MOTO to MOP: Changing inlays on an RR3

[DrDoug]

I decided to host this writeup on my server and the images on Photobucket since it is pretty long and loaded with images. It is broken up into six pages, so hopefully the 56k members won't choke on loading all of the images in one page. The link to the starting page is: MOTO to MOP

As I state in the writeup, this is not the 'right' way to do it, it is the way that this inlay noob decided to do it. If anyone has any other suggestions, please feel free to add to the story here.

I just whipped up some pages fast, and I need to add a few more images after cleaning them up, so it is not finished yet but it is 98% of the way there!

Enjoy.

Note: We are getting hit with some pretty heavy winter storm weather here, and our ISP has been up and down over the last couple of days. If it does not come up just check back later!

[rjohnstone]

Nice work!

[toejam]

Very cool!

BTW, did that Floyd Pro fit in there without any routing? I know its string spacing is also a little more narrow. And did you put in a new nut or just leave the old?

[StukaJU87]

Nice project, Doug. You have way more patience than I.

[demeyes]

That turned out great. The write up is good, you seem to have thought things through and used some real common sense with most of the steps. Good job, have you anything else planned?

[emperor_black]

Excellent pics and description. Can we have some better pics of the finished RR3's inlays? Good job Doug!

[delt]

Awesome work, and pretty impressive that you leveled them to the fretboard without removing the frets!! I would have probably found it easier to remove them and do a whole refret job afterwards.

[DrDoug]

Thanks guys! delt, the leveling of the inlays to the fretboard took me about two hours to do all ten of them, and polishing took about another hour. So it was pretty easy to do it and saved me the agony of having to pull the fret wires. Since I did the whole job in steps, it was actually pretty easy to do it.

Joe, the FRP required trimming about .030 of an inch from the high E side of the pocket, from the insert to the back of the rout, and I had to increase the depth of the rear shelf by about 3/16ths of an inch for more pullback on the trem. I also had to clearance the back side of the hole for the inertia block about 3/16ths of an inch for the full divebomb. I have some 1/32nd inch black rubber mat on hand, so I cut a piece to glue on to the rear shelf area of the rout for the pad. I did get a new nut with the FRP, but I decided to keep the original nut as it was fine. Tuning is stable and I like the precision of the adjustments, it is much tighter than the licensed trem. Well worth the effort, that is for sure! I am sure I still have my diagrams for the original rout, and if you want I can dig them out and put them up for you to look over and compare.

demeyes, yup, more destruction is planned! I have decided to go with a full paint job this spring. After all of the mods I have done to it, the paint will be the icing on the cake. I am going with black w/ white bevels, and I have a few subtle tricks in mind for it. Nothing gaudy, I want it to look classy. I plan on doing a full write up on it for those who have access to a compressor and HVLP gun. I want it to be a pro job, and I am pretty good with 2K paints and finishing. But I have to wait until the temp comes up and the humidity drops from 100%.

emperor_black, I will have a high res closeup of the inlays up soon. The closeup I shot got fuzzy reworking it and I don't like it. I will post here to let you know when I get it uploaded.

Thanks for the comments guys. I have to say that if you are patient, have the tools and can spend less than $100.00, this is a job well worth doing. Every time I open the case now, the first thing that catches my eye is the inlays shining in the light. A Rhoads with MOP inlays just looks right.

[kelly user]

someone told me your not suppose to use epoxy for that, or was that for frets.......... well any who, great job!

[DrDoug]

Thanks Kelly User! About the adhesive, everything I read says to use epoxy for inlays. I have read where super glue was recommended for fret wire, but this was just in casual reading. As corrosive as super glue is, I would not want to try it on an inlay job. The epoxy bonds well, is waterproof and seems to do the job nicely.

[toejam]

Joe, the FRP required trimming about .030 of an inch from the high E side of the pocket, from the insert to the back of the rout, and I had to increase the depth of the rear shelf by about 3/16ths of an inch for more pullback on the trem. I also had to clearance the back side of the hole for the inertia block about 3/16ths of an inch for the full divebomb. I have some 1/32nd inch black rubber mat on hand, so I cut a piece to glue on to the rear shelf area of the rout for the pad. I did get a new nut with the FRP, but I decided to keep the original nut as it was fine. Tuning is stable and I like the precision of the adjustments, it is much tighter than the licensed trem. Well worth the effort, that is for sure! I am sure I still have my diagrams for the original rout, and if you want I can dig them out and put them up for you to look over and compare.

Thanks! I think I'll just stick with my OFR on my Charvel at the moment. Seems like too much of a hassle. I just saw the templates in Axweilder's thread. http://www.jcfonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77729

[DrDoug]

I saw those too, and he is on target with the differences. I figure that I am never going to sell my guitar and I would be crazy to go back to the licensed trem. So no big deal on the rout mods for me.

I hear that the licensed trem on these is not too bad, but mine was a POS. The screws wobbled horribly in the inserts, and I was not going to teflon tape them. When I pulled it and looked at the threads, I could not believe how rough they were. I have seen better threads on crap Chinese screws. Also, when I looked at the knife edges on the old trem, I could see that it was flattened out and copper was exposed on both edges. Copper is soft, and that explained why it would not go back to center properly. The prior owner probably never oiled it.

I can beat the crap out of the FRP and it always returns to perfect tune. I keep the pivots and screws well oiled as I do not want to trash it. It was well worth installing, no regrets. When I paint it this spring, I am going to fill the backside of the rout (with alder, not bondo or whatever) so that it is specific to the FRP. No going back at that point...lol! One odd note, the nut that came with the FRP is marked 'R 4/2' on the bottom.

I still have the old trem sitting around, I should probably toss it and free up some space on my shelf. I don't ever plan on using it, though someone might like the parts off of it. If they do I will give it to them.