Ibanez RG530 Roadstar II Rebuild
Ibanez RG530 Roadstar II Rebuild Project
This is a compiled project portfolio originally found on GideonD’s private blog. In this project we took an old Ibanez RG530 Roadstar II and upgraded the guts of it while leaving the aged ascetics alone. Enjoy!
Introduction
I stumbled across this bad boy on Ebay late one night when I shouldn’t have been up spending money. I couldn’t pass it up though so I put in a maximum bid I was willing to offer and went to bed. The next morning I discovered both to my delight and chagrin that I won the auction.
When I finally received the guitar, It was in better shape than expected.
The paint chips were very minor. I decided I was just going to leave them alone.
The frets needed a little filing but were pretty level. I took some micromesh to them and cleaned the fretboard good before putting a coat of lemon oil on it. It looked much better.
Before I ever got started I doused the electronics with De-oxit. When I tested it I had absolutely no crackle from the original controls. It looked like the electronics could stay original.
The Edge was in very good condition. There was some wear on the paint on the saddles, but rust was limited to the screw heads only and was very minor. My biggest fear was the knife edge. I popped the trem out and took a look and to my surprise the knife edge was nearly flawless. It looked like the trem was never even used.
I did plan some upgrades though. I decided to leave the paint on the neck so it would stay original, at least until I found out if I could stand playing on a painted neck. The nut was missing the locking screws and pads, but that wasn’t a big deal. I needed to fill the strap button holes and redrill them for strap locks. The pickups had to go. I’ve never been fond of IBZ pickups and these were no exception. They were the muddiest I’ve ever heard. I decided to drop a L500XL/L500R combo in there from Bill and Becky. I’d already put noiseless springs in it (remember to file the ends on these things. I spent a half hour trying to track down a grounding issue until I realized the coating on the springs was interrupting the ground circuit.) I also planned to slap a FU brass block on the edge.
So I kind of planned on going all out on this one. It’s the only Japanese Ibanez I own to date.
Now it’s photo time!!! These are the original shots before work began on it.
Before Photos
Ibanez RX170 Project
Ibanez RX170 Rebuild Project
Some Background
This Ibanez RX170 is another guitar a friend of mine wants worked on. (Same friend that owns the RG470) This is a real low quality guitar from Ibanez’s Korean made RX series back in the 90s. This is an RX 170, featuring an all maple neck and plywood body. It’s not a very well built guitar, but he likes the way it plays and he loves the look of it. So as usual we are about to throw some money at it and see what we end up with. We’ll probably finish this one before the RG470 unless he makes another oddball pickup selection that requires we wait a few month to get them.
Initial Photos
Here are some photos of the guitar as it is now.
Ibanez RG470 Project
Ibanez RG470 Rebuild and Modification
This post is a compiled version of the original 5 part Ibanez RG470 project portfolio found on GideonD’s personal blog. It has been slightly edited and improved, but remains broken into phases just like the original was.
Ibanez RG470 Rebuild and Modification – Phase 1
Some Background
Orion ordered this Ibanez RG470 guitar back in 2000 or 2001. He’s never really been satisfied with it. Ibanez makes some extremely good guitars, but like most brands, they also make some real junk. This is a MIK (Made it Korea) model and sub par at best. The body and neck are pretty decent. A fret job and some polish will work wonders there. The stock pickups are junk in this axe, and he’s hated the tremolo since day 1.
The goal of this project is some major modifications to the axe to bring it up to a good solid playable guitar.
Initial Photos
Darkling Designs Website
Darkling Designs Project Portfolio!
You are viewing the new Darkling Designs website! This site will be showcasing the projects completed by Darkling Designs and its members. We’ll be covering a number of projects related to building or customizing your own musical equipment. We’ll also be covering some home improvement and woodworking as well as some computer technology. Anything else that comes our way is bound to make it to these pages as well.
Darkling Designs is a subsidiary of Poppa Meth Entertainment. Basically the PME site is for the creative content we come up with, like web comics, music, and game guides. This site will showcase the things we build and provide guides on how we built them so you have a reference for your own projects.
It’ll take a few days to really get the website up to speed. There are several projects already completed that will be moving here from GideonD’s blog. Content should be popping up pretty quickly at first once the new site is fully functional so stay tuned!