Anyway, my old Ibanez Jet King 2 has sadly gotten less and less attention over the years but today I decided it was time for some long overdue tender love and care, as they say.
First thing is that the way the bridge pickup is mounted makes it feel a bit "floppy" (I think that's the techincal term...). Doesn't really affect the sound and I can get it to the height I want but it still bugs me. The devil's in the details, right?
Better but not perfect. Ideally I'd want a lower pickup ring but I didn't have that at home and none at the local music store either so some longer springs will have to do for now.
Next thing is the pickup switch. It's direction was vertical compared to the body, Ideally I'd have it so that it follows the "sweep" of the arm while playing for smoother switching. (again, devil's in the details...)
The wiring isn't giving me a lot of room to play with though trying to angle the switch but I don't really feel like re-wiring it.
In the end I managed to get a decent angle. Again, not perfect but much better and much more functional:
Also the original black switch tip had cracked but I found this white one. Sticks out a bit but I kinda like the "home fix"-aestethic. Had those old Gibson (I think?) knobs lying around that I think takes the aestethic thing a bit further. And they smell kinda funky too...
These are the old knobs btw. Nothing wrong with them really, I like how they look and they feel fine but I like to change things up. Also I've got a feeling they might look great on my Bilt...
These actually had marking and numbers too once but those have long since been chafed away.
Moving on to the headstock I wanted to flip the string tree for the B and E strings around to try and get a bit more angle over the nut. You can see the tuning peg for the B string is a bit wonky too but it works fine and I don't have any replacement at hand so it'll have to stay for now.
Moving on to the fretboard... I'm actually a bit embarassed by how nasty it is. I dunno if the picture really shows how bad it is :S
Frets could use some work too but they're not giving me too much trouble yet so I'm gonna fret about that right now... (pun intended...)
After some cleaning and oiling: Much better!
Those eagle eyed among you have probably noticed I've missed a small detail though...
...Strings!
These two gave me some trouble trying to string it up though...
...but eventually I managed and here it is. Voila!
Now here's the thing:
I love this guitar, it's the one I've had for the longest and easily the one I've spent the most hours playing, even compared to all the other electrics I currently own combined! However, as the years passed I learned more and more about what I really like in a guitar and also I guess I've been able to buy more expensive guitars as well. The result is that this has become the guitar that rarely leaves the stand and that I would probably sell if it weren't for sentimental reasons. It's not a bad guitar by any means, it's just the "least good" one...
So what are the issues then? I can recognize a couple:
First there's the neck. I dunno really if I feel like it's too thin or if I don't really like the flat fretboard radius or if it's both. These things I can live with though, I'm not really that picky. It's just that I'd ideally prefer something else. Also I guess some fret work, alternatively new frets altogether, could make it feel a lot better too. ^
Secondly I've come to realise that on most guitars I feel a bit naked without a vibrato. I could easily install something like that though and I've got a mastery bridge and thimbles just lying around that I think could probably fit as well since I'm not a fan of TOM-style bridges paired with a vibrato.
Third there's the pickups. They're Gibson Burstbuckers and they're ok but a bit bland. I'm not a big PAf-guy after all... But this could also easily be rectified.
The real big issue though is the weight. If I remember correctly it weighs over 5kg, which is a lot if I want it to be more of a "player". Standing up with it for 2-3 hours of rehearsal is just not a good idea. Sure, I'm still relatively young but quite tall and my back is already giving me some trouble from time to time.
So how to reduce the weight? It's a quite thick mahogany body and a lot of wood could probably be removed from the upper part of the body and probably a little from the control cavity as well. Problem is I though I'm really not that handy and I haven't got any real experience of woodworking and even if I had I don't have a router or a workshop for that matter. Took it to a luthier but he wanted more money for it than I could probably sell the guitar for.
So... anyone else got any bright ideas?
