Ibanez RG Body Re-build
I bought an Ibanez EX back in 1999/2000 for $250. Served me a few years throughout high school and then sat in my parents closet for 14 years. Pulled it out, dusted it off, re-lived old memories, then slowly got to work.
It needed all new electronics and hardware, but the neck and body seemed fine. I did want to change one major design flaw present on this strange EX series guitar: the massive strat style round over on the body. The original plan was to rout out the edges and glue in strips of wood to give the edge profile a more modern, RG look. That sort of worked, but over time the strips of wood moved and cracked the paint and clear coat in several places.
So I started from scratch, building a new body from a blank of Alder. This is the process.
The original body on top of the alder blank, with the beginnings of one part of the Floyd Rose router template
Layout of Floyd Rose template, old body in the background.
I screwed the old body to the blank and used it as a template. Screw holes went into tremolo cavity and neck pocket.
Body was looking like a guitar!
Neck joint test fit. Nice and tight, huge difference from the original.
Routing out one of two single coil pickup cavities.
Humbucker cavity added!
Top half of the Floyd Rose cavity has been added.
And here’s the back of the guitar after it received the other half of the Floyd Rose cavity.
I needed a VERY precise way to rout out the shape of the back plate cover. This is what I came up with, some super glue, and a kerf cut piece of plywood. It worked perfectly.
Here’s how that turned out - the cover fits like a glove! You’ll also notice I had to rout out a cavity for the battery box.
Rasping the belly cut can be hazardous for soft gentle hands.
Contours looking good!
At this point all the major woodworking is complete.
I added this piece of sheet aluminum for a bit of visual interest. I also replaced the plastic truss rod cover with aluminum.
Dry assembly of hardware! Oooooweeee!
Dry assembly - electronics.
Sanded and ready for primer and paint.
Paint!
Matte finish!
The headstock got refinished too to match the body. Designed a replacement logo decal myself, very crisp!
And the finished product! Great success!
