Poor man's Ibanez JEM - RG450

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pacho

New member
I'm a big Ibanez fan. I love vintage models. I've always wanted an Ibanez Jem, but they're very expensive. You need over 900$ to buy Japanese one. Even RG550 start around 700-800 $ here (Poland). I don't like All Access Neck Joint and it made it even more difficult since golden age Ibanezes are more expensive.
Few months ago my friend bought 1992 RG450 as a source of parts. He has few JEMs I could compare it to. I was really surprized with the quality of RG450. I started searching for this guitar. Few weeks ago I spotted 1993 RG450 locally for an equivalent of 200$.

Specs:
- MIJ
- basswood body, RG550 minus tilted neck joint and heavy duty jack
- Wizard neck with rosewood fretboard and jumbo frets, identical to RG550
- Edge tremolo, identical to JEM or RG550
- V1, S1, V2 pickups, identical to RG550
- Gotoh tuners, identical to JEM or RG550

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View attachment 76163

I never thought I would buy 200$ guitar, but I guess people don't know how well these RG's are made. They had these specs for one year only and the production was moved to Korea afterwards.
The guitar is in good shape generally. Looks like it's been a workhorse. Has many chips but nothing serious.
It needs a refret but I believe 20+ year old guitar needs fretboard leveling anyway. The neck had a crack which I didn't notice. The bridge is in good condition too. I will have to change intonation screws. Even though the guitar has high mileage the electronics are original and work great. Tuners are just Gotoh.

I will post updates on restoration progress.
 
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fixing the neck...

fixing the neck...

neck clamped

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I spreaded the crack with a clamp

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I filled the crack with glue. I followed this tutorial: http://www.ibanezrules.com/tech/setup/crack_neck.htm
Then the crack was clamped for 24h.

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The back of the neck had many dents so I decided to remove the finish from "hand contact area". The crack is still visible but you can't feel it with hand. The neck feels 1000% stiffer now.
I will do oil finish later.

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Re: Poor man's Ibanez JEM - RG450

Nice work Pacho. Why did he/she (previous owner) replace the nut's mounting bolts? I see different ones in before/after shots. That might ring some bell about the state of wood in there. Did you revert but to the alen bolts?

PS

IMO AANJ is great as far as ergonomics are concerned. Regarding the Gotoh tuners, as you know, everything that goes beyond the locking nut is of no importance.
 
Re: Poor man's Ibanez JEM - RG450

Don't know why he replaced the bolts. I can only guess that maybe the hex head was rounded. I had OFR bolts and washers lying around. They fit Ibanez nut perfectly.
This kind of crack is very common on old Wizard necks. Might be due to overtightening of bolts or maybe the guitar fell on its headstock.
 
Re: Poor man's Ibanez JEM - RG450

pacho said:
This kind of crack is very common on old Wizard necks. Might be due to overtightening of bolts or maybe the guitar fell on its headstock.
Click to expand...

It is the same with all old locking nut headstocks on any brand that used floyds. The bottom mount holes were weakening the neck at this point. My 1988 Kramer has this design as well. But my 1988 Carvin had already switched to the front mount design.
 
Re: Poor man's Ibanez JEM - RG450

greekdude said:
PS

IMO AANJ is great as far as ergonomics are concerned. Regarding the Gotoh tuners, as you know, everything that goes beyond the locking nut is of no importance.
Click to expand...

For sure AANJ is ergonomical, but I hate the looks :) I have strats and I don't mind rectangular plates there. I like the RG550's tilted neck plate though.
Yeah, tuners don't make difference when the nut is closed
 
Re: Poor man's Ibanez JEM - RG450

The neck is finished with True Oil. I put 3 thin layers and wet (alcohol) sanded it with 2000 glass paper. The finish is in the wood only, no build up. Its super silky now. I put wax after sanding. It's difficult to tell where the oil finish turns into laquer. I'm really happy with it.
I also cleaned everything. I polished bridge saddles and corrected one knife edge.

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Today I took the guitar to luthier for a refret. I decided to install Jescar stainless steel frets (6105 size, like some Jems). Can't wait to pick it up!

Do you have any experience with V1 S1 V2 pickup set? They look very similiar to old pickups I took out of my '76 Ibanez LP. I bet they're Maxons.
V2 is very hot... 16 kOhm. The hottest pickup I own is SD 59... 8,8 kOhm. I never found hot pickup that I liked. I could leave the single coil in place, put V1 neck (~9kOhm) bucker in the bridge and unpotted '76 Maxon (7,9 kOhm) in the neck. Both are Alnico V, the V1 is supposed to be PAFish. The Maxon is a PAF copy. Do you think it's a good idea?
 
Re: Poor man's Ibanez JEM - RG450

Hmm...I would get me a 2010/11 Jem Jr., Jem 555, or Jem 505 in excellent condition for maybe 200 dollars more and saved myself all the hassle; no neck crack, minimal fret wear, monkey grip (what's a Jem without the monkey grip?).

The neck crack is a structural damage, possibly it would resurface in the future; unless you move the 2 screws from the back of the neck to the top of the nut, I guess. Otherwise the pressure from both sides of the neck eventually will result in another crack.
 
Re: Poor man's Ibanez JEM - RG450

You're right if the main reason for buying a guitar is the monkey grip...
I like monkey grip too, but for me other things are important: quality wood, japanese craftmanship and top hardware.
I could just do fret dressing to cut the costs down, but fretboard leveling and stainless steel fret install costs 140 dollars here, performed by one of the best luthiers in Poland. The playability will be better than most production Ibanezes, including Korean/Indonesian models you suggested.. The total cost of the guitar will be around 350 dollars and it will play like new.

The neck crack is a structural damage for sure, but you're wrong about possible resurfacing. The glued place is stronger than wood itself.. These guitars have glued scarf joints (including the most expensive JEMs). Did you hear about crack there? Of course there is a possibility of new crack in other place but not due to my fix.
 
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Re: Poor man's Ibanez JEM - RG450

Never understood the appeal of the monkey grip.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk
 
Re: Poor man's Ibanez JEM - RG450

Nice resto!

Too bad the word got out about RG550s, which are truly good alternatives to JEMs, and used to be quite cheap....
 
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