Dear all Master, i'm kinda Noob here..

recently i got OLD Guitar from my parents, it's an OLD Ibanez RT240

Spec HERE



Look like pict above..

but condition is worse such as :

1. Small Crack on the body near the neck joint


[attachmentid=3682710]
2. Polish that not shiny again and even crack



3. some screw are loosen and lost (not really important but for me it is quite annoying_
4. i ever bring to John Lau Guitar shop to diagnose they said pickup problem/wiring problem
5. Recently when play i feel the volume is not constant sometime i lost the signal and not enough power (maybe the wiring inside got problem)
6. fret need to replace

but i try to take care this guitar as my baby. even i know it got a limit.

ok, forget about the body condition what im really care is find a good Tone. So recently i brought this guitar to some (Mid class) Luthier in Indonesia, my friends introduce me to him. i run a full diagnose and the result is:

1. Re-Fret is necessary! (Refret Checked!)
2. Pot got problem when full volume, will get hiss noise. (Change pot and switch Checked!)

so everything is should be alright for now, guitar is setup well, all good.

the only question now is, is it normal that bridge pickup (HB) produce only about 40% gain than neck/mid pickup (Single coil)??

anyway my genre of music is rock, funk, pop, gospel.


if you guys have a question just ask me, but dont ask "How Much?" it's not for sale..

This post has been edited by Oshika: Feb 17 2014, 08:00 PM

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V...vectorid=229466


if you're short on cash, then buy a new one for your gig... then take your time to restore this classic.

That option also counted in my mind.. but it will take a long long time to restore the classic, it may fully broken before i can restore..

This post has been edited by Oshika: Oct 19 2013, 12:46 AM

it survived 20 years, i bet it can survive another 5

put it somewhere safe. collect money to restore it! it may be the best guitar that u've ever played once restored! and maybe when u looks back at this moment in 20 years time, u'll feel glad that you've made the decision


..or if after restoring, it sound like shit, dump it

Some say old is gold.

This may be true e.g. 59 Les Pauls.

But not if it's Kapok guitar from 1920.

No value apart from sentimental possibly.

Bold parts it's a so it still have bad possibilities, and seriously that was my concern, i doubt if restoring can make the guitar sounds good.

haha no Kapok la, but not Les Paul Also, it's Ibanez MIJ but not in good condition, or i can say Bad condition, even i still play with it until now. cause no choice

Do PM me if yoou want to sell it

not for sell la i can get by my parent..

That's why there's an 'if' there... becoz i love vintage ibanez

Btw just take your guitar to other luthier for another opinion... restoring an old guitar might be costly depending on the damage, but the sound of old wood definitely worth it compared to new guitars, probably better to set up to a playable condition, no need to do cosmetic restoration yet.

I usually bring my guitar to Mr Ray @ Guitar Hospital, very friendly and with quite reasonable price, i have sent him to resetup my old 1977 ibanez les paul black beauty lawsuit copy.

This post has been edited by nezcar: Oct 20 2013, 08:47 AM

guitar hospital quite far from my place, i only able to reach johnlau..

i generally would strongly advise you against bringing it there even if they were behind your place.

on the note, if you were a super star, like vai, that crack and shit will make the guitar cost like RM20k

will try to arrange and communicate with them.. Lol, im not that star, someday maybe..

note: " against"

if u can reach john...u can also reach tham...his number in that luthier thread here.

Against which one? John or guitar hospital?

against any form of hospitalization.

guitar hospital.

if you can travel all the way to cheras, send the guitar to TGS. they are cheaper and more reputable.

If me, i will restore slowly, not necessarily at one go.

Does it really need a pickup upgrade? What is it about the current pickups that you're not satisfied with?

I reckon you should get that shim and crack at the neck joint looked at, clean up the guitar, restring it and set it up. And that's it. (Can't see the condition of the frets, so can't say whether it needs a refret.)

That is one sweet guitar!