I have been entirely all-in with guitar playing and music in general. I, of course, have a case of GAS. If you’re not familiar with GAS, it’s Gear Acquisition Syndrome. I’ve been good about keeping it in check, but sometimes, it defeats me. In one of my vulnerable moments, I bought a seven-string guitar.
I picked up an Ibanez RG7321 on Facebook Marketplace for cheap! I wanted it for a few reasons.
Have a beater guitar that I can take out to gigs, eventually…
Have a seven-string guitar. The low B is like a new spice in your spice rack.
Lastly, I wanted to learn how to set up a guitar, and I didn’t want to do it with my higher-end axes.
Fast forward a couple of days from buying the RG7321, yeah, 2 days. I wanted to start modding the guitar. I found that tuning stability was pretty bad, and the bridge was pretty rough. The bridge was particularly sharp, which was a little annoying when you needed to palm mute.
I did some digging on Reddit and YouTube to see what people were doing with these guitars. From what I saw, this guitar was a very popular modding platform. So, I ended up diving into the land of modding.
When I bought this guitar, my first mod was going to be a new pick-up. Surprisingly, the guitar was already modded with the pick-up I wanted. It came with a Dimarzio Blaze 7. So big come up there. I did my research on locking tuners, a new bridge, a new nut, and some vanity mods like pot knobs and pick-up selector switch tip.
So here is the mod list:
Tuners - GOTOH SG381-07
Bridge - Hipshot Ibby 7
Nut - Graphtech TUSQ
Pot Knobs - Generic Amazon
Pick-Up Switch Tip - Generic Amazon
So, I learned a lot during this project. I learned that I had the courage to just fully send some of the mods. The tuners required some drilling for the set screw. I was pretty worried about this process, but it was actually totally fine. The next challenging thing for me was replacing the nut. I needed to pry off the old nut, which, if done incorrectly, would essentially ruin your guitar’s neck.
I got past those two tasks, and it was pretty fast from there. During the mod process, I had to learn how to set up the guitar correctly. Typically a set up is a truss rod adjustment, string high adjustment, and intonation. I did the truss rod and string height adjustments, but the fret dressing wasn’t needed. I just polished them, and the playability was awesome.
I see the argument online about whether one should just buy a guitar that already has the good stuff or go down the mod route. I think it just depends. Do you want something you can go gig right after you buy? Buy the one that has all the hardware you want. On a tighter budget, but you have the patience for things to show up at a lower price? Do that. If you just want to put the hardware you like and make it your own. Do that, too. For me, this was a learning moment, and that was my purpose for this project. If I ever had a chance to have an Ibanez custom guitar made with my preferences. This RG7321 project would be a close direction to what I would want. Maybe even if I had a “signature” guitar. The only thing I’d change about my project is to have a thinner neck. I’m used to playing the Ibanez Prestige necks and would love to own seven string guitars with that kind of neck. One day.
I made a video to document my end result and I’m happy about it. This was just as satisfying as modding my M3 and BRZ. Faster, more efficient, higher, and more importantly for me.
Thanks.