To get the right look, there has to be a lot of filling to the stock pickup cavity routes. The route Ibanez uses for the ring mounted pickups is wider, deeper where the ears of the pickups go, and the routes for the ears of the pickup are not symmetrical. This picture shows it pretty well.



I don't know if the rg321 pickup cavities are routed like this, but I know the 421s and pretty much every RG series guitar with ring mounted pickups are.

The 421's have Wizard II neck profiles like the 321s. The MIJ necks have better wood, and fretwork, and hardware than the 321's. Any of the 24 fret, AANJ, necks should work fine. Well, pre 05' anyway. The worst case scenario is you have to fill, then re-drill the holes in the butt of the neck for the attachment screws. You can have a lot of money invested in a neck. Especially depending on what features you want. If you just want rosewood fingerboard, regular headstock, and don't care about inlay, or where it's made, you can get off fairly cheap. Probably less than $100. But, when you start being particular about profile, reverse headstock, inlay, MIJ, etc, that's when it gets expensive. I was very particular about what I wanted, and I paid accordingly. I think the end result was worth it though.

The PGM control layout is completely different, including the jack location. To get that layout, you've got to completely fill the control cavity, plug the holes for the selector switch, tone and volume pots, and jack, then re-route. For a Telesavalas look though, all you'd have to plug is the hole for the volume pot. Everything else can stay the same. --Jason

Nice work. Your guitar rocks man!

sorry just had to post 666 views. nice guit-er.

Here's the complete 321 from Ebay:


and just the body on Ebay:


I think direct mounted looks cool, but if it's that much work I might just leave it with pickup rings, cuz I'm not that experienced with building and don't have my own workspace.

I gues I'll get a 321, pick a nice collor, slap on some F holes and put in new pickups.. I was thinking Tone Zone and Paf Pro.
Maybe also stuffing the volume spot and I can always change the neck later.

Going by that picture of that 321 body, the pickup routes are different. They look symmetrical to me. If that's the case, making it direct mount wouldn't be hard at all. Maybe the seller could email you a better picture of the pickup route. --Jason

I have a stripped RG320 body. The pickup routes are symmetrical like the ones on that 321.

Was the 321 made in Japan too? I"m getting confused...lol.

If you had the choice (Jason) right now would you go for the 321 or 421 and why?

I'm not sure the mahogany body of the 321 would be the better way to go. I may make an offer to the guy with the whole 321 but i need some opinions.

TIA

Damn it!

I had no idea that the RG321 had a mahogany body!

All of the RG321s are either Korean or Indonesian. The RG421's are the only ones MIJ.

If I had to choose between an RG421, and RG321, I'd take the 421 every time. I'd even pay more for the 421. You're getting better fretwork, better hardware, and better quality wood in the neck and body. I wouldn't let the mahogany body of the 321 be much of a selling point. They don't use a good grade of mahogany. At least not on any I've ever looked at. It's really dense, and doesn't seem to be very acoustical to me. It sounds good when you say a guitar has a mahogany body, but cheap mahogany is just as sucky as any other cheap wood.



Not all of the 321s have a mahogany body. Some are basswood. Usually the number for the mahogany ones have the MH at the end of the serial number, RG321MH. --Jason

ok that clinches it i'll keep after the 421 if the deal ever works out.

Had my eye on a 770 but the seller is too arrogant to email back

Don't you love that? Why even bother to list something for sale if you can't be bothered to answer some questions about it. --Jason

I couldn't find any 421's for sale... the 321 ended today, but I think no-one got it, so I might still be able to get it. The acution for just the body ends today or tommorrow

Dude that thing is BADASS!!!!!

The return of guitar porn!!!!!!!

That reminds me...What's the status on pgmsite?

DAMN I'm stupid... That RG 321 in Ebay (just the body) ended yesterday... I stayed up till 5 am for it (and some other things) and I was checking and refreshing the auction all the time.

Last time I refreshed there were 3 minutes left, but the computer was kinda slow and I was writing an e-mail... I just forgot about it and when I was done with the e-mail the auction had ended 2 minutes before.

You know how much the body was sold for ? Guess.......





















19 dollar

But that body had some issues so maybe it was for the best.

I think i'm gonna wait until eddie gets his new machine and order a
fresh body. I'm thinking swamp ash....yeah

What's that?

Does Eddie do custom orders or something?

Yes...just picked up a large format CNC

Is that a yes to my question?

Oh really?? I'm going to have some work for you probably this coming summer. --Jason