Ibanez RG548 Rebuilt , advice needed!

[Dentom79]

Hello fellow guitarists,

Last year I saved this 1997 Ibanez RG548 NTM for only € 350.
When I got it, I didn't look that good, the finish was full of scratches and a few small dings, the cavities were filled with a white funges-like substance, and the electronics and hardware were dirty as hell.

I cleaned the electronics and hardware, strung 10-52 strings on it and start playing some show with it.

Now I've come to the conclusion that it still needs alot of work, so I thought I make a thread here so you guys can follow the progress of the guitar, and maybe help me through the steps.

Checklist:

• adjust thrustrod : I recently noticed that I have alot of noticable fretbuzz on the first few frets, and on a few of the last ones, so I think that the neck has to much backbow, and the I have to adjust the rod to have less tension. ONLY problem here is, I don't have the right tool to adjust the rod, does anybody know what size of "inbuskey" Ibanez uses for their thrustrods?
• intonation : especially the gstring has a pretty shoddy intonation
• action : lower is better, RG's got to have supersporty action
• clean cavities : I got some tripple A steelwol I used to make the guitars finish less glossy I think might be usefull to get this white substance away, because the trem and pickup cavities really look gross now.
• refinish : The guitar originally had a glossy finish, which wasn't really great, so I used some light steelwol to give it a more matt-like finish, and in the progress covering up some bad scratches the previous owner made.
  But now I wanna get rid of the whole finish and use tung oil to refinish the Ash body. But I'm afraid I might damage the wood by sanding , because it think that the clear coat is pretty thin. What gritt sizes should I use?
• clean fretboard : Lemon oil that baby up
• clean trem : when I'm going to sand the body, I will have to remove the trem, so I thought I could do some cleaning while it's removed anyway. Is there anything I should look out for while disassembling + what parts should be cleaned?

Anyway, its great weather here to take some pictures of the guitar, so here's some porn:

and my cat beneath my car, not looking amused by the lack of attention she's getting.

cheers

 

[Dentom79]

okay, I've already disassembled the guitar, and I got myself a mystery to unsolve.

When I loosened the tone/volume pots and the 5 way switch I noticed that I have one wire that isn't connected to anything.

I checked the Ibanez HSH wiring diagram and I can't figure out if it was connected to anything, any help?

also I'm gonna shield the cavity by glueing some aluminium foil into it, which side has to be visible, the matte or the reflective side?


ooh and another stupid question, I don't want to make this anymore difficult assembling back to get, so what would be the easiest way to remove all electronics. What wires should I cut, and where should I cut them?
I'm not that good of a solderer, so I'm probably going to ask my dad to do it for me, but he needs clear directions.

 

[conortheshreder]

if its the long black cable thats the earth, it should be connected to floyd rose on the guitar

 

[Dentom79]

the thing is, there already is a long black cable connected to the bridge piece that is screwed into the body.

 

[Dentom79]

no wait, you're right, it is the ground wire, cause the other one is broke
okay tomorrow I'm going to buy myself a soldering iron , and I will disconnect the pickups from the switch and tone knobs, that seems to be the smartest way to do it so


*edit*
would it be smart/safe of me to start sanding with 100gritt sandpaper and finish of with 200-300gritt to get it smooth? Or am I going to ruin the body?

 

[conortheshreder]

no wait, you're right, it is the ground wire, cause the other one is broke
okay tomorrow I'm going to buy myself a soldering iron , and I will disconnect the pickups from the switch and tone knobs, that seems to be the smartest way to do it so


*edit*
would it be smart/safe of me to start sanding with 100gritt sandpaper and finish of with 200-300gritt to get it smooth? Or am I going to ruin the body?

start of with 100 gritt and dont put too much pressure down, sand the body evenly otherwise you'll create pitts, gradually work your way up to say 800 gritt to get it silky smooth

here a good site http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/sand.htm

 

[Dentom79]

thanks, tomorrow I'm going to go shopping for sandpaper and a soldering iron and some tung oil.

Oh, and here's what I've done the last hour.

A filthy bridge

a filthy disassembled bridge

yes it's a real EDGE trem !

my weapon of choice

dirty saddle / clean saddle

and here are all the parts chilling in a nice domestic oil bath, I can already see some dirt floating around, awesome.

anyway, this happy camper is going to bed, see ya!

 

[Dentom79]

I went shopping today and got these things:
* various sandpapers ( 100/180/320/400 gritt)
* sanding block
* soldering iron
* masking tape
* some fancy working gloves


I also reassembled the bridge, unsoldered the pickups and taped the other electronics into the cavity so that they wont get in my way when sanding.

What I didn't find today is tung oil, I only find things like varnish and polish, but no bottle that says "tung"

ohwell, here are some more various pictures:

everything I will be needing now

a clean assembled bridge

look at all the dirt that has come off

 

[Dentom79]

okay, so I got back from work and sat myself down for half a hour and decided to do some sanding :

it's pretty demotivating how little I've accomplished by sanding this hard, I used 100gritt btw.


edit: I think I'm going to buy some 40-50gritt to speed it up a little.

 

[youheardme]

Try hand sanding through thick paint... even more discouraging haha.... Keep goin!

i'll be watchin

 

[Dentom79]

Lol yeah, 3 years ago I refinished a squier stratocaster, I know the feeling.

anyway good new, I ordered some stuff online to help me:

* Danish oil 250ml (tung-oil based oil, this is going to give me a darker finish)
* Duesenberg polish cloth
* Duesenberg Fingerboard lotion
* Soldering wire

I hope all of this will arrive next week, when I hope to have sanded to whole body.

Tomorrow I'm going to buy some tin-based paint to reshield the cavities.

 

[conortheshreder]

if 100grit is taking too long use 60, but be careful you don't cause any pitts

BTW this process will take days but the patience should pay off

 

[Dentom79]

yes it does take awhile.
I just finished another half hour session of sanding, this time I used 60gritt, I think I made more progress then yesterday, let's compare shall we:


yesterday

today

 

[Dentom79]

I'm on fire, I finished the first flat surface on the guitar, tomorrow I'm going to attack the front.

after that the counters and then the sides.

 

[Dentom79]

I dunno if anyone is still watching this, but I almost finished sanding the body down, Only the sides need to be done now, but the front is already completely sanded down, and it is looking BEAUTIFULL imho.

For kicksngiggles I did a quick mockup assembly, here are the pictures :

before I sanded

After I sanded

Right now I reminds me a lot of this beauty, a RGT220a

 

[DevinShidaker]

looking great so far man! Keep up the good work! I really need to find time to clean my trem!

 

[youheardme]

Dude, i just bought a used rg 470dx... it has an old dirty gloss black finish... i'm gonna go through this same process.... wish me luck!