Ibanez GIO Gets a Floyd | Part One

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Part One | Part Two | Part Three

One day I received a call from a long-haul trucker named Yee. Yee told me that he had an old China-made Ibanez GIO HSH solidbody that was in really bad shape. It didn't make a sound, and the stock tremolo unit was in pieces. So he'd junked the parts he thought were useless, and bought a new Floyd Rose-licensed tremolo plus a set of humbuckers. I said, "Okay. Bring it over and we'll have a look."

So Yee brought the GIO over to CA Guitar Repair, and after checking everything thoroughly; I mapped out a plan of action. One, the electronics were shot; so I'd be wiring in the two new humbuckers (the middle single coil would be retained), pots, tone cap, selector switch and output jack. I'd also install the new Floyd Rose tremolo after routing the top of the body.

Lots was done to this GIO, and there's even lots more to tell. In an effort to keep things organized and improve flow, I'll be telling this tale in three posts. This is Part One, in which I'll share how the locking nut was installed. Next, in Part Two, we'll get down to the nitty-gritty of how the Floyd Rose was installed and set up. Finally, in Part Three, I'll talk about the electronics upgrade a bit; before moving on to a mini photoshoot.

Well, then, let's take a look at the locking nut installation. The neck I received had no nut, so that saved me the trouble of removing it. As expected, the "shelf" vacated by the old nut was too narrow to accommodate a locking nut. So out came the chisels and files, and soon we had a shelf wide enough for the base of the locking nut.

After a test-fitting, I found that the locking nut was sitting way too low; so low that the strings would be resting on the first fret. To raise the nut, a wooden shim was fashioned out of a small piece of Chengal I had lying around. After several rounds of shaving the thickness down, the shim was at the desired height. 

With the addition of this Chengal shim, the nut was raised just enough to prevent buzzing at the first fret. In any case, if it turned out to be still too low while doing the final setup; I could always raise the height a tad by adding a brass shim or two. 

With that, the Chengal shim was glued onto the headstock with Titebond III and clamped in place for a couple days. Once the clamps were off, the shim was carved and trimmed to size; and two holes drilled for the locking nut mounting screws. All that was left to do now was to screw on the new locking nut; and this took no time at all.

Do take a look at the pictures below as they'll better illustrate what I've been talking about so far. In Part Two, the really tough part will be tackled, that is measuring and marking ad nauseum, routing the top of the body for the Floyd Rose, installing it; and setup. Hope to see you there :)