RG overhaul time.

Cathedral · #1 12-27-2008, 04:30 PM

Well, its something I've had planned for nigh two years now, but thanks to being a student, then graduating with none of my student loan left over and a mountain of bills to pay off from my last place of residence, its taken me quite a while to get around to having my RG finished just the way I'd like it. Having locked down a stable job for the last few months and paying off all my debts and find myself flush once again, I'm able to start the overhaul. Here's the run down for you guys, pictures will follow tomorrow.

The guitar is a 2006 RG1570 in Mirage Blue. nice paint job, but not really me and looks as though it belongs in a glam metal band considering the way it sparkles when light hits it. The stock pickups aren't too great either and there's a few extra's I'd like bashed in there, so here's the overhaul specs with a checklist.

Name label - Necessity for me. I like naming my guitars and for some reason have to label things. Hardly a mod, but its nice to see the name there whenever I play. I used some Letraset to print the name "Claudia" on the back of the headstock.

Replace bridge pickup - Done. Now a DiMarzio Evolution.

Replace middle pickup - Almost done - Received a DiMarzio Evolution single coil, awaiting installation.

Whip out neck pickup and replace with Sustainer - I ordered a Fernandes 101 Sustainer kit on the 23rd. Once it arrives (I'm told sometime early next week) the guys in the shop will give me a phone call to let me know its there. I'm a clutz when it comes to installing something like a sustainer, so the guitar tech Brian (brilliant at what he does) who picks up work through the shop will hopefully route the appropriate cavities and install it for me, for a fee of course.

Install a clear pickguard - I still need to order the pickguard.

Replace chrome control knobs with plastic start style knobs. - Still need to order these too. Anybody know of where I can get hold of some neon blue and neon pink strat style volume and tone knobs? Or close enough to neon.

Fix springs - Suffered some nasty spring shock a while ago and been meaning to sort this out.

Swirl the beasty - Just the body, I like the black headstock. I'd been eyeing up Richard Fay's swirls two years ago, he hadn't been doing them commercially for very long but the work he put out was breath taking. I sent him a few e-mails discussing the matter, genuinely nice fella and really cares about his work. Unfortunately he packed it all in over a year ago and decided to cease swirling guitars commercially as he preferred to keep it as just a hobby rather than what was turning into a full time job. Understandable but a terrible loss for the swirling community. Since then I've been watching other swirl artists carefully, OutOfThisSwirld caught my eye with some nice designs, I've sent him a few PMs, hopefully we'll be able to sort something out in January. (Got my eye on you!

) Colours will be 40% White 40% Black 8% Neon Blue (or close to) 8% Neon Pink (or close to) and 2% Gold (so a tiny flick of gold here and there) with a busy swirl pattern, hopefully with some larger swooshes in some areas.

Final setup - Hopefully another job for Brian.

Play 'till me fingers bleed! - Would be easier to do if Claudia Winkleman wasn't always snatching away my attention on the tv.

I'll post pics of how she's looking currently tomorrow as the camera is currently charging.

Cathedral · #2 12-29-2008, 02:37 PM

The sustainer arrived today! I'll be dropping my RG off in the shop tomorrow to have the sustainer installed. Pics are on the way, also does anybody know of where I can find some neon blue and neon pink volume and tone knobs?

NeglectedField · #3 12-29-2008, 05:46 PM

Eugh, that reminds me, I've got a huge debt to repay too, and I've not even found work yet.

Cathedral · #4 12-29-2008, 06:45 PM

I'll be in a similar situation myself soon. I work at Zavvi. D:

TAorama · #5 12-29-2008, 08:04 PM

Doesn't universaljems.com carry colored knobs? Or watch the Bay.

Cathedral · #6 01-02-2009, 02:28 PM

It looks as though they do, thanks TAorama.

Update: Sent my guitar to the shop for Brian to install sustainer and pickup, next thing to sort out is ordering a clear pick guard and coloured knobs. In the process of discussing swirling with Alan. (E-mail to you is on the way!)

Cathedral · #7 01-10-2009, 01:36 PM

Minor update. I've been told it'll be a three to four week wait until Brian's done installing the sustainer. So in the mean time I'll start hunting down those coloured knobs, clear pick guard and recently I've been thinking of getting the last four frets scalloped, so I'll be looking into that for a bit. Anyway, here's a pic of the guitar before any mods were done for your viewing pleasure.

Cathedral · #8 01-27-2009, 12:36 PM

Got my baby back today. Sustainer and pickups are installed and now all that's left to do is swirl, scallop and switch over the tone knob. (Pot shaft is too big for the blue one I have, so I'll have to do something about the shaft.) And now as promised, some long overdue pictures. Excuse the bobbin topper on the sustainer, I wondered how it would look with the colours balanced out. Brian did a great job.

Overall shot.

Front detail shot.

Rear detail shot.

Now to sit on my arse and wait for that holiday pay claim to arrive, that's me swirlin' moneys! Still, gives me time to play.

Ironjose · #9 01-27-2009, 01:07 PM

oh... nice work man!!!

jdsony · #10 01-27-2009, 03:38 PM

That's going to be a nice looking guitar when you finish. I agree with the blue sparkles, they don't look that hot. I love the clear pickguards (on back routed bodies) and the multi coloured knobs/pickups are nice.

I'm going to work on my RGT42 in the near future I think. I have a Dimarzio Tone Zone in the bridge but will probably switch to an Evolution and I might give my Transparent Lavendar finish a bit of work. I'll either give it a worn look with more wood showing in places or get a completely different paint job. The clear pickguard would be nice but I'm not sure I want to screw anything into my body. If it were a regular basswood RG I probably would. The edge 3 bridge is going straight into the garbage as soon as possible. I know people hate the LO-TRS bridge but even that which I had in my JEM 555 was infinitely better than this piece of crap.

Cathedral · #11 01-29-2009, 01:14 PM

Ugh, I can understand doing anything to get away from an Edge 3. A chap I knew at university had a Xiphos with an Edge 3 in it. We racked our brains trying to keep that damn thing in tune. If it didn't lose its tuning when being played, the knife edge would be busy wearing down. After he replaced the knife edge for the second time, in as many months he gave up and realised it would work out cheaper to just buy and install a different bridge than constantly having to repalce the knife edge.

I've been fiddling with the sustainer for a few hours today. Took a bit of getting used to controlling feedback of unwanted notes. The bottom three strings are more sensitive to the sustainer as there's more material to be caught in the magnetic field (or whatever it is that's keeping them vibrating, excuse me feeble unerstand of the physics behind a sustainer) so if you aren't careful to mute them they may start to vibrate went you don't want them to.
One thing I love is sustaining big chords and letting them ring out into harmonics, the gradual effect there sounds beautiful, just like something out of Vai's "I'm Becoming" which is something I've set as a long term goal to master. It's a long way off, but that's one of my favourite pieces of music. Bit of a double edged sword though because I don't think I'll ever stop playing it if I do master "I'm Becoming".

Right, next thing to do is to try out a fret board scallop test. I have a mule guitar I use for testing pickups, tone pots etc and in general experimenting on. A Squier Strat which was my first guitar. I'll give scalloping a try on the neck carefully and see how it goes.

Cathedral · #12 08-20-2010, 06:00 PM

RISE FROM YOUR GRAVE!

Soooo, kind of forgot to update this but after a while I'm now nearing the final stages. Here's an updated list of jobbies with some exciting news.

Name label - Done. Used some Letraset to add a name label to rear of headstock.

Replace bridge pickup - Done. Now a DiMarzio Evolution.

Replace middle pickup - Done. Now a DiMarzio Evolution single coil.

Whip out neck pickup and replace with Sustainer - Done. Fernandez 101 sustainer.

Install a clear pickguard - Have it but have not had time to install. (Ok to be truthful, I've been more concerned with using me free time to practice and also, am without the appropriate tools at the moment to actually do it.)

Replace chrome control knobs with plastic start style knobs. - Half Done. Volume pot was replaced shortly after this thread was first posted. Tone pot has a thick shaft (stop gigling at the back there!) so at the moment, the coloured knob won't fit. I'll be replacing the tone pot soon.

Fix springs - Done.

Swirl the beasty - I've been e-mailing Al (OutOfThisSwirled) and had a good talk about it all with him over the phone. I have a day off from work coming up soon so I'll be dismantling the guitar and sending the body off to him with pick guard to add afterward. Very, very excited about this as the work he's been doing just gets better and better.

Final assembly - Since starting this topic I've had much more experience with setting up my instruments, dismantling/re-assembling. That said, still a bit nervous about re-installing the sustainer so I'll be photo-documenting everything around the sustainer when removing it so I should hopefully be ok when putting it all back together.

Here's a pic of how she's looking lately;

(Click for larger)