ShredWorks Setups & Repairs

IBANEZ RGA GETS SOME SERIOUS MUSCLE !!

A little while back I picked up this 2009 Ibanez RGA42 for a great price. As with most stringed instruments that somehow make their way into my possession, I knew that this axe could be so much more. For the vast majority of intermediate rockers this guitar would fair just fine. But my heavy-riffage itch had yet to be scratched with this guy....

Luckily I had been waiting for a "guitar body donor" to drop a set of Bareknuckle pickups into. This seemed like the perfect opportunity. In the bridge a ceramic Bareknuckle Warpig (21.5k) and in the neck an alnico IV Bareknuckle Mule (7.3k). What a killer pairing !! All the beef and aggressiveness for chuggy, shreddy destruction and a laid back sweet sounding alnico neck pickup with loads of clarity.

To complement these awesome pickups a new pair of metal pickup rings and a complete wiring overhaul was definitely in the cards. I really wanted to focus on simplicity for this project so I wasn't about to start drilling new holes in the guitar and installing all sorts of gadgets that looked cool, but would take away from how the guitar played and most importantly how it sounded !!. So I opted for a simpler Alpha A500K volume pot, a new Ibanez 2502N 5 way switch for all of the possible "hum-free" coil splitting capabilities. Vintage cloth wiring where applicable. A delete on the AA battery compartment. And surely that damned "mid boost" circuit needed to say goodbye to the world. A simple SPST killswitch fit the bill just perfect.

The frets were in excellent shape on this Ibanez. It had definitely been well taken care of and wasn't exposed to any sort of high/low humidity fluctuations during it's lifetime so there were no sharp fret ends to speak of and it was simply in need of a quick fret polish. As with nearly all of my guitars I installed a fresh Graphtech Tusq XL nut for rock solid stability and opted to replace the standard Ibanez die cast tuners with a set of inline Gotoh Magnum-locks.

Strung up with a set of Daddario XS nickel plated 10-52's in Drop C for all of the chug you can handle. And topped off with a knurled metal abalone volume k**b to make it stand out from all of the gloss black finish. This one is definitely missed. Especially that Warpig....😔

Feel free to reach out and drop a line about this RGA. What are your thoughts on it ? What would have made it even better ?

Rock on and keep it breezy 😉

One of my favorite axes ! I saw this Korean Ibanez SZ320 pop up for sale locally and knew right away I could turn this into one hell of a fire-breathing rock monster 🐲🔥.

It definitely needed some work. The bridge was not original and the pickups were generic Epiphones that left quite a bit to be desired. It was clear the electronics had been reworked and not for the better. It needed to be completely gutted and redone. But the bones were good and the custom 1971 Pl***oy magazine cover on the guitar top made this a worthy project.

I decided to go with a new Korean made heavy duty 3 way selector, a push/pull Alpha A500K volume pot with treble bleed circuit and an Alpha A500K tone pot with 0.022uf Orange Drop capacitor. As well as a super cool Ulincos blue LED momentary killswitch with a PureTone stereo output jack and a 6 volt coin cell battery compartment to power the LED and complete this high end circuit. As always I made a "drop-in" wiring jig to do all of the precision wiring outside of the control cavity. This makes the electrical work so much easier to complete without struggle.

My original plan with this axe included a set of nickel covered Seymour Duncan Alnico Pro's APH-1's that sounded excellent. But after playing it for a little while I was convinced I needed something "less vintage" and more "savage" ??? Welcome the Pegasus and Sentient duo everyone. That's what this guy was missing 🤩. Although not super high output, this pickup set bridges the gap between vintage and modern and has loads of clarity and enough beef for the heavier stuff. A pair of new black metal pickup rings and black knurled aluminum top-hat k**bs with pointers complete the look.

Quality tuning and stability were paramount in my mind. As this used guitar came with a pretty flimsy non-original bridge I decided to go with a superior quality Japanese Gotoh locking wrap-around bridge. As well as a Graphtech Tusq XL nut and economical but great Saphue locking tuners. Tuning stability and string clarity were highly upgraded after these changes.

The final stages of this project were to give the fretboard a much needed cleaning with Naptha and MusicNomad F-One Oil as well as a good fret polish. Strung up with Daddario 10-46 NYXL's and setup in E standard tuning. In Love....😍

Let me know what you think of the guitar ! The Pl***oy top, the upgrades, what I should/shouldn't have done. I'd love to hear from you guys and gals. Cheers

Korean Fender acoustic guitar gets a new lease on life !! 🎸🎶🎶🎶

Awhile back I was given this Fender Korea acoustic that had a severely bad case of bridge lift and had sat tucked away in a closet for nearly 20 years !

I was asked to get it back in playing condition as it was the owner's father's guitar that had been passed down and had sentimental value. First step was obvious....peel that cracked bridge off this guy and find a suitable replacement. After taking the strings off I realized the bridge was loose enough to not even need any heat to release from the top. A careful (near surgical) swipe or two with a thin putty knife and voila ! Just a light sanding to level out and clean things up and it's ready for a new bridge.

Being somewhat vintage (80's/90's) Korean I wanted to source a nice dark rosewood bridge for the guitar. I was able to find a bridge that had inlays that matched the fretboard inlays, Bonus... 🎉
After marinating in Titebond and bridge clamps for two days I decided to make this bridge a permanent fixture by running a single bead of black Gluboost around the back edges of the bridge to prevent future lifting. A brand new compensated bone saddle and custom ebony and abalone bridge pins complete the look 🤙

The owner of this beauty wasn't super concerned about the aesthetics of the guitar but that neck was in need of some TLC. After a complete face-lift that included Naptha, scraping the fingerboard, a fret polish and and two conservative treatments of F-One oil she was nearly ready to be played again.

The finishing touches included a new slotted bone nut, tuner adjustment, truss rod adjustment, vigorous cleaning and setup in E standard with Daddario 12-53 light gauge strings.

Resurrected from the grave 👻😯I tell ya ! Wow she plays nice, sounds nice and has tonnes of vintage mojo. Honored that I was the one to be able to give this gem a new life and allow the legacy to be continued. Cheers !!

Too funny....🤣

How To Trigger Guitar Store Employees - Ft. Brandon D'Eon Music Click here to learn my guitar techniques: https://royzivmusic.com/

I wanted to share something a little different with you guys/gals...Something that has been a labour of love/frustration for me for years. Building custom pedalboards. For myself and for others that are much more skilled than myself and can actually use the pedals to their full potential. For most guitar players, there is always an endless quest for better tone. That elusive tone that only our guitar idols can have ?? Yet we try to get as close as humanly possible to it no matter the sacrifice haha. While I can't promise you that you'll play just like Jimi, Clapton, Hammett or Morello afterwards. I can definitely help to give you a platform to chase that tone and sound as good as... "you can possibly sound". Willing to work with all sorts of budgets and needs. Large, small, complex, simple, whatever you're looking to do. Reach out and let me help you.

Cheers and happy Monday

The Original Ibanez Iron Label, reimagened ?? I have always thought this guitar was a jem. The first Iron Label offering from Ibanez sporting a Tele-ish body, ebony fretboard, locking Gotohs, active EMG'S and a killswitch. It was pretty killer to start with, but why not give a nod to one of the pioneering hard rock/metal gods?

EMG's pulled in favour of a fresh set of triple voiced Stephen Carpenter Fishmans. Wired to a new Kaish heavy duty 3 way switch with an On/On/On mini toggle to switch between the voicings and a green momentary killswitch. As well as a new Alpha A25k volume pot, new stereo output jack and vintage cloth wiring where applicable. Finally finishing off with a Graphtech Tusq XL nut to keep you in check while you smash this guitar to bits. Setup to perfection in Drop C #, because why would you have it in any other tuning ?