Modern Guitars, Then and Now.

yes, that's what i heard and why i figured i wouldn't like it. the large 59 carve is too big for me
in practice it didn't feel big. I do have necks running from nearly full depth 25mm ish right down to 17mm and as long as the playability is good it doesn't take me long to get used to in.
 
The rocker nut never made it to the end of production. It was replaced by a graphite one in the last GS models . I have never seen one off a guitar.
Here you go, this is the only complete spare I have although the rocker pieces are not original but I never got around to measuring some up and having them made more accurately. I have a graphite nut somewhere which came with one of the spare necks but my recollection is that they were only ever fitted to non-Transtrem models.IMG_3943.jpgIMG_3944.jpg
 
Here you go, this is the only complete spare I have although the rocker pieces are not original but I never got around to measuring some up and having them made more accurately. I have a graphite nut somewhere which came with one of the spare necks but my recollection is that they were only ever fitted to non-Transtrem models.View attachment 89906View attachment 89907
Thats great, thanks for the disassembled shot for people as I don't think I explained it very well. I'm not surprised that no other manufacturer has got this way because of the serious mod to the fingerboard needed.
 
Very informative thread with a lot of new details for me. I have my share of RG3120s, and had heard they had the moniker of being the Prestige j.customs, although I always just attributed that to the specs and them being the top of the line non-j.customs. I didn't know that the neck was the specific feature they brought in. The internets tells me some have j.custom stamps at the neck pocket, but I've yet to open mine up to see.
 
Very informative thread with a lot of new details for me. I have my share of RG3120s, and had heard they had the moniker of being the Prestige j.customs, although I always just attributed that to the specs and them being the top of the line non-j.customs. I didn't know that the neck was the specific feature they brought in. The internets tells me some have j.custom stamps at the neck pocket, but I've yet to open mine up to see.
The 3120 is one of the best Ibanez Guitars at any price point . Particularly the version pictured with low pro Edge and no truss rod cover and yes sometimes they do have the J Custom ink stamps .
 
Rewired the Ricky 12. A lot less rats-nesty than stock, and copper foil added to cut down on noise pickup:

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I used a piece of 18 ga. solid tinned copper wire from my amp-building supplies to connect the pot bodies. Some of the left-over cloth braided insulation replaced the plastic green insulation tubing on the cap leads. The one red wire grounding the switch frame is the only remaining original wire that isn't a shielded lead. Guitar is a lot less prone to noise pickup with the sheilding, even with the gap in coverage near the output jacks.

Really enjoying this thread - lots of great pix and info. Want to get a Floyd-equipped guitar at some point....
 
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Interesting thread - I'm going to have to go snap some pics of my favorites...my Rand.
By far one of the coolest guitars to come out of the 80s.
 
I acquired most of my more traditional(-ish) instruments much later in my guitar collection. For the longest time I just wanted JEMs and RGs to put different pickups into.

The guitar in my av is the one I've wanted to talk about because it's so special to me. A friend of the family and a very very talented musician worked with Ken Hoover at Zion Guitars to re-create a Valley Arts Steve Lukather Model in translucent cherry. It ended up in my Dad's collection sometime around '85. He handed it down to me in November 2019. Since the thing is crazy gaudy (it's solid quilted maple for crying out loud, body by Tom Anderson) so my Dad had put gold pickups in it. We reverted it to stock for a bit until I bought some custom SDs for her and tarted her up good. I am not sold on the red-top knobs, but I don't hate 'em, either. Right now I think they're just amusing.

WRT to the real thing, this one is a two-piece quilted maple body with a bolt-on bird-eye maple neck. The fretboard is ebony. The frets are large but I don't think they are stainless. Thing is, Dad plays with a very light touch so it never developed any fret wear. I enjoyed the stock EMGs, but the humbucker was too aggressive for my taste. The singles were gorgeous. Currently I have a custom shop SD Saturday Night Special, trem-spaced and 5% overwound wired series/split/parallel on the min-toggle in the bridge. The mid and neck are Psychedelic Strats, essentially CBS-era lower-output Fenders. I'm saving the blood-n-guts badass single-coil set for my Strat when I get around to it.

Pics should be something like: Stock, gold knobs, then red knobs if this works. O, and the last picture is a goof, too: ten minutes with a clone tool and you, too, can have unrealistically dustless gloss-black pick-guards. That does not happen naturally here. Almost forgot to add the Ibanez stable (minus the Talman).
 

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    1984 Custom Zion 1.jpg
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  • 1984 Custom Zion New Pickguard 2.jpg
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  • 1984 Custom Zion New Pickguard Red Knobs 5.jpg
    1984 Custom Zion New Pickguard Red Knobs 5.jpg
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  • 1984 Custom Zion New Pickguard 7.jpg
    1984 Custom Zion New Pickguard 7.jpg
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  • The Ibanez Family 05-17-2019 1.jpg
    The Ibanez Family 05-17-2019 1.jpg
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I acquired most of my more traditional(-ish) instruments much later in my guitar collection. For the longest time I just wanted JEMs and RGs to put different pickups into.

The guitar in my av is the one I've wanted to talk about because it's so special to me. A friend of the family and a very very talented musician worked with Ken Hoover at Zion Guitars to re-create a Valley Arts Steve Lukather Model in translucent cherry. It ended up in my Dad's collection sometime around '85. He handed it down to me in November 2019. Since the thing is crazy gaudy (it's solid quilted maple for crying out loud, body by Tom Anderson) so my Dad had put gold pickups in it. We reverted it to stock for a bit until I bought some custom SDs for her and tarted her up good. I am not sold on the red-top knobs, but I don't hate 'em, either. Right now I think they're just amusing.

WRT to the real thing, this one is a two-piece quilted maple body with a bolt-on bird-eye maple neck. The fretboard is ebony. The frets are large but I don't think they are stainless. Thing is, Dad plays with a very light touch so it never developed any fret wear. I enjoyed the stock EMGs, but the humbucker was too aggressive for my taste. The singles were gorgeous. Currently I have a custom shop SD Saturday Night Special, trem-spaced and 5% overwound wired series/split/parallel on the min-toggle in the bridge. The mid and neck are Psychedelic Strats, essentially CBS-era lower-output Fenders. I'm saving the blood-n-guts badass single-coil set for my Strat when I get around to it.

Pics should be something like: Stock, gold knobs, then red knobs if this works. O, and the last picture is a goof, too: ten minutes with a clone tool and you, too, can have unrealistically dustless gloss-black pick-guards. That does not happen naturally here. Almost forgot to add the Ibanez stable (minus the Talman).
Great stuff and you can't really go wrong with MIJ RGs and the new Indo stuff is hard to beat at the price.
I dread to think what a one piece quilt maple body would cost now.
 
Next up;
A Vigier.
IMG_2070.jpg
The fit and finish on this is pretty much perfect, even the inside.
IMG_2072.jpg
First thing about these is the 10/90 neck (10% carbon 90% maple). The skunk stripe here is actually the carbon, It goes right through the maple and partly in to the fingerboard replacing the truss rod completely . It is not adjustable in any way but in practice this works perfectly because it never moves whatever string gauge you put on or with the seasons. The relief is fixed at a hair off dead straight ( the ideal ) and in nearly thirty years since it came out I have never come across one that has moved at all.
The neck heel is the old fender type but because the body is thinner it feels more like a modern cut back heel in use.
The strap buttons also use a machine bolt in to a brass insert in the body.
 
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I actually don't like this locking jack but many do.
The wood and process at Vigier is interesting because they season it real time. They make body blanks and neck blanks (with the carbon glued) and leave them for a full year before finishing. When you get a finished piece the wood has been in the factory for three years.
 
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Moving string trees and a zero fret. Or should that be 6 zero frets a string damper and teflon nut available for each string gauge set to ensure no sideways movement or pinching. It does work and it stays in tune like a Floyd.
One downside to all this is they really only make one type of neck and one body shape with almost no options. Great sounding, flawless playing guitar though.
 
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I actually don't like this locking jack but many do.
The wood and process at Vigier is interesting because they season it real time. They make body blanks and neck blanks (with the carbon glued) and leave them for a full year before finishing. When you get a finished piece the wood has been in the factory for three years.
I'd rather the cable pulled out of the jack than the jack ripped out of the guitar or the guitar got yanked off me, by a lot. Locking jack there seems nuts.
 
One downside to all this is they really only make one type of neck and one body shape with almost no options. Great sounding, flawless playing guitar though.

Again, a quality pictorial of one of the - perhaps - less well known makers out there. Keep these coming, they are much appreciated!
On a personal note, I've always been wanting to test out a Vigier superstrat, but I've yet to get a chance. Don't see that many on the market, but that may not be a huge surprise given their playability.
 
I guess really the only "modern" guitar I own is a Strandberg Boden Metal 6. It's a very unique guitar, but absolutely amazing. The trapezoidal neck is... interesting. Not sure I like it better than a regular rounded neck profile, but it doesn't hamper my playing. Lightest guitar I've ever picked up, ultra portable, and sounds and plays friggin' amazing.

Just.. don't put D'Addario XLs on it
 
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