Make Your Low-Cost IBANEZ Play Like A PRESTIGE! - 12 Minute Mod Tutorial 

"super glue gives a brighter sound than wood glue" lmao

Dude i miss hearing you play these heavy riffs. And this video was just so satisfying to watch!

I work in the senses and perception lab at York University. My thesis involved evaluating if musicians could tell the difference in tone with electric guitars. We had 6 groups which consisted of Musicians who listened to back-back live playing of samples with 3 different electric guitars without visual cues Musicians who listened to recorded samples if the same instruments Non-musicians who did both of the same And of these three groups 1/3 were randomly assigned to a condition where there was no difference between the samples (the same guitar was played 3 times for them ) There was no correlation between body wood and detectable tonality. We also had frequency spectrum analysis done on the recordings and they were more dissimilar between recordings of the same guitar (sonically) than varied due to wood. If the guitars had the same pups and were played the same and it was set up well there was no reliably discernable difference. That being said people in our experienced musician group could identify the guitar with the tremolo installed about 60% of the time (the tremolo wasn't being used while playing)

thank you for this video, i'm wanting to do a lot of these same upgrades to my rg standard. i'm still new to a lot of guitar maintenance and general terminology but seeing you do everything with explanations is super helpful and makes me feel like i could do it too.

Amazing video Ivan! Great job!

Hey man love the vid! Starting my own rebuild on an rg 2570e that I rescued from a pawn shop years ago. Will definitely be coming back to this for part links and wiring tips. The grounded copper tape was a neat touch. Will have to explore that myself! Cheers from Canada!

Great video man! I see folks wanting the A/B comparison... eh, next time. Everything upgraded here is part of what makes a premium instrument. You can be certain that tone, excessive noise and tuning stability have been addressed in very noticeable ways. Subbed.

What you shoulda done with the electronics is install a mad hatter terminator setup Trust me bro you'd love the change, Steve Vai uses that shit with his EVO.

Loved all the music choices in this video lol. So good.

loved the tutorial and playing also loved the instrumental version of the way the news goes

Just love the mouthful of letters and numbers Ibanez uses for model n item number

I think my favorite thing about this video is the fact that it reminds me of how it looks when I’m working on guitars. Nothing fancy, just work.

Nice.. awesome little brother.. I've found I'm going back to original tuning, standard 22 but extra jumbo fretted, even 24 one a tight sound is doing it for me...

Awesome video man. Very well done and informative.

Those are some nasty riffs. Love it! 🤘

Awesome video man!! 🤟🤟🤟🤟🤟

Great video. Love ibbys and after the burial !!!

Before and after would be great. Aluminum shields also.

Will be doing a similar update to my rg7421 great video man super helpful

I love the deftones instrumentals you added

Dude great video. Been trying to find what pick ups to put in my rg565.

my guitar sounded like that out of the box just kidding well done! PS I play Ibanez RG370DX 12 years old machine, all original stock, and it plays really well, sounds great too

My man used Diamond Eyes by Deftones in the video! MAD respect!!!

nice breakdown at the end

Man that guitar is badass lookin to began with!! It’s a work of art now!! But that’s what I love doing, is buying some low cost guitars and molding them into something that sounds like a $3000 guitar!

LOST IN THE STATIC!!!

Awesome !!! the electronics conections, thats the only thing that scares me a lot for not doing this kind of improvements 🙃

I never realized how important the nut was to the overall tonality. You learn something new everyday!

Looks like you already had conductive paint in the electronics and pickup cavities so the copper foil is a bit redundant. Copper foil does look cool though. Great video man.

This dude is talking about glue tone, I can't be the only one who find this crazy right?

Very nice work. I'm surprised you didn't swap pickups out also or just their magnets.

A comparison of the before vs after would be so helpful

Awesome video! I've been wanting to try out doing my own mods soon. Maybe my next buy will be an ibanez rg7421pb to try and beef up

Awesome! And Blood Eagle is my favorite Periphery jam. This axe is now a true djentleman.

You honestly know how to break it down and show...you can mod a guitar and it sound good without having to break the bank. Now I want to build a 7string!!

Nice job! 👍

Awesome video! Been thinking of making some mods to my gio ibanez!!

what are you putting on the volume pot before soldering the ground on it at 8:00 ? great video! Didn't know there were direct replacement bridges for these ibanez bridges. so much easier without filling and drilling holes in your guitar...

Thanks for the great video :) I'll apply all these changes upgrading my Ibanez RGA42FM. I was thinking about adding a new pair of pick ups as well though. What are your thoughts on that?

Any Deftones song playing in the background = me liking and subscribing

Thanks man, My RGA72QM needs these upgrades.

I have the same model but 6 string version. Best thing I did was scallop the fretboard.

Solid video. I want to mod my RG 7421.

That shit sounded dope.

Great work. Do you think you should make people aware that you’ve lost the standard pickup switching combinations by going with the 3 way switch. To step up in quality from the standard alpha 2502n switch and maintain its switching capabilities you need to go with a vlx91, schaller megaswitch m or a dimarzio super switch (or comparable versions) all of which are pricey. Minor point but hope it’s added to the options people might have.

What are your thoughts re, using conductive paint in place of the conductive tape? Is it as good? Not as good? Neither here, nor there? Thanks.

Nice video and great song at the end :-) I want to do the same thing with my RGIR27FE. But I’m confused with the locking tuners. I didn’t want to drilling the head stock and it’s look like that yours have a plate for the 7 tuners… it is custom made?

Sweet video I did this to a rg421exfm a few years ago and at the time I worked at guitar center as a tech and people used to want to play that alllll the time I was like bro $300 Ibanez $100 in parts bam prestige lol

Periphery makes me want to fire up Neural DSP's Soldano SLO-100, plug my baritone RG in and jam for the rest of the day.

Blood eagle 👌

Who else unconsciously started singing along with the periphery instrumental

I want to do a project Ibanez s-521 red , changed with graph tech nut and stainless steel fret and with emg 81x 85x with the foiling tape inside so there is no 60 secs hum.What do you think ?

Do you know if this bridge will fit on an Ibanez GRG7221 with the stock F107 bridge?

What was in the white tube you put on there before you made the solder joints?

Wasn't there already shielding paint in the electronics cavity, tho?

Can we hear the guitar isolated aka not in a mix?

Which profile did uou use on the vst? I have that one too, that's why i am asking.

What nut should i buy to GIO DX121. Size or can you link one

Please make more videos like this! Maybe another with a Floyd Ibanez upgrade?

have you ever done this in any other 7 string that does not have a fixed bridge? A tremolo bridge lika a Gotoh or OFR?

will that bridge work for a regular RG7321? Been thinking of modding mine. I have Duncan Retributions in it and it sounds awesome but I wanna make the guitar look less plain Jane.

How do you adjust action on such fixed bridge?

Can we change a fixed bridged to tremolo bridge in an electric guitar?

Do you take on projects I got a couple guitars I want souped up pick ups bridge a actual bone nut and everything you did on the video

What set of pickups does your guitar have?

Do this same mod woth an old 2000/2001 RG7421/7621 wich are made in japan, basically those models are prestiges without the prestige logo and pricetag. I have a RG7420 upgraded with fishman fluence moderns, Original floyd rose and locking tuners and it is a beast!

What are these pickups ?

Question: Why did you use the copper foil? and why did you have to ground it? The guitar looks amazing after your mods. I just never seen anyone use copper foil before.

cool video, dude.

1:53 He hit the Guitar on its nut. 😂🤣

btw TUSQ nuts are indeed amazing

So the hipshot bridge fits perfectly in the spot og the tight end? looking to upgrade like you!

WHATS THE SONG PLAYING AT THE 8 MINUTE MARK

How much did you spend for all the upgrade parts?

I know everyone's tastes are different and what makes something premium to me is different than you.... with that said, the biggest difference to me going prestiege to budget ibanez is the fretwork followed by craftsmanship then hardware. The Gibralter bridge is actually on the prestiege hard tails and is a fantastic bridge. I do like the upgrades you did to the nut, tuners, and electronics. Hopefully your tech spent some time on the fretwork to bring them up to the level you are after. Good work, I enjoyed the video.

Ha...Meshuggah. Nice.

the finish is better than some prestige

What about changing frets to steinless steel?

What is the string post length of your hipshot tuners?

❤️

i want to turn my tremolo ibanez to full hardtail but the grounding is on the claw so i have to somehow direct it at the bridge?

The music at 10:43 is incredible, is there an mp3 I can buy?

Could I put Seymour Duncan black winters in my ibanez rga42fm?

bro GRG7221QA vs GRG170DX vs GRX20!! which is the best pick for shredding speed and best feel ?

Deftones in the background? automatic like

Nice vídeo, I'm thinking to upgrade my ibanez Iron label RGIR27FE but I don't know which height hipshot tuners are direct fit. Any recommendation?

6:20 whats the name of that song?

No before and after sound?

you people are insane. Super glue on the nut makes the guitar brighter? If you say so.

DIAMOND EYES

What’s the song at 8 mins? Awesome video

i liked how he played 2 deftones songs that used 8 strings on a 7 string video lmao

what’s the song starting at 1:04

So you didn't have to change the pickups?

last thing to do is stain the rosewood black

tone glue

i want

What string gauge you used here ?

Yes I want to know how can I get someone to do my Ibanez like that I will be willing to pay and can you do it

you didnt have to put shielding tape, there's already conductive paint in there.