For the guitar geeks among us...

Yeah- on that particular model, it was a bit of a flaw. Every time I mention it to my guitar repairer, he says pretty much the same thing.Not sure if it was the quality of the wood or just the way they routed the cavity to fit the trem. A real shame, as the guitar's great otherwise. Nice chunky frets too.

The bridge on my Strat Plus gets the same amount of abuse as a Floyd, but is fine.

I`ve never been one for trems to be honest , I rest my hand on the bridge a lot and do quite a bit of damping with my style on faster sections so the need for a trem has never arisen , I have one on my Yamaha Strat and that guitar has spent the last decade in it`s case , the Gibson Flying Vee and Ibanez Iceman have been my main weapons of choice and they have fixed bridges .

Just did my first gig with the band (playing bass)- was a prebooked open mic night at the Queen Boadicea in Islington. Went really well.

Was fun thumping back on the SV through London- took me back to the old days doing pub gigs up that way. Did miss a few turns though- the memory's a bit rusty!

Next gig is at Cafe 1001 in Brick Lane- Sat 6th Jun at 3:30 pm. Anyone local is welcome- it's free to get in and all that.

I had an Ibanez of some kind when I was younger, and I failed to learn to play properly. A few years ago I sold a load of my stuff and the Ibanez and a shop gave me £200 for it. I think I was conned, but I didn;t check it out. Stupid.

Anyway, what might be a nice guitar for someone who is going to try and learn again? Nothing rubbish, as it's nice to have nice things and makes you want to try harder. But not stupid money either.

I'm not very happy with Ibanez at the moment. They won't sell me a replacement neck for my RG550- it's a 2002 model. They're really, really tight over replacement necks- I really don't think that the design would change enough for a current RG550 neck to be impossible to fit.

Gonna have to get it repaired again. Still, that, a plek setup and a tremsetter fitted should come to the same cost as a new neck- so I could be doing myself some favours. Just need to take extra care of it in future...!

Needless to say, when I'm looking for a 7 string next year, I will not be going for this brand!

If I can find a John Petrucci Model for cheap enough, I may go for that instead. I'd love an ESP Horizon FR-II, but to get a custom 7 string built would prove quite costly...! (about £2.5-3K).

[ophic]

what's the problem with the neck? Totally broken or just cracked along the grain?

mmmmm

guitar pornage

looks like i can come to yours and jam without lugging a guitar across london

Originally Posted by Alpinestarhero

mmmmm

guitar pornage

looks like i can come to yours and jam without lugging a guitar across london

You're on!

I've also got guitar rig/amplitube on the PC, so we can have a proper jam!! I'm not the most accomplished metalist though (in terms of Rhythm- most metallica is too fast/too much stamina for me!!)

Originally Posted by ophic

what's the problem with the neck? Totally broken or just cracked along the grain?

It's a v shaped crack- not near the guitar right now, but I think it's along the grain.

The repair was pretty good first time round (though it took them a couple of attempts to find a glue strong enough)- but obviously another knock is very likely to open it up again.

It's not really major- so the guitar is still playable, but I'd rather have the neck in the best possible condition.

I've been advised on a guitar forum that some people do break Ibanez guitars down for parts on Ebay, but I'd be a little worried about getting a counterfeit...

All this aside, I had a nice discovery with my Strat Plus the other night- the strings were running at an angle across the neck with the 6th string being right up to the edge of the fretboard at the 22nd fret, showing the bridge and nut were misaligned. Thought I'd have to have a custom bridge sorted for it.

However, I found that the neck had shifted out of position- so have muscled it back into place.

So now my dilemma is this- I have some money appearing in my November payslip in a couple of weeks (a year's worth of Xmas club savings).

I could either-

• Get the Epiphone plekked (£135). This would just about be totally sorted then- just not with snazzy pickups. But it does sound great as is (a touch fizzy right at the top, but otherwise very sweet sounding).
• Get the Ibanez sorted- about £120ish for the repair, £135 for plek and a tremsetter installed (£36 plus fitting/setup). About £300 in total. This guitar would then be totally sorted.
• Get the Strat Plus plekked (£135) and new pickups and electronics upgrade £170ish. It would then be totally sorted.
• Get the Hotrod Strat repaired- £? About 200ish I reckon and ttremsetter installed and setup £36 for the part, plus fitting+setup. So probably about £300 in total. This guitar would then be totally sorted.

Before I go getting a new guitar (I'd like a Gibson LP Traditional and a 7-string shred beast too), I really ought to sort my existing guitars out. Even though the cost of this would get me close to a 6 string Horizon-FR II! They're gorgeous they is.

I'd like a THD hotplate for the amp too- but they're £250, so might have to wait...


The money will need to cover insurance/service/new fork internals on the bike first and foremost. Plus an iPhone if I decide to go with the 16Gb model. And Christmas pressies. And I need a bass compressor (EBS model- £125). Plus it'd be nice to have some over to enjoy socially (Xmas beersoclock!).

I'm getting quite a bit of cash, but have to wait on what the insurance is going to cost (I guess I could ring CN and get an estimate, for planning purposes).

This is good though- I'm costing up and planning, but just doing the usual thing and spending money before I've got it!!!

[ophic]

Originally Posted by thedonal

It's a v shaped crack- not near the guitar right now, but I think it's along the grain.

The repair was pretty good first time round (though it took them a couple of attempts to find a glue strong enough)- but obviously another knock is very likely to open it up again.

Right then what you want to do is get some clamps (whatever you need to hold the crack closed), some old school Araldite (not the rapid stuff) and a hair-dryer.

Smother the Araldite around the crack, pushing it in as far as you can whilst holding the crack open as far as you dare. Then get the hair-dryer and use it to heat and blow the glue into the crack - should be able to penetrate much further than using other means, as the heat makes the glue runny. Once you're happy the crack has a good coating of glue, clamp into place, wipe off excess and leave for at least 24 hours.

I'm not sure of the finish applied to Ibanez necks so this may need touching up afterwards.

This tip comes courtesy of the guy who builds Robert Fripp's guitars.