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I decided it might be worth a few laughs to take a shot at turning my old crappy '84 Ibanez DT350 (my first electric, btw [img]/images/graemlins/headbang.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]) into something I actually might want to play. I just picked up a Model Series neck for it, & started work on the most critical part of the project: the bridge conversion. The guitar originally came with the infamous Ibanez Pro Rock'r single-locking trem. Words can't describe how bad this thing was. It had to go. The tricky part was that the post spacing was well over 3" and they were well behind the position Floyd posts would take, since the saddles on the Pro Rock'r are right about in line with the posts, rather than ~1/2" behind like on a Floyd. Some "before" pics:
Here the arrows show about where the Floyd bushings will go, & the white paper shows the mod needed for the route. I briefly considered leaving the old bushings in, filling with Bondo, & using woodscrew posts for the Floyd, but this is a basswood body & there isn't much wood there for stability. A recipe for disaster. So I pulled the old bushings, dowelled & drilled for the Floyd bushings. Getting the old bushings out was super easy. I'll go ahead & post how I did it, since I remember reading how someone drilled through the back of the body to tap theirs out, & this might help someone. I made an extractor using one of the old posts, a nut that matched the threads, one small washer, & a stack of large washers with an inner diameter bigger than the bushings. I ran the nut all the way up on the post, then the small washer, then the large washers. I screwed the post into the bushing a couple of turns, then using the the allen wrench to keep the post from turning, tightened down on the nut to pull the bushing up through the stack of washers and out of the body.
Pics after paint removal, dowels glued in, new bushings installed, route roughed in:
Here it it with a JT-6 in place. It will have this trem until I decide the project is a success and it is "OFR-worthy" [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]. After I took the pics, I put the old neck on & strung it up (still waiting on the new neck). I think it's going to work out pretty well, but the claw to block distance is shorter than normal. Can I get shorter springs? Should I just cut these down a bit? I really don't want to remove any more wood, but I guess I could cut a recess for the claw if I have to. Advice? The next step will be to fill up the gaping hole behind the new trem. I'll probably leave a shallow recess there. When I first started on this project, I was thinking about reshaping the body a bit to make it more of a Charvel shape by eliminating & rounding over the sharp accents, but I like the black binding & I don't know if I have the skill to redo the route for the binding if I mess with the shape. Any opinions or tips on this would be appreciated. Also, I'm looking for color suggestions. It will have a rosewood board & black hardware. I'm thinking something light would go well with the binding, but Newc's color change paint thread got me thinking that green/gold or green/copper might look pretty cool.
Here the arrows show about where the Floyd bushings will go, & the white paper shows the mod needed for the route. I briefly considered leaving the old bushings in, filling with Bondo, & using woodscrew posts for the Floyd, but this is a basswood body & there isn't much wood there for stability. A recipe for disaster. So I pulled the old bushings, dowelled & drilled for the Floyd bushings. Getting the old bushings out was super easy. I'll go ahead & post how I did it, since I remember reading how someone drilled through the back of the body to tap theirs out, & this might help someone. I made an extractor using one of the old posts, a nut that matched the threads, one small washer, & a stack of large washers with an inner diameter bigger than the bushings. I ran the nut all the way up on the post, then the small washer, then the large washers. I screwed the post into the bushing a couple of turns, then using the the allen wrench to keep the post from turning, tightened down on the nut to pull the bushing up through the stack of washers and out of the body.
Pics after paint removal, dowels glued in, new bushings installed, route roughed in:
Here it it with a JT-6 in place. It will have this trem until I decide the project is a success and it is "OFR-worthy" [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]. After I took the pics, I put the old neck on & strung it up (still waiting on the new neck). I think it's going to work out pretty well, but the claw to block distance is shorter than normal. Can I get shorter springs? Should I just cut these down a bit? I really don't want to remove any more wood, but I guess I could cut a recess for the claw if I have to. Advice? The next step will be to fill up the gaping hole behind the new trem. I'll probably leave a shallow recess there. When I first started on this project, I was thinking about reshaping the body a bit to make it more of a Charvel shape by eliminating & rounding over the sharp accents, but I like the black binding & I don't know if I have the skill to redo the route for the binding if I mess with the shape. Any opinions or tips on this would be appreciated. Also, I'm looking for color suggestions. It will have a rosewood board & black hardware. I'm thinking something light would go well with the binding, but Newc's color change paint thread got me thinking that green/gold or green/copper might look pretty cool.
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