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Building guitars from scratch, JEM 10

2K views 4 replies 3 participants last post by  GtrVampyre 
#1 · (Edited)
I was wondering about this cause i'v recently been looking into building your own guitars from scratch. This has really caught my eye and im thinking of trying it and making a Ibanez Jem or such (cause the site i found did the patern after it) and customizing the stuff i like for myself. I was wondering if anyone knew an aprox. cost of this project from someone who has perhaps done this before? Another question i wanted to asked was inspired to me when i saw someone re-creating a SRV guitar and i was wondering. Has anyone re-created or built form scratch a guitar made after the JEM 10? If i made one i would really like to model it after that guitar and possibly add the ivy on the body as you see in the virtual guitars. Just throwing out ideas and seeing what response i get. Thanks for any help on the subject.

Oh BTW, as long as you didnt try to copy it saying Ibanez actually built it and its an official one and try to re-sale it. Its not illegal to replicate it to your liking is it?
 
#2 ·
well, alot of people who build custom jems still have the Ibanez decal on the head stock, even some who started from scratch. I don't think it's that big of a problem, rather, its an endorsement for Ibanez. I have replicated an SRV guitar, the total work involved was just carving "SRV" on to the pickguard of a korean strat copy :lol: Anyway, the best place to start if you wanna build a custom Jem is a used RG550 or RG570, most of the people on the site will agree. Those guitars come with a Lo-pro or Edge so the hardware stuff is taken care of. A pair of evos will cost you around $170 including installation. you probably want a new pickguard, that'll cost you around $50, a fretboard inlay will cost you around $480, the works on the body, i have no idea. my estimate is around $300 but its just a wild guess. So if the used RG cost $300, the total adds up to $1300. I'd say that's a pretty good estimate. It depends on what you wanna do. You mentioned vine on body. That i have absolutely NO idea of how much it'll cost so im not even gonna take a guess. Hope this helped

-Bo
 
#3 ·
Thanks for the info but when i meant from scratch, i meant from chunks of alder and maple board ect... I know getting a used RG might be easier but somehow i find building a guitar from mere planks of wood is pretty awesome and i would feel alot more appreciative of the guitar once i was done. Not to mention anything i wanted i could change, add, or take away from it. Someone mentioned www.projectguitar.com and on there they basically show how to create a ibanez from scratch and im really interested in doing that and making it into a JEM 10 if i could just find better pictures and angles of it so see what exactlys on it. As far as inlays they have a tutorial to make your own also but i think i'd let someone else do that part just because the way they do it will wear away after a long time of extended use.
 
#4 ·
If you're looking to build a guitar from scratch because you want something unique and/or handcrafted, then I'm all for it! If you're doing so because you want to save money, you're better off buying a complete guitar.

I would agree that buying a used or beatup RG570/550 is well worth the parts and "template." I think you could easily find one for $200, though.
 
#5 ·
Yeah, money is a problem. Just recently buying a Jem, dont really have the funds to support ALOT of money, but it doesnt seem to cost much at all. I mean aftr you get the body made of course the rest will start to cost with the electronics and paint and all that. I know someone who use to make guitars in a company though, i think it was Zion guitars or somthing, i dont know and maby he will help me out with it. What i was going for was to have as guitar that was unique and i know i hand made :). Thanks for all your replies!
 
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