Okay Courtney, here's what i've got so far. The trem cavity and pick up holes go in next.

Cool Aaron! Looks good. Can't wait to see how the cavity pieces turn out.

Thanks RG462! Actually, I was here at work thinking about how I could make it different than anything that has been done. I can't post a pic of it right now, but I will when I get home - all the pic hosting sites are blocked from work.

I've got an idea that still has a grip in it, but it's completely different than anything that has been done to date from Ibanez. I've got a complete different trem cavity look too. And I think you'll probably like it.

Yea, I decided a day or two ago that I was going to go ahead and make a custom neck. I really like the old wizards, but I don't have one just laying around, so I'll probably use a wizard 2 neck to go off of. I don't mind the wizard 2 neck at all. Plays just fine to me. I just have to build a router duplicator first, but that shouldn't be a problem and should be fairly cheap too.

I have to figure out what kind of fretboard inlays to put in it now. I've got some ideas, but again, I want to do something different that hasn't been done, but still looks good and looks like it goes with the guitar.

Any thoughts on inlays?

something pyramid like. Oh and a suggestion for the color i almost forgot... Desert Sun Yellow ;] Hell I might make an offer when your done, it just sounds like its gonna be awesome!

here ya go...

Those look great Aaron! I can't wait to work on it this weekend.




I've got something in mind for the inlays. I'm going to draw it up and post it later tonight....see what you all think. Not that this really describes it in any way, but it's a shape shifting pyramid. I think it would look pretty good, but it might look like rubbish after I draw it up. We'll see.

LOL...well, if it turns out as good as I hope I'll be keeping it. I'll keep it anyways regardless of how it turns out. However, I'm totally into doing another one if you want one just like it.

Just wait until the trem and grip cavities are modeled by Aaron. He'll probably get them done before I start cutting again. I think you're really going to like it.

Mokey grip is going in now. I've got 2 out of 4 down but they're a bitch. give me about 30 more minutes and i'll have more for you guys.

I've decided on how I'm going to do the trem cavity and grip. I wanted to put these ideas into it, but I wanted it to be a different slant on the original Ibanez idea....an update, if you will.

So here it is. It's just a photoshop rendition at the moment, but I'll be cutting on it this weekend. I'm calling it the ©Talon Cutaway. The shape of each cutout is going to look irregular as if material were torn or ripped from the body of the guitar. I don't know if the grip will actually be useable, but if your fingers fit the holes it should be comfortable enough to use. Either way, I think it will add some more "metal" to the metal look of this guitar.

nice grip, if you don't do it monkey grip maybe just cut out the markered on claw marks and leave it like that.

Interesting idea, but it's going to be SERIOUSLY hard to get a smooth finish on "ripped up" wood.

No, just the shape will appear ripped because of the irregular shape of the cutout. Get it?

I would be afraid the wood between the grip's fingers would break, though I do like the claw idea, I was thinking a sort of one claw idea, liek a large talon that had kinda carved out a chunk, but that may be weird to cut out O.o

Not digging it but, if it works for you Courtney, go for it

Personally I'd leave the body as is without the grip and claw. I like this color scheme Aaron came up with and the only variation I would do would be to paint all the edges the same neon green as the trem cavity and pups



Jimmy

What would you charge to have this work done? Cutting, routing, sanding, paint, and clearcoating for the body? Were you thinking of putting a contoured arm rest on the top of the body, or keeping it flat all the way across? How about the neck routing, AAJN or original
Ibanez neck?
Thanks for responding!

Hey is that Autodesk Inventor software? We use that at school in engineering class.

If you're talking about pricing to have me do you one like this the price would be driven by the cost of the type of wood that you want. Keep in mind that this is just popular and cedar that you can buy from Lowe's or Home Depot. The cost of materials for this was pretty cheap.

For wood that's typically used in guitars - basswood, mahagony, maple, etc. - I'd have to do some research on where I could get what you want and give you a price based off of that.

If that's something that you're interested in I'll look into for you. But for now I wouldn't charge anything crazy. I'd basically would want enough to cover materials and alittle bit to make it worth my time. I've looked at other sites that do custom bodies and the price that I remember is between $200 to $275, and that's just for a bare body.

I also can only do this work on the weekends. I have a fulltime job doing something else and when I get home there's just not enough time to work on guitars. So, if you were to want me to do something it would probably take a few months before I finished it.

Anyways, if it's something you want me to look into let me know and I'll give you a price as best I can.

This weekend, if I've got time - some other unexpected things have popped up that need immediate attention - I'm going to put a contour in the back as you're talking about. The thickness of this body is only about an 1", which is much thinner than the original, so I'm going to have to be careful when I do the contour not to make the side too sharp.

This will be an AANJ neck. Originally I was just going to slap a neck bought off the bay, but since starting this project I've decided to build my own neck from scratch.