NGD: MIJ Ibby Rescue/Refinish/Mod Content

[ASoC]

So last December I happened upon an original RG7421 (F99 serial number) that was in need of some serious love. One of the previous owners basically desecrated the body with a terrible, crackled green finish that they applied directly over the sealer without priming, so it looked brownish in several places. He also tried to stain the ferretboard and got stain all over the neck. Aside from the finish problems, the stomach contour had been made uneven and the edge radius of the body was all kinds of screwed up. Combine those things with incorrect diameter neck screws and non original ferrules and you had an ugly, unplayable guitar.

I've finally gotten around to doing something with it after having it in pieces forever and today I can say I'm done.

Some before shots:

So the only upside was that it came with graphtech saddles and sperzel tuners. I also added a Bare Knuckle Nailbomb/Cold Sweat combo with a 3 way blade, single volume, and mini toggle for coil split.

Don't let the pictures fool you, this guitar is very obviously red in person.

And a tasty little horn scoop for good measure

This thing is a beast. She absolutely slays. The pickups are killer and she plays just as well as my 7620, which has been my number 1 for years. I'm incredibly pleased with how this one came out and I think it's a vast improvement over what it once was.

Progress pictures and all that good stuff can be found here: http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/lu...mizations/285517-rg7421-refinish-project.html

 

[BrailleDecibel]

That guitar looks 1000x better now! Good work!

 

[Dawn of the Shred]

Looks so much better!! Great job

 

[ImNotAhab]

Great job brother!

 

[awake69]

Nice save!! Those mods look awesome and I love the color.

 

[Furtive Glance]

So last December I happened upon an original RG7421 (F99 serial number) that was in need of some serious love. One of the previous owners basically desecrated the body with a terrible, crackled green finish that they applied directly over the sealer without priming, so it looked brownish in several places. He also tried to stain the ferretboard and

ferretboard


ferretboard

That is an awesome refinish! Definitely an improvement.

 

[ASoC]

Thanks for the compliments guys! I'm really happy with it, it's become my new best friend

I threw this together in one sitting, the bass and drums are Cliff and Lars and everything else is me.

[SC]http://soundcloud.com/theberb/orion-cover[/SC]

The entire first section is the Nailbomb, including the divebombs (done with a whammy pedal). Then the whole ballad part is the Cold Sweat until the bass solo. The clean guitar layer is the Cold Sweat in coil split mode. Then the last section has the rhythm guitars on the Nailbomb and the solo is on the Cold Sweat.

There's quite a bit of extraneous noise, especially on the solo that I played on the bridge pickup. I think I need to lower the pickups, but the screw coils are bottomed out in the cavity. I'll either have to cut the screws down or drill holes in the body for the screws to fit into.

 

[beneharris]

Omg, that stain is amazing

Good job, that must have been a ton of work. It looks great.

 

[Zerox8610]

Oh man! I think I was the one who did that horrible green paint job! I had no idea what I was doing, so I sold it off to people I thought would be able to take care of it. Not sure what happened to the neck there... I left mine completely untouched other than the added locking tuners.

Looks awesome now!

 

[IbanezDaemon]

Fantastic work. Looks great!!

 

[ASoC]

Got a more accurate picture of the color

Oh man! I think I was the one who did that horrible green paint job! I had no idea what I was doing, so I sold it off to people I thought would be able to take care of it. Not sure what happened to the neck there... I left mine completely untouched other than the added locking tuners.

Looks awesome now!

Well whoever you sold it to definitely didn't take care of it I wonder how many hands this guitar has been through, could you pm me who you sold it to and I'll tell you where I got it?

Thanks again for the compliments guys. It honestly wasn't a ton of work, just a lot of sanding and a little bit of work with a rasp to scoop the horn out. I actually have another project guitar coming in the mail, stay tuned

 

[Slunk Dragon]

You saved a real beauty, there! Congrats on the restoration, it looks absolutely perfect!

 

[ASoC]

Thanks dude! It's definitely not perfect, and there are things about it that I'm not super happy with. However, its got a thin clear coat. So it should wear relatively quickly and I'll do a better job next time (and do a matching headstock)

 

[JEngelking]

That turned out awesome! I actually like the slime green look on guitars, but in this case your mods made it 1000 times better. The finish turned out great and I love the color, HNGD!

 

[ASoC]

I'm a big fan of proper slime green as well (a la Jackson or charvel) but this one just looked anemic; the color was a few shades too light, as well as being brownish in some spots because there was no primer used and the crackling that was going on in several areas. It was also ridiculously uneven (seriously, go look at the pictures of it after I went at it with 80 grit and a sanding block in the build thread).

Though I think I could have done a better job, I learned a lot from this one and I'm happy with the overall result for now.

I'll actually be drilling the holes so the pickups can sit flush with the bottom of the cavities. Hopefully that also kills the feedback issue I'm having at high volume with the bridge pup. I'm not sure if it's microphonic in nature from the space under the pup or if its because the pup is too close to the strings, but either way I'm lowering the pickup and sticking some foam under it.

Once I take care of the pickup height issue, I'll be ready to really let this thing rip and I'll be taking it to jam with my friend who plays drums. Can't exactly do that when there's massive squealing at band levels. I don't know how the hell any of the old school guys ever played with unpotted pickups, that microphonic squeal is ear shattering.

 

[ASoC]

So I got the pickups down to a better height today and all I can say is, "WOW!" I've never tried BKPs before getting this set and I wasn't all that impressed with what I heard at first. I was getting all of the thrash brutality that I wanted but it came with noise and a lack of clarity. I modified the pickup cavities today as well as put foam under the pickups to kill any microphonics (also put some behind the nut ) and it made a world of difference. The Cold Sweat has beautiful cleans (my personal favorite is the middle position with both pickups coil split) and it brings plenty of bite for full, searing leads under high gain. The C-bomb is the real star though. I've never heard a pickup that has this much note to note clarity when I'm pounding out chords at high gain. And even though it's very sparkly it's not harsh at all and there's more than enough low end to bring the brutality. Well worth the price of admission, IMO