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Brutus1999
Username: Brutus1999
Registered: 03-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - 12:13 am: | |
Well, I had been thinking about an Ibanez hollowbody for a while, and impulsively bid on an AM-50 (Korean) because I thought I might like the smaller body better and the price was LOW and I thought I would not get it. Well, I did.
But looking at the pictures more carefully, it didn't look that hot. The white pickguard looked a little tacky and the sunburst looked a little too yellow, and the knobs looked too white, and I thought maybe I'd get a cool black pickguard or something. Then I read a comment on this board from someone who saw the pix and said it looked "DIRTY". Here's the pix:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7400775811&rd=1&sspagename=ST RK%3AMEWN%3AIT&rd=1
Well, it arrived. In a "coffin case" that seems to work. Opened it up. It looked like it had marks all over it. I was a little demoralized, but then figured out that the marks were just DIRT...not nasty, gritty dirt, just kind of dust and crap. I looked it over....not a mark on it.....except......dang.....a ding on the neck behind the fifth fret. But otherwise, the finish looked great. And the color was fine, the sunburst looks a lot better than in the pix. And the pickguard had aged to a nice vintage cream color. It had a new bridge and the old bridge was also in the case....Super 58's and a nice, tight, set neck. Nice sustain without the pickups.
So NOW, I don't know what to do with it! The bridge pickup is set into the body. The neck pickup is sort of diagonal, with the part closest to the neck sticking out of the body a little. Is that normal?
The action is low, the neck is great (for me)...something about these Ibanez necks for me....intonation seems right.
I know I should take the strings off and clean it carefully first. Anything else I should know or do? The frets seem okay...I don't know enough to judge if they are bad, I guess, unless they are really bad! Any suggestions on what to clean and polish it with? I had some stuff that's used on acoustic guitars, but this finish is really shiny...
A few comments on any of the questions above, or setting up, etc. would be helpful, unless there really isn't much else to know....
Also, in a few days, I'll start a thread on strings, but I want to do one thing at a time.
thanks, brutus99 |
Jimmys
Username: Jimmys
Registered: 05-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, April 15, 2006 - 9:22 am: | |
Hi Brutus99,
I've written a bit of a novel with my reply here. Sorry about that but hopefully it helps you.
I asm also in Australia. I think I saw this guitar for sale. You got it at an OK price. You could always on sell it if you don't like it and will probably get your money back. It sounds like it could be worth playing for a bit though.
I usually strip my guitars down and clean them up thoroughly if I they are bought second hand. Usually this is needed to be honest. You usually can't tell whether the guitar sounds any good unless it has new or fairly new strings on it. If your strings are not newish then you should replace them at a minimum. This'll give you a chance to clean the guitar up properly with the strings off.
I just use cloth from an old T-shirt, sometimes damp with a slight bit of degergent if there is heaps of grime. Often 'hot breath' is enough to moisten gunk up and you just wipe it off quickly with the cloth.
I also use T-cut car polish on lacquer which gives a brilliant shine without much cutting. T-Cut is an abrasive polish that does not scratch the surface. Silvo or Brasso also work fine and Silvo and T-Cut look like they are the same stuff actually. I have polished a car with Silvo and I know people that have used Brasso with absolutely brilliant results. Kitten No 2 is another polish of similar abrasiveness but it does tend to scratch the surface and I think it contains solicone. If you can't find T-Cut, get Silvo.
Sometimes I use Kitten No 1 polish after the T-Cut but this has silicon in it I think and this is a problem if the guitar is ever likely to be refinished later on. It gives a glass-like shine though.
With the fingerboard, is it lacquered or just plain wood? If lacquered, it is easy to clean. You can use a polish like T-Cut on the frets (strings off obviously) and it'll clean up the lacquered fretoard also. Sometimes I use an old toothbrush and some water and detergent if there is heaps of sweaty crap next to the frets. If it is bare wood, I still use the toothbrush method but don't allow it to stay moist for long at all and don't use the polish on the frets as it'll get into the wood. You can actually use very fine steel wool or say 2000 grade wet and dry sandpaper on the frets if you want to get a more polished look. Maybe get a luthier to do this if you are not confident.
Does it have much fret wear? You can see this by looking at the points under the strings where they contact the frets when you press down on them. If there are little valleys worn into the frets, you will need to determine if the wear is worth addressing while the strings are off. Best to take it to someone in this case. If you get fret buzz in any spot, it could be because of a bunch of things, but sometimes bad fret wear will cause this. It sounds like the guitar plays well and you are happy with the action so I'd take a guess and say that the frets are fine and you should leave them alone for now. You can live with fret wear if it isn't too bad.
I am not sure what you mean by 'the part closest to the neck is sticking out a little'. Do you mean that the pickup ring/surround sticks up above the fretboard itself? If so, this is not right. If you mean that the pickup is higher on the neck side than on the bridge side but the ring is OK, then this should be easy to solve. You should take the strings off, unscrew the ring to figure out if there is something (like wires) stuck underneath one side of the pickup. Sometimes, the two screw mounted pickups do not sit flush. Earlier model Ibanez Artists had three
mounting screws so you could adjust the pickup angle.
Again, I don't know what you mean by saying that the bridge pickup is mounted in the body. You can adjust the height using the two screws in the pickup ring so it shouldn't be an issue.
You will need to check the intonation if you change strings by the way.
I'd be interested to hear what you think of the tone.
I hope this helps.
Good luck with it,
James |
Brutus1999
Username: Brutus1999
Registered: 03-2006
| | Posted on Saturday, April 15, 2006 - 10:19 am: | |
Wow, thanks James. That's a lot of useful information.......I have some guitar cleaner with "lemon oil" that might be okay. I assume that the finish on this electric is a little tougher than the finish on my acoustics, so if it is safe for the acoustics, it is probably safe for the Ibanez....I guess the main thing is to not use anything abrasive, or with chemical solvents, and to not let any part of the wood get very wet....slow and careful, a part at a time, is probably what's called for...
The polish info is very helpful, thanks.
Here's what I meant about the pickups.
The bridge pickup is set into the body, sticking up a bit, of course, and lies flat, parallel to the body. Kind of like this:
-----------
The neck pickup is tilted a bit, as if someone wanted the edge closest to the neck to stick out a bit, maybe to get that edge closer to the strings.
It's not that sharp of an angle, maybe sticking out 3/8 of an inch, rather than lying flat, even and parallel with the plane of the body. Maybe that's what it is supposed to be, or maybe it was an adjustment to make it a little louder? It sounds fine the way it is adjusted now and it doesn't interfere with action or playing. I just wondered if it is supposed to be slightly "tilted" in its placement or lying exactly parallel to the body.
Thanks again for your info. Any thoughts on humidifying a semi-hollowbody? I have a very old mandolin that would crack in dry, Chicago winters without humidification (so I keep it in the more humid basement), but when I put a humidifier in my banjo case, it cased a major problem with tarnish! What about a semi-hollowbody guitar with a fairly heavy finish?
Thanks again for your info,
b99
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Jimmys
Username: Jimmys
Registered: 05-2003
| | Posted on Monday, April 17, 2006 - 3:11 am: | |
Hi b99,
It is hard to tell whether the pickups are correctly mounted but they sound like they are working for you as is. Maybe just leave them.
I actually thought that you were in Australia. The names of the polishes that I mentioned probably mean nothing to you as you are in Chigaco. Not to worry. I think you get the gist.
I am not really sure what to do about the humidity thing. We have dry weather where I am but not the extreme cold. You might have to talk to a luthier or a guitar shop.
Cheers,
James |
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