should I build it?

[fenderbender1017]

I'm thinking about building myself a new guitar, I have a chance to buy a neck from a Ibanez jem 777vbk with the tree of life fret board witch I think is awesome. I would use a jem replacement body rear routed so I wont have the ugly pick guard. I would use a FRO trem and evaluation pick ups. what do you guys think should I do it? Oh ya and the pick up configuration would be H/S/H

[nickwellings]

It sounds sweeeeeet! I say go for it. As long as you have the budget though, cause all those parts, labour and so on just add up, and keep adding up! ("Oh I just need that, I forgot that, what about that, I need that too!") it happens!

[heem6]

Yeah, what Nick said. Building a guitar is almost always more expensive than just going out and buying the same model. Although with the price of Jems that might not be true. Hell, I think I'd just buy a nice RG, use all the parts and sell the body to recoup some of the cost.

[fenderbender1017]

LOL ya thats the thing the cost is getting kinda out of hand, my original plan was to build a sweet little shredder using a jem style body because Ive always loved the monkey grip, I was going to use a wizard 2 neck but even then the cast was around $900.00 then I found the jem neck and the tree of life fret board is awesome and I have to have it but now the cost is up $500.00 more on the up side i will have a one of a kind made just for me guitar with all the things I love

[fenderbender1017]

Oh and I tryed the RG parts thing but the eadge 3 sucks so I bagged that plan too

[heem6]

What don't you like about the Edge III? I love my Edge III bridge and it stays in tune as well as any of my other Floyd-style bridges. Maybe there's some setup help I can offer.

[fenderbender1017]

ya i herd they are really nice when they are new but i herd they Ware out fast plus i just really want to go with a OFR on my build when i was growing older that was always the bridge to have Thats what this guitar is all about having all things Ive wanted in one guitar

[fenderbender1017]

besides if i did buy a RG with the plans of using it for parts I would just find a reason to like it and ad it to my collection. (ya I don't see a problem with that ether LOL)

[heem6]

Haha. I gave a friend that advice recently. He wants to build a Randy Rhoads V-type guitar, so I told him to find an RG350 for parts (he really wants to build the body from scratch). Now he really likes the RG and is having second thoughts about parting it out. He found it brand new from an owner who never played it - for $245!

[fenderbender1017]

LOL see what I mean? So I did some math and it would cost me $1.500 pluss to build this thing, then I thought wow I could get three more HM Strats for that price and like you just said an RG can be had for under $300.00 I could get five of them So Im thinking about building two new HMs and ether picking up an RG550 or a HM in stone red with a FR

[heem6]

Sounds like a much better deal to me if you wind up with two more HM's.

P.S. Be careful of the old RG550's - neck warpage issues and the neck heel joint is the exact opposite of the AANJ - you won't be able to play nearly as high up the neck - it blocks access.

[fenderbender1017]

Ya thats what I was thinking, I think I will buy as many HMs as I can afford while the price is still low

[fenderbender1017]

if I build the thing using a wizard 2 neck it really cuts the cost down, so I may do that and get two HMs one project and one hole.

[heem6]

Even if you don't get the vine of life with the Wizard II neck, you could still cut a monkey grip into the body...

[fenderbender1017]

True