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Covering an RG in fabric practice run (on a Tele guniea pig)

10K views 39 replies 15 participants last post by  madasahatter 
#1 ·
I am currently practicing covering a guitar in fabric on a chinese crap Tele i bought for 100€ off eBay many years ago. Originally i always had it as spare guitar equipped with a Göldo sitar bridge and Kluson pickups. It's made of mahogany. Considering it was only 100€ it's usable for certain specific sounds. It's Tele shaped but that's about it for vintage specs. I have been wanting to refinish an old Ibanez RG of mine in fabric and I thought the Tele is the perfect guinea pig to practice. I started today and I am very pleased with the first results. Second step will be spraying the sides and do a simple burst effect over the edges. I have to wait for spring for that as Germany is effing freezing atm. Still have to decide on the color of the sides. I am tending towards black even though dirty white would be the more logical choice as that's one of the predominant colors in the fabric pattern. I have months to decide... What do you guys think? For the technique: i applied a layer of Mod Podge on the sanded body then put the fabric on top (roughly cut to the width of the body) and scraped it flat with a plastic blade. After letting it dry for about 15 minutes i used scissors to cut around the edges of the body shape and then applied 3 coats of Mod Podge always scarping away the excess. Once that was dried (20 minutes in between coats) i cut around the edges with an exacto knife and cut out the PU routings etc. Once everything was dry i sanded the edges carefully kind of tapering the fabric towards the edge. I had imageined it to be much harder to get a clean cut around the body but the Mod Podge was the perfect choice as once it's dry it gets a rubbery texture that makes it a breeze to cut with an exacto knife.

As I am not allowed to post pictures or links yet look here for pix:

www dot tdpri dot com/forum/finely-finished/366944-covering-tele-fabric.html#post4642627

I am really looking fwd to do this on my 1989 RG 550. It was my first guitar and I always wanted a JEM 77FP but couldn't afford it. I ended up with a black RG550 which i stripped and ruined in 1991. A few years ago I dug it out again and decided to do a couple of mods on it and turn it into the closest i can to a JEM FP. I know it's silly but I take it as a challenge. I already relocated the input jack and added a monkey grip. The fact that it has a front routing doesn't bother me as I don't want to fake having a JEM, i want to create the guitar i originally wanted with what I have. Kind of a construction challenge. I see it as excercise to cut my teeth with guitar building/modding.
 
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#3 ·
I think you should fabric the edges, i know it would be hard but its worth the effort as black or white would look simple out of place. If you wanted to do it black i would not put fabric on the back and only have the front fabric'd and have the back and sides sprayed black, just my opinion but cool idea! Love it so far!
 
#9 ·
heres your link.

here. and give details on how long you let stuff dry before sanding and clearing it and what clear you used.

i had a disaster failure doing mine.
thank you very much! I will do so... what happened on your build?
The Mod Podge really dries fast. I sanded a bit more today and it was pretty rock hard. I also like the way it brings out the fibres in the fabric. It's kind of like what happens when you cover carbon fibre with resin or epoxy, it really pops.
 
#6 ·
That looks nice. I would not have done the back. I would have painted the sides and back a shade of blue that would match the fabric. The brown just doesn't go.

I wouldn't do the black or blue burst on the surface except in a very light border. Think it looks great the way it is.
 
#10 ·
As soon as I am allowed to I will also post pics to my RG to poor man's JEM build/mod. That poor guitar has been to hell and back. And now it's getting covered in fabric... similar to the Tele but more colourful. I think it could look great. Thx for the interest everyone.
 
#16 ·
Now comes the hardest part: waiting till spring to finish it. But I have to make some choices: PUs, PU color combination, decal no decal... pffff choices.
This will be getting a black burst and a clear pickguard (i like the contrast of the kitschy flower fabric and the 'let's look under the hood' approach of a transparent pickguard despite the front route.
The RG was a bit harder to cover as it has more contours than a Tele. What was easier was to get the edges clean as the edge is a 90 degree angle on the RG body. The Mod Podge wet sands pretty well to a really smooth surface even though you have to watch out to not have the sandpaper too wet or else the glue dissolves again. I am almost worried that it might be too smooth for laquer to stick. I def have to do some testing ebfore i mess this up. And I hope clear coat won't be a problem like on andrewsfury's project.
I had to replace the tuners and the Cosmo black ones look really cool. Maybe i will replace the trem too, but i want to keep the spending to a minimum on this one. I'd rather invest in tools and equipment to get better at building and finishing.
 
#17 ·
Looks great! Are the cut edges of the fabric as clean as it looks in the pictures? I would have thought it would be hard to get a clean cut without cutting into the wood body.
Also (I may have missed it in early posts), is there anything special about the fabric? Is it better to find thinner or thicker?
 
#21 ·
The edges came out really clean. I used an extremely sharp exacto knife. It does happen that you chip the wood a bit but you can trim off the bit and sand it smooth. I am pretty sure it won't affect the overall shape and contours. The fabric is 100% cotton and has a good thickness. When it's soaked with Mod Podge it reminds a bit of rubber coated table cloths (a thin version of it though).
 
#32 ·
Finally got around to finish the body and headstock on my RG conversion... Next step will be polishing the body after the clear coat is cured for 4 weeks and then choosing pickups for it. Still not sure what colors to choose... none of the ones DiMarzio offers really matches... Also still figuring out what configuration I want. I was thinking Super Distortion for bridge and PAF for neck and an Alnico 5 single coil but I am also toying with a set of D-Activators. Never been a fan of the PAF Pros the JEM came with. The Super Distortion I have in there temporarily sounds huge, but as it's not F Spaced i will replace it anyway. Any opinions on colors and pickups are welcome...







 
#37 ·
That could end up looking pretty cool... with Lime Green Seymour Duncans it would look pretty slick. I have no idea what they sound like but hey who cares, they look good. Mine went through this metamorphosis over a period of approx. 3 years. It was my first ever guitar (bought in 89') and it had been off duty for at least 10-12 years now. It came back to life for the first time 2 days ago and I am pretty happy to have done this. I think I am settled for green DiMarzios (Gravity Storms both positions or AirZone + AirNorton) and green knobs, could look cool. Anything else feels wrong besides cream or black which is boring for a guitar like that.
 
#39 ·
Finally it's done. I ended up ordering a green Air Norton and Tone Zone in the US and went for an FS-1 in the middle. Now it sounds like I always thought it should sound. Fat. Such a good guitar. I am really hooked. Next has to be a real JEM. Either I make a custom myself or I will look for a used one. I wouldn't mind one with an Alder body to have something different than the RG.
In retrospect the only thing i really screwed up on this one was the black burst around the body. It should have been much thinner but it was my first paint job. Also the finish is not ideal. I used hardwarestore clear laquer in a can and it never really hardens enough to polish it. Also it sort of cracks like vintage nitro which on the other hand is kind of cool and has it's own character.
I can't believe I had such a good guitar sitting in a case all these years and my inexperience as a youngster led me to believe it sounded bad. It had a horrible setup back then and also the Ibanez pickups were not so great. I did upgarde it with a PAF Pro but regular spacing and also didn't like that so much. Very nasal the PAF Pro in the bridge.
Now I absolutely love it. I also have a Squier JV Strat, a Squier Tele CV and a 70s japanese Les Paul copy (with a 70s three-wire Dual Tone in the bridge and a 70s Dimarzio PAF in the neck) which I all like and play but the JEMified RG is my favourite so far. I am no shredder at all and I play a lot of clean and crunch and the pickup combination I ended up with is really great (maybe the Tone Zone clean is not the ultimate tone but I gravitate towards the neck and middle for clean anyway.
I read often on Jemsite how people don't have any use for their middle pickup... that is beyond me. It makes for a killer clean and crunch tone on mine. I tried the Virtual Vintage 54 which didn't work very well in this guitar and ended up with the FS-1 which is nice and chunky.

Another thing that is kind of a bummer is DiMarzio's new greens. Meh. No neon anymore...






 
#40 ·
That looks really nice, I like the fabric/pickup/hardware combo you chose. I've painted several guitars with hardware store lacquer before. My first attempts were with Krylon products and i got that same crackled thing... that's when you play it off like "I meant to do that". I switched over to rustoleum products, I didn't get the cracking and was able to get a nice high gloss shine but it stayed a little soft no matter how long it dried. Another think you have to watch about the hardware store lacquer is what you rest the guitar on. 1) being a little soft you may get some impressions in it from what it's laying on and 2) some rubbers on guitar stands will react to the lacquer eating right through it. I learned these things the hard way ruining my nice finish and then having to repaint. I've recently switched to using polyurethane in a spray can. So far I like the results, it seems to harden up more than the lacquers I've used and doesn't appear to be reacting with any of the padding on my guitar stands. Maybe next time try poly instead of lacquer. Just be sure to double check the paint you'll be using to make sure it's compatible with the poly. Anyway nice work, I like it much!
 
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