Ibanez RG550 LTD - Full restoration

Another legendary guitar: a 1994 Ibanez RG550-LTD!
This was the top of the line of the RG series at the time.
Watch in this 35-minute long video the full restoration process!
Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
04:51 - Disassembly
06:06 - Neck
14:07 - Body
25:48 - Strap locks
26:45 - Reassembly
30:23 - Final Thoughts
#guitarrestoration #ibanez #rg550

[@TheGalilee416]

33:45 I share the joy of restoring guitars. I purchased my 1989 RG760 in a used shop and restored it like new. Love from Philadelphia PA USA. 🙏

[@fredericadda]

Amazing! So you know how this feels when you finally get to play a restored / cleaned/ repaired instrument 🥰

[@harumann]

Congratulations! Legendary guitar, indeed. My old RG550LTD is still the guitar with the best resonance and playability, against all the ones that I've owned so far: J-Custom, Prestige, JEM, JS2450, Tom Anderson, Suhr, Charvel...

[@fredericadda]

I still love my Charvel though 😄

[@brandonjackson5865]

I’ve got the same guitar in this video 94-95-ish RG550 LTD black with mirror guard and everything. I’m the second owner bought it in the fall of 96. It’s been my number one ever since. My guitar playing buddy since about 97 until now has always said it has mojo , I’ve had other nice guitars since but something is special about these mid 90s RGs.

[@fredericadda]

I couldn't agree more. My first guitar was a 1995 Jackson Kelly made in Japan, it has an incredible neck too. These Japanese guitars are so underrated.

[@brandonjackson5865]

@@fredericadda one of my buddies got a dinky MIJ around the same time and another friend got a Kelly XLR now that XLR was the best Jackson I’ve ever played including a custom ordered soloist that XLR felt better.

[@loleksk8]

Those old necks gives really nice feel in hand .

[@fredericadda]

I agree! They are sooo comfortable!

[@JohnLloydDavis]

I had an RG550 DX in a blue sparkle finish from about '94 and it had the lowest action of any guitar I have played. Great guitars.

[@fredericadda]

I agree! I was shocked by how low it could go without a buzz! Great build quality.

[@SCOTTSEXPLODINGGUITAR-wc9to]

i did the exact same job to my brothers charvel and he sold it for big bucks thanx to me nice video

[@fredericadda]

Thanks man! I'd love to find an old, battered 2000s Charvel so I could restore it.

[@brandonjackson5865]

I’ve had the same guitar black and mirror since 96 and it’s my number one still to this day. I think it’s the bound fretboard that makes these necks so comfortable and I know it’s an unpopular opinion but I love the AANJ heal. Mine has been through it all with me. Through the best of times and through the worst lows. It’s the one I will never let go of. I’ve modded it a little over the years it’s got FU big brass block, neon Green distortion trembucker in the bridge, a hot pink pearly gates in the neck and the stock single in the middle. I put a regular 5 way switch in it and push pull volume and tone pots to switch from series to parallel. I put Gotoh cosmo black locking tuners, to aid in quicker string changes. I put a cheap white pearloid pick guard on it and seem to have misplaced the original mirror guard, it’s around here somewhere and when I find it, I’m going to build back a stock appearance with black pickups in it, as I’m aging I think I’m getting less fond of high output pickups, so I’ll probably go back with a 59 or Custom, possibly a PAF pro and get it back to looking like it did out of the factory. I went through a spell that I thought the mirror guard looked cheesy and I was inspired by Kirk Hammets black Fernandez with the pearl guard and black pickups, but had gotten a decent deal on the wild colored Duncan shop floor custom colored PUPs on eBay. Anyway these in my opinion are the best RGs next to the OG original ones from the late 80s early 90s. I had an Indonesian 920QM premium that was fantastic as well and the build quality was probably as good as if not better than the Japanese guitars of Ibanez, the problem was the newer bridge design it had on it, if I’d kept it I would’ve put an edge lo pro like these LTDs had or an Original Edge on it. Anyway killer guitar and I don’t see many in the wild or for sale much so either they were all fantastic and everyone keeps them or they’ve been parted out, I suspect a little bit of both. Oh yeah mine has Dunlop strap locks, strap locks aren’t necessary on these because they had those huge strap buttons but I put locks on everything else and wanted to be able to use the same strap on several guitars. The springs were replaced recently on mine too, I think after 30 years the original springs just gave out, however it’s important on the edge bridges that you set them up with the knife edges parallel to the body not the baseplate like on Floyd Roses, the baseplate on the edge is actually wedge shaped, you can set them up a little higher or lower and they will return to pitch but they perform best with the knife edge parallel to the body this is it’s true zero position and it can be tricky to get your action right if it’s jacked up or sunk into the body too far. There’s a cut out on the baseplate where you can see the knife edge inserts to set the trem angle correct.

[@zappasmoustache23]

Unlike a standard Floyd rose, Edge floating tremolos are not meant to lie flat.

[@fredericadda]

The saddles of the Edge vibrato indeed look not flat because the top of the vibrato has an angle. But the base plate should lie flat no matter what.

[@no1beatsj]

I'm sure it was the sugar/syrup content in Coke that did the cleaning, Zero is different

[@fredericadda]

I have to try with Pepsi. The screws may like the taste better 😋