Ibanez Gio MOD PROJECT!

[Bucketheadtwo]

In this adventure I shall be modding and hopefully making me old Ibanez Gio GSA60 into a much-less-of-an-eye-sore axe!
This is my first luthiery attempt ever. Let's begin with some pics!

Disassembled guitar body (Those are VANS stickers ripped off with a poorly drawn Sharpie Periphery logo ) and 60 GRIT SANDPAPER

Ready to commence sandification procedures

First attempt at sanding. I'll move to a higher grit next so that I don't run through the sealer super fast.

Now, I had a few ideas for this guitar and I'd like some opinions.
I was thinking of reshaping the body of this guitar to a Joe Satriani shape.
Joe's guitar is about the same shape as mine (curves and horn cutaway depth, etc), but of course his has the thickness of about between a normal Strat and an Ibanez S shape. Do you think that I could carve this out to a shape like his with the rounded edges and such?

Also, stain or solid color? I was thinking white or sea foam green if solid.
And headstock ideas? I hate the ugly GIO logo, so I'm probably going to sand it off and replace it with a much better Ibanez logo.

Thanks in advance for any opinions. I'm really looking forward to this project and any awesome ideas that you guys might have! Cheers!

 

[Manurack]

Cool man! It's so much fun to mod and make your old, boring guitars into something sweet! I've got a couple projects going on right now and I love it!

Good luck with you're project and just ignore the douchebags that will post stuff like "this looks horrible" and "this is very trashy" because you are modifying you're guitar for no one else but YOU! So have fun and do whatever you want to it lol

 

[Manurack]

And I had the same problem with my Fender Stagemaster 7 string, I hated the fat body shape and stratocaster headstock so I took the body and headstock to a bandsaw and reshape it to my liking. If you wanna see pics, it's in one of my threads.
As for the edges, just sand it til it's round like Satch's model!

 

[Bucketheadtwo]

Cool man! It's so much fun to mod and make your old, boring guitars into something sweet! I've got a couple projects going on right now and I love it!

Good luck with you're project and just ignore the douchebags that will post stuff like "this looks horrible" and "this is very trashy" because you are modifying you're guitar for no one else but YOU! So have fun and do whatever you want to it lol

I saw your SG project and I'm really digging that!
I'm hoping that I won't have to deal with hate and only positive suggestions or warning like "Eh, that might look crappy, try this if you want".
Good luck with your endeavors as well!

 

[JEngelking]

Depends on how the grain of the wood is, but I'll preemptively say solid color. If you go with a Satch shape then I'll vote white, as well.

 

[Bucketheadtwo]

To add to the discussion, what pickups might sound good in this guitar?
Maple neck, alder body, floating trem, bla bla bla.
I like the DiMarzio D Activator and I've seen it used with an Air Norton S in the neck.
While I am a bit of a DiMarzio fanboy, I would be willing to try out Seymour Duncan pups for once.

I'd really like a glassy pickup for the neck, but I also really want a good metal lead sound. I usually use the middle pickup in combination with the neck, but never alone, so two pups that work together well there would be great. As for the bridge humbucker, I use that most of the time for anything distorted and rhythm-y.
I mostly play punk, pop punk, metalcore, and some heavier metal with an amp that has a good amount of gain and mids. I like a nice crunchy sound, but nothing gargly, muddy, or thin. I like the D Activators because they're nice and even and clear, but have an awesome metal sound.

EDIT: BKP and other expensive pups are out of my budget and out of the question.

 

[Manurack]

how bout the Seymour Duncan 59' for the neck and a JB or Distortion for the bridge? That will sound good for you're styles dude! Both pups new are over $80 each or you can find them for a lower price if they're used.

 

[Manurack]

And to make the 59' humbucker fit, just route out the pickup cavity for the neck!

 

[mili9152]

^ Don't bother routing the neck pickup cavity; SD makes single-coil Sized humbuckers (little '59).

I'm a huge Seymour Duncan fan! You can't go wrong with the JB (SH-4), Custom (SH-5), Distortion (SH-6)!

I'm currently using a full shred (SH-10) which is a little lower output. Really depends on what type of tones you are looking for and magnet too. JB is the most versatile IMO

For the finish, I always prefer natural/stained finishes. But I would say sand down to the wood and see what you're working with. You could always put a veneer on it too...I put bubinga veneer on my Jackson kelly here:

http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/lu...188785-my-jackson-kelly-refinish-build-2.html

 

[Bucketheadtwo]

I was considering routing out a humbucker spot in the neck and filling in the middle pup cavity, but I'm not sure if my dad has a router. We do have a bunch of long oak boards lying around in our garage that are old, dusty, and covered in cobwebs that would work for a small cavity fill
I could also save some money by buying just two pups instead of 3

 

[Bucketheadtwo]

^ Don't bother routing the neck pickup cavity; SD makes single-coil Sized humbuckers (little '59).

I'm a huge Seymour Duncan fan! You can't go wrong with the JB (SH-4), Custom (SH-5), Distortion (SH-6)!

I'm currently using a full shred (SH-10) which is a little lower output. Really depends on what type of tones you are looking for and magnet too. JB is the most versatile IMO

For the finish, I always prefer natural/stained finishes. But I would say sand down to the wood and see what you're working with. You could always put a veneer on it too...I put bubinga veneer on my Jackson kelly here:

http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/lu...188785-my-jackson-kelly-refinish-build-2.html

Would veneering an arched top be easy? I wouldn't think it is, but I could be wrong.

 

[Bucketheadtwo]

Small update of progress. I was actually a bit awake today (getting back into school schedule after break is annoying ), so I decided to sand some more. I did so for about an hour and a half until I started to get too cold and my hand started to hurt.
Here's the first good peek at dat alder

Here's the plan I've got in my head now:

Satch style body (round off the edges)
Block off the middle pup (JS2400 style)
White body and headstock
Black swoosh + chrome lettering Ibanez logo
White DiMarzio pups
GraphTech TUSQ nut
New tuners (no idea what kind yet)

I've decided to stick with the D-Activator bridge, but I'm on the fence between an Air Norton S or a BC-2 for the neck. No matter what, I'm excited for how this thing will turn out

 

[iron blast]

are you planning a bridge swap to? I highly suggest hipshot grip lock tuners they are amazing all the specs you listed are sweet man \m/

 

[Bucketheadtwo]

are you planning a bridge swap to? I highly suggest hipshot grip lock tuners they are amazing all the specs you listed are sweet man \m/

I was thinking about it and a Hipshot bridge would be really cool, but I decided to be a bit lazy while saving some money and just keep the Ibby bridge.
I used to use this guitar a lot for Drop C since I was too afraid to experiment with my Xiphos which I kept in E or Drop D. If this bridge was good for anything it was keeping a tuning and switching tunings with little upkeep. I could go from Drop C to Drop B then to Drop C# and back to Drop C with a set of skinny top heavy bottoms and each tuning change would only require a few run throughs of tuning the strings and the strings wouldn't get too or too loose for my comfort.

 

[Bucketheadtwo]

Today's progress:
Headstock sanded! Fuck that unsightly Gio logo
Plus more body sanding.

 

[Manurack]

sweet dude! are you going to stain it? or paint it?

 

[Bucketheadtwo]

sweet dude! are you going to stain it? or paint it?

Painting it white grain and wood sections aren't parallel to the "flow" of the body. It would also look weird seeing an ugly glued-in oak chunk in the muddle of the guitar

 

[iron blast]

looking good

 

[Hankey]

Nice. I started playing on the exact same guitar. Apart from the shitty pickups and tremelo, it's a pretty decent guitar ...

 

[Bucketheadtwo]

Long time, no update! (sorry)
The guitar has been sitting on my table sanded down to the last coat and in some parts to the wood. I need to finish that and then I will begin ordering everything to wrap it up.
I also need to buy paint and finish that.

CHANGE OF PLANS:
- I'm no longer carving the body to the Joe Satriani shape (the SA has grown on me a bit after looking at some Mayones Setius's)
- I'm modeling the paint job after JB Brubaker of August Burns Red's RGA (green, white pickups + racing stripe)
- Filling and routing for 2 humbuckers wood mount style (filling in extra space in existing humbucker cavity and pickup ring screws)
- Probably DiMarzio D Activator set (maybe Liquifire in the neck instead)