My '77 Ibanez project

tomek · Post by **tomek** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 11:53 pm

This strayfollowed me home last night.

Seems to be a 2420CW made March of 1977.
Hopefully she arrives in one piece w/ the Super 70's !

Looks like she could use a nice bath.
Hopfully with some TLC she'll behave nicely in her new home.

Drdos · Post by **Drdos** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 1:29 am

tomek wrote:This strayfollowed me home last night.

Seems to be a 2420CW made March of 1977.
Hopefully she arrives in one piece w/ the Super 70's !

Looks like she could use a nice bath.
Hopfully with some TLC she'll behave nicely in her new home.

That's a nice find. For the price you can't go wrong! Congrats

tomek · Post by **tomek** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 2:14 am

Thanks Man!

I'll be sure to report back with pictures after she's been bathed,
and weather or not they are Super 70s in there.

Pacemaker · Post by **Pacemaker** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 2:33 am

I swear, a lot of Les Paul copies look so much cooler than actual LPs.

Awesome find, I hope she cleans up nice and plays like a dream.

tomek · Post by **tomek** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 3:21 am

Pacemaker wrote:I swear, a lot of Les Paul copies look so much cooler than actual LPs.

Awesome find, I hope she cleans up nice and plays like a dream.

Thanks Man! Ya some of these "copies" play and sound better too!
The seller just got back to me suggesting he will ship the guitar tomorrow in it's case,
then bubble wrap the case, and box it! so for so good!

Keeping my fingers crossed!

MSP · Post by **MSP** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 4:47 am

Nice find! I love those old Ibanez guitars. They all seem to weigh a ton though, but feel solid.

tomek · Post by **tomek** » Wed May 13, 2009 4:50 am

So she's made it here! I'm glad to report the neck and frets are in great shape!
Man does the neck ever feel great! Plus the guitar is way lighter than I expected!
She's gonna need a serious cleaning, so I'm in the process on taking her apart.

Not sure if the truss rod, or pups work yet..

Cheers, Tomek

Van Cleef · Post by **Van Cleef** » Wed May 13, 2009 4:57 am

awesome - had that been a lefty i would have been in a bidding war with you

tomek · Post by **tomek** » Wed May 13, 2009 5:31 am

well then! I'm glad it wasn't a lefty! hehe

Taking it all apart... Manged to break 3/4 knobs taking them off, doh! hehe
It's like they haven't been taken off in 32 years!

shees

Man oh man, is this thing cruddy! I tried cleaning it with lighter fluid, but no go. Didn't do a thing!
Guess what did it? My warm breath (so it fogs up) and wipe - repeat till clean. She cleaned up nicely (pics to come).

Took some 0000 steal wool to the frets and neck. Perfect!

Plugged 'er in, oh oh! no sound. Looks like a problem at the patch cord! (I could tell by wiggling the cord).

Take a look at this! My soldering iron couldn't even get through this crud! hehe
After some time with the iron, the heat did get to the solder. After removing the solder w/ a sucker, I cleaner the connectors with sandpaper.
Soldered the lead back on, (as well as the shielding to ground) bent the hot pin in more, and BINGO!

It does look like she came with the original Super 70s and everything is wired with nice shielded cable.
Too lazy to de-solder everything for now gonna try and get her up and running ASAP.
Man is that old braided wire difficult to work with! You have to get through the clear plastic, then metal braid, then a layer of twine, then a thread wrapped hot lead!

Wendigo · Post by **Wendigo** » Wed May 13, 2009 9:23 am

Damn nice guitar!

crguti · Post by **crguti** » Wed May 13, 2009 11:32 am

oohhh... I'd like to restore an old guitar.
Which pickups are you planning to put in? I'd recommend the Seymour duncan Seth Lover gold cover.

tomek · Post by **tomek** » Wed May 13, 2009 11:13 pm

Thanks Guys,

Phase one is complete...(General cleaning w/ warm breath and microfiber cloth, 0000 on the fingerboard and frets, and testing to see if it works.)
She plays, feels, and sounds great! It's truly a pro. instrument. Very balanced sounding acoustically.
Very fast action, but a little bit of buzzing around the top three frets (gonna cut me a new nut).
The super 70s sound cool.. A little lo-fi and break up easy for my liking, but definitely great old school sound (Jimmy Page comes to mind).

Once some parts come in (nut, tuner bushing, pickup harness, knobs and pins) I will proceed with faze two:
Cut new nut, clean brass, polish guitar and brass, inspect electronics (even though everything appears to work fine let's look inside).
I wonder in re-soldering all the electrical connections would affect the sound...

professor plum · Post by **professor plum** » Thu May 14, 2009 1:03 am

this is very cool, reminds me of the guitar the singer or sigur ros plays...

Wicked_Tone · Post by **Wicked_Tone** » Thu May 14, 2009 1:21 am

Awesome looking LP! Good luck with her. It looks like you got a great deal.

ESBlonde · Post by **ESBlonde** » Thu May 14, 2009 8:26 am

tomek wrote: I wonder in re-soldering all the electrical connections would affect the sound...

Only if you cook the components, there is no reason to resolder if it has worked all this time. You will be making new connections with most of it anyway putting in new pots etc. Otherwise I'd leave well alone. Also for sure this would be leaded solder from 1977 so beware if you plan to mix lead free modern stuff

My '77 Ibanez project

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