Looking for guitar for a mod project

[K.nizm]

I am trying to decide what guitar to buy for a modding project.i want to replace things like pickups,tuners,bridge,more advanced electronics with tone options like phaseswitch,series/parallelle,killswitch etc

I want a easy to remove floydrose so i can just remove the backstrings and the studs to easy access to the pickguard or for travel with a airplane.though,it need to stay in tune also.

Some more criteria:
Pickguard with hsh hss or hh
Jumbo fretz
Bolt on
Flat radius
I want to find a good guitar for max 400-500 euro or less.

I am looking at the cheap Jackson Adrian Smith sdx,is that a good guitar to do upgrades on?hardware is not that important since i am gonna replace most of it.as long as it plays good and the wood & neck is good .is the cavity under the pickguard big enough for hsh?

Are there better models for the price and criteria i want?used or new.
I live in europe.

[DonP]

SDX is good. ProMods are excellent too. I built one from high end parts, starting with a flamed neck.

[K.nizm]

Thanks,i think i can Get pro mod used in my budget..but any more suggestions would be appriciated.

[Number Of The Priest]

Below is a non-exhaustive list of the best cheap secondhand Jacksons/Charvels commonly found in North America for USD$300 or under (and hopefully internationally too). Occasionally you find other models inexpensively too, but these tend to be the most common ones. All of these are made in Japan and all are bolt-neck models. Probably the best bang-for-the-buck metal guitars on the secondhand market aside from Japanese "golden era" and "pre-Prestige" Ibanez RGs. All of these guitars would be good platforms for modifications, most of them have electronics cavities large enough to add any advanced electronics and batteries you might need, and upgrading from the stock tremolo to an Original Floyd Rose would be a direct replacement on almost all of these guitars (except those equipped stock with a Schaller JT590 which has a shorter pull-up route).

1986-1991 Charvel Model Series and Charvel "toothpaste logo" Series.
Examples: Model 1, Model 2, Model 3, 3DR, Model 4, 375, 475, Fusion.

1996-2011 Jackson Professional Series and Jackson X Series.
Examples: DK2, KE3, RR3, KV3, WRXT, DX10D, RX10D, KX10D.

2001-2011 Jackson MG Series.
Examples: DKMG, DKMGT, DXMG, DXMGT, WRMG.

Since you mentioned that you want a guitar with a pickguard, know that very few Jacksons/Charvels have them. There are several variants of the Model 1 and Model 3 that have pickguards. Or, if I were you I would try and find a 1987-2002 Ibanez RG550, which many RG owners have modified from its stock HSH pickup layout to any combination they want using an aftermarket pickguard. Plus, it has a uniformly flat radius across the fretboard (close to 17") in contrast to Jacksons/Charvels which have 12-16" compound radii.

I really think an RG550 is what you want.

Japanese Ibanez guitars can be found cheap in Norway. On the Ibanez RG Series Fans group on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/213258302154580/), there's a Norwegian guy named Sten Axelsen who has amassed an enormous Japanese RG collection very inexpensively in Europe (something I didn't think was as easy to do in Europe as it is in North America) and he and his wife are quite skilled at restoring the ones in terrible condition. I don't know where he finds his used guitars but maybe reach out to him if you are interested in combining forces to search for cheap guitars in Scandinavia.

[K.nizm]

Thank you very much..awsome helpfull post..i`v been recommended the rg550 from others too but it is not easy to find at a good price..i joined the Facebook group,going to hit up the guy.:-).