red, we will see after I sanded the shit down 

This leads to my first couple of steps I want to do next, please interrupt me if I do someting wrong!

For sanding I wanted to go first with 60 paper until I see the wood/hit the filler.
After that I take 120 paper to sand down the filler and finish it with 240 and then 320

That is the first step and after that I will see what the body looks like to decide whether I stain it or not.


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## wannabguitarist (Jun 26, 2014)

I'd use a heat gun to remove the finish. Sanding all those curves and keeping everything nice is gonna be a real pain


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## awesomeaustin (Jun 26, 2014)

wannabguitarist said:


> I'd use a heat gun to remove the finish. Sanding all those curves and keeping everything nice is gonna be a real pain



Agreed. A heat gun and a paint scraper are probably the best way to strip Poly finishes. After you get most of the clear and paint coats off move to sanding the filler and seal coats. Sanding to at least 220 is a good idea.


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## kamello (Jun 26, 2014)

cool project, reminds me of Zytecki's Custom BFR here



definitely stalking this thread to see how this develops, Im toying with the idea of buying and RGD 7421 and refinish it red too


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## Berserker (Jun 27, 2014)

One thing to consider: If you decide to go with the paint option you'll save yourself a shit load of effort sanding because you won't need to go bare wood.


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## Tesla (Jun 27, 2014)

Berserker said:


> One thing to consider: If you decide to go with the paint option you'll save yourself a shit load of effort sanding because you won't need to go bare wood.



Just what I was going to say. When I refinished my Kramer, I just roughed up the original finish with steal wool and sprayed over it, looks great.


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## Vigaren (Jun 27, 2014)

Suggestion for pickups:

I have a pair of BKP juggernauts in my RGD2127 and its awesome. Sounds very full and clear. Its easy to get great tones for alot of diffrent styles! Metal, rock, blues and everything in between that!


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## HurrDurr (Jun 27, 2014)

Yeah, just rough up the finish and spray over it. No need to completely sand it down at the risk of deforming it.


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## Antiproduct (Jun 27, 2014)

Thanks guys for your tips!

As I unfortunately have no heat gun I startet to sand the horns by hand today. I actually wasn't so hard because first I only sanded off the paint and second the paint was really, really thin, only two layers and the wood came quickly to the surface.

At first I thought "Mmm, the grain actually looks pretty nice"




You can also see that the guitar has wood "wings" and it's actually a three piece body with the right wing appear to be slighty brighter than the rest. The middle part is in the center though.

But then the most surprisingly part came to me after a few minutes:



a knothole? I honestly thought I would only find one of these in lower price guitars and not in a Ibanez Premium guitar with a price tag of more than 1,5k I think this destroys my dreams of a stain finish...
Which is sad because I started with the back and saw that it seems to look pretty nice too




In this picture we see also that I pressed to hard while sanding the edges at the neck joint, they look ugly and I have to fill them/sand them nice and round again but nothing dramatical I think. Part of the deforming HurrDurr mentioned :/ too much pressure

Here is another part of deforming btw lol





Btw I decided to go against painting over the existing paint because of two reasons: 1. I have no idea if the paint will get along with, there is a risk of bubbles and ugly positions 2. if I decide to go with a bright finish the black finish underneath will most certainly darken the tone

So I will sand just the finish off, put filler on the existing filling and sand it smooth. Then I will apply the paint, right?
Sanding will be done over the weekend or next week, depents if I have time and if I get a sanding machine


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## Antiproduct (Jul 2, 2014)

That's the guitar almost fully sanded, I will remove the last paint by hand








The guitar has a veneer on top and on back(and I think at the sides too!) to prevent damage to the soft basswood.
The veneer actually looks pretty cool and I thought for a moment to put a nice flame maple veneer on this but i don't think that I can do that to my satisfaction. So I will let the filler in, apply some more and sand it smooth before painting it.

I will let you stay tuned!


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## Les (Jul 2, 2014)

Just remember, an awesome paint job is all about the prep work. You've done a great job so far, especially keeping the sharp lines of the RGD shape. oberaffengeil!


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## VSK Guitars (Jul 2, 2014)

Not sure if you were planning on it from your posts, but if you want a nice consistent bright red then you should spray white primer before the red...


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## Antiproduct (Jul 3, 2014)

Well, thats embarassing..
I always thought that I can say "filler" for the primer/base coat as this is the german word...

Of course, this is the reason why I decided to sand the paint off instead of painting over it


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## VSK Guitars (Jul 5, 2014)

Frostod said:


> Well, thats embarassing..
> I always thought that I can say "filler" for the primer/base coat as this is the german word...
> 
> Of course, this is the reason why I decided to sand the paint off instead of painting over it



Well you know a lot more English than most people who speak English know German so I wouldn't be too embarrassed if I was you... Hell your English is better than most of the rednecks around where I live can manage


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## Antiproduct (Jul 17, 2014)

Let's go on!

I drilled another hole for a tone poti as I missed it a bit on this guitar. It cracked the veneer but I had the chance to fill it up. Here it is before the filling




Then I began to apply the base coat but I don't think that I have bought enough for the body  I already applied everythink I have and I don't think that this is enough, maybe you can tell me more




















It could be enough because I sprayed over the existing base coat(that I didn't sanded off) to make sure that I didn't accidentaly sanded the base coat off on some places

I'm also a complete idiot as I dropped the thing right after these photos 










Some dirt, some small chips but nothing really broken. I think I can sand it smoothe tomorrow but maybe at the cost of the base coat...
At least I had some friends around me




What do you mean? Sand the damage smoothe and put paint on it or buy more coat?


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## VSK Guitars (Jul 17, 2014)

I would fix the damage and then add more base coat. You've done a lot of work getting it to this point, don't want to cheap out now!

You really want a very consistent base coat to begin with, all the same color, nice an flat etc. for the best results


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## HurrDurr (Jul 18, 2014)

Plus it's a prestige... which made me cry a little when you said you wanted to refinish it... so yes please don't cheap out.


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## Antiproduct (Jul 19, 2014)

I took your advice and bought another can and applied it yesterday







I think it was enough and covered everything well but I had some problems with the paint and the weather. It's unusual hot here in Germany

Anyway I stood up early this day (it's 10:30 am) and sprayed the color on it







I saw some problem spots while spraying and I hope that I can fix them tomorrow...
I also have worries that I have not enough time. My parents are at vacation now so that I hijacked the garage and sprayed in it but they arrive here next saturday. I use duplicolor cans and they are on nitro basis (nitro-combi?) and I always thought that nitro had to harden A LOT but the (red) can says that I can overspray (right term?) immediately. So I wanted to do another coat tomorrow and the day after that I wanted to fix the last problem spots if there are any. Do you think that I can start to apply the clear coat in three days? Or do I have to say .... off to my parents and let it harden a bit more in the garage? 

Anyway I like the color



> Plus it's a prestige... which made me cry a little when you said you wanted to refinish it... so yes please don't cheap out.


I honestly don't share the hype to some of the prestige models like the 2127z and the RGA 121 and such. These guitars don't play or sound better than my RG721 premium so I had no problem with starting to refinish it. Additionaly are the prices of the 2127 very low here in Germany (I tried to sell it and only got offers around 700$) so the actual value is low


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## VSK Guitars (Jul 20, 2014)

If the color and clear are both nitro based then you can spray the clear right over top of the color after its flash off time...

Looks good so far man!


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## Antiproduct (Jul 31, 2014)

Long time no news and these one are sad

I have to give up with the paint because it won't get even. Apparantely I made some mistake with the base coat so that there were some dents and things like that and when I tried to level it even I sanded it down to the base coat on some parts







So I had two options:
Sanding everything down and starting from ground up
or
Taking it to a professional

I decided to go with option two as I have no guarantee that I make it right the second time and it would cost ~half the price of the professional painter. So basically I just go the safe route.
As he is on vacation right now I will send it to him in two weeks so there will be long time no updated about this...

But that doesn't mean that I just wait in the meanwhile. I have to decide which pickup I will throw in this beast.
I think about the BareKnuckle Painkiller because I have no really high gain pickup and I like ceramic pickups. I also prefer a mid range sound so I think these will suit this perfect.
I just can't decide which cover I will go, normal chrome or black battle worn. The hardware of the guitar is cosmo black and will not 100% with both covers. Chrome is a bit more subtle and I think the black battle worn option would fit better with the hardware but it will make the guitar look very aggressive. I don't know, maybe you have some opinions..

I will also sand the neck down this month and oil it. Pictures and updates will follow


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## Pikka Bird (Jul 31, 2014)

^Have you considered raw nickel? Or brushed nickel even?


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## Antiproduct (Jul 31, 2014)

Raw nickel looks a bit too "aged". Brushed nickel looks nicer imo, possible that the fit into it
I will consider it but these choices.... 

EDIT:






Saw this and don't really like this as the pickups looks too bright. Tending now more to black pickups


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## VSK Guitars (Aug 1, 2014)

I've never been a big fan of covered humbuckers on Super Strats unless they are plain black like EMG's etc...

Sucks about the finish man, but at least you're getting a pro finish now right


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## Wretched (Aug 4, 2014)

Ibz definitely should have released the RGD in other colours. Here's mine in candy metal flake red... love it now!


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## ej207t (Aug 4, 2014)

In all honesty Frostod, i'd say keep going mate!

I've run in to that sand-through problem before as well, and it sucks, but if you complete this all by yourself you would be able to turn around and say man this is mine crazy idea. You'll appreciate the guitar even more.


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## Tesla (Aug 4, 2014)

You should definitely be inspired by Wretched's RGD's there!


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## Antiproduct (Aug 7, 2014)

Hey Wretched, your guitar looks really cool! Personally I am not a big fan of metallic finishes so I keep with mit solid red paint 

I decided also to go with open coil pickups as I think that they will look the best/it's the safe route 
So I looked at the available pickups at the german dealers and was a bit sad that they had no painkiller. They only had a set of aftermath and juggernauts. As the Juggernauts were a bit cheaper and more like the Painkiller I decided to go with them.




They arrived yesterday but they don't fit in the RGD cavity :<







Either I will file the pickup plate a bit down or the guy who paints the guitar will have to extend the cavity a bit


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## Pikka Bird (Aug 7, 2014)

Unless you wanna put covers on you should just file the baseplate, no doubt. It's extremely easy.


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## teamSKDM (Aug 9, 2014)

actually honestly if you cut the corners with like wire cutters it should fit it looks like?


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## Antiproduct (Aug 9, 2014)

Thanks for the advices, I think I will file the base plate as you suggest but first when I have the guitar back from the painter 

Today I started with sanding and oiling the neck.
Here it is before







You can see by the high and glossy look that the clear coat was pretty thick. I don't know if you can find this on every neck. I have the 2010 neck which is a bit different to the to the 2011 neck as it has a radius of 400mmr while the later neck had a 430mmr radius 
Nevertheless it felt awful for me, the oiled neck of my Jaden feels so much better.

Soo after an awful lot of sanding (the coat was almost as thick as the body paint) I got this










Even in this state it felt so much more better. After that I watered the neck and it looked like this 




and after letting it dry I applied oil to it until it didn't sinked in the pores anymore. Wiped the rest oil away and got this gorgeous look













I will let it dry over night and begin to oil sand it (I don't know if you know what I mean, just translated it literally ) with 600 and finally 1000 grit sanding paper to get a nice finish


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## Plokjoles (Sep 2, 2014)

I am so excited to see the finished product. Subscribed to this thread.


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## MAJ Meadows SF (Sep 4, 2014)

Uh Oh! Uh Oh!... It's coming together nicely! Fantastiche'. Great pickup choice too. Really looking forward to seeing this completed. If I ever get an RGD again I may consider doing this in Alienware Blue.


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## Antiproduct (Sep 7, 2014)

Thank you 

Things has changed a little bit and I decided to let me build a complete new body for the neck but still in RGD shape. You will see the specs as soon as I have the first photos 

Will be a over a month though until this project is complete


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## sunung1188 (Sep 7, 2014)

How much was that guitar?? Because it's looking like a reaaaally expensive guitar. Nice job!


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## sunung1188 (Sep 7, 2014)

Wretched said:


> Ibz definitely should have released the RGD in other colours. Here's mine in candy metal flake red... love it now!




May I know the model of this guitar please??


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## Pikka Bird (Sep 8, 2014)

sunung1188 said:


> May I know the model of this guitar please??



Looks like an RGD421, although I think those came stock with black hardware.


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## Antiproduct (Sep 27, 2014)

So my luthier began with glueing and outlining the body and here are the first result:

Mahagony body with a bubinga top. Will be stained wine red and gets an oil finish
Should be finished at the end of october


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## VSK Guitars (Sep 28, 2014)

Cool man I really like Bubinga!


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## neurosis (Sep 28, 2014)

This is really cool. Although I was hoping to see the red finish I can't protest your recent choice. Hahahah. 
Bring it on! 

PD: I hope you kept the other body and will possibly finish it in red when you have time. It could be the start of another great project?

Hau rein!!!!


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## Antiproduct (Sep 28, 2014)

neurosis said:


> PD: I hope you kept the other body and will possibly finish it in red when you have time. It could be the start of another great project?
> 
> Hau rein!!!!


Haha

Yeah I actually thought that it would be a cool idea to finish it flare red and build a RG 550 Tribute sevenstring version, but time will tell


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## Antiproduct (Nov 9, 2014)

So my luthier had to delay things a bit more because of sickness but here are some more pics and the body should arrive around end of the week/beginning of next week

Here are some pics











Back of the lower horn will be rounded aswell and I am quite excited how this will work out stained.
The mahagony alone looks  and that for a reasonable price.
I think I will start a full build next year with local-only materials to get away at least a bit away from that exotic wood fetish that is going around lately


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## Antiproduct (Nov 11, 2014)

stain examples, looks good so far and I will go with that. Body will be stained tomorrow, oiled the day after. I will get the body maybe saturday or monday


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## Antiproduct (Nov 18, 2014)

Delayed once more
Body will be send by thursday 
BUT I got a picture of the finished beauty and I really like how the stain came out


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## Tesla (Nov 18, 2014)

Beeeeaaaauuuuutiful!


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## GiveUpGuitar (Nov 18, 2014)

Holy shit. I hate the color red. Or at least I did, until that!


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## Antiproduct (Nov 23, 2014)

I got the body yesterday and it is truely just stunning. The grain has a awesome 3D effect on it. The darker spots turn lighter and the lighter spots darker if you move from one side of the body to the other. It almost looks organic like a heart or something 
The neck fits tight as it can be which you can see on the picture. I have to screws in it and the neck holds the heavy mahagony body. 
I have to say that there was some delay but the waiting was worth it. I can only recommend this luthier by this point, it is Florain by Unicut guitars in Germany (Unicutguitars ). I got this body for 430&#8364; which is about 530$ including shipping costs. He also oiled the neck and polished the frets unasked and for no extra charge (at least in my case). That's a steal if you consider the normal prices for handmade guitars in Germany. It is some sort of hobby for him but it's nevertheless a real company and this guy is a pro! I would check him out if you want a guitar (part) for a reasonable price.
Enough of advertisement, here are some pictures





















































Next thing I wanna do is cleaning the trem (I want to use WD-40 to get rid of the rust) and change some parts that are completely unusable. I also tend to shield the cavity but I don't really think that this would do anything as this guitar is fitted with humbucker  And I have to check if there is enough room for a push/pull poti so I can coil split the PUs


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## Antiproduct (Dec 20, 2014)

Sorry guys, I had to wait 2 full weeks for some pots -.- Only to recognize after couple of hours of soldering that the neck pickup is broken. Only one coil is active, confirmed after checking this with a multimeter. So I sent it back to the retailer (who will send it to bkp I think) but this will long some weeks and I am an asshole and will give you pictures only in full setup 
The bridge pickup sounds very nice and it looks cool, so much to that and I was able to clean the trem very nicely. Looks almost like new


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## skeels (Dec 20, 2014)

skeels likes this


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## aesthyrian (Dec 20, 2014)

Wow, so purdy. Really digging this!


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## beyondcosmos (Dec 20, 2014)

This whole build is something I always wanted to do to a Prestige 7, but never had the capital (or guts) to go through with..... so this is an absolute pleasure to read through, man!

That basswood body being a 3-piece with 'wings' though..... I feel like that might be one of the reasons stock Ibanez basswood bodies sound.... well, awful in my opinion  Does anyone know if this is something Ibanez still does on their basswood bodied Prestige 7s ?

Beyond my complaining, this build is truly amazing to see! I'm checking out the Unicut guitars website since you posted it!


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## cardinal (Dec 21, 2014)

I like how the builder made a small "stop" before the neck humbucker route, rather than leaving it open to the neck pocket. I get why Ibanez does it the way that they do, but is seems like it'd be a much more solid and stable joint if done like this. 

The work looks incredible.


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## DIM3S0UL (Dec 21, 2014)

Awwww awesome i almost think everyday about refinishing an Ibanez RG-Style Guitar (mostly because they're all plain black / satin black etc).
AND i love red guitars dude. 
I have to say that your original body which you painted yourself looks sharper (on the edges/horns) than the other one which is custom build. Could be the paint or something. 
I would suggest you to move on with the original body maybe some waterbased stain instead of lacquer ? Or you could go ta a car paint shop and ask if you could spray it for some bucks. There's a perfect environment for a guitar. 

Anyway's keep going on and greetings from germany.


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## Antiproduct (Dec 22, 2014)

I don't know about the body form, they look almost identical to me when there are in front of me.
Also I have some plan for the original body, in fact a RG 550 RGD tribute in flare red (or some colour very similar) with a full maple neck built by Unicut. Just have to raise some fond and wait for better weather 

Also thank you for all the likes, there will be more pictures as soon as the PU arrived and the weather is good enough to take at least decent pictures


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## superash (Jan 4, 2015)

That stain is nuts!
I really wish I could pluck up the courage to do that to a prestige but you are a stronger person than I.

ps. It looks sick.


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## Antiproduct (Jan 18, 2015)

It is finished! The pickup arrived two days ago and I had to solder it again and test it and today I had the time to shoot some photos.

Here are the photos:




















The Juggernauts are some PUs for a band, cuts right through the mix because of strong high mids and highs. Nothing left of that "dark" mahagony 
The body is top notch, very well made for a reasonable price and made in Germany. Can't really complain about the work, maybe the delayed wait time but hey it's a custom build. You should plan some more time in.

I also had to clean the trem and replace some parts because of rust and dirt.








At the end of the day I am very satisfied with starting to mod my guitar. Yes, I failed with painting but I think that this even looks cooler   Was just more expensive


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## Tesla (Jan 18, 2015)

11/10 would marry.


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## beyondcosmos (Jan 22, 2015)

And now I know what dude I would contact in Germany to build me a custom body for an Ibanez 7 project.

Freaking nice!


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## DiezelMonster (Jan 27, 2015)

Man this RGD is freakin awesome! I'd love to get a body made by this builder! he really knows what he is doing!

The choice to stain it as well is amazing! great options!


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## Dana (Jan 27, 2015)

Looks nice. 
Wouldn't it have been cheaper to just pay someone to paint your original guitar professionally instead of spray canning it yourself? Costly lesson but nice axe


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## FILTHnFEAR (Jan 27, 2015)

Too bad Ibby doesn't do any finishes like this on RGD's.

Looks pretty sweet.


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## aesthyrian (Jan 27, 2015)

Dana said:


> Looks nice.
> Wouldn't it have been cheaper to just pay someone to paint your original guitar professionally instead of spray canning it yourself? Costly lesson but nice axe



Cheaper than having a new body built, maybe but I've seen some crazy prices for guitar refinishes.

However, no way it would ever be cheaper than spraying the finish yourself. It will cost a lot in terms of time spent, but not so much in terms of money spent.

Plus, now he has that amazing figured top. 

He gained first hand experience, an extra/spare body for mods or whatever, and a new super sexy body that is one of a kind. Good deal IMO.


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## OWHall (Jan 27, 2015)

SO good. It almost looks biological, like a heart or something.
It's making me think of the game Soul Caliber hahaha, like you defeat someone in a shred off and their soul becomes one with your instrument, making you ever more powerful. I bet you get a nice mid boost from the dying spirits of all those foolish mortals who apposed you, doomed to forever reside within your Ibanez.


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## ohoolahan (Jan 28, 2015)

it looks f*ucking amazing. its so much better in this color! great!


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