FrankenRG. Extreme makeover, RG edition.

[andrewgosline]

Hello,

I've been working on this project for several months now. Hollowing and adding a new top to an rg body. Complete makover. I love ibanez necks for playability and quality, but I never really liked the way RGs look with their pointy horns and pointy headstock. I'm trying for something a little unique.
sanding the body:

finished sanding the top and profiling the horns:

planning the chambers:

drilling out the chambers with various brad point and forstner bits

routing the chambers:

bending the top:

glueing the top


I have finished the guitar, but haven't finished taking pictures. I will complete more shortly. I only had the muscle to sand the top, so the rear and sides got black paint, while the spruce top is clear gloss. It looks pretty good. Not super sexy figured maple, but pretty nice!

[nato101010]

Cool!

Looks like a EVH Wolfgang with the horns cut off.

[andrewgosline]

Ya, it turned a little like an EVH after the rest of the work Electronics aren't finalised, that's two seymour duncan hot wound single coils setup as a humbucker with series parallel switching, and a stock rg220b bridge humbucker. I apologise in advance for loving the 4+2 headstock, being sortof a ernie ball musicman style with a fender twist. Whatever, I just sorta let the saw do the talking... Had fun!
What it used to look like:

Drum roll please... the new version (note, I didn't take the picture of the stock RG220, that is from wikipedia, so I'm not responsible for trying to make it look very plain.:






Top is spruce, and it bends really easily around the forearm contour!

Hollowness really only makes a difference when playing acoustically, and when you're hoisting that brute around. It used to weight over 8 pounds, and now it's down to 6.2.

Enjoy the pics.

[bammbamm]

Kudos on a nice job!
I like the look, sort of an EVH meets a Brian May Red Special with the cutaways.
I wouldn't mind seeing that hanging in my rehearsal space
How is the sound overall?

[jallen]

Very nice and creative! I like the idea a lot.

[dimarzio562]

You've done a very nice job, congrats!

[andrewgosline]

sound. Well with the two single coils in parallel it sounds like a pretty beefy neck humbucker, and it's less muddy/bassy than the stock humbucker that they replaced. My pod was stolen, so my peavey rage 108 (oh ya) can't really tell me the difference on a purely clean channel b/w the new hollowed body and the old solid body. However, when I compare the neck/middle combo in parallel with my friends 90s rg 570 that has stacked humbuckers, I can tell that it has a truer single coil tone with a little quack and really bright highs. Unfortunately, in parallel, the single coils are dwarfed by the power of the stock ibanez bridge humbucker. I don't like the looks of the strat knobs, but they're all I have right now. I will likely replace them with black ebony knobs whenever I order more guitar supplies (like stainless steel fretwire...... maybe...)

I really can't comment on the changes associated with the chambered body, because I haven't had a chance to plug it into a nice amp or amp simulator yet. Like I said earlier, acoustically it's louder and has way more midrange, but I haven't really tested it fairly plugged in.

All in all I'm pretty happy. I hope to get the pickups upgraded to two dimarzio area 61 noisless single coils and a dimarzio paf pro with series parallel switch. I'm also thinking of doing a 3way switch mod that allows the middle pickup to be off, in parallel, or in series with any combinaion of bridge/bridge+neck/neck. I've never liked the middle only tone here is the associated thread in pickups/wiring:

http://www.jemsite.com/forums/f35/pl...ing-95988.html

In my quest for uniqueness and simplicity, I have yet to find a diagram that will allow for the combinations that I want with a simple switching method.

[forest4]

I like it. You obviously did a great job. The one thing that caught my eye was the rosewood on the neck is really nice. I love a good light to dark contrast in a rosewood neck.

[stodge]

I love that finish and colour - very nice!

[andrewgosline]

At first I was a little bummed that I didn't have the time/effort to strip the whole body to get down to wood, but after putting the neck on, the color scheme is really growing on me. I agree, that I am pretty lucky the rosewood fingerboard has such straight light grain. I wouldn't expect a nice fingerboard on a low end RG 220b.

[andrewgosline]

Update on tone.

I've spent several hours comparing the tone of this guy to my friends 90s RG570. The hollow body has a more straty sound, for sure. The stacked single-coil sized humbuckers on the 570 don't have the same slap/quack as mine do, even though I always run mine in parallel (never by themselves for hum cancelling). I don't know if this is only the pickups, or also the hollow body sortof imitating a pickguard a little bit. Also I dislike the strat type knobs that are on the guitar now. I will be replacing them with black dome-type knobs that are shorter, narrower, and more classy looking.

I find that my friends rg570 has a nicer bridge pickup, though. It's one of the dimarzio made IBZ USA F2s. The stock rg220b pickup is very tinny/metalic sounding and harsh, while the dimarzio is more mellow and 'open'. This is mostly on a clean channel, because my rage 108 has a horrible distortion sound. I was thinking I was in a rush to change the two single coils in this guitar to a dimarzio area 61/58 pair. I'm pretty happy with the single coil sound, though, so perhaps I'll get a new bridge humbucker instead. I'm thinking PAF Pro, because on the dimarzio site, they specifically say that the PAF Pro goes well with single coils because it doesn't drown them out. Anybody have any opinions on this???