Hi All
So i have a whole bunch of ibanez guitars, and ive always had a thing for the JS/Radius Shape. I have a JS100 upgraded with Edge Pro and dimarzios and i love it!
Last year some time, i bought a very tatty JS1000.
I paid £235 from Cash Converters, via ebay.
So, when it arrived, it seemed ok, solid, but very beaten up. I thought i took some photos when it arrived, but it turns out i didnt. The ebay pics are long gone.
The trem was broken: (ive actually now had this blasted and painted, ive rebuilt it and its in the drawer waiting for another project)
so i managed to negotiate £80 back, so the guitar, with a generic hard case (which was equally battered) cost be £155 - Bargain!
This is the state the body was in:
Dimarzio Fred and Paf Pro (s1)... check:
The Neck has some marks to the back, and the fretboard, there is some fret wear too:
So i made some enquiries about getting the body resprayed in white (i'd love a white JS or Radius) but the quotes i was getting were daft, so i thought i might shelve it until i can learn to paint.
In January this year, i stumbled across Richard Fay's old website and got in touch, he then mentioned that he was getting back into swirling. Well i hadnt really thought about a swirl, ive been a bit on the fence about swirls, but i thought it could work well on a JS body.
So about a month later, i sent the body and and neck off to Rich for a swirl finish
A little while later, he sent me some photos of it primed and ready: I still want a white one!
Then, a few weeks later, i got the pics from the swirl:
Very Happy with that!! just what i was after
So i wanted the JS logo on the headstock, so i found one online, a waterslide and got it over to Rich:
So a few weeks later, i get a message from rich saying the clear coat is done, followed by some more photos:
It was then left to fully dry, before he polished it up:
I'm really pleased how it turned out.
So ive had it back with me for a while, and i finally got around to finishing it off.
The JS1000s had black Nuts (wierldly), and cosmo trems, knobs, tuners etc. now i dont like how the cosmo finish doesnt hold up, and i dont think it ages well at all, so i tend to go for proper black for my projects. Which as it happens works nicely with the Nut.
I had a mint black low pro edge in by parts box, so i transferred the saddle shims over to this:
a bit of sharpie, helps to hide the shims:
Job done
New pair of studs fitted:
New Bournes push pull pots, new switch, new knobs and pickup rings (not ibanez ones, but nice quality)
I smoothed out the back of the neck a bit, lightly sanded the fretboard, gave the frets a polish, oiled the fretboard. I did the wiring, as per the JS1000/1200 diagram.
Fitted the neck, strung it up. set it up and this is the result:
All that is left is to determine if i want to change the pickups. This has the Fred and PAF Pro, my JS100 has the Mo Joe and the PAF Joe. I need to spend some time with both to see which i prefer, then move them onto this.
