Heat-Stripped RG470

[DannyB819]

Some of you may recall the story of how my girlfriend's cat peed on my '92 470. Since the guitar was pretty much ruined, I decided to strip it with a heat gun and burn it a little along the way.

The idea I'm having now is to use vivid wood dyes (from ReRanch) to stain it in a free form multicolored (yellow, red, blue, green) non-pattern.

Questions:
1- Should I strip the pickup and trem cavities? I know the pickup cavities have some sort of electrical paint in there. The trem cavity's paint got partly stripped, should I leave it be (cosmetics under there isn't an issue for me, but the trem sitting right will be)?

2 - Will putting 550 a pickguard on it fit? I'd be worried that the tone/vol shafts and 5-way switch may not be long enough.

Any tips/pointers/comments appreciated. My apologies for the crappy blackberry pics...

Thanks,
D

[LonePhantom]

I'd leave them as is. Maybe while you are at it, you could angle the neck joint so it's like the 5xx series up?

[DannyB819]

That's the weird thing. I always assumed that it was a 570 because it had an angled neck pocket and was MIJ, but when I disassembled it, it sure enough read "470." It's SN: F238150.

The neck is stamped "JRG-470" and has either an "R" o "P" after it, but it's faded and I can't make it out...

[Stygian]

This doesn't answer your original 2 questions, but just to throw an anecdotal friend story out there. My friend has a MIJ 470 finished in a medium shade of green. I don't remember what year his was made, it has an original Edge trem and the neck is the block heel style. It is unusually thicker than a Wizard neck though (no idea why). I guess the earliest ones were made in Japan for a short time and that's why you don't see many like the higher end RGs.

[nuno]

yea there are some MIJ 450s and 470s around, they're presumably all from early '90s. i think the only differences were the pickups and, in some cases i've seen in person, the jack output was a standard/Fender style with plate instead of the barrel type.

[mdmoyer]

my personal opinion...i would just clear coat it. i think it looks boss the way it is with the burn marks on there!!

[OneShot]

my god.. I compliment your patience.. if that were me and my MIJ Old axe three things would have happened..
1. There would be one less cat in the world.
2. I would have to remove the piss smell from the guitar.. but I would leave the blood on it as a war scar.. so to speak..
3. I would either be single or have a newly converted "dog person" girlfriend.

Cats= they're like nasty little domesticated skunks. Yuk...

anyway.. the burns look cool as hell. and I agree just clear it up good to protect what you have now. although there are a couple of scrape marks that you could maybe sand out and burn again. the color dyes sound cool too, but I dont know about using four colors.. kinda rainbow-ish In my opinion, but hey whatever floats your boat.

as far as the cavity's. as long as they are still fairly smooth and not all gunked up your fine. You could always strip them though. you can obtain some shielding paint or a shielding kit and re-treat the areas in question. Also for the Trem cavity on the top side of the body.. I found this material a day or so ago at a hobby store(also check craft stores) called "foamies". its a self adhesive backed sheet of 2mm foam that comes in colors.. namely black and it is almost identical to the stuff used in the factory to prevent the floating trem from diggin into the wood. Just create a template and apply it to the foam sheet and cut it out and apply. easy. AND its only like .79 cents a sheet.

have fun man.. good luck.. and of course PICS when its done!

[DannyB819]

Thanks for the suggestions!

I'm not sure yet on what I'm going to do cosmetically just yet. I have decided to strip and burn the headstock, too, but that'll be this weekend. I'll order a replacement Ibanez decal and lay it on there.

Here's what I'm considering as far as the finish goes:

1: Sand it, clear coat it and put in new zebra black/white pickups and black hardware.
2: Sand it, clear coat it, and put a black pickguard and put in black/white pickups and hardware.
3: Sand it, and stain it with green, red, blue, yellow, pink, black, and orange runs, then add colored pickups. (w/ clear coat)
4: Same as above, but with a black pickguard.

If I get a pickguard, I'll either go HSH, HH, or SSH. I'm going to put a Steve's Special in the bridge, a Cruiser Middle in the middle, and either a Cruiser Neck or PAF Pro or a Air Norton in the neck.

Whatever option I do, I'll be shielding the cavities with some copper foil.