[kostein]

I recently borrowed (maybe permanently ) an old Ibanez from a friend to play with it and a bit and it's in pretty bad shape. This guitar was purchased brand new 10-11 years ago for roughly 500 Cyprus pounds, which would be equivalent to 850 EUR or $1100 USD today. Which makes it a kick ass guitar back then. It's a really nice guitar and I like it a lot but it hasn't been played for a long time so the wear really shows. I don't know what model it is or the specs for it.

I tried changing strings a couple of days ago and one for the saddles broke off so I decided it's time to do something about the whole thing. There's rust on pretty much everything that is made out of metal. The pickups barely work and by barely I mean only the bridge pickup works and that's when I play with the switch a bit. The tremolo works ok but it shows its age. Surprisingly the setup is still really good, action is low and there's no buzz anywhere on the fingerboard. The white stuff near the tone knob is glue from the pick holder that used to be there. Tuners seem to be doing fine on the other hand. I took pictures so you can get a better look at things.

What do you guys think it's in order here? New pickups/electronics? I think the tremolo must be changed along with all the screws on the body/neck that
are rusting. I've been thinking about buying parts online and trying to repair it myself but I have no experience whatsoever dealing with switching parts out.

I apologise for the bad pictures, I'm really terrible with a camera :lol:

Here's the guitar

A close look at the body, you can see a lot of rust.

Tremolo. How bad is it?

Switch

Back of the neck

Headstock

 

[105]

+

 

[Elysian]

Man, guitars are crazy expensive there. That looks like an RG350 or something to that effect... I'd change out all the pickups and swap the trem, either for an OFR or an Ibanez Edge or LoPro Edge trem.

 

[Jason]

New bridge and pickguard loaded with new electronics. :agreed:

 

[105]

and fire

 

[Leona]

Is it just the picture/optical illusion, or does that neck look fucking warped (2nd pic)?

 

[Stitch]

Can't really tell on my tiny screen but it looks like an old model RG350. Trem on it is shit, it's an old Lo-TRS, so swap that shit out pronto. Other than that it needs some bloody good TLC.

If you don't want to swap the trem out you need a replacement #3 saddle.

 

[Drew]

RG350 was my first thought too. I'm not 100% an OFR would be a drop-in replacement for a Lo-TRS, but IIRC they say it is at Jemsite and if it's not perfect, the amount of routing (sanding or filing, really) you;d have to do would be minimal. As long as you get the go-ahead from your buddy, that'd be a huge upgrade.

 

[DomitianX]

Is it just the picture/optical illusion, or does that neck look fucking warped (2nd pic)?

I was thinking the same thing.

Also... $1100 USD for a Korean built RG350? Ouch.

 

[Kim]

ofr is a drop-in replacement for that trem, and you might be able to spoon in a lo-pro.

 

[Toshiro]

Mid 90's RG450. The INF pickups give it away. MIKorea.

1994 Catalog

OFR would work in that guitar.

 

[kostein]

I asked my friend about repairing it and he said I could do whatever I wanted with it as long as it's not in a worse condition when he might want it back, hopefully it won't be soon

I'm gonna swap the tremolo with an OFR. I wanna change the pickups and the pick guard but I don't know what I should use. Any ideas on that? I would like to change the switch and the knobs as well. What's a good online store that has guitar parts and ships to Europe?

Also do you think is a good idea trying to repair it myself or should I just take it to someone who knows what he's doing? I've never dealt with stuff like this before so I'm not confident enough trying it out, although I would love to learn at some point.

 

[Jason]

If your buddy is going to take it back dont put any money into it. IMO

 

[kostein]

I don't think he's gonna ever want it back. He has bought a 7 a few months and that's all he plays. Plus if I put money on it and he ever wants it back I can always ask for the money I spend on it.

 

[Bigeeboo]

OFR that thing, new hardware clean it and ... Play it

 

[metalcunt]

Perhaps a new pickguard and new pickups too?

 

[Zero]

I wouldn't put money into it.. He doesn't play it because it's in shitty condition and doesn't work properly. If it were suddenly in working order with $300 worth of shiny new parts, I'd wager he'd probably want it back, for some reason. :2cents:

 

[stealthtastic]

Wirelessly posted (A Destroyer of short people: Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4B1 Safari/419.3)

You cant polish a turd, so do what crooks said.

 

[James]

I'd say if you're going to spend the money on it, ask him what he'd take for it in the condition it's in and buy it. As long as it's cheap.

 

[Stitch]

I wouldn't put money into it.. He doesn't play it because it's in shitty condition and doesn't work properly. If it were suddenly in working order with $300 worth of shiny new parts, I'd wager he'd probably want it back, for some reason. :2cents:

This.

Absolutely no point at all sinking money into it if it isn't actually yours. He'll ask for it back when he goes on a six fling and you'll be left absolutely shafted.