All fixed up!

A couple of months back I posted about cracking the neck for the second time on my old faithful Ibanez RG470. I gave it to my Dad to try and repair, and he didn’t think there was much hope of saving it as quite a bit of wood had come out of the crack. Regardless he gave the repair a go, but wasn’t sure if he had been able to get enough wood glue into the crack, and whether or not the extra dowel pieces he inserted would be enough to give this neck a third life.

I got it back a couple of weeks ago, and as you can see from the pictures the back of the neck is looking pretty ugly, but the good thing is it all feels good. If you didn’t look at the neck you wouldn’t even know it had every been cracked. (more…)

Reopening an old wound.

My Ibanez RG470 is my old faithful, it’s the first guitar I ever bought myself, and my first decent guitar. I’ve had it since 1995, when I bought it brand new for around $800AUD. I’ve since upgraded it with an original Edge tremolo bridge and EMG pickups. It’s been through every gig and band I’ve played with, and the neck is like home.

About 6 years ago it fell off my guitar stand, and the neck cracked behind the locking nut, a common place for cracking to occur with these era Ibanez guitars. It was all repaired, and has held up nicely since.

On Wednesday I arrived at the studio to rehearse with my band. I was getting my guitar out of the car and the gig bag slipped out of my hand and fell on to the concrete driveway. I got inside and noticed that the old crack had reopened on one side. It also had a chunk of paint knocked off the back of the body. The guitar held tune for rehearsal at least, and after playing badly for the first few songs due to being depressed after the accident my old faithful still held up to a few hours jamming, never letting up.

I’m hoping that I will be able to save this neck. I’d hate to have to replace it. I believe the neck is the soul of the guitar. This one may have very worn out frets that need replacing, but I want to keep playing it for many years to come. Hopefully I can repair it with my Father, drop in some new frets, and keep on rocking with it for many more years. Wish me luck!