RR project, need your help guys

[madalia1]

im have an opertunity to buy an rr1 with lightning sky graphics, its a bit beat-up, theres not much hardware with it, floyed has gone and pickups removed, theres a crack in the paint on the front and back but apart from that its fine, neck is mint, if i buy it i will get it for next to nothing, so was wondering what you guy think of my idea and if it will work,

i have planed to fill the spring and floyed cavity with solid wood and filler whare needed to make everything flush,i dont like floyds so much these days and since there will be a locking nut im thinking to add a kahler, i did think to do the v-plate string through but tha seems like allot off work, thinking to have a set off bare knuckles installed too.

do you think filling the cavitys will restore the tone that an rr1 lacks compared too the rr1-t?

[Sunbane]

If you don't like floyds, I think you'd be better off going for another guitar. There's no way of predicting how the tone would change from the glue, wood and filler. And you will have to redo the finish. And with the conversion and refinishing done, it will probably end up costing as much as an RR1T.

[DonP]

You are putting a lot of work into it, and the outcome will be questionable.

Take the easy way out and just block the floyd.

The tone an RR1 is missing compared to an RR1T? I doubt it. My SL2H sounds killer and will stand up to any of my SG's and LP's with fixed bridges (and my 750XL). Some guitars just got lucky and the right combination of stuff came together.

[Bengal65]

Tone missing on the RR1? I have both a RR1T and a RR1. I can't really tell the difference. The Floyd does add mass, so IMO, it still sounds similar to the string through.

[Axewielder]

You can read about my project if desired, which was very similar. Like everyone else already said, it is a hell of a lot of trouble and expense, and you would probably be better off finding a ready-to-play hardtail somewhere.

http://www.axewielder.com/King%20V%2...%20Machine.htm

[madalia1]

i thought i might get away with not refinnishing the front (why will i have to refinnish it?) yeah i plan on doing quite allot with the guitar,i want this as a project for the next few months off my spare time, i have a freind who might refinnish it like the iron maiden life after death sleave, mite go for lightning again or just black with green bevels, do the kahlers bolt straight on or do they require a small amount of routing?

i always thought that guitars with spring cavitys caused the guitar to lose that bit of grunt tone as its the wood under the pickups is routed away?

i have a KV2 and KE2, esp mx-250, ibanez destroyerII and the new mustaine angel of deth, the all have differnt pickups but the none floyds have that aggersive rythem chunky sound, could somone possibly send me a link or a photo of there blocked floyd just for interest please,

i have seen allot off guitars whare a custom paint job has been done over the pickups, can you only do this with active pickups or can you buy covers for the likes off a JB?
thanks

[madalia1]

hey axewielder thats an amazing result, thats just what i want to do too, i put your page in my favorates to read over tomorow, going to bed now, thanks for this info guys, i realy appreciate it

[toejam]

i have planed to fill the spring and floyed cavity with solid wood and filler whare needed to make everything flush,i dont like floyds so much these days and since there will be a locking nut im thinking to add a kahler, i did think to do the v-plate string through but tha seems like allot off work, thinking to have a set off bare knuckles installed too.

do you think filling the cavitys will restore the tone that an rr1 lacks compared too the rr1-t?

The Kahler or hardtail Fender-type of bridge should work fine. If you do a V-plate and TOM bridge, you're going to need a bridge that's very low profile, maybe even have the posts sunk down and recessed into the body, because there's no tilt back to the neck.
The RR1 with Floyd has a straight neck, the RR1T with TOM bridge has the neck tilted back and bridge higher off the body similar to a Les Paul.

[madalia1]

thanks for the info toejam, its looking likley im going with the kahler, probly the one with the whammy like whats on jeff out off slayers ESP, i havent read much into them as yet but have played a guitar with one and it was real nice

[Sunbane]

i thought i might get away with not refinnishing the front (why will i have to refinnish it?)

Well, it all comes down to what level of "fit & finish" you want it to have. It's very hard to do "spot repair" of finishes - it typically shows, and often doesn't look that great. Guitar finishes consist of a couple of paint layers with lots of clearcoat over them, and that is why it gets complicated to get a good result after a repair. Most of the time it is easier to just sand it all down and refinish the whole guitar. I would expect it to be particularly difficult to repair a graphic finish too.

[J_A / 540s]

theres a crack in the paint on the front and back but apart from that its fine

I looked t this one pretty closely... the cracks are not just in the paint. That is the seam where the lower body wing is bonded to the neck & that is why it is on both sides! That is why it hasnt been bid up too high.

It's an interesting project but a lot of work to do what you want with it.

[Newc]

You won't have to refinish it if you add a Kahler, though a small portion of the block that fills the route will be visible on the top on either side of the Kahler.

However, if you want the Kahler trem, it will have to be routed for the spring block. If you get the flatmount 3310, it won't have to be routed.

You can have the filler block painted black to match the existing paint, though.

As for the idea of tone being lost from Floyd routes, the Floyd assembly weighs as much if not more than the wood that was routed out of it, so there is no difference in tone from that.

You might get a slightly different acoustic tone, but that does not translate into amplified tone.

[madalia1]

hi guys thanks for all your info, unfortunatly i lost the auction in the last 10 seconds, but if anyone has a rhoads for sale thats beat-up off any usa model please let me know