After playing the Ibanez JS series guitars, I’ve been genuinely impressed with the build quality and craftsmanship that Ibanez consistently delivers. Everything about their guitars feels well thought out. However, there were a few minor things that made me want to move away from the JS models. I wanted something that felt unique to me — a guitar that reflected my personal preferences — but I couldn’t find anything on the market that matched the exact specs and construction I was looking for. So, I built this custom Ibanez because no one else made what I had in mind.

I wasn’t interested in the classic look of the RG body, but I did like the shape of the RGA. That said, instead of the standard RGA arch top, I went with a flat top that arches off towards the edges of the body. One reason for this is my preference for mounting bridge pickups with a pickup ring — I’m not a fan of pickguard-mounted pickups.

I’ve always preferred the All Access Neck Joint (AANJ) over the tilt joint, but I took it a step further by carving the AANJ at a downslope angle. This significantly improves upper fret access, and honestly, I’m not sure why Ibanez doesn’t implement this on more of their production models.

Technically, this is an RGA body, but RGA models don’t come with a forearm contour like the RGs do — so I added one. I also removed the tone knob altogether. I never use it, and it just gets in the way. I always found myself checking to make sure it was turned all the way up. In its place, I installed a kill switch. I’ve always been a big Randy Rhoads fan and loved the kill switch effect.

The volume knob was lowered by about 2mm from its usual position. Sometimes I play with a more aggressive right hand, and I like having that knob out of the way when I need the space. Another thing I changed is the pickup selector. Most Ibanez guitars use a slider-style blade switch, but I’ve never liked the feel of those. My guitar uses a 3-way toggle switch, like what you’d find on a JS or Les Paul — they feel more quality to me and easier to use.

To my knowledge, this is the only Ibanez-style guitar with a 5-piece neck and a straight headstock. Typically, Ibanez only uses straight headstocks on JS and AZ models, and they’re often one-piece. I love the look of the straight headstock, but more importantly, it allows the string tree clamp to serve a functional purpose by creating a strong break angle at the nut.

For the bridge, I chose the Gotoh GE1996T tremolo. I really respect the craftsmanship and quality Gotoh delivers. I didn’t use an Ibanez Edge simply because they’re incredibly hard to find. If the knife edges wear out, good luck finding a replacement at a reasonable price — and even though the knife edges are technically replaceable, you can’t buy them separately. Gotoh’s bridges, on the other hand, are widely available, more affordable, and arguably offer better build quality. They even sell replacement knife edge plates. I also prefer their screw-in tremolo arm system over the push-in style. Push-in arms work well until the washers wear out, and they’re a pain (and expensive) to replace.

For pickups, I went with the DiMarzio D Activator in the bridge. I used to play the EMG 81 for a long time, and while it served me well, I always found it to sound a little flat. The D Activator offers a lot more richness and character — and it doesn’t require a battery, which is a bonus.

In the neck position, I chose the DiMarzio Chopper rail single coil. It's essentially a humbucker in a single-coil size, and I love the sound it produces. I specifically chose a rail-style pickup because, on a 24-fret guitar, the harmonic sweet spot that a neck pickup usually sits under is shifted. A rail pickup helps capture that harmonic more effectively. It also gives me more clearance around the strings — I often pick while holding the tremolo arm, which gives me a steep pick angle. On traditional setups, that often leads me to hit the neck pickup or a middle single-coil. With this setup, I have full clearance.

I also wanted hemispherical fret ends — which are very hard to find. I went with Jescar stainless steel frets, which I believe are the highest quality fret wire available. Stainless steel not only polishes to a smoother finish, but it also doesn’t tarnish over time like nickel, and it’s far more resistant to wear. So far my favorite fret size is 51100, I like the thinner frets compared to the massive jumbo frets. Thinner frets feel more comfortable and they handle slides better, they also have a littler more accurate intonation.

Lastly I’m a fan of the ebony fingerboards, rosewood never really caught my eye. The reason I like ebony is not only the black looks cool, the grain is a lot tighter and smoother, rosewood on the other hand has deeper grain, and it looks like a price of regular furniture. I went with the 6mm dot inlays, the bigger dot size I think looks better and it’s easier to see. I went with paua abalone inlays, I always liked the look of abalone but it knew it would look great with the variegated gold leaf, the top of the volume knob also has abalone.

The story with the variegated gold leaf flame is interesting, I only seen this used on hot rod car paint jobs. I did see Wayne Charvel use a variegated gold leaf flame on some old custom shop guitar, other than that I never see it anywhere. My dad built a Wayne Charvel with this same paint job many years ago, this is a EVH style super Strat idea. We’ve always gotten great complements on that paint job so it became a thing. What’s nice about the gold leaf finish is it’s difficult for anyone who doesn’t have much experience working with it, it’s not like anyone can easily mass produce them.