Ibanez Gio resurrection and set up
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
- When I put Reloved Guitars on Google Business, the closest category of business that Google allowed me was "Guitar Store". Over the last couple of years I've been getting more local business as people in Devon and Cornwall search for guitar shops near to them. This can be interesting - for example when people call wanting to buy picks... or strings or to browse the guitars I have in stock. I have to explain that, contrary to Google's description, I'm not a regular guitar store. But just as there are customers looking for 'guitar store' things that I don't do, there are also people looking for things I DO do - even if they don't know it at that moment. This week I answered the door to Oliver and Lydia who brought three guitars with them. At first they were surprised to find I wasn't a guitar 'shop' exactly but when I invited them it, it turned out that all 3 guitars were in need of fixing. All 3 - for example - had at least got loose and broken jack sockets and a load of other issues besides. After a bit of discussion (where I explained the service I offer) they decided to leave the most wrecked-looking guitar with me for the full works. So in this video I introduce you to Oliver's Ibanez Gio. A budget guitar that's been used and abused over the years until it's in a filthy and unplayable condition. Those who know me know that this is my favourite kind of guitar - because the transformation is SO profound and, well, because I love fighting for the underdog.
This video shows most of what I had to do to ascertain what was wrong with this guitar and put it right, not so that it just worked but so that it became a superb guitar regardless of its 'budget' beginnings.
My take is this: if you've got a £150 budget guitar that's in a state like this you have limited choices. You either throw it away; you go to your local tech and give them £50 to clean it up, change strings and put oil on the fingerboard or you bring it to someone like me who will charge you £135 - but with the promise of a totally superb playing action and tuning stability at the end of it.
For those who think that £135 is a lot of money for 'setting up' a guitar, here's what I did:
• Remove original nut, shape and fit new custom Tusq nut
• Dismantle and clean bridge, remove tuners and clean headstock
• Deep clean body, neck and fingerboard
• Remove and clean pickups and pickup rings
• Replace jack socket and fix splitting earth wire in electrics cavity
• Spray contact cleaner into switch (intermittent contact problem)
• Set 1st and last fret action, set neck relief
• Perform precision fret level
• Find and fit (free) spare tremolo arm
• Re-crown frets, sand and polish out
• Glue & clamp separating fretboard (+ scrape and sand smooth)
• Oil fingerboard
• Fit new D'Addario strings
• Stretch out and intonate strings
Some of these things are not shown on the video (such as the electrical work and the sanding of the frets after re-crowning) but most of it is. Even if you bought a new, tidier Ibanez Gio you would still need all of the main set up work (nut, action setting, precision fret levelling) to make it play anywhere close to this one; and the point is that even NEW this guitar required the same work to bring it up to its best possible level of playability.
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Amazing transformation. Puts other more expensive guitars to shame. I hope that the owner is encouraged to play it for some time to come. Great job Sam
Can't wait til they come to collect it Glenn!
I always liked the Ibanez gio. Nice neck, nice feel of guitar . It’s one of the best budget guitars I’ve seen just asking to be setup properly
I agree with you. The necks are superb really. For a habitual 'up-cycler' like me I always jump if I see a reasonably-priced lone Ibanez neck.
@@SamDeeksRelovedGuitars yeah , totally . got a 7 string gio, and it’s got a nice big neck on that one . All maple
i just got a new gio and modded it up and its amazing now. replaced everything i possibly could with a complete setup. it plays so well now.
I never paid anyone to do basic setup, I just learned about it. Can be a frustrating experience though when you think you understand measuring and setting the action, neck relief, even try something like deepening the slots in the nut and still can NOT manage to get a combination of decent low action and no fret buzz (or fizz maybe as you called it, even when the buzz is gone, something still eats up the sustain and there's a little fizzle out you can hear up close). "Why! What! Where is it coming from? What is it buzzing on? Why do my harmonics sound so dead unless my strings are set a mile above the fretboard?"
This video probably just answered it for me. Uneven fret height, hills and valleys, it actually matches perfectly the phenomenon I see with my guitar, where something like 4 to 6 frets in a row will take on the buzz, unless the action is way too high. I also have a Gio (7-string) and while I don't really have all the right tools to level them out at least I finally know what is probably going on (and can measure and check).
This is the most valuable guitar tech video I've ever watched.
Nothing more satisfying than restoring such a neglected piece.
Wonderful restoration. You inspire me to work on my own neglected Gio, incredible work sir.
Thank you for your kind comment... I'm just about to buff out another Gio that someone donated to me; I've re-finished it, changed the bridge mountings for a Wilkinson bridge and will be re-assembling soon :)
@@SamDeeksRelovedGuitars awesome! Looking forward to watch that one.
I use razors also. I roll the edge over using a round part of a screwdriver so at the edge of the razor has a hook on one side, just the same as if you were deburing a scraper used for wood working. I only do this on rosewood or ebony necks then I rehydrate the fretboard, let it set for a few minutes and apply more then after a few more min wipe it down to get any excess off.
Thank you so much for your help , i was working on the same model and colour guitar while watching your video .
i had the same problem with the action being so high and the tip about using a shim worked perfectly .
I picked mine up for £60 today . I re soldered the jack socket as it was faulty ,added the shim , sprayed switch cleaner on crackly selector switch
and added new strings . I gave it a nice polish and now it plays great . It sounds really good for a budget guitar .
Liked and subscribed ,cheers 👍
I'm just starting out as a luthier and get guitars like these a lot, so this was a real insightful and helpful video.
I'm glad it was useful!
To buff fret tape fretboard off after cleaning and if need be oiled. I use a polish called, Mother Polish. It is great to use on fret and buffing out small scratches on a body. It is so fine that I've used it on CD's that skip or jump a part if a track. I've done it to friends CD's that have problems and it works. Just wiping and cleaning with CD cleaner it didn't work. But the Mothers Polish worked everytime as long as it wasn't major damage.
Mothers Polish will clean up all the hardware. This polish can be used on all types of metals. Takes away small scratches.
I do have a Ibanez G10 And plays just as well as my Gibson SG might be better with the more comfortable thin neck I just love my black GIO ❤❤❤
It’s an excellent ‘chassis’ for very little money! I’m planning to refurb and refinish this one soon!
Ibanez grg 170dx gio
I’ve got exact colour 2004 model , it’s rock solid
yeah the top wrap thing was something i never bought into
I think i damaged this guitar by putting the strap in and forcing the lid down and latching it shut
it's one of those really snug cases
so now the d string nut slot is damaged i can tell because it's lower than the 5th string up at the nut
it's like you said on the vid if anything is off in geometry it won't work
so guys and gals don't force your lid shut on your guitar
i didn't mention the nut slot thing in my previous comment because i felt like i was writing a novel lol
THNX
keep the vids coming
you are the guy who convinced me not to be afraid to turn the truss rod or do my own set ups
onto it
£135 setup can make a cheap guitar play as good as if not better than something that cost thousands of pounds.
People just don’t realise (I didn’t either ) how a fret levelling transforms a guitar , add in a quality nut that’s been carefully filed to a low first fret height , truss Rod set, saddles set , strings put on properly and slack removed etc etc .
It blows my mind when I think about this .
A 76 year old student of mine brought in a custom made guitar . I’m not totally sure if it was unfinished or what , but the thing just didn’t play or sound good . Quality parts .lovely flame maple neck , and nice body , vintage tuner, fender bridge , good pickups and thick steel trem block , but the tuning stability was a bit shaky, the first fret height was about 1mm and looked like the frets had not been levelled. There was too much relief on the neck . There was no access to allen key via under the pick guard. Had to take neck off multiple times (one piece neck) . You had to turn left to tighten truss rod instead of right, but I digress. Without a proper setup this guitar is a waste of time and a well setup cheap squier is more fun to play and sounds better. That’s just the reality of it . A good luthier deserves to be paid well , it’s such a skilled job. It seems criminal that a person could buy a guitar for a few thousand quid for a big name guitar and it’s still not right .
Sorry for the late reply - yes. I've seen quite a few partscasters made with premium and exotic parts that had zero 'set up' knowledge in them and as a result were truly dire to play. And one of them - hand-made in a jungle in the Far East I think - also had a truss rod adjuster that worked opposite to 99% of the rest of the world. Why...??? When you learn - or experience - the difference that a truly well set up guitar makes it seems so obvious. But then again, I played for 30 years without ever figuring it out or having a guitar like that; always making-do and struggling with finger-slicing action etc. The trick is to help people like that historical me 'get it' because when they do, there's no question that's what they want for their guitars :)
That takes "grunge" to a whole new dimension...
Oh yeah. One step away from breathing apparatus.
When I shim necks, I use real thin wood veneer. I want to keep the wood tone as much as possible. I also remove the paint and use tung oil to seal the wood in the neck cavity. Believe it or not there is a difference in tone. I wouldn't do this to another persons guitar without there ok. I explain why I do it. But for beginners or very cheap guitar, NO. unless I plan on keeping them or plan on resaling them.
To be honest, you have to believe in "wood tone" in the context of an electric guitar and I'm afraid I don't. But we're all different :)
this is has been the ethos of your business taking a budget guitar to the next level, in terms of price, for argument sake your purchase a budget guitar I seen a Gio for £50 quid add your cost when it's all said it and done you have a great guitar setup properly for just under £200 quid , nice looking guitar now it's sorted happy playing ,
Well put - thank you. You'd be amazed how many people STILL find time to be critical of taking money from someone to set up a "cheap" guitar!
@@SamDeeksRelovedGuitars Eventually I will send my V100 to you the CFO of the house goes how much ! they always need to know the finer details, then shown parts of your video work , she goes oh I see (light bulbs go off ) then I said should I do it , then she goes no way that's a lovely guitar ( I love her faith in me ) , the voice my head then said give up Brian, she likes the guitar you made your point, when people see even a portion of your setup videos , they know their loads of care and skill goes into a proper setup , and it convinced the CFO here , HAHA
Nice to view this transformation, i bought the same model by 2nd hand (black, made in indonesia).
put out old humbuckers and replaced them with some EMGs 😂 seems to be overkill but i‘ll take them out if ever decide to get a higher ranged guitar.
I blocked my trem with a piece of wood .
my action from the 12th fred is a bit too high so i‘ll try to lower the trem with the 2 bolts there.
Greetings
I've since changed the bridge footings to take a Wilkinson 2-point tremolo and have re-painted it in candy-apple nitro. Not that different from the candy apple it was before; but this gave me opportunity to fill dings and change the bridge posts etc :) I'm trying to make some decals or vinyl stickers for it (it's a competition prize for an event my brother is running) but it's a bit of a struggle to get graphics of high enough quality to work from lol. Should look good when finished though!
@@SamDeeksRelovedGuitars sounds good , good luck, i was thinking about to make paint job on mine but in the end its too much work😂
One question, i cant get the string action as low as i want, i want to use a shim how u did.
What was the thickness? Ty
@@philipp5883 I use a piece of 0.25mm thick brass
Why did u tape it ? To get 0.25mm or sustain?
Got a 0.2mm brass piece
@@philipp5883 nothing complicated, just to hold it in place for convenience :)
totally fair price for what you did. great work man.
Thanks! I've got another one to spruce up as a prize for a special event. It's going to be candy apple red with a new bridge. And some big vinyl wrap logos or stickers
I've been thinking of picking one of these up very cheaply to fill the "Superstrat" gap in my collection. I'll bet even with that bridge, a tusq nut and some locking tuners would allow some limited tremolo hijinks during a gig without retuning.
It also seems criminal that folk can get such a transformative service done to their guitar for £135 without fully understanding and appreciating what they are getting for so little. Many of us have had to put up with poor playing guitars for decades because we lived in ignorance and could only do basic setup work ourselves that never addressed the big problems such as the nut and the frets .
I've had SO many customers bring me guitars and the one thing they have in common is that they've ALL had one or two 'normal-priced guitar set ups'. By this I mean the guy advertising on Facebook who does a set up in your area for £35 + strings or thereabouts. Granted that I don't see the happy customers of those set ups (if there are any) but they all wonder why the spent that money as the get back the same guitar with the same action... sometimes worse. But cleaner with new strings.
@@SamDeeksRelovedGuitars yup, done it quite a few times too. The zing of a fresh set of strings can be deceptive haha to make you think something significant has happened when it hadn’t really . Well , I suppose a truss Rod adjustment and bringing the saddles down if they can go down any further can make a bit of a difference if the guitars a bit out of whack , but nothing compares to the real serious setup work via frets and nuts . I wish I had known this ten, twenty years ago, again it’s just ignorance (hope that doesn’t sound insulting ) , people just don’t have the experience/insight/ understanding. I was ignorant for so long , now it’s a passion to enlighten people
I wouldn't even have that jar of acetone near the guitar. Accidental bump and damn.
Again without looking at the video... I can only think you mean "Cellulose thinners" because along with a bottle of naptha that's pretty much the only solvents on my bench anywhere. As it happens, Cellulose Thinners won't do anything to the poly on this Gio; and naptha wouldn't do anything to a guitar with a nitro finish. If this had been a vintage nitro-finished guitar AND a bottle of cellulose thinners was open right next to it, then yes... a dangerous situation.
Hi. i have a question
does improper windings lets say the guitar has 3 tuners on each side of the headstock
the g string has 3 windings and the d has 2 windings
would this effect the pull tension or whatever you call it
and cause uneven tension??
i've read articles where EVH had to wind his strings all differently before they made the locking nut
just for him to dive the bar
i'm fighting with an epi LP right now i'm getting stiff action i'm using 11's but there has to be a way to fix this?
do you raise the bass side in order to counter the tension of the treble strings?
its driving me nuts
THNX
oh yeah don't be afraid of adjusting the truss rod
just use common sense and watch the hours of free vids this dude has kindly made
With respect (and it's easy to do) you're over-thinking this - not helped by how much guitar mumbo-jumbo there is going around the internet! How you wind the strings on the tuner pegs has zero impact on how the guitar feels to play; the only thing you affect might be a) storing up a bit more slack that you need to remove by stretching the strings if you put too many winds on b) slightly affecting the position the string comes off the post (i.e. bottom or top of the coils) which can slightly alter the angle the string comes to the nut at or 3) er... I can't think of anything else. Oh - yes, if you tie a little knot in your string around the post guitar techs like me will curse you under our breaths. There's no need and it just wastes our time and hurts us when we get spiked by the cut end...
Now "stiff action" using 11 gauge strings... 11 gauge strings give a 'stiff' action, period. If you've been used to 8s, 9s, or even 10s then 11 will feel stiff on your guitar. 11s on the shorter scale length Les Paul will however feel slightly less stiff than 11s on the longer scale Strat. As you go shorter with the scale length, the same gauge of string feels looser... The part I've never understood is that there are people who SWEAR that top mounting the strings i.e. over a wrap-around bridge makes the strings feel 'looser' or 'tighter' (I never remember which...). By the holy laws of physics I declare it psychosomatic!
If you want light, bendy feeling strings keep it simple: go for a short-scale guitar (like a Fender Mustang (24") or just go down to 9s or even try 8s on your Les Paul (24.75")...
GIO , change some hardware and pickups and you have a very nice guitar. I never do intonation on a guitar on my own . I have the player come in and set it to his playing style. How he frets is he heavy handed or does he have a lite touch. If I set it up without them, I'm setting it up to my specs and playing. I would have changed the springs since they are old. New set that have a equal tension.
Agree with you about intonation. The fact that no two people use the same force to fret and the fact that no one person even does it the same twice in a row makes the need for £1000 tuners... ridiculous. The variable of fretting pressure is SO gross (in it's true sense) as to make such sensitive tuners pointless in the context of intonation.
i have problem with ibanez gio 24fret after low the string action 1.75 all string buzz at first fret
@@qayyumyumz4190 either 1) your nut slots are cut too low or 2) your neck is slightly back-bowed with a hump in the middle that makes notes fretted in the first half of the neck buzz or choke.
If 1) get a new nut and cut the slots down to the right 1st fret action (my target is 0.3mm) or 2) turn your truss rod adjuster counter-clockwise to slacken the neck until it first goes dead flat and then a tiny bit of curvature.
@@SamDeeksRelovedGuitars thanks . i try ,👍
Hello Sam,
I've had an EVH striped series for about a year but it's not staying in tune.The problem doesn't occur while playing, I actually only notice it the next day or when the temperature fluctuates sharply. The original string gauge is 9 should i use 10s ?...
All nuts and bolts are tight, including the two that go through the neck and the floyd sits nicely on the back. I haven't played it often because it was so expensive. Now that I've seen your video, I remember that I stretched the strings a bit sloppily at the beginning, or is there another problem with this model that I don't know about??? maybe with the untreated maple neck? My other guitars with Floyd Rose all stay in tune very, very well. The EVH also has this D-tuner, which works perfectly, but I would like one that works more precisely, is there anything on the aftermarket that is better?
That GIO has a very nice color, great job Sam 👍
Difficult to say. My logic is always that any trem (so long as the plate can freely pivot on the screws or twin posts) will work pretty well and want to return to equilibrium. But equally, any trem will team up with 1) unreleased slack and 2) friction-y slots (on regular guitars without locking nuts) to put the guitar out of tune. It's rarely the trem's fault is what I'm saying.
The exceptions are where the two faces that touch are rusted / pitted and they can't move smoothly against each other. This applies to both the 'hourglass' posts on a Floyd and the un-threaded chrome part on the 6 screws on a Strat trem and the edge of those 6 holes in the plate.
I would always recommend that you stretch the hell out of your strings before you either lock anything down (on a Floyd) or before you move to setting your 6 screw trem (or 2 point) to float on a strat... And ensure the nut is good (Tusq) and / or the locking caps lock down absolutely fully. On that note, I've had locking screws 1/2mm too long from factory that grounded out under the nut saddle before they sufficiently locked the caps down - with the result that using the trem dragged the strings through the pinch point.
Smoothness of touching faces.... removal of ALL slack in the strings. Making sure no scratchplates touch, that the routs are unobstructed.
Can't think of anything else on a Floyd. On Strat style 6 screw overtightening the 6 screws so they pull down the plate at the front will stop it moving / returning smoothly to pitch. As will changing the trem plate screws for 6 new ones of ever-so-slightly-the-wrong-size (quite a common thing when swapping bridges out)...
Thank you for taking the time to reply to me. I will follow your valuable tips and check the points raised. 👍
Toothpaste can clean chrome hardware if you don't have the correct materials when doing this on yourself.
I have same guitar . I have string trees on headstock , the GIO you are working on has no trees . Did a previous owner put trees on my guitar ? .
Might well have done. There aren't any on the one I've just refurbished.
I learned a lot from this video. But I was surprised that you didn't adjust the truss rod (if only to show how it is done). You removed the plastic covering, but then went straight to cleaning the fretboard. What did I miss?
I typically adjust the truss rod (if required) prior to fret levelling, the first of 3 adjustments to set the ‘playing action’. First, check and set relief, second last fret action, third 1st fret action. In this guitar’s case the neck was so filthy I think I prioritised cleaning it.
I love my gio
I wipe my neck, strings and fretboard down after playing. Everytime. I also wipe the body off. When strings were changed the frets and fretboard were always cleaned, frets buffed every month to keep them shiny and clean for bends or just playing in general. I used a toothbrush to keep grim out of the hardware and pickups. Yes I played them, lol and babied them too. I don't like my ladies as I call them nasty. When I use to gig, my strings were changed ever night sometimes 2 nights due to cigarette smoke and fog machine leaving residue on the guitar which I hated. Think, I use to smoke and after quitting can't stand the smell of cigarettes. I have to take a shower as soon as I can and change clothes and get the smell off the guitars.😅
Yep - we ex-smokers are the most intolerant of the clouds of nicotine and the smell. Ugh. Yet we can still lie on a beach and smell someone light up and be transported - for a moment - to those (stupid) carefree days when we luxuriated in that particular form of slow-suic*de. Nuts.
i have a 1993 Hohner middle tier strat copy that has the fender type micro tilt adjustment which i was able to finetune properly back then, me aged 17 and no internet and zero information. but even then i was bothered by it and realized that i bought a not so good instrument (minimal info avbl before buying then and im a lefty)... the notion that this is still a problem as of 2023 in the age of CNC and laser scanning just infuriates me to the max. an absolute outrage. diy woodworking youtubers w mid level MANUAL tooling demonstrate better precision and could set up a router jig in 2 hours that this could be corrected. ibanez is an especially disg...ing company they basically live off a lucky design they made in 1987 something while giving off extremely minimal added engineering content if you not willing to pay extra (meaning 1000+, 2000+ USD) . they are especially harsh and rude to left handed guitarist, making sure year after year that only their most bland and uninteresting colors/models get made in left handed.
and the gio models are advertised as, almost as good like the big broters, the same body, access to the features bla bla bla. turns out they cant even get a neck joint right. joke
only worse company is PRS
I enjoyed that rant - sorry for the late reply to tell you so! :D I'm curious as to what it is about PRS that you don't like? (I'm on the fence; I've not had a 'spark' with any that I've encountered so far but that could just be me / bad luck / not met the right one...) Actually I did a set up on a lower end one (a Hollowbody) the other day and the neck was technically as 'bad' (or only as good) as any other guitar I've set up. Full of 'hills and valleys' with the strings slapping the frets all over the place.
what size whammy bar does it take?
Sorry for the late reply - the honest answer is "I don't know" but I would suspect it's probably 5mm
Someone didn't give a shit about there guitar lol. The frets aren't even worn from the 1st closeup I saw.