Ibanez RG470 Project

[Mav]

*Accidentally posted in the Pickup Lounge at first*
What's going on guys? First time poster here, but been lurking for a while!

I have an Ibanez RG470 that I recent got for $150 that I was planning on completely redoing. Hardware and electronics are all being junked in favor of some shiny new parts. Will post pics of the Ibby tomorrow when the sun is out.

Any tips for this first time modder would definitely help!

 

[daan]

Re: Ibanez RG470 Project

My tip would be, prepare to get addicted to modding! I started with ONE guitar to build, and now I have 14... You'll have fun and have a cool guitar that's exactly how you want it when you're done. "Off the rack" guitars will never look the same to you once you build yours.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Ibanez RG470 Project

RG470 -- is that a Korean-built, no-pickguard, H-S-H with Lo-TRS trem? Maybe 10-15 years old?

Those had a lot going for them. The trem was kind of unfortunate, but I think an Edge Lo-Pro will fit, maybe an OFR. Sky's the limit on pickups; what kind of sound are you looking for?

 

[Mav]

Re: Ibanez RG470 Project

daan: Me and my bank account are afraid of that! When I bought her a week ago I dropped my overzealous idea of taking the finish off and redoing it. Baby steps, right?

Pigbacon: From what I gather, it's maybe a 94/95 model? Metallic Green with a rosewood board and Lo-Trs II and INF pups *ick* in it. I was planning on using this as my progressive/shred guitar. Put some pups in it that were good with note separation and wouldn't muddy up under some gain.

 

[Brian Griffin]

Re: Ibanez RG470 Project

I always love everything Ibanez, mods, NGDs, etc. Okay, now put in an original Edge into it, replacing the Edge 3.

 

[Dr. Vegetable]

Re: Ibanez RG470 Project

That guitar should be a nice foundation for building a shredder. But those INFs need to go, IME.

I would do the hardware and electrical upgrades first, and wait to do any refinishing until I absolutely love the way it sounds and plays. (Then get good-and-ripped and hit that baby with five coats of purple Krylon and some stickers!)

You can tell the year of manufacture by looking at the serial number. The serial number starts with a letter that indicates the factory where it was built. The first numeric digit tells the year, so an Ibanez built at Fujigen in 1995 would start with "F5..." for example. From 1997 on, they switched to using the last two digits of the year.

Source: http://www.ibanezrules.com/catalogs/reference/dating.htm

Post up some pics!

 

[Mav]

Re: Ibanez RG470 Project

Pics inbound!

Apologies in advance for the iPhone quality.









Will post more in a bit.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Ibanez RG470 Project

Nice color!

LOL on the date. Everything's twenty years old now. Guitars I bought new in the early/mid-2000's? Twenty years old.

 

[Mav]

Re: Ibanez RG470 Project

Looks like I was right!







From what I gather, the po lost one of the original control knobs and tried to fashion a black dome knob and clamped the split shaft shut.

 

[Dr. Vegetable]

Re: Ibanez RG470 Project

Carefully stick a knife or screw driver in there and you can fix that split shaft. Just watch your fingers - you may need them later.

A little bit of fret wear there, but I've tolerated worse.

Is that a paint chip off the back or is it actually gouged and filled with wood putty? (Not that it matters much... mainly curious.)

 

[Mav]

Re: Ibanez RG470 Project

Actually it is a chip. The light makes it look odd but it's nothing like that in person.

Something else that bugged me was that the bridge pup looks like an aftermarket. It's not f-spaced so the strings don't align properly with the pole pieces. :/

 

[Dr. Vegetable]

Re: Ibanez RG470 Project

Something else that bugged me was that the bridge pup looks like an aftermarket.

With Ibanez, that's almost always a Good Thing.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Ibanez RG470 Project

With Ibanez, that's almost always a Good Thing.

Somebody probably swapped out the one pickup that got the most use and didn't do what he/she wanted. Even if it's not what you want in it, it might well be something you could turn around and sell for a nice bit of pocket change, or else keep for a future project.

LOL. I remember when I bought my SL3, someone had replaced the factory JB with a Duncan Distortion. There's nothing wrong with that pickup; plenty of players would rather have it than a JB in some Jackson shredder any day. Even I recognized how good it was at what it did, but it wasn't the sound I wanted for that guitar, so I sold it and bought a TB-4.

 

[Mav]

Re: Ibanez RG470 Project

Alrighty guys, I'll be running some errands today and will try to stop by the local shop to see what he has in stock and what O can order through him.

Before I go, I was thinking maybe doing a Perpetual Burn, SSL-2, and Jazz? Lemme know what you think!

 

[Mav]

Re: Ibanez RG470 Project

Alrighty! The tech and I did a run through of the wiring and found out the aftermarket bridge pup is a Tone Zone. Left the Ibby there so he can do a fret dressing-should get a call about anything else he finds that I didn't.

Now time to think about pickups and hardware and different wiring schemes!

 

[dominus]

Re: Ibanez RG470 Project

The Tone Zone should actually sound pretty good in there. I'd take it off your hands if it was F-Spaced.

 

[Mav]

Re: Ibanez RG470 Project

I'm sure! Now to figure out if I really want to keep it.

Tone Zone neck and bridge? Now I'm curious...


Sent from a small tablet of Lovecraftian horrors.

 

[dominus]

Re: Ibanez RG470 Project

Tone Zone would probably be pretty muddy in the neck, it's designed to have chopped treble. Maybe wiring it in parallel would work, but an Air Norton would work much better.

 

[bloodswords]

Re: Ibanez RG470 Project

Any pics of the body rear?

 

[Ashurbanipal]

Re: Ibanez RG470 Project

Looks like I was right!

View attachment 53538

I was gonna say the bridge pu was some sort of DiMarzio.

I'd check the neck alignment - low E looks much closer to the edge of the fingerboard than high E (but it may be just the angle of the photo); see it often on Ibz, easy enough fix. This also accounts for the worse than usual alignment of the strings with the pu poles, Gibson spacing of the TZ not withstanding.