Anyway...

This poor thing started life as an Ibanez 540SLTD.

I purchased this as a project guitar but she's in far worse condition that I thought.

The neck has some major cracks in it and is unusable. It has already been heavily modified as it's been repainted after the front and middle pick up holes were filled - which is ok by me as I wanted a rear pick up only guitar anyway.

Whoever owned this guitar before me should be publicly flogged.
This instrument has been absolutely violated as a previous owner has drilled trenches in the back to relocate the jack allowing for the battery pack for an EMG pick up to be fitted.

 

After getting nowhere hand sanding for 2 hours I ducked down the local Bunnings Hardware and purchased a Black & Decker Mouse Sander.

After 15 or so minutes this was the result. The aftermarket paintjob is heaps thick and is taking forever to remove.

An hour or so later and the blue paint is all off the back. The factory paint is a lot thinner.

Halfway through clearing the blue off the front.

 

Now the blue is all off it's time to get rid of that beautiful yellow.

And here she is completely nude.

 

Now, this is the big problem, the trench...

I've been advised by ET Guitars down here in Australia who will be painting the guitar for me to us a Selleys product called Plastibond to fill this hole along with as much wood as I can get in there.

So there it is filled in with a block of wood and a heap of Plastibond going off in the sun.

And here is the end result. Anybody who knows me knows I'm no handyman but I've really enjoyed taking my time getting this to where it is now. I've surprised a few people especially myself how much I've enjoyed this process.

The guitar and another neck which I purchased on the auction site are now in the hands of ET Guitars for painting.

I'm going for a yellow and black swirl along with matching headstock. ET have advised me it's going to be a while due to other projects in his shop but I don't mind waiting as I know from seeing his work first hand when I was in the shop last week it's gonna look fantastic once he's done with it.

 

Holy crap!!! That trench is nasty!

Best of luck bud!

 

oooh good luck... I love fun projects... I got 4 ongoing at the moment

hmmm black and yellow swirl sounds like an AFL theme to me oh but your not in VIC

good luck

 

Good work. Any idea why there was a second input jack whole and a trench for that matter?

 

that looked like fun I dig the look of S too. Keep posting as the project continues

 

Great work sorting out that nasty trench.

I have no idea why someone would do that, even if they were installing EMGs. You should still be able to fit a battery in the cavity, without having to butcher a guitar like that.

 

Great work sorting out that nasty trench.

I have no idea why someone would do that, even if they were installing EMGs. You should still be able to fit a battery in the cavity, without having to butcher a guitar like that.

I think what the guy did is decided he needed to relocate the input jack so he drilled the hole on the left, discovered that was no good and then used the same drill to drill the trench on the right. The trench was made up of a series of holes next to eachother if you know what I mean.

 

Wow,i nearly bought that myself!
I only wanted the neck though,is it really not fixable?

 

haha really ? I should have let you have it ! But in the long it will be worth it. I really wanted that style neck as well as I love the sharks tooth inlay and don't have a guitar with that style. There are 2 huge V shaped cracks coming out of the screws at the back. If you put a little pressure on the neck with your hands the whole thing moves.

I've uploaded another photo as well to explain what that ghastly trench was for.

The whole set up was held together by sticky tape and there was also evidence of duct tape on the back of the body as well.

 

Mother of mercy....Is that a completly f-cked 540S DY LTD... Imagine the back used to look like this...

My Mint 89 S540LTD DY

 

Yep that's exactly how she would have started life. My main axe is an Ibanez 450S which is the only guitar I've purchased from new.

Don't get me wrong it's my most prized posession and when my time comes I wanna be cremated with it but sometimes I wish I had of waited a couple of weeks to scrape together the extra money to get a 540 like yours.

 

You Penrith westie...I'm near Blacktown...LOL

 

bless you for fixing it up!

that trench is an abomination, i couldn't even do that to a cheap squire let alone an ibanez of this caliber!

 

wow...that is one nasty looking mod...great job on the repair

 

Looks great. Neat and tidy work on the trench. This might be the way to go for my RG project. The body misses a piece of wood on the treble side of the neck pocket, and I've never been a handyman...

Looking forward to see the guitar finish.

 

how's the project coming along, any more updates? Are you planning to keep the single H or go back to HSH?

 

I wanna keep her single H. I haven't got one that configuration as yet so that was a plus when I bought this body.

The guitar has been with Ernie at ET Guitars for 4 months now so I'm still just in a holding pattern. The Aussie $ is looking good at the moment against the US $ though so I might have to get cracking and order my Dimarzio pick ups. I'm tossing up between PAF PROs or EVOs.

I have an EVO in my 1991 450s but have PAF PROs in my early pink JEM and love them both. Might have to toss a coin I think.

 

Bit of an update, I got my Yellow Dimarzio PAF PRO pick ups and matching Clip-Lock strap delivered this morning.

I also spoke tp Ernie at ET Guitars a couple of weeks ago and he has informed me he should be swirling my guitar and headstock along with a bunch of others in the next few weeks.

I should have it back for Xmas ready to be wired up.

 

can somebody to tell me how is the SCALE LENGTH of a 540s fm custom made?
many thanx in advance

 

25.5,same as an RG but 22 frets.

 

Got some great news in my email this morning, Ernie has swirled my guitar. He emailed me the pics below to make sure I was happy with the swirl before the clearcoat.

Goes without saying I'm absolutely stoked with the result, this was the exact image I had in my head.

Next he's going to swirl the headstock and apply the clear coat.

 

Very cool!

 

A bit of fading in the middle but i like it. Would have wanted to see a single-coil in the neck but that's a sweet looking guitar, especially after what happened to it

 

A bit of fading in the middle but i like it. Would have wanted to see a single-coil in the neck but that's a sweet looking guitar, especially after what happened to it

The fading in the middle on the front doesn't bother me too much as the pick up and tremelo will cover it. I still can't believe this body was a piece of junk 12 months ago !

 

big applause to you Buckshot. you not only saved her, but also gave it a wonderful new look, and i also like you kept it with just one pickup. great job!

 

"It's alive!!"

Good save Buckshot,look's killer.

 

hehe thanks but she aint alive just yet. Ernie will be giving it back to me with the neck attached then I gotta wire it up and put the tremelo back in so it's still gonna be a while yet before she's singing again.