Once again, I’ve successfully situated myself in this unhealthy predicament, which I’m very good at: Choosing: which I’m very bad at; obviously.
This is my very first guitar that I got reunited with a couple of days ago. I’ve already took it apart, did some cleaning, but I need to change some rusty parts and while at it, I’ll remodel it.
I’ve made 3 (maybe more) mockups of what I’m planning to change. I thought why not ask my lovely friends here for their opinion. Pick one… please. This is already hard.
Or, what would you do if you had the choice?
It’s guitar surgery day.
This is my Ibanez RG3120. It’s getting old, I got it back in 2002. The control knobs and output jack started making crackling sounds lately. (I think somebody lives in there, and scrambles eggs every time I plug in).
Luckily I have a $10 soldering gun which is not cooperating for obvious reasons, and this is probably the second time I ever used a soldering gun, so expect things to go very, very terribly.
In the past few months, my friend and former band-mate Amr Rifai, the vocalist of Nu.Clear.Dawn has been working on a DIY project unlike any other, an electric guitar.
Amr regularly kept me updated of his project with pictures he’s been taking during the creating process. His project has finally completed earlier this week after an entire year of hard work, and I don’t think there’s a better opportunity than this to share this phenomenal creation and thrilling experience of his with all of you.
Choosing wood for the neck
Sanding
The truss rod
Sanding and shaping
Shaping and preparing to cut the body
Basic structure
Preparing the fretboard
Mahogany ears glued to the headstock and ready for shaping
The almost completed neck
Gluing neck and body
Fretboard radiused and polished
More gluing work done
Making the cavities
Drilling the back cavities
Arm cut 100% sand papered by hand
Belly cut 100% sand papered by hand
Tremolo bar installation
Grain filling
Tuning key holes
Fretting
more fretting
Masking frets for leveling
leveled , trimmed , beveled and semi-polished
Wooden cavity covers
Coat of Urethane
The branding part
And more branding on the back
after 3 coats of Urethane, polishing
Shielding the cavities with copper tape
Hardware already installed
And here’s the finished product
In all its glory
Amr Rifai
And here are the specs for all you guitar maniacs
3 laminates maple, neck-through with mahogany body.
Thickness at first fret : 20.5 mm
width at nut : 43 mm
width at last fret : 57 mm
scale length : 25.5 inches
Number of frets : 24
neck shape : vintage D shape
fretboard : Maple
fretboard radius : 16-14 ( compound )
frets : Super jumbo nickle – silver alloy.
pickups : Dimarzio Evolution neck and bridge.
electronic : 1 volume , 1 tone ( Pull – Push ) 1 toggle switch.
bridge : Golden age / Stewmac floydrose.
Finish : Polyurethane
Not only you crafted an instrument, you created an instrument that is able to create music, it must feel like the greatest achievement and you should feel proud! I’d absolutely love to hear it and maybe play it one day. I hope you keep making more guitars, especially now that you earned tons of experience creating your first guitar, I’m sure you already have improvements in your mind for the next one! Amr, my buddy, this is absolutely awesome. You are awesome!
