Hey,
i pickd up an 1990 ibanez RG 550, it is in fairly good condition all round and i want to do it up heaps, firstly i have a few questions i was hoping someone could help me out with. firstly is and RG 550 a good guitar, are they worth doing up coz i dont want it to be like im making a crap guitar look good. Secondly i want to a swirl paint job like the ever so famous universe, i was wondering does anyone no how to paint like this?

thanking you very much,

peter

RG550 is a great guitar - certainly worthy of modding. For swirl paint jobs, search the tech sections of this forum for that topic. There's plenty to read about swirls in there.

Congrats. Yep, the 550 is an awesome guitar and more than worthy of doing up.

There are a number of people who can do you a nice swirl. Patrick at Sims Custom Shop (see the banner at the top) does some nice work. For spares (maybe you'll want to replace the bridge or something), see Rich at IbanezRules (again, see banner at the top). He has a ton of parts available. Of course, if you're getting a swirl done at SCS you'd have to send off the body to the USA. Not sure if that's a problem for you, but I'd imagine the shipping costs wouldn't be too heavy. I'm not aware of anyone who does swirls in Australia.

Off-topic: I've been playing a game with myself recently. I try to figure out where someone is from by reading their posts. I knew you were from Australia after you said "heaps". Hehe.

'Where the bloody hell' am I from Dee?


Wolfram.

hey guys thanks alot for the replys, i no of a guy in australia who can do the swirl but it will cost me about $1000, a tad expensive, i was planning on trying to paint it my self though so if any of you have any advice on doing it myself that would be much apprecitaed.

and very nice observation dee.

LMAO @ Wolfram. You got me there. It was the "bloody hell" that made me think you had to be English. How wrong I was...

Pete, yeah $1000 is crazy. I have a basic idea of how a swirl is done, but I think you'd need to practice on an old guitar, or at least a chunk of wood or something. The guide I read said the paints are mixed with Borax into a fairly large container/tank. The guitar body is dipped, and that's how the swirl is created. Obviously this is only the basic idea and I'm sure there's a whole lot more to it. Having never done it myself I'd imagine it's actually quite tricky.

Let me see if I can find the guide again, I'll post it up.

Having all you Aussie's around here is cool, actually. Do any of you guys like Virgil Donati? Probably my favourite musician of all time!

http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/swirled.htm

There's the guide I read.

oh thank you so much for that dee, i deffinatly have good first impressions on this site after my first post, again thanks heaps. once im done i will post photos.

pete.

Cool, I will look forward to the pics when you're done! And I hope you enjoy your time here. Best of luck with the guitar.

I knew he was Australian as soon as I read the username "poiter"!

Poiter, what color is your RG550? If for example it is DY (yellow) with maple fingerboard, adding some pink pickups and buttons could transform the looks without painting. (just a thought!)

yea it was a desert yellow one but the previous owner stripd it back to the natural wood grain then laquerd it but unfortunatly he didnt stop at only doing the body he also did the neck whilst all the frets were still on it and it looks like he used a brush as well coz theres little black brush hairs under the laquer, and being a mapel fret board they really stand out. it still plays and sounds unbelievably good and the bridge pickup does actually already have a pink and black duncan in it.

i got it dirt cheap tho($200AUS) and the reason i got it was to customise it, i wanna get a refret so the neck looks new again, the custom paint job and also wanna get some dot inalys to watever color i end up painting the swirls, im thinking mabey blue or green. All up it is in good condition only a few dings n **** but im gonna fill them up wen i sand it back.

pete

sorry but i have one more question, would swirls look good with a mapel fretboard?

Check out sims custom shop pics on the guitars for sale page, theres a swirl with maple board on there.