Ugh, sick of waiting... Extremely Belated NGD!

[MetalHeadMat]

So I was going to wait until I finished some of these mods, but after waiting a whole month for my pickups to come in, (which still haven't, btw), I decided to just post my NGD, and the mockups I made up for it.

Anyways, without further ado... I present to you my new Ibanez RGT42DXFM, (only the last picture is mine, the weather has been really shitty here, and I have terrible lighting for taking guitar pictures in my house, so please don't mind my use of Google found pictures):










My friends dad bought this guitar 6 years ago, then after a few months sold it to another friend of mine. I've been trying to get him to sell it to me for 5 whole years, and after many failed attempts, (no money, he changes his mind, etc), I finally got it off of him! Told my whole family to give me cash for Christmas so I could finally make it mine... Instead they all pooled their cash together and bought it for me! Only gift I got, but it's the only one I wanted.

It has a mahogany body with a flamed maple top, 5-piece maple/walnut neck, through the body, "Deluxe" Sharktooth inlays, (which I'll get to in a second), Edge Pro II tremolo, rosewood fretboard, and 24 jumbo frets. It's also made in Korea, alongside the Korean Schecter's and LTD's. Originally it came with an Infinity 1 pickup in the neck, and a Infinity 2 pickup in the bridge, however my friend upgraded them to a DiMarzio Air Norton in the neck, and a DiMarzio Evo in the bridge.

Now, many of you might be wondering why I like this guitar so much if it's made in Korea, compared to my Japanese made Ibanez Prestige RG1570, or Japanese made 1990 Ibanez RG770. This guitar doesn't feel like it's made in Korea at all! The Wizard II (19mm at the 1st fret, 21mm at the 12th fret) is a bit thicker than the necks on my RG1570, (Super Wizard Prestige; 17mm at the 1st fret, 19mm at the 12th fret) and my RG770, (Wizard; 17mm at the 1st fret, 20mm at the 12th fret), but it's extremely comfortable. Switching back and forth isn't a hassle, and it's extremely easy to get used to, (I plan on using the RGT42DXFM alongside my RG1570 for my bands live performances, so that's important!). The quality on the guitar itself is amazing, the only downside is the stock bridge. I also have a serious thing for trans blue guitars, haven't owned a neck-thru in a very long time, it has neck binding, (a first for me, believe it or not, will definitely help for shows), and it has a mahogany body, as opposed to the bolt on/basswood body on both the RG1570 and RG770.

Regarding my mockups, I have some upgrades I plan on doing in the future, which include:

Step 1:
- New pickups: A DiMarzio X2N for the bridge, and a DiMarzio Liquifire for the neck. Both white, (to match the neck binding and the headstock binding)
- Dye the Rosewood fretboard black
- Black Schaller Strap Locks
Step 2:
- New tremolo: I did some research, and an Edge Pro or an OFR will drop into the Edge Pro II route, with no problem whatsoever, but I'd like to get a black original Edge to throw in
- Black hardware, (either buy all black hardware from an early 90's Ibanez with the black Edge, or go new with most of it)
- Tungsten tremolo block
- Low friction volume/tone pots
Step 3:
- When I need a refret, Stainless Steel frets
- I'm going to talk to a local luthier about possibly routing the body to have white binding, to match the neck, headstock, and pickups

Enough talk, here are the mockups I have made of the upgrades:

Step 1:



Step 2:



Step 3, (With pickup bezels):



Step 3, (Without pickup bezels):



Needless to say, I'm extremely happy I now have this guitar in my stable, and I'm very excited about the upcoming mods I have planned for it. I'd really like to get all of your opinions on the guitar itself, and the mods I have planned. Thanks for reading through my short story!

[straycat]

If it were a flat top binding it would be cool but with the arm cut not so much.
Nice guitar HDGD.

[dvscool]

Love Ibby's....great looking guitar and the through neck is really a nice bonus....I've never had an EDGE II....the original edge is amazing....the EDGE III is junk...

[tomanyjacksons]

That's gorgeous, congrat.

[VitaminG]

great gift, man. Particularly given how long you've wanted it

[leftykingv2]

Nice guitar! I love Ibanez! Killer top too! What's the deal with your inlays? You said you'd get back to them but I didn't see it if you did.

[lepard]

I have a fleet of Ibanez RG's and I hate to tell you this but.............. your Korean RGT was not made in Korea in the same plant as the Schecters and LTD's. The Schecters and LTD's have "W" and "E" serial numbers which is World Guitars. Korean Ibanez guitars were made by Cort. Most of those are pretty mediocre but the neck-thru's like yours seem to be noticeably better. I've seen some pretty nice ones, great bang for the buck.

[leftykingv2]

I have a fleet of Ibanez RG's and I hate to tell you this but.............. your Korean RGT was not made in Korea in the same plant as the Schecters and LTD's. The Schecters and LTD's have "W" and "E" serial numbers which is World Guitars. Korean Ibanez guitars were made by Cort. Most of those are pretty mediocre but the neck-thru's like yours seem to be noticeably better. I've seen some pretty nice ones, great bang for the buck.

+1 Most Korean Ibanez are made in the Cort factory.

[coloradoman25]

RGT42 series IMO is the BEST underrated guitar in the ibanez line and the best cheap neck thru bar none that I have laid my hands on. I have had a few guitars too..

[warlok]

Again, I love the import RGT42's and the RGT6. Let us know how the fretboard dye works. I wonder if it will discolor the binding. And also interested what's wrong with the inlays??

[MetalHeadMat]

Seems I was mistaken about the factory, I KNOW LTD and Schecter are built in the same factory, I heard Ibanez too but must've been mistaken. Regardless, I like Korean Cort's so that makes sense!

Anyways, the inlays... If you look at them normally, it looks like a normal Ibanez Shark Tooth inlay, but the more eagle eyed forum lurker will notice the inlays are two pieces. One piece is mother of pearl, the other is abalone or something. The lower/bigger/maybe abalone piece looks EXACTLY like a Jackson Sharkfin inlay, with the MOP piece added on top. Check it out!

[toejam]

Very nice! Interesting about the inlays.

[MetalHeadMat]

Live update:

On December 26th, I went into a local music store chain, (Long and McQuade), and after nearly 2 months of waiting, the pickups finally arrived! They ordered both the wrong colour, and wrong models! As previously stated, I ordered a white DiMarzio X2N and a white DiMarzio Liquifire. They ordered a black D-Sonic, and a black D-Activator X. After spending an hour of back and forth chit chatting, they finally went to reorder my pickups, just to tell me the Liquifire doesn't come in white. "Well DiMarzio's website tells me they come in white," I say, "Whether or not you're right, we cannot order them since they're not in the computer." Uh, ok. You can go on the fucking site on your computer and check to see if they're there.

In the end, I reordered the Liquifire and X2N in black. I was going to go for pink, but the computer said the X2N doesn't come in pink. Was then going to order both of them in blue, or black/blue, but alas the computer said neither of them came in said colours. Again, all wrong, since they do. So in the end, I decided just to go for black. I would have just gotten my money back and taken my business to the internet, but well over half of what I paid with was a Long and McQuade gift card, so I would have only gotten that in store credit. If I had the extra money, I would've just done that but I have a serious lack of funds.

In another 2 months when the pickups get here, I'll do another update. Last time I try to support a local business like Long and McQuade.

[toejam]

That's a bummer, because DiMarzio's site does have them available in the colors you want. Next time tell those idiots to call DiMarzio directly to order them. Or maybe you could call/email DiMarzio and exchange them for what you really want?

[Rich#6]

Knowing the Ibanez Korean guitars are made by cort explains a lot. I believe the owner of Cort shut down production in Korea and moved to Indonesia. I always thought the move was to make the guitars cheaper(on Ibanez's side) .