Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Systematic Chaos]

Some better pics (hard to capture the Saphire Blue Quilted Maple Top) of my mainstay/all time fav...(upper left in the collection pic I posted).
It´s a 2002 Ibanez (pre Prestige) RG620 QMSP, Mahogany Body with Qilted Maple Top. I bought it new in 2002 and modded it slightly along the way.
The "original" came with Ibanez V8 bridge and V7 neck pups which I swapped for a set of DiMarzio CrunchLab Bridge and LiquiFire neck.
It features the Ibanez original EDGE double locking trem that I modded with a brass big block. The standard .022µF tone cap was swapped for a Russian K40Y-9 Paper-In-Oil cap.
One of the things that stands out about this particular RG is the neck which is not the *Ibby-Std* Wizard type...this in is called "Ultra" and has the same specs as the neck on the 90s Ibanez John Petrucci Signature model (JPM)...17" radius but ever so slightly feeling "beefier" than the Wizard...it´s not thicker though, just shaped different.
I also sanded it down and applied my preferred Oil/Wax finish....

I cannot say enough good things about this guitar....it simply sounds awesome, amplified or dry.....

Switching and layout is pretty straight-forward....
1 Vol, 1 Tone, 1 4PDT 3-way toggle that puts only the inner coils of both pups in parallel when in center position....dreamy/glassy cleans...

[rnolan]

Hey SC, very (very) nice my friend !!  , though I couldn't help noticing the neck relief is a bit more than I'd go for ? I like my necks a little bit flatter, but a taste thing.

[Systematic Chaos]

Another one that was not in the Ibby-Family-pic.....
This one was a "pimp-my-cheapo" project that turned out awesome.
Basis is a Cort G250FT H-S-S Power-Strat I got for 70€ off eBay. Basswood body, maple top, photo finish.
It already came with a Wilkinson VS bridge....
I swapped all electronics for better quality MEC pots, silicon wire, switchcraft jack, DiMarzio Virtual Hot PAF bridge, DiMarzio Injector middle and neck pups.
I also replaced the original cheap nut with a Graphteq Tusq one...big difference.

[Systematic Chaos]

Hey SC, very (very) nice my friend !!  , though I couldn't help noticing the neck relief is a bit more than I'd go for ? I like my necks a little bit flatter, but a taste thing.

.... .... must have been the angle of the pics...there´s almost no neck relief at all 

[rnolan]

Wow, that's a nice looking axe!!  Hey correct me if I'm wrong, I think you could take a little more from that neck relief, rule of thumb is a slim business card, the pic looks like 3 business cards to me, hence the suggestion LoL. I'm just thinking there's a bit more to go ?? But neck relief and action are very personal things... and I tend to do them by feel not measurement  .

[Systematic Chaos]

Wow, that's a nice looking axe!!  Hey correct me if I'm wrong, I think you could take a little more from that neck relief, rule of thumb is a slim business card, the pic looks like 3 business cards to me, hence the suggestion LoL. I'm just thinking there's a bit more to go ?? But neck relief and action are very personal things... and I tend to do them by feel not measurement  .

The pic ist the actual unfretted string action ;-) not the "neck-relief-check-grip" at 1 and 14 (1 and 24) 

[rnolan]

I'm just comparing it to what I get from the Anderson and JPLP, but happy to stand corrected, I'm in Sydney for a couple of days, I'll check it more when I get home, but from first glance I recon you could get a bit more out of it (but hey happy to be wrong LoL, I just saw the pic). And not trying to cast any doubt, I know you are a gun at this !!

[Systematic Chaos]

The string action/height on the Ibby is ~1.5mm on the low E (12th fret) and ~0.9-1.0mm on the high e (12th fret)

[rnolan]

Hey SC, I can't really tell without having it in my hands, I stopped measuring (and 64ths/imperial (it's more organic, metric shouldn't be used (IMO) for guitars) works better than metric IMO) along time ago, these days I go purely by feel. But I just thought it could come down a little more ?? but as I say based purely on visual. I just suspected you could get a little bit more out of it, and the reason for my comments.

[Systematic Chaos]

Okidok....here´s string action in inches  (all unfretted, measured at 12th top of fret to bottom of string with a string action ruler)
Low E (12th fret): 0.059"
High e (12th fret): 0.036"

Dean Markley Helix 10-46
No buzz, no fret-outs.....

[DesmoBob]

Here's my new pair - Strats in Ibanez' clothing.

Strat Cat sighting!!

Another one that was not in the Ibby-Family-pic.....
This one was a "pimp-my-cheapo" project that turned out awesome.
Basis is a Cort G250FT H-S-S Power-Strat I got for 70€ off eBay. Basswood body, maple top, photo finish.
It already came with a Wilkinson VS bridge....
I swapped all electronics for better quality MEC pots, silicon wire, switchcraft jack, DiMarzio Virtual Hot PAF bridge, DiMarzio Injector middle and neck pups.

Fantastic outcome there. I have a guitar that I don't play that I've been thinking about hotrodding. It's an old Tokai strat (with Fender lawsuit shaped headstock, but painted black). Love/Hate relationship with that thing. At times I want to sell it, other times I want to mod it.

[Dante]

SC - That last guitar, the Cort...that's very nice. I love fixin' up cheap axes and getting something unexpected like that, it looks fantastic

[rnolan]

Hey DesmoBob, my inclination would be to hot rod the Tokai, they make quite nice guitars. What are your thoughts to do up ? Like others I've been doing up cheap and chearfuls most of my career, I'm about to do up a Squire strat, first some machine heads that stay in tune.. And I've got a SD hot rails for the bridge, I also have an old Gotoh locking trem in the shed somewhere, just need to replace a broken fine tuner screw. This trem used to be on my Profile Tele which I later changed to floating schaller FR, I copied the Anderson routing and also refretted it while I had it in bits, and soon I'll have a tremsetter for it.

[Rusty]

Hey SC both those axe's are blowing me away looking at them, very very nice indeed. I would love a good shred on that Ibanez, I bet it's awesome man.

[rabidgerry]

Here is a rare bird but I'm sure it just looks like a cheapo squier to most.  Like Dante, I love making a cheap guitar a beast!!  Beats spending £1000 any day!!

I found out recently this Squier Strat was only shipped to South America and lower states of the US and also only made for a year.  Alder body.  Only two control knob configuration!!!  That's unusual in itself.  I have to say this guitar f**king sounds great!!  Stock! I think there are 9's on there and I usually play 10's.  It feels so good and such a nice tone on there that I might stick with 9's with this axe.  I would be afraid of losing my finger strength though if I swapped to these permanent, any thoughts on this?

Check the pics fellas and fellettes



I love the colour!!  Like a metallic redish orange!!

 



head stock



This is stock by the way!!  I was going to stick a schaller I have on there as it's a direct fit!!  However (please help me out here guys!!) I checked this Floyd Rose II that is on there out and I think the saddles and plate are steel!!  If so I will just get a bigger sustain block made and call it quits!!!  I have never heard of any FR II being made of good quality, anyone know anything abut these?  Some other dude on another forum said if it say's "made in Germany" underneath it's a decent FRII and worth keeping, but their are cheaper Korean versions that suck and not as good as the German models.  Anyone any info on this let me know