CA Guitar Repair Blog: Yamaha RGX521 Overhaul

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Hardware Servicing

Now that we've become acquainted with this RGX521, it's time to take it apart and address each and every malady plaguing it. We'll begin with the tarnished, corroded and rusty hardware. After a warm sodium bicarbonate bath, brushing, cleaning, and lube job; parts that can be saved will be polished and reused. As for components that are too far gone, well, they'll have to be replaced.

Hardware Disassembled for Servicing

Straightening the Neck

The maple neck suffers from way too much relief, even with the truss rod tightened to the max. This has resulted in uncomfortably high action, especially in the middle of the fretboard. The most viable solution would be to loosen the truss rod completely and then gradually force the neck into a back-bow, as shown in the image below. Once the neck has developed sufficient back-bow, the truss rod will be fully tightened, and the clamps released. You should now be able to get the fretboard fairly level after a little truss rod tweaking.

Back-Bowing the Neck

With the fretboard level, I've been able to identify quite a number of high frets, warranting a full fret level and dress. However, fretwork will have to wait until I scrape the back of the neck and sand it down to raw wood in preparation for refinishing. Wouldn't you know, sanding has revealed minor cracks in the wood just above and below the scarf joint line. These have been sealed with super glue, and should be stable enough not to cause further problems. In the image below, the blackish streaks are where the cracks lie.

Neck After Scraping and Sanding

Fretwork

Having taken care of initial neck refinishing prep, we can now proceed with fretwork in the usual manner. I believe you're familiar with the drill: leveling, creating fall-away in the upper frets, recrowning, fine sanding; and polishing. This fret job has proven to be very challenging and time-consuming, no thanks to the 24 jumbo stainless steel frets. These fellas are definitely harder to work on than your run-of-the-mill nickel silver frets, I tell ya!

High Frets Identified and Marked

Fretboard Masked Off

Fret Leveling in Progress

Fret Leveling Completed

Recrowning the Frets

Fret Polishing in Progress

Refinishing the Neck

What's next, then? Refinishing, of course. For this neck, I've decided to go with a water-based sanding sealer base coat to fill any voids or imperfections in the raw wood. This will be followed by top coats of Minwax Antique Oil Finish. Granted, I've been using Tru-Oil for hand rubbed finishes thus far, and this will be my first experience with this product. The switch was inevitable as Minwax Antique Oil Finish is available locally, and therefore more cost effective than Tru-Oil; which can only be purchased from foreign sellers on eBay. No complaints, though, as I've found the application process, curing time plus final look and feel of Minwax Antique Oil Finish to be not all that different than Tru-Oil.

Refinishing in Progress

The Refinished Neck

Pickup Reconfiguration

To recap, this guitar was received with two working G&B humbuckers and a dead middle single-coil. Which suits the owner fine, as he's never been fond of the HSH configuration, and truly desires a simpler dual humbucker setup. The single coil will not be wired into the circuit, but retained merely for appearances' sake. This being the case, I've cleaned and polished the humbuckers and their rings, and also replaced all associated screws and springs.

Cleaned and Polished Neck Humbucker

Cleaned and Polished Bridge Humbucker

Electronics Upgrade

Upgraded components include two Alpha A500K full-sized pots, an Oak Grigsby three-way switch, a Russian K73-16 0.022uF tone cap, and a Switchcraft #11 output jack. Shielding grounds have also been added, connecting the shielding paint in the pickup cavities to that of the control cavity; terminating in a ground lug screwed into the control cavity wall.