For several years now, starting with Windows 10 and continuing with Windows 11, I’ve been periodically battling an issue on my work laptop. This machine runs an AMD Ryzen 5 CPU with an NVIDIA dedicated GPU. This setup allows the system to run in “hybrid” mode, which basically means it will switch between the dedicated graphics card when performance is needed and the integrated Radeon graphics on the CPU for general use. This enables the system to save power, reduce thermals, and prolong the battery life between charges.

However, this setup has always given me one major issue. I prefer to install my graphics drivers, even for the integrated unit, directly from the hardware manufacturer. In this case that means I’m installing the GeForce drivers for the NVIDIA card and the Radeon drivers for the integrated card. This keeps my drivers up to date with the latest fixes. Thus far, I’ve had no issues with the GeForce drivers. The Radeon drivers are a different story.

Windows Update has a nasty habit of removing my up to date Radeon drivers and installing an older version from the Windows Update Catalog, which has been provided by the device manufacturer as the most compatible version. This is not what I want, but no matter how many times I reinstall the up to date drivers, they always get deleted in favor of the Windows version. This is not only unnecessary, as the Radeon Drivers work just fine, but it also breaks the Radeon control panel since it’s out of sync with the version of drivers that have been installed and will not launch in that configuration. This forces me to use a “lite” version of the control panel from the Windows Store instead if I’m going to use the Windows drivers.

So far I have not seen this problem on my desktop PC with its Radeon GPU. This seems to be affecting just integrated “Ryzen” graphics chips, at least in my limited experience.

Thankfully, after a couple years of struggling with this, I’ve finally found what appears to be a real solution that won’t interfere with other hardware updates to the system. This solution applies to Windows 11 as well as Windows 10.

Fixes to Avoid for Windows Installing Old AMD Radeon Drivers

When looking for a solution to prevent Windows installing old AMD Radeon drivers, I came across several suggestions, all of which either failed to work outright or had other impacts on the system that I did not like.

• The first suggestion I found was to uninstall the Windows drivers, turn off Windows Update, and reinstall the Radeon drivers. Then I was to leave Windows Update disabled until AMD fixed the issues. The problem here is that I don’t want to turn off all updates to the system, and this isn’t actually an AMD problem that needs to be fixed. This issue has persisted for years now on this machine. Turning off Windows Update and waiting for a fix is not a valid option. It’s the laptop manufacturer (Lenovo in this case) who has provided the most compatible driver to the MS catalog. That may never get updated again.
• The next fix was to just rollback the drivers in Device Manager to the version I had installed previously, i.e. the Radeon version. This is apparently supposed to set a flag that keeps Windows Update from downloading those drivers again. Unfortunately, while rolling the driver back does fix the issue, it lasts all of five minutes before Windows Update downloads and installs the old driver again. Apparently, that flag doesn’t get set at all.
• The next fix involves modifying your Device Installation Settings from the Hardware tab in the Advanced System Settings panel. You can change this to NO to prevent Windows from automatically downloading drivers for your hardware. This does work, but has the drawback of disabling driver updates for ALL hardware, not just the GPU. Considering how some manufacturers only provide drivers via Windows Update, this is not something you want to do. It also forces you to manually be on constant lookout for updated drivers for all of your hardware since you’ll have to perform those updates on an individual basis with these automatic updates disabled.
• There was also some mention of using a Windows Fix tool that lets you hide certain updates so they are no longer offered in Windows Update. Apparently this tool has been dropped by Microsoft and if you do find it and use it, it won’t actually work. Even if it did work, I’m not sure if it would actually work for this issue since these updates are automatically applied.
• There is also a way to prevent driver updates via group policies or registry edits, but these have the same issues with either being temporary fixes or affecting more than just the GPU drivers.

A Better Fix for Windows Installing Old AMD Radeon Graphics Drivers

I finally came back to this problem again recently when once again I had an issue with Windows installing old AMD Radeon drivers. This time I did some deeper digging and found a few mentions of a different method to combat the issue. This time around, it seems we have a solution that both works and does not have the negative side effects of the other methods.

First let’s take a look at the actual problem. This is my Radeon control panel which shows my up to date (at the time of writing) Radeon drivers.

This is Windows Update showing the older driver from the catalog ready to install.

When the install occurs, you will be met with this screen the next time you try to open the Radeon control panel. Even AMD does not offer a good solution to the issue. https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/pa-300

Now it’s time to fix the problem. Before proceeding, make sure you have already installed the latest AMD Radeon drivers that you want to use.

The first thing to know is that you must let Windows Update install the drivers from the catalog. This is a necessary step to avoid Windows constantly trying to redownload them if you uninstall them. Once they are installed and you can’t launch the Radeon control panel properly, you can move on to the next step.

Open Device Manager.

Expand your Display Adapters section and right click on the AMD Radeon graphics adapter. In the context menu choose Update Driver.

On the next screen choose Browse my computer for drivers.

On the next screen choose Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer.

On the next screen you should have a list of compatible driver, which include the up to date Radeon driver you installed directly from AMD and the older driver from Window Update, which should be currently in use.

Choose the newer driver from the list and click Next to install it.

That’s basically all there is to it. The Windows version of the driver is still present and installed on the system, so Windows Update will not try to download and install it again. You’ve manually selected the driver you want to use this way and left the other drivers intact.

Conclusion

The problem with Windows installing old AMD Radeon drivers has been resolved for a few months now on my machine. So far, the fix is holding. Please note that nothing is going to be truly permanent. I’m sure the next time the Window Update catalog gets an updated AMD driver this issue will probably recur. It may even happen the next time a new version of the drivers from AMD gets installed. However, reapplying this fix should once again resolve the issue until the next update occurs.

Update 03/06/2023: I have recently had another driver update to the machine I was testing this on. Windows does indeed change the driver back to the old version during this update. The AMD installer even pops up a warning now that informs the user than the drivers installed correctly, but Windows Update changed the driver to its catalog version. Repeating the Device Manager steps to choose the newer driver once again resolves the issue. This is something that is going to happen each time AMD releases an update that you wish to install.

I hope this has been helpful. I don’t claim any credit for coming up with the fix. I came across it on a couple of random posts on Reddit and the AMD forums, which I no longer have the links to. Thanks go out to the people who actually found something that works.

The post Windows Installing old AMD Radeon Drivers appeared first on Darkling Designs.

This is a compiled project portfolio originally found on GideonD’s private blog. In this project we took an old Ibanez RG530 Roadstar II and upgraded the guts of it while leaving the aged ascetics alone. Enjoy!

Introduction

I stumbled across this bad boy on Ebay late one night when I shouldn’t have been up spending money. I couldn’t pass it up though so I put in a maximum bid I was willing to offer and went to bed. The next morning I discovered both to my delight and chagrin that I won the auction.

When I finally received the guitar, It was in better shape than expected.

The paint chips were very minor. I decided I was just going to leave them alone.

The frets needed a little filing but were pretty level. I took some micromesh to them and cleaned the fretboard good before putting a coat of lemon oil on it. It looked much better.

Before I ever got started I doused the electronics with De-oxit. When I tested it I had absolutely no crackle from the original controls. It looked like the electronics could stay original.

The Edge was in very good condition. There was some wear on the paint on the saddles, but rust was limited to the screw heads only and was very minor. My biggest fear was the knife edge. I popped the trem out and took a look and to my surprise the knife edge was nearly flawless. It looked like the trem was never even used.

I did plan some upgrades though. I decided to leave the paint on the neck so it would stay original, at least until I found out if I could stand playing on a painted neck. The nut was missing the locking screws and pads, but that wasn’t a big deal. I needed to fill the strap button holes and redrill them for strap locks. The pickups had to go. I’ve never been fond of IBZ pickups and these were no exception. They were the muddiest I’ve ever heard. I decided to drop a L500XL/L500R combo in there from Bill and Becky. I’d already put noiseless springs in it (remember to file the ends on these things. I spent a half hour trying to track down a grounding issue until I realized the coating on the springs was interrupting the ground circuit.) I also planned to slap a FU brass block on the edge.

So I kind of planned on going all out on this one. It’s the only Japanese Ibanez I own to date.

Now it’s photo time!!! These are the original shots before work began on it.

Before Photos of the Ibanez RG530

Ibanez RG530 Roadstar II Project Phase 1

Today I started work on the 1986 MIJ Ibanez RG530 Roadstar II I recently bought. This post contains the details of the first phase of this project. This consisted mainly of fret work and a few other minor things. I was going to detail how to change out the stock block on the Edge tremolo for a Floyd Upgrades brass block, but I ran into a little issue there which I will detail below.

Preliminary Photos

Everything was in decent enough shape initially. It was missing the pads and screws on the locking nut but those were easily replaceable. The pickups will have to go as well since they are some of the muddiest and noisiest pickups I’ve ever heard, especially when split. I’ll get to that in a later phase though. I’m still waiting for my Bill Lawrence L500R/L500XL set to arrive. It’ll probably be a couple of weeks.

Tear Down

There wasn’t a great deal to take apart at this point. I started by removing the strings.

All I had to do is unwind them at the headstock and loosen the locking screws at the bridge. After removing the strings I made sure to re-tighten the locking screws at the bridge so I didn’t loose the string clamp blocks, which can easily fall out when turned upside down.

Next, I flipped the guitar over and removed the springs from the tremolo cavity.

After that the tremolo unit fell right out the front of the guitar.

The Floyd style tremolos simply sit with their knife edges against two mounting studs and depend on the tension from both the strings and the springs to hold them in place. This allows them to “float” on the two fulcrum points.

Leveling and Crowning the Frets

The first thing I did was make sure the rosewood fretboard was protected from the tools I would be using. To do this I simply used painter’s tape to mask off the fretboard.

I just used various sizes of tape I had on hand. I regret using the white tape though. This is standard masking tape and the adhesive on it is too aggressive. I ended up pulling a small piece of finish off the edge of the fretboard when I removed the tape. For that reason, I recommend sticking with a good blue painters tape.

Once I had the fretboard taped off I used my Fret Rocker from StewMac to check the frets for level.

Just about every other fret was slightly high. It was only by the slightest bit though for the most part. Since this guitar is 26 years old and has been heavily played, it didn’t have a great deal of fret wire left to work with. Normally, I would use a large radiused block with stick on abrasive to level the frets rapidly and then proceed to crowning them with a fret file. However, considering how little fret there was to work with and how little leveling needed to be done, I opted to do the crowning and leveling all at once with just the fret file. This is slower but more precise and has less risk of over-leveling what is left of the fret wire.

This file has a wide slot on one side and a medium slot on the other. I have another file with narrow and medium slots. For this job I used just the wide side. The fret wire on this guitar was probably what is called Jumbo fret wire, which Ibanez uses frequently.

It took a couple of hours to file these all down one by one, constantly checking for level after each fret was done. I often had to go back and tweak the previous fret since leveling the next one would effect the last one a little. I was finally satisfied with the level and crown on each fret and moved on to polishing,

I started the process by removing the majority of the file marks that were left behind with some 400 grit wet or dry automotive sand paper.

I then progressed though each grit of Micro Mesh pad from coarsest to finest until I had the fret wire looking shiny and almost new again.

It’s hard to tell in the photo but they now have a nice shine to them and are very smooth. Next, I removed the tape protecting the fretboard.

There are still one or two frets which rock the slightest bit, but I filed them as far as I felt comfortable with considering how little wire was left. This is probably the only time I’ll be able to do this. The next time it needs it, I’ll have to do a full re-fret.

To finish off the fretboard I oiled it with Dunlop 65 Lemon Oil.

This stuff comes with it’s own applicator tip. I just had to wipe it onto the fretboard and let it dwell a few minutes. Then I wiped away the excess that didn’t absorb.

The wood is now nice and healthy looking again. It’s worth noting that you should only use oils like this on certain types of fretboards like rosewood. Don’t use lemon oil on woods like Maple. They are often lacquered and the lemon oil could damage the finish. Even if the maple is left unfinished it does not take the oil well.

Installing the Brass Block…or not!

The next step was going to be installing my brass block upgrade. Before tearing the tremolo assembly down, I decided to compare the size of the new block vs the old one. I’m glad I did!

Oops!. It turned out that the new block was too short! I ordered the block from Floyd Upgrades that was listed as the correct fit for the Ibanez Edge tremolo. This block does fit the Ibanez Edge tremolo. However, most of those tremolos are installed in a recessed mount, meaning there is a recess cut into the top of the guitar and the tremolo actually sits down in it. This allows you to both dive and pull up on the tremolo. The Ibanez RG530 Roadstar II has the Edge installed as a dive only tremolo, meaning that the tremolo unit sits on top of the guitar instead of in a recess and can not be pulled back on. As a result, I needed a block that is taller than what the Edge would normally use in a recessed mount.

I called Floyd Upgrades and inquired about what could be done. As it turns out, he had custom cut a deeper block for a customer last week and happened to make a spare when he did it. So he had the block I needed already in stock. All I have to do is send back the short one and he’ll ship the replacement out the same day. That’s good service!

So take note of the following. If you have a recessed Edge you need the standard Edge block, which I believe is 32mm. If you have a non-recessed Edge you need to request a custom 40mm block.

Since that development put the brakes on the project, I finished up with the only thing I could still do.

Installing Dunlop Straplocks…and other parts.

The existing strap buttons where coming loose from the guitar. The wood around them had worn out.

To remedy this, I cut a small oak plug and hammered it into the hole after applying a coat of wood glue to it.

That gave me a nice hard plug to screw my new buttons into.

This is a set of Dunlop Straplocks. I’ve already got plenty of straps with the locking mechanism on them so I’m just installing the buttons on the guitar at this point. They install just like any other button. I added the felt pad to protect the guitar finish and screwed them in.

The only other thing I could do at this point is check the fit of the replacement pads and screws on the locking nut.

These are the Schaller pads and screws from StewMac. They are meant for a Floyd Rose tremolo but they fit the Edge nut just fine.

To be continued…

That’s it for now. I’m at a standstill until I receive the replacement brass block. Hopefully I’ll have that by the end of the week and I’ll follow up with a post on how it is installed. I’ll then be stringing the guitar with 11-49s and tuning it up to D standard. Once my Bill Lawrence pickups arrive I’ll cover shielding the cavities and installing the pickups.

Ibanez RG530 Roadstar II Rebuild Project Phase 2

I finally got the brass block replacement in for the RG530 Roadstar II. I also received confirmation that my Bill Lawrence pickups had shipped so I decided to wait until they got here before continuing the project. The pedal board build was keeping me tied up anyway.

Well, everything is here now so let’s take a look at how things went.

The Electronics

Here I removed the old Ibanez pickups. I decided to leave the pickup cavities unshielded since the pickups going in had their own metal shield surrounding the coils.

I disconnected the pickups from the volume pots and ground circuit and then removed all the wiring from the cavity. I went ahead and left the output jack in place with the leads still attached.

I went ahead and shielded the control cavity with copper foil, soldering the seams to give the best coverage.

This is one of the new pickups I installed. I put a Bill Lawrence (Wilde Pickups) L500XL in the bridge and a L500R in the neck.

Here they are fully installed. I had to plug the old screw holes and tap new ones. The mounting rings that came with the pickups were just the slightest bit smaller than the old rings.

Here are the old electronics reconnected to the new pickups. Each pickups has it’s own push/push volume pot that splits the coils as well. I pulled the capacitor from the master tone control and added a Bill Lawrence Q Filter instead. More on that later.

The Edge Tremolo

With the electronics out of the way, I began disassembling the Edge tremolo found on the Ibanez RG530.

Before removing anything I used my pin gauge to record the current saddle positions.

This would help set intonation later.

I unscrewed the string clamp bolts and removed them from the tremolo.

Then I loosened the screws holding the saddles down and removed all the saddles.

Next, I unscrewed the three large screws holding the block to the base plate. The tension plate was also clamped between the block and the base plate so it came off as well.

Next I installed the Floyd Upgrades brass block (custom 40mm height) using their stainless steel hex bolts.

I then reassembled the entire tremolo and reinstalled it into the guitar.

Next I restrung the guitar using Everly B-52s in 11-48 gauge. I’ve never used these before so we’ll see how they sound. They are color coded just like D’Addarios.

Next I moved on to setting up the guitar. I first adjusted the posts to get my action where I wanted it. I then checked the truss rod, but it was fine as it was. I moved up two gauges in string tension but I tuned the guitar to D standard so the neck did not need a tweak.

After the basics were done I moved on to setting the intonation.

This is where the open note read after tuning the guitar. It’s almost dead on the note (G in this case.)

When fretting the string at the 24th fret it should read the same as the open note if the intonation is correct. This one is reading over 20 cents sharp. This means that the string is too short. I needed to move the saddle back to lengthen the string.

My camera seems to like my leg too well to get a clear shot here, but this is the intonation tool Floyd Upgrades sells. It is designed for an actual Floyd Rose, but I found that it worked just fine on the Edge.

To use it, I hooked the tip against the base plate and the claw around the head of the string lock bolt. I then loosened the screw holding the saddle down.

I then detuned the string about 6 turns and started turning the thumb screw on the intonation tool. I had to push the saddle back with one hand while turning the tool to gradually draw the saddle back. Once I had it moved about 2mm, I locked the saddle back down. I removed the intonation tool and retuned the guitar. I checked the intonation again and it was better but still slightly sharp. I repeated the process all over again until the string fretted at the 24th fret read the same as it did when played open. Once I got it right, I repeated the process for all 6 strings. They where all a little sharp.

Please note that there are various ways to set the intonation. Some people check the 12th fret harmonic against the open note. Some check multiple frets up and down the board. I use the 24th fret because I find that the shortest string length gives the most accurate results. For example, if I set intonation using the 12th fret harmonic, then the guitar tends to sound correct for the lower half of the fretboard, but the upper registers still sound out. Setting it at the 24th fret results in the entire length of the fretboard being pretty well intonated afterward.

Finished Shots of the Ibanez RG530

Here is the Ibanez RG530 Roadstar II all put back together.

I’m pretty happy with it at this point. There are a few issues though.

For one, the frets are very worn. I got them leveled fairly well but there is still some minor fret buzz. It’s nothing that really effects playing, but I won’t get another dressing out of these frets. They’ll have to be replaced the next time they need work.

The electronics probably should have been replaced. They didn’t have any crackle in them but there is still an annoying buzz that persists. The shielding is pretty complete and the pickups are new and well shielded. I’m left thinking the old electronics are to blame.

The pickups themselves sound decent. They are excellent distorted for rhythm sections. They are a bit too piercing for lead work though, and not and clear as I was expecting on clean sections. I’m still messing with the amp EQ trying to sort it out. I don’t really dig the way the Q Filter works by itself though. I think changing the tone pot to a 250k dual concentric pot and adding a tone cap to one of those pots and the Q Filter to the other is an experiment I’m going to try. I’ll have the output taming of the Q filter and my old familiar tone control back.

That’s it for now. I’ll post an update when I get the tone issue worked out.

Thanks for reading.

Products Used in the Ibanez RG530 Project

Ibanez Edge Brass Block: https://www.fu-tone.com/product/brass-sustain-block-for-ibanez-edge/

Silent Heavy Spring Upgrade: https://www.fu-tone.com/product/fu-tone-noiseless-springs-for-guitar-tremolos-3/

Wilde Pickups: https://www.wildepickups.com/products/l500

Micro-mesh Pads: https://amzn.to/3UfMMiz

Fret Crowning File: https://amzn.to/3FOUjAE

Fret Rocker: https://amzn.to/3NGvQPD

Dunlop Lemon Oil: https://amzn.to/3NGwf4B

Dunlop Strap Locks: https://amzn.to/3UvQxA2

Contour Gauge: https://amzn.to/3UdUoCm

Guitar Tuner: https://amzn.to/3FJVLnP

DeoxIT D5: https://amzn.to/3G69UMr

Tri-Flow Superior Dry Lubricant: https://amzn.to/3DGlVVN

The post Ibanez RG530 Roadstar II Rebuild Project appeared first on Darkling Designs.

This post is a compiled version of the original 5 part Ibanez RG470 project portfolio found on GideonD’s personal blog. It has been slightly edited and improved, but remains broken into phases just like the original was.

Ibanez RG470 Rebuild and Modification – Phase 1

Some Background

Orion ordered this Ibanez RG470 guitar back in 2000 or 2001. He’s never really been satisfied with it. Ibanez makes some extremely good guitars, but like most brands, they also make some real junk. This is a MIK (Made it Korea) model and sub par at best. The body and neck are pretty decent. A fret job and some polish will work wonders there. The stock pickups are junk in this axe, and he’s hated the tremolo since day 1.

The goal of this project is some major modifications to the axe to bring it up to a good solid playable guitar.

Initial Photos of the Ibanez RG470

You can see in these photos that the guitar isn’t in bad shape. The standard dirt and corrosion from being played for several years is all that is apparent. There is no damage to the body or neck.

Take a look at the closeup view. You can see the stock pickups. The neck has an Infinity 1 ceramic humbucker. The bridge has an Infinity 2 Alnico 5 humbucker. The middle is an Infinity Single 1 Alnico 5 Single Coil. They have always sounded pretty flat and lifeless. It’s time for a change there. We’ve decided to go Dimarzio for this project. The bridge will be a Tone Zone with black metal cap. The neck will be an Air Norton with black metal cap. The middle will be an Area 67. We haven’t yet decided whether or not to coil tap the humbuckers. I want to, but at the same time I doubt he’ll ever use them as singles.

Take another look at the closeup. This time pay attention to the tremolo unit. This guitar has a Lo-TRS II trem, which is total junk. The thing pops strings constantly. This is one of the worse tremolo units Ibanez ever made. Thankfully it’s easy to switch it out for something better. We chose a Gotoh GE1996T double locking tremolo. This is a Floyd Rose style tremolo. It’s a high quality Japanese model which rivals the Original Floyd Rose models in quality and hits a better price point.

We’ll also be adding a tremsetter and heavier springs in the rear tremolo compartment. Right now it has the original springs in a V configuration. It came with 3 but one was removed for reasons which I can’t even guess at. We’ll be replacing them with fresh new heavier tension springs and leaving it at just two springs so the tremsetter will fit in between. The heavier springs should make it balance out better with the string tension. Right now he is running super light 9-42 strings and we still have the screws on the spring claw cranked down pretty tight.

The tremsetter we’ll be installing is called the Black Box.

This goes in place between the tremolo springs. The padded tip will rest against the tremolo block and provide reverse spring tension to push the block back into it’s original position after heavy dive bombing on the tremolo arm. The whole point to using a tremsetter is to return the tremolo unit back to the original position and thus the original tuning. Floating tremolos are famous for throwing the guitar out of tune every time you hit the bar. The Black Box is a very good tremsetter at a good price. There are a couple of better ones. ESP makes their own version and Ibanez use to though you don’t see it very often anymore. Both of those were a doubled up version of this one, featuring two spring units to provide even more stopping power. The Black Box works great though. I use to use Hipshot tremsetters back when there was no alternative but they never really worked that well.

Ibanez RG470 Rebuild and Modification – Phase 2

Tear Down

First of all lets take a look at the guitar now that I’ve popped the strings off and removed the old tremolo system.

We are down to an empty cavity at this point. I’ll need to pull the existing studs and anchors so I can replace them with the new Gotoh studs and anchors, which are better on many levels.

Let’s compare.

The brass ones on the left are the originals. The new Gotoh studs are on the right. They are much bigger both in depth and diameter

The old studs were mounted in a 3/8″ diameter hole. I’ll need to tap that hole deeper and bigger around to fit the new studs. My guess at a 7/16″ bit turns out to be correct this time. Thanks Gotoh for giving me instructions on how to attach the tremolo arm. It would have been nice to have instructions for installing the tremolo as well.

Before I begin tearing out the studs I’m going to mask off the face of the guitar to avoid damaging what’s left of the paint.

I’m just using blue painter’s tape. It won’t hurt the guitar at all. Unfortunately it barely wants to stick to it at all either. That’s alright though because it won’t be on there for long. You’ll notice that I made sure to cover the pickups with tape as well. This prevents the magnets from picking up any stray metal shavings. This is a good idea for any project that involves filing or fitting new parts.

To remove the old studs I’m going to leave the posts screwed into the anchors so I can hook them with a regular old claw hammer. I’ll lay a paint paddle or other thin piece of wood on the body of the guitar to prevent the hammer from denting the wood as I pry the studs out. When doing this, it’s important to pry in the correct direction. Once you hook the stud, face the head of the hammer toward the top or bottom edge of the guitar to pry. Facing it toward the front or back would risk damage to the pickups as well as place too much force on the thinnest piece of wood around the stud, which is the part facing into the cavity.

If you aren’t careful, this can happen.

Notice the chunk of wood missing on the right? I can honestly say I didn’t do that! This is what I found after removing the black padding around the post while drilling it out. You can’t see it here, but the lower part on the side is cracked and painted over. It evidently came from the factory this way. Thanks Ibanez!

At least the Gotoh anchors go far enough into the body that the crack isn’t going to cause any problems. I intend to inject some rapid set epoxy around it later just to be safe.

The photo above shows the new Gotoh studs already installed. I just hammered them in with a rubber mallet and a small block of wood. I also added a thin coat of laminate flooring glue to the outside of the anchor before inserting it. This step isn’t absolutely necessary but I like the added security of the bond. Laminate glue will give a tough flexible bond that isn’t so strong that you can’t pull the studs out later.

Installing the Gotoh GE1996T

Now I’ll remove the tape from the face of the guitar and drop the new tremolo into place, making sure to hook the knife edges under the new studs. This is pretty straight forward.

Then in the back of the guitar I’ll stretch new springs from the claw to the tremolo block.

To do this I first used a pair of needle nose pliers to stretch the spring from the center claw to the center hole. This keeps the block balanced. I then installed the outside two springs the same way and removed the center one. I’m using heavy springs in this setup since I’ll only be using the two springs. The center will remain open for the Black Box tremsetter.

Once the springs were in place the brass block, which is very nice compared to the old cast metal block, was pulled tight against the front of the cavity. I flipped it over and pried the whole tremolo up against the posts so I could slip paint paddles in under it until I got it parallel to the body.

Now it’s time to string the guitar. This process is a real pain. When tuning one string on a floating tremolo, all the other ones change pitch as well. I won’t get into detail on it but www.ibanezrules.com has a great set of guides in the Tech section on how to do this properly.

Once the strings are up to tension it’s fairly easy to remove the shims I was using to hold the tremolo parallel to the body. Then it’s all a matter of balancing the string and spring tensions to get the thing up to tune and in the correct position relative to the body.

I had to use #10 strings on this one due to the tension the heavier springs cause. I usually use #9 but the owner is fine with the #10.

Some Problems with the Ibanez RG470

I did run into a couple of issues. Only one of them is directly related to the tremolo.

The main problem I have is that the brass block on this tremolo is slightly deeper than the old one. I thought it would fit inside the cavity, and it does, but barely. The fit is so tight that the block will rub on the plastic plate that covers the spring cavity when the tremolo unit is actually used. To fix this I can either cut the brass block down or cut a hole into the spring cover to allow the block to swing freely. If the block were any longer I would have to remove it and cut it down. Thankfully it’s so close that cutting out some of the plastic cover will work fine. I don’t have any problem with the way that will look. My Stratocaster has always had a window in the cover to feed the strings through the block on its tremolo. This way we can always admire the brass block whenever we desire as well.

The other problem I’ve run into is how dead the G and B strings sound. I thought I had a problem with the tremolo at first but soon discovered that the strings sound fine when actually fretted. So the problem lies at the nut. The owner confirmed that the guitar has always had this issue. I’ll need to shim the nut up off the neck a little. Gotoh was nice enough to supply me with brass shims for their included nut, which I did not use. The Gotoh nut was not quite wide enough to fit the Ibanez neck. The pads and screws worked fine on the old nut though.

Regardless, it’s too late to worry about shimming the nut right now. I’ll get to that a little later. In a couple of months the new pickups will be here and I’ll be removing the strings again anyway. I’ll wait until then to shim the nut and have a fret leveling done on it as well.

Ibanez RG470 Rebuild and Modification – Phase 3

Black Box Install

Nothing much to report here. And no photos this time. This went so quickly I didn’t even think to take any.

I installed the Black Box, which is a pain but goes fast. The way they place the screw mounts is beyond reason. You almost have to remove the whole tremolo to mount the thing. I managed to get the screw under the spring in while the unit was assembled by using a very thin screw driver.

Update!

I’m adding the Black Box installation section from the RX170 project here for reference since I forgot to take photos of the install process on the RG470.

Installing the Black Box

In this section I’ll walk you through how to install a Black Box tremsetter. I know I neglected this last time so I made sure to get a full set of photos this time. The camera isn’t working the best though and some of the photos are a little blurry. I think they are still good enough to see what I’m trying to show you.

First of all you need to make sure your tremolo is properly setup and the guitar is tuned as close to perfect as you can get it. I installed the Black Box after I had already fiddled with my spring tension and tuning until I got the new tremolo perfectly balanced on the guitar. I had also already spend a couple of hours tweaking intonation.

Once all of that is done you want to lay the Black Box in the middle of the tremolo cavity and make sure it is pressed firmly against the tremolo block, but not firmly enough to make the block move.

Then you need to mark the position of the tremsetter because you’ll have to remove the tremolo from the guitar to get this thing installed correctly. I used a black paint marker I had from model building. It marks fine on the aluminum tape. You could also use a very fine marker.

Now you’ll need to remove the tremolo from the guitar. You have to disassemble the Black Box in order to screw it into place and put it back together while it’s mounted. The tremolo block gets in the way of this.

Thankfully it’s easy to remove the tremolo without taking all the strings off the guitar. To do this, detune the guitar about four or five turns per string. Do this gradually, one turn per string so you don’t put too much tension on any one string. Once they are detuned the tremolo should be lying against the face of the guitar. Flip it over and use needle nosed pliers to pop the springs out of the block. Flip it over again and you can put back and up on the tremolo unit to pop it off of the posts.

Now we can flip it back over and start installing the Black box.

First you want to unscrew the knurled knob at the outside end of the unit until you completely remove it from the threaded stem. Be careful not to loose the rubber o-ring that fits around it. Next unscrew the other knurled knob inside the unit. You’ll have to thread the entire stem out of this one. When it reaches the end the stem will pull out and the spring, knob, and washer will come out separately. Pay attention to how these come apart so you can put them back together correctly.

Now that you have the guts separated from the shell of the Black Box with can screw the shell into place. To do this you want to line it up with the marks you made earlier. There should be one screw hole at the tip pointed toward the spring claw and another one offset inside the shell. Use a nail to punch a starting hole at these marks. Now use one of the supplied screws in the offset hole inside of the shell to anchor it. Make sure not to over tighten it and lift the other end off of the surface. This guitar’s trem cavity was not perfectly flat and tightening one screw too much meant the other would not make contact. Make sure the shell will sit flat when the screws are both tightened.

Once that screw is in you can tilt the shell to one side so you can slide the guts back in. Slide the stem back in from the trem block side and start threading the knurled knob back on it. You want to place the metal washer and spring back in place before you thread too much stem through for them to fit.

Once the stem reaches the hole on the other end of the shell so it can’t pop back out, flip the shell around straight and anchor it with the other provided screw.

Now you can finish threading the stem in the rest of the way. Once that is done replace the rubber o-ring and the other knurled knob at the end.

Replace the tremolo unit the exact opposite of how you removed it and get the guitar back up to proper tuning. After that, you can use the knurled knob on the end of the Black Box to adjust the position of the stem against the tremolo block. You can also use the knurled knob in the middle of the unit to adjust how much tension is on the center spring. This will determine how stiff the resistance is against the tremolo block when it hits the tip of the stem.

That completes the Black Box installation.

Shimming the Nut on the Ibanez RG470

I also attempted to address the deadened strings by shimming the nut. I placed a heavy brass shim under the nut. I’m not sure of the exact thickness. These came with the Gotoh Tremolo and they are not labeled in any way. It’s the thickest one in the set. This helped a little on the G string, but the B string still sounds just as bad. There is plenty of clearance now from the frets to the strings and the sound only deadens when playing open strings. I am at a loss for any explanation other than the nut itself being at fault. I’ll let the tech at the guitar shop file it a bit to see if he can fix it or at least confirm my suspicions before I invest another $50 for a new Japanese Ibanez nut.

I also think this guitar may need a complete fret replacement, the more I look at it. The frets have some definite string wear and are filed too flat and low as it is. The owner took his guitar to Jammerz Music about a decade ago to have the guitar completely refretted. They charged him $175 and it looks to me like they never replaced a single fret wire. I think they just attempted to level the frets and did a terrible job. They filed them way too flat and never attempted to crown or polish them correctly. I found the original receipt and was slightly amused at the line toward the bottom that read, “No returns after 24 hours.” Now that’s service! Anyone from Staunton beware of this company. They are still in business and still have crap service. Thankfully they are almost never open for business.

I’ll post another update once I get this to the shop to have the frets and nut taken care of. Hopefully they can fix it up without having to spend a massive amount of money. Including the pickups that haven’t arrived yet we have about $500 in this project. Add the original price of the guitar, which was about $600 I think, and we are up to $1100 invested. He could have just bought a good Japanese Ibanez to begin with if we’d have foreseen all these issues.

Ibanez RG470 Rebuild and Modification – Phase 4

Sorting out the nut –

Well I finally got the new nut for the RG 470. The nut itself fit right into place being a Japanese Ibanez replacement part. I didn’t use the new string tree since the spacing was off on it compared to the old one. No need to drill new holes just for a string tree. It seemed to remedy the problem with the B string resonating oddly.

Earlier this week I took the guitar to Fretwell Bass in downtown Staunton and had Chip take a look at the fret wire. He was able to level and crown the existing jumbo fret wire without having to do a complete refret. That saved me about $75. The guitar plays like new now. I do notice that the G string now sounds a little odd though, very similar to what the B was doing before. I checked the nut and there is no sign of any damage. I’m chocking it up to the age of the strings on it (which were unused but setting in the case for about a decade.) I’ll wait until we change out the pickups in October and put some DR Tite-fits on it. If the problem doesn’t go away I’ll be at a loss.

Summing up –

Well for now it’s playing very good so I’m happy with it. Orion is happy with it too. He still isn’t digging the stock pickups, but come October we’ll sort that one out and have a real nice axe put together. I still think he’d have been better off finding a used RG550 instead of dumping all this money is the sub-par RG470. But to each his own.

Ibanez RG470 Rebuild and Modification – Phase 5 Final

Update

I’ve been having some health issues so I haven’t been able to work on these guitars for a while but I’m finally back in action. The green RX170 went on hold for a bit since I’m having some issues working out the wiring on the Lace Sensors. It’s crazy how many wires they have and how little documentation. In the mean time, the pickups arrived for the RG470 so we spent about a week (my vacation basically) wiring and rewiring until I got it all sorted out. Here is where we stand so far.

Original Wiring Diagram for the Ibanez RG470

This is the original wiring we came up with for the guitar. Using a combination of the 5 way selector and a push/pull volume pot we would have been able to have both humbuckers splittable to single coils and then have the switch auto tap the humbuckers in the 2 and 4 positions in order to be running the middle single and one coil of the humbucker to basically form another humbucker from two separate pickups. So basically it would be:

Positions 1: Neck Coils 1&2
Position 2: Neck Coil 2 & Middle
Position 3: Middle
Position 4: Middle and Bridge Coil 1
Position 5: Bridge Coils 1&2

It was great in theory, but resulted in no signal at all. I thought at first it was the kill switch we installed causing problems. The kill switch simply routes all signal to ground to basically turn off the guitar. You can also use a momentary push switch for this to get an odd sort of wah effect by phasing the signal in and out.

We removed the kill switch and still had no signal. At this point I ripped it all apart and wired the switch normally without the auto tap. It worked fine at that point. I discovered that the switch I had was not the standard layout of the most common CRL brand switch but instead a tweaked layout more like a Fender Strat uses. The owner liked the sound of it better without the auto tap anyway so instead of sorting out the lugs on the switch we just left it wired normally and redesigned the rest of the layout.

Final Wiring Diagram for the Ibanez RG470

This is what we ended up with for the final wiring. I managed to break the push/pull pot when removing the knob from it. These things are very fragile and the brass push on knob fit so tight on it that despite using a pair of pliers to hold the shaft while I pried the knob off, I still managed to pull the shaft completely out of the pot. It was really no big loss. I didn’t like how loose the push/pull pot felt anyway. I put the original volume pot back in and rewired the mini toggle into a coil tap instead of a kill switch.
I’ll point out a few other changes as well for reference.

First, you’ll notice a part on the volume pot that is not normally there. This is a capacitor and resistor combination that allows the volume pot to operate at a smoother reduction than it normally does while preserving the higher treble frequencies that are normally lost when the volume is rolled back.
Second, you should note that I switched the red and green wires on the middle pickup. The way I originally had it wired put the middle pickup out of phase when used with one of the humbuckers. This resulted in a very twangy sound that I didn’t like. By switching the wires we are running the signal from the middle pickup in reverse order which puts in back in phase with the humbuckers. You won’t even notice this when playing each individual pickup, but when playing in position 2 or 4 using the middle pickup in conjunction with one of the humbuckers it becomes very apparent.Third, you’ll notice the addition of another capacitor in line between the hot lead on the bridge pickup and the lug on the selector switch. I had heard some stories about the Tone Zone pickup sounding muddy in some guitars due to the way it interacts with the wood the guitar is made of. This guitar is basswood, which has a dark tone to begin with. The Tone Zone picked that up and combined it with it’s own booming low end. The result was too much bass saturation for the bridge pickup. By placing another 0.47uF capacitor in line on the hot lead we effectively filter out some of the bass frequencies from the pickup. It still has that signature Tone Zone sound but it’s a bit brighter and has more clarity. More detailed instructions on this can be found at Lone Phantom’s Blog. There is another mod that can be performed by dismantling the pickup and modifying the magnet placement to further tweak the sound of the Tone Zone. This is called a half-air mod and is covered in detail at Lone Phantom’s Blog. This was more invasive than I wanted to get on the pickup and I think it would change the sound too much for my taste.Fourth, I added a ground wire from the metal ring we installed around the middle single coil. It was buzzing badly when you touched it without touching the strings. I never thought that it was cause that kind of interference since it was not connected to any metal pieces of the pickup itself, but I was quite mistaken. A simple ground wire tied under the ring and soldered to the volume pot cleared it right up though.

Project Completion

That finishes the project other than polishing the guitar up and getting some sound samples together. I’ll post up samples in a related post a little later. For now, I’ll close with some photos of the finished guitar.

Products Used for the Ibanez RG470

Note: These are mostly affiliate links.

Gotoh GE1996T Black: https://amzn.to/3zsK6WE

Black Box Tremsetter: https://www.fu-tone.com/product/tremolo-black-box/

DiMarzio Tone Zone: https://amzn.to/3DrrF5E

DiMarzio Area 67: https://amzn.to/3U6SouU

DiMarzio Air Norton: https://amzn.to/3sLO34U

The post Ibanez RG470 Rebuild and Modification appeared first on Darkling Designs.

 Some Background

This Ibanez RX170 is another guitar a friend of mine wants worked on. (Same friend that owns the RG470) This is a real low quality guitar from Ibanez’s Korean made RX series back in the 90s. This is an Ibanez RX 170, featuring an all maple neck and plywood body. It’s not a very well built guitar, but he likes the way it plays and he loves the look of it. So as usual we are about to throw some money at it and see what we end up with. We’ll probably finish this one before the RG470 unless he makes another oddball pickup selection that requires we wait a few month to get them.

Initial Photos

Here are some photos of the guitar as it is now.

The guitar isn’t in bad shape really. The body is sound and the finish is almost flawless. The cheap stock tremolo has started to succumb to rust like many of them do. The cheap plastic nut is about shot and causes string pinching when using the tremolo. The pickups are stock as well and sound pretty bad. We did upgrade the tuners soon after he bought the guitar, which helped some with tuning stability. It has a nice set of Spertzel Locking Tuners.

So far he hasn’t picked which pickups he wants but we are well on out way to upgrading the other parts.

I have a Tusq XL Nut and String Trees waiting to replace the stock ones. I have a Wilkinson Gotoh VS-100N Tremolo to replace the stock hunk of metal.

We also have another Black Box tremsetter to install.

Some new Schaller strap locks and possibly some minor fretwork should finish this one up.

Last weekend I got all the parts I needed to start working on the Ibanez RX170 again. Little did I expect to spend eleven hours in the basement obsessively working on this thing last Saturday night. That’s exactly what I did though and I made a huge amount of progress. Then I got a head cold from sitting down there in the cold all evening so I couldn’t touch the guitar for the next week. Seems like I might have been better off spacing the work out a bit. I finished it up tonight though so it’s time to show you what we did and what we ended up with.

Routing the Body for the New Tremolo!

The first thing we needed to do was route out a little wood around the tremolo cavity. Unlike the last guitar I did, this one would not accommodate the new tremolo unit without some modifications. The posts and string spacing are fine but the tremolo unit itself is a bit wider due to how the tremolo arm socket is mounted. We taped off the top of the guitar to protect it and marked the area we were going to remove with a sharpie.

We didn’t have to remove a lot. Unfortunately I don’t have a good router for this so I borrowed a laminate trimmer from the store I work at.

These things are basically just small routers. This particular one is a bit too aggressive for my taste. When we started cutting, it bogged down easily and wanted to grab the wood really hard. We had to lightly skim it little by little to get a clean cut. I’ll be getting a Bosch Colt for the holidays if I’m lucky so I don’t have to deal with this problem again.

Once we got the routing done and made sure of the fit, I painted the inside of the block cavity black so the raw wood wasn’t so stark.

Installing the Tremolo in the Ibanez RX170

I had already removed all the electronics from the Ibanez RX170 prior to this stage.

Next we needed to pull the old posts and install the new ones for the new tremolo.

Removing the old ones is very easy. Simply use a sharp utility knife to make a fine cut around the inserts so you don’t crack the finish when removing them. Then lay a piece of wood such as a paint paddle on the face of the guitar to the side of one stud. With the stud still screwed into the insert, hook it with a claw hammer and pry it out using the paint paddle to protect the top of the guitar from the hammer. Make sure you pry toward the top or bottom of the guitar. Prying toward the front or back risks cracking the thinner wood in those areas.

Once both studs were out, it was time to install the new ones. The new studs were a little bit fatter and longer than the old ones. I determined that for the Wilkinson/Gotoh VS-100N inserts I needed to drill out a 3/8″ diameter hole for them to fit snugly. I also determined that the inserts were the exact same height as the body was thick in this area. That meant that in order for the inserts to set flush with the top of the guitar I had to actually drill all the way through the guitar from the top into the tremolo cavity. This would leave the inserts flush with the top of the guitar and flush with the face of the tremolo cavity as well. Since I wasn’t going to have any wood on the bottom of the inserts to provide support, I decided to use a while laminate flooring glue to coat the inserts before hammering them in with a rubber mallet and a block of wood. Using these tools prevented damage to the face of the guitar. A hammer could have left dents if I slipped.

As you can see, I wasn’t entirely successful in keeping the finish intact around the studs. I tried my best to be careful, but the drill bit I used to widen the holes still caught the finish and chipped it a bit. I’m hoping to find some fingernail polish in a shade very close to this to do some touch up.

Once the inserts were in I screwed in the posts. At this point I could have just put the spring claw back in, dropped the new tremolo in, and strung the guitar. It wouldn’t have done much good without the electronics though so I moved on to that next.

Wiring the Electronics in the Ibanez RX170

I didn’t get photos of this part of the rebuild. Someone had borrowed the camera unexpectedly.

First, I marked out two spots between the tone and volume pot holes where I wanted to drill two more holes through the body of the guitar. These were meant to accommodate a set of mini toggle switches used for some the the pickup wiring options I had chosen. To do this I measured inside the cavity to center them and used a gold paint marker I had lying around to make legible marks on the black shielding paint in the control cavity. I then used a small drill bit to tap the holes through to the front of the guitar. Then I redrilled them with a larger 1/4″ bit from the front. This time I manage to do it perfectly with no chips to the finish.

Once that parts was done I moved on to shielding the guitar. You can use either a copper or aluminum shielding tape for this or a shielding paint. The foils do a better job and are a cheaper investment, even though the paint is probably cheaper in the long run if you are doing multiple projects. For this job I used a roll of aluminum duct tape I had already obtained from Lowes for the last project. I completely foiled the inside of the control cavity and the tremolo cavity. I also foiled the inside of all the pickup cavities.

This photo was from a later stage in the rebuild but you can see what the shielding looks like. Note how it slightly overlaps the edges of the cavity. The back plate will be shielded as well and when screwed into place it will press against this shielding and extend the ground circuit to the back plate as well as the sides of the cavity.

After getting all the foil in, I decided to solder a wire from one pickup cavity to the next and then all the way into the back where it would connect to the common ground. This is when I discovered that people generally use copper foil because solder doesn’t stick to aluminum. I had never tried to solder aluminum before so I consider this a lesson learned. I layered in a couple of spots of copper tape I still had in order to give me a solder point in each cavity.

Once the shielding was done I mounted the pickups in the guitar. I mounted both humbuckers in the stock plastic rings that came with the guitar, and I mounted the single coil in the black brass ring I bought just for it. I like the way this looks opposed to having a big hole in the face of the guitar like a single coil normally mounts. At this point I noticed that the Lace Sensors were smaller than normal humbuckers, especially the skeletal design of the Deathbucker. This resulted in seeing quite a bit of glaring silver shielding foil peaking out from the cavities. To remedy this, I removed the pickups and painted the shielding foil black. This eliminated the glaring silver look but didn’t effect how the shielding works.

Once the pickups were mounted it was time to flip the Ibanez RX170 over and start wiring.

This is the wiring diagram I came up with after a lot of research. Lace Sensors are very difficult to find good diagrams for and their wire colors don’t seem to stay consistent either. I discovered this when I had to rewire one of the mini toggles. The Deathbucker and the Dually had reversed colors on the coil split wires so when I first wired it up one pickup would split when the toggle was up and the other would split when it was down.

Other than that, I had no problems with the wiring this time. I’m getting better with figuring these things out. I will note that the Fender No Load tone pot was swapped out for a regular 250k tone pot during the install. The Fender pot was meant for a guitar that uses a pick guard to mount the controls instead of one that mounts through the wood of the guitar top. The shaft on the Fender pot was not long enough to go through the guitar top and thread the nut on.

Once the Ibanez RX170 was wired up I gave it a test run and I was thrilled with the results. These are suppose to be lower output pickups but they scream compared to the old ones. Clarity and definition are great too.

When I went to put the cover plate back on the control cavity I discovered a problem. The new switch I had installed was too tall for the thinner body of this guitar. The old recessed cover would not fit back in place flush. I had to add making a new cover plate to my list of things left to do on this guitar. I’ll cover how I made that toward the end of this post.

Once this part was done I installed the new nut with a drop of white laminate flooring glue and restrung the guitar. Here are a few photos of it at this point.

Installing the Black Box in the Ibanez RX170

In this section I’ll walk you through how to install a Black Box tremsetter. I know I neglected this last time so I made sure to get a full set of photos this time. The camera isn’t working the best though and some of the photos are a little blurry. I think they are still good enough to see what I’m trying to show you.

First of all you need to make sure your tremolo is properly setup and the guitar is tuned as close to perfect as you can get it. I installed the Black Box after I had already fiddled with my spring tension and tuning until I got the new tremolo perfectly balanced on the guitar. I had also already spend a couple of hours tweaking intonation.

Once all of that is done you want to lay the Black Box in the middle of the tremolo cavity and make sure it is pressed firmly against the tremolo block, but not firmly enough to make the block move.

Then you need to mark the position of the tremsetter because you’ll have to remove the tremolo from the guitar to get this thing installed correctly. I used a black paint marker I had from model building. It marks fine on the aluminum tape. You could also use a very fine marker.

Now you’ll need to remove the tremolo from the guitar. You have to disassemble the Black Box in order to screw it into place and put it back together while it’s mounted. The tremolo block gets in the way of this.

Thankfully it’s easy to remove the tremolo from an Ibanez RX170 without taking all the strings off the guitar. To do this, detune the guitar about four or five turns per string. Do this gradually, one turn per string so you don’t put too much tension on any one string. Once they are detuned the tremolo should be lying against the face of the guitar. Flip it over and use needle nosed pliers to pop the springs out of the block. Flip it over again and you can put back and up on the tremolo unit to pop it off of the posts.

Now we can flip it back over and start installing the Black box.

First you want to unscrew the knurled knob at the outside end of the unit until you completely remove it from the threaded stem. Be careful not to loose the rubber o-ring that fits around it. Next unscrew the other knurled knob inside the unit. You’ll have to thread the entire stem out of this one. When it reaches the end the stem will pull out and the spring, knob, and washer will come out separately. Pay attention to how these come apart so you can put them back together correctly.

Now that you have the guts separated from the shell of the Black Box with can screw the shell into place. To do this you want to line it up with the marks you made earlier. There should be one screw hole at the tip pointed toward the spring claw and another one offset inside the shell. Use a nail to punch a starting hole at these marks. Now use one of the supplied screws in the offset hole inside of the shell to anchor it. Make sure not to over tighten it and lift the other end off of the surface. This guitar’s trem cavity was not perfectly flat and tightening one screw too much meant the other would not make contact. Make sure the shell will sit flat when the screws are both tightened.

Once that screw is in you can tilt the shell to one side so you can slide the guts back in. Slide the stem back in from the trem block side and start threading the knurled knob back on it. You want to place the metal washer and spring back in place before you thread too much stem through for them to fit.

Once the stem reaches the hole on the other end of the shell so it can’t pop back out, flip the shell around straight and anchor it with the other provided screw.

Now you can finish threading the stem in the rest of the way. Once that is done replace the rubber o-ring and the other knurled knob at the end.

Replace the tremolo unit the exact opposite of how you removed it and get the guitar back up to proper tuning. After that, you can use the knurled knob on the end of the Black Box to adjust the position of the stem against the tremolo block. You can also use the knurled knob in the middle of the unit to adjust how much tension is on the center spring. This will determine how stiff the resistance is against the tremolo block when it hits the tip of the stem.

That completes the Black Box installation.

Making a New Back Plate for the Ibanez RX170

Since the original control cavity cover for the Ibanez RX170 would no longer fit correctly I decided to make a new one. I discovered that the replacement tremolo cavity cover I had ordered didn’t fit either so I decided to cut a one piece plate to cover both the tremolo and control cavities.

I put the old plate back on the tremolo cavity and covered both areas with blue painters tape. I then used a sharpie to mark the edges of the old plate and the edges of the control cavity. I then free handed the lines around both to make them slightly bigger. This would allow for a top mounted plate that sits on the face of the guitar instead of being recessed. Once the marking was done, I carefully peeled up the taped image and transferred it to a fresh sheet of pickguard material.

I used a utility knife to carefully cut the tape along those lines and peel off the excess. Then it was time to hook up my band saw and start cutting out the rough outline.

Once that part was done I trimmed it up a little and peeled off the tape. At this point I didn’t have the appropriate power tools to shape the plate correctly so I had to resort to the tools I had available. I used my Dremel with barrel sanding bits to finish the rough shaping. Then I used a combination of fine flat and triangular files to round and bevel the edges. I then used my new needle files to finish the smaller areas and smooth the whole thing out.

Next, I had to drill the screw holes. I did this by laying the old tremolo plate on top of the new one and marking the holes. I stuck toothpicks in the screw holes in the control cavity and cut them off flush with the surface of the guitar. A dot of white paint on each toothpick let me mark the screw holes for this area by lining the tremolo plate screw holes up and pressing the other half of the plate firmly against the paint on the toothpicks. Once it was all marked I carefully drilled them with a #8 countersinking bit on my drill press.

Now the only thing left to do was cut out a window in the tremolo block area to allow for restringing the guitar without removing the plate. I also marked this by laying the old plate on top of the new one. I then free handed the lines a bit larger than the original opening to account for the larger block on the new tremolo. I used my Dremel with a carbide cutoff wheel to rough cut the opening. I then used my barrel sanding bit to shape it up most of the way. Then it was once more time to break out the files and clean up the edges. I back beveled the edge toward the front of the guitar to allow for easy movement of the tremolo springs underneath. The block on this tremolo is also very close to the plate.

Once all the cutting was done I used a white Scotchbrite pad to rub a swirled pattern into the plastic. I for one absolutely hate the glossy look of the standard black plastic material. It shows every fingerprint.

The screw holes in the body were a little stripped so I glue toothpicks into each hole before I ran new screws into them to secure the plate.

Here is the finished product.

I think it turned out pretty good considering the tools I had to work with. It may not be perfect but I’m happy with it.

Conclusion of the Ibanez RX170 Project

Here be Goo, all shiny and new!

The guitar is finished for now. I’ve done all I can do. It sounds amazing considered what it started out as and the fact that is still has a plywood body. Between the new tremolo and the Lace Sensors, this thing has sustain for miles. I’m very surprised at just how long it can hold a note.

It’s also very versatile, doing everything from blues to rock to death metal without a hitch. You can get a great variety of sounds out of the coil splitting and phase switches.

Only one problem remains and it’s a big one. The action is awfully high. This is due to fret issues. This guitar has smaller fret wire than most Ibanez guitars do and the wire has a fair bit of wear on it. It was also never leveled well to begin with being a cheap guitar. I currently don’t have the correct set of tools to do anything about this myself. So at some point in the future we’ll have to take it to Fretwell Bass and get Chip to see what he can do with it. Either that or I’ll have to invest in an expensive set of fret files and see if I can master one more skill.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed the project and found some useful information for your own use.

Products Used in the Ibanez RX170 Project

Note: These are affiliate links.

Gotoh VS-100N: https://amzn.to/3FnQPEW

Spertzel Locking Tuners: https://amzn.to/3FnQPEW

Lace Sensor Alumitone Deathbucker: https://amzn.to/3sCd02I

Lace Sensor Dually Gold/Blue: https://amzn.to/3sCd02I

Lace Sensor Silver: Currently unlisted.

The post Ibanez RX170 Project appeared first on Darkling Designs.

This project is a continuation of the Homemade Pedal Board project. Once a pedal board is constructed you need good quality patch cables to hook all of your pedals together with. You can buy these pre-made, but finding good quality cables can be tricky. To avoid this I decided to make my own with components I knew were of good quality. The details of this project can be applied to making patch cables or full size instrument cables.

Selecting the Components

The Cable:

I chose a Japanese instrument cable called Canare GS-6. This is a very widely used quality cable that comes at a very reasonable price. As an alternate, Mogami cable of similar construction is also considered a very high quality cable.
http://store.haveinc.com/p-49639-canare-gs6-instrument-cable-coax-18awg-oxygen-free-cut.aspx

The Tips:

I chose to go with Switchcraft, a quality US manufacturer for the tips. These tips are widely used in quality cables. The straight tips are pretty well priced, but the 90 degree tips are about twice the price. They are still worth it to me.
Switchcraft 226 at Amazon
Switchcraft 280 at Amazon

Heatshrink Tubing:

I chose a 3:1 heatshrink tubing to seal my connections after assembly. 3:1 gives you plenty of room to slip it into place and still shrinks up nice and tight.
http://store.haveinc.com/p-55326-techflex-31-heatshrink-3-8in-bla-25ft.aspx

Other Materials:

1. Cable Strippers: for stripping multiple layers of the cable
2. Soldering Iron and supplies: for soldering your cable to the tips
3. Needle Nosed Pliers: for crimping your ground connection from the plug to the cable
4. Hot Glue Gun: for potting the electrical connection after soldering
5. Knives, scissors, rulers: for measuring and cutting your materials
6. Heat gun, or lighter: something to shrink the tubing

Assembling the Cable:

Measuring Your Cable:

The first thing you want to do is determine how long your cable needs to be. In this example I’m going to be making a 12″ patch cable with one straight tip and one angled tip. To start, I’ll use my 4 foot straightedge to measure off 14″ of cable.

We are measuring 2″ longer than we need to account for the cable that will be housed inside of the tip casing.

You can go ahead and cut your heatshrink tubing as well. You’ll need 1-1/2″ sections for the angled connectors and 2″ sections for the straight connections.

Stripping the Cable:

You’ll want to use the appropriate cable strippers to strip three different sections off of the end of the cable. First we removed about 3/4″ from the outer insulator only. Then we fanned out the copper braid that was exposed by pulling it all one direction around the cable and then the other direction until it was fanned out all the way to the orange insulator. Then we pulled it all to one side and twisted it together into a single lead. Next we stripped the tip down to the core wire just enough to make a good lead for connecting to the hot lug on the plug. Then we removed the thin black layer of conductive insulation to expose the non-conductive clear plastic insulation below. This is important to keep from shorting the circuit. See the photo below for reference.

Making the Connection

Now we’ll attach the cable to the tip. Below is a standard straight Switchcraft tip.

Notice that there is a short lug in the center. This is the “hot” lug. You’ll attach the core wire from the cable to this lug, which will send the signal to the tip of the plug. The long metal piece with two wings is the ground lug. This will crimp around the braided copper shielding of the cable.

I’ve slightly bent the center lug inward here to keep the core wire pointing where I want it. You can insert the core wire through the lug from the outside. The angled plugs are a little different. The center lug is made differently so you don’t have to bend anything, but it works best to insert the core wire from the inside on the angled plugs. Either way, hold this connection in place with one hand and use a pair of needle nosed pliers to bend the wings of the ground lug into place, effectively clamping the cable into the tip. this will keep the “hot” wire from coming out of the other lug as well.

Soldering the Connection

Now that the ground connection is secure and the “hot” connection is in place, we need to secure the core wire to the lug by soldering it. I’m using a butane iron because the cords on electric ones irritate me, but use whichever iron you have on hand so long as it is powerful enough to melt the solder. I’d aim for about a 45 watt electric. I’m using standard thin gauge 60/40 rosin core solder.

The connection is now secure.

Potting the Connection

The next step is an extra precaution I take. We are going to use a hot glue gun to fill the void between the tip lugs with hot glue. This serves two purposes. First, it isolates the ground and hot lugs so they should never had a chance of making contact with each other. Second, it keeps the wires from flexing more than necessary. The less movement you have in the wire, the longer it takes to wear out. You can significantly extend the life of your cables by doing this.

This photo shows what the connection looks like once it’s filled with glue. The photo doesn’t pick it up the best since the glue hardens clear.

Heatshrinking the Connection

Next you’ll need to slide a piece of heatshrink tubing into place. Use a 2″ piece since this is a straight plug. Butt it up to the threads but not over them.

Now you’ll need a strong heat source such as a heat gun or open flame to shrink the tubing tight around the connection.

This protects the connection, stiffens it even more against unnecessary movement, and makes the assembly look much more professional.

Closing the Casing

Now you need to finish closing up the tip assembly. First, slide the clear plastic tube into place. This is one more layer of rigid protection.

Then screw the metal casing back into place.

Now you have a nicely secured connection. To finish the cable up you’ll need to repeat this procedure with the second tip. Make absolutely sure you slide the casing, clear tube, and heatshrink onto the cable before installing the second tip, since there is no way to do it afterwards.

Completed Project

So here are a few photos of the what the final product looks like.

That’s how you make your own high quality, custom sized cables.

The post Making Your Own Instrument Cables appeared first on Darkling Designs.

Infection Cleanup Tools

RKill:https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/rkill/ This program is downloadable as 4 different file types. Some malware keeps cleanup tools from running correctly so if the standard program doesn’t work you can try one of the other links. This tool looks for actively running infections and attempts to kill the process running them. Once that’s done it’s possible to run some of the other cleanup programs that might get blocked by an actively running infection. RKill also resets network settings to get around infections that set a proxy server on the actual network interface to prevent internet access from working.

AdwCleaner:https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/ A focused malware scanner that primarily cleans up a variety of browser hijacks and dangerous extensions.

Malwarebytes Free Version:https://www.malwarebytes.com/ A very comprehensive full system scanner. This program is very good at getting rid of infections that a traditional virus scanner tends to miss. Can also be purchased for an active shield that works alongside traditional virus scanners like Windows 10 built in security suite. Not a bad idea for those prone to constantly getting infected. Otherwise, the free version runs as an on demand scanner as needed.

SuperAntiSpyware: https://www.superantispyware.com/ Very much like Malwarebytes and serves as a good second scan to find anything the others miss. SAS is good at cleaning up adware trackers in browsers above all else.

Geek Uninstaller: https://geekuninstaller.com/ A program that runs the built in uninstaller for programs you want to remove and then does an extensive scan to remove all leftover files and registry entries the uninstallers fail to remove.

System Info Tools

Advanced IP Scanner: https://www.advanced-ip-scanner.com/ This is a network scanner. It can find and list other devices connected to a network along with IP addresses and MAC addresses.

Wireshark:https://www.wireshark.org/ A very in depth network protocol analyzer. AnyDesk:https://anydesk.com/en Free (for personal use, but whatevs) remote access utility. Good for providing tech support to a customer without having on site access. As long as their internet is working.

Speccy:https://www.ccleaner.com/speccy System information utility to pull a lot of OS info.

CPU-Z:https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html GPU-Z: https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/ Utilities for pulling a lot of information about a systems hardware.

Android Apps for Network Diagnostics

Fireprobe Speed Test: Test your wireless network speeds. The one in the Eero only tells you haw fast the connection between the Eero and the ISP is. This one tells you how fast your speed is between the Eero an the endpoint device.

WiFiman: Ubiquiti’s WiFi analyzer tool. Lets you see the layout and signal strength of nearby hot spots. Good for plotting where to put a beacon. Just don’t trust the built in speed test. For some reason the Upload test is janky and seems to be artificially capped. That’s not an exhaustive list, but it’s a lot of the main stuff. The first couple are the big ones for a customer to clean up their messes.

The post Cleanup Tools for Windows OS appeared first on Darkling Designs.

Introduction

This article is meant to clarify the answers to some of the most common questions our customers have about painting a metal roof. This information is aimed at the residential customer, but can easily pertain to a commercial application as well. However, commercial facilities will have other more industrial product selections such as epoxy and aliphatic urethane coatings to choose from that are less common in a residential environment. These types of coatings will not be covered in this article. Product selection will be limited to more readily available products with less involved application procedures.

This article is broken down into four basic sections. The first step is to determine what substrate you are painting actually is. This includes both the type of metal roof materials used and any existing coatings that are in place. The second step is to determine the best methods and products to prepare the existing surface for paint. The third step is choosing the correct coating system for the job. The final section will cover some of the dos and don’ts of applying the coating.

Please read through the entire article before beginning your project to familiarize yourself with the process as a whole. It’s all too easy to jump right into a project and find yourself suddenly overwhelmed.

Determining the Substrate

The first step in painting any metal roof is determining what substrate and existing coatings you are dealing with. This is a huge factor in what coating system you’ll want to use and is critical to determining how to prepare the existing surface.

There are several different types of metals used in roofing applications. Some are more common than others. Historically steel and copper have been widely used. Stainless steel and aluminum are newer and more expensive products used in roofing applications and as a result are less common. There are also various Terne products available. Terne is an alloy of a few different metals that is used to coat a steel core and provide anti-corrosion properties.

Let’s start by ruling out the most easily identifiable metal roof material, copper. Copper is pretty easy to spot. It is shiny and copper colored when new, just like a new penny. It dulls and darkens to a brown color as it ages. Eventually it progresses to a green or greenish blue patina as it continues to weather. Regardless of exactly how old it is, copper tends to look nothing like the other “silver” metals used in roofing applications. Copper is also generally left uncoated so the color difference is easy to spot. Most people that opt for a copper roof are taking the patina into consideration as part of their choice and wouldn’t dream of coating it.

Now we can separate the ferrous metals from the non ferrous metals. The term ferrous refers to any metal with a primarily iron base. For our purposes that generally means steel. Most of your older roofs will be galvanized steel or Terne tin, which is also steel, despite the name. While the zinc coating used in the galvanizing process will not attract a magnet, the iron core material will. That means that a magnet will be the quickest and easiest way to determine whether the roof is steel. If a magnet sticks to the material then it is most likely galvanized steel or Terne tin. Stainless steel on the other hand is designed not to rust and the alloy metals added to the mixture generally prevent a magnet from sticking to it. Please note that some alloys of stainless steel will hold a magnet, but these types are not generally used in roofing panels. Steel roofing is difficult to spot visually. It’s usually coated from the factory so it appears much like any other metal roof.

Terne tin is a little trickier to determine. The term “tin” is a misnomer in this situation. It is very rare to find an actual tin roof. Generally, a tin roof is referring to one of two things. The first incarnation of the tin roof was a sheet of steel with a tin coating on the surface to prevent oxidization. The second incarnation is what we call Terne tin. This material still consists of a steel base, but it is coated with a Terne alloy in lieu of actual tin. Originally, tern was an alloy made from a blend of lead and tin. When lead was banned from use in construction Terne II was born. Terne II is an alloy made from a blend of zinc and tin.

As you can see, it can be difficult to determine whether a roof is galvanized steel or Terne tin without resorting to chemical tests. Fortunately, it doesn’t really matter. Both galvanized and Terne surfaces are prepared for paint the same way.

Let’s cover stainless steel now. Stainless is generally only used in commercial applications and even then it isn’t common due to the added expense. Stainless steel is naturally corrosion resistant, but it is still sometimes coated with an additional Terne II finish. The finish on stainless steel can be bright and shiny or matte depending on the product chosen. Generally, stainless steel is left uncoated and still retains a good appearance. There is really no need to paint stainless steel so it is one of the few roofing materials that will have a bright silver appearance. The Terne version will be harder to distinguish from normal Terne tin so a magnet will be needed.

Lastly, we’ll cover aluminum. Aluminum is more expense than steel and thus less common. It’s growing in popularity though because it is light weight, corrosion resistant, and dissipates heat quickly. A magnet will not stick to aluminum roofing material. Aluminum does not really corrode if left exposed, but it does discolor badly from the layer of protective oxidization that forms on its surface, making it an ugly natural finish. Most aluminum roofing will be coated, often coming from the factory in an assortment of colors. Sometimes it will also be anodized like the old paraplanes. Aluminum is very thin a flexible material and most often has a factory finish so it’s easy to spot.

Once the type of metal has been determined, you need to figure out what kind of coating if any is currently on it.

Traditionally, oil-based roof paints have been the most common product chosen. Most residential applications of any age will have at least one coat of oil on them and often dozens of coats will have built up over the years. Oil paints get brittle as they age and often start peeling as the number of coats increases over time. The paint film gets so hard and so thick that it eventually can’t keep up with the movement the metal experiences with temperature changes. When that happens the paint film starts to sheer from the metal and peeling results. These flakes of peeling paint will be very brittle and break easily, which makes spotting oil-based roof coatings fairly easy. If you can’t get peeling chips for some reason there is another way to tell if the roof has oil on it. Simply wet a rag with denatured alcohol and rub a spot with it. If little or no color comes off on the rag then you have oil paint. If the color does come off you have an acrylic paint. Alcohol is strong enough to melt acrylic products, but not strong enough to affect oil.

In more recent years acrylic DTM (direct to metal) products have become more common as a roof coating. Certain roofing materials, such as Terne tin and galvanized steel, accept waterborne coatings more readily than oil-based coatings. Acrylics are also more flexible than oil and thus handle movement in the metal better. They are also faster to dry, allowing a painter to turn a job around quicker. The speed of drying can pose its own problems though. DTMs are generally the product of choice for many factory finished metals. Peeling DTM will be flexible and rubbery. The color will also come off when applying the alcohol test.

Another less common roof coating is elastomeric paint. Elastomerics are also waterborne acrylics, but they have elastomeric resins built in as well. These products leave a much thicker and more rubbery film and generally only come in white. Even when a colored version is present they are easy enough to differentiate from a DTM. These coatings are mainly used in commercial or hospitality settings and are mainly used for their heat reflecting properties. This makes them more common in warmer areas such as Florida. Test for this product just like DTM, but pay attention to how thick and rubbery the film is and what color it is.

There is one other type of coating that is commonly found on buildings like barns or storage sheds. Asphalt roof coatings are sometimes used on these roofs because they are extremely cheap and are thick enough to fill pinholes in the metal. You have plain asphalt, fibered asphalt and fibered aluminum asphalt. Asphalt will be black and tarry. Fibered asphalt will look like normal asphalt but have more texture from the material fibers in it. The aluminum variety will look like fibered asphalt, but will have a dull aluminum color to it. All of these coatings are a real pain to deal with as far as recoating with other products.

Preparation

Bare Metal

Bare metal is the best substrate to work with in most cases. You don’t have the existing coating to deal with. Surface condition can be a factor though.

First let’s cover rust and corrosion on steel surfaces. If there is any rust or other corrosion that is loose and scaly it must absolutely be removed via mechanical methods. This can involve wire brushing, scraping, grinding, sanding, and other procedures such as sand or soda blasting. Remove as much rust and scale as possible. When you are left with just a residue you can choose to further treat the issue or to depend on the rust inhibitive properties of your coating system to put a “band-aid” on the problem.

It is recommended to further address the residual rust with a solution of phosphoric acid. Products such as Ospho are recommended for this. Ospho is a light phosphoric acid formulation. You simply pour it on the surface and brush it into place. Let it dry and repeat if rust is still apparent. Ospho will etch the surface of the metal and convert the iron oxide (rust) into iron phosphate, an inert substance that turns the metal black. Sweep away any powder left by the process and you are ready for primer and paint.

If no rust is present on the steel a simple pressure washing may be adequate to clean the surface of the roof. Be aware that a lack of rust indicates the presence of a coating such as zinc galvanizing or Terne. Galvanized or Terne surfaces must be etched with a product like Ospho to avoid adhesion problems with the coating system. When galvanizing or Terne is believed to be present, clean the roof via pressure washing and let dry. Then apply a coat of Ospho and let it dwell for 30 minutes. Rinse clean and allow the surface to dry completely before applying a coating system. You may allow the Ospho to dry and sweep it away in lieu of rinsing it if appearance is not as important. However, rinsing the surface will result in a smoother finish.

Let’s move on to aluminum. Aluminum should not form any major corrosion. A simple pressure washing is generally adequate preparation for an aluminum roof. If desired, the metal can be etched with Ospho just like steel. This will result in a better bond with the coating system. If scaling has formed for some reason handle the issue in much the same way as you would rust on a steel surface.

Next, we’ll cover stainless steel. You really shouldn’t paint stainless steel. It defeats the purpose of using it in the first place. When you absolutely must paint it, follow the preparation instructions for aluminum.

Finally, we’ll cover copper. Copper really should not be painted. It defeats the purpose of using it since copper can last centuries. It also takes away from the natural beauty of the metal. There is also the problem of keeping a coating on it. The chemical reaction that occurs when copper oxidizes burns off just about anything you put on it. So just leave copper alone.

Previous Metal Roof Coatings

Unfortunately, a painter is seldom blessed with the gift of a bare metal roof to work with. The great majority of the time the roof will have a previous coating on it. It could even have multiple coats present. Some old roofs have been found to have 30-40 layers of paint on them. When that much paint is present it may be time to replace the metal instead of painting it. Make sure you examine that option alongside the option of a proper repaint to determine which one is better in the long run.

If you have an oil coating on the surface in question, which is the most common situation, then you’ll want to remove any loose and peeling areas of paint via mechanical methods. This means scraping, sanding, wire brushing, and so on. Pressure washing will seldom remove all loose debris. Treat any rusting or corroding areas the same as you would if they were present on bare metal. If the majority of the coating is still sound you can get away with spot priming the bare areas you’ve exposed before applying paint. Otherwise, you’ll be best served by removing as much coating as possible before a full coating system of primer and paint is applied.  Once the loose material is removed, pressure wash the surface to remove any residual contamination.

Surfaces painted with an acrylic product can be prepared much the same way as a surface coated with an oil product. Just be very careful when removing the loose material. Acrylics tend to peel in strips and keep on peeling if they are not securely adhered, whereas oils break up more readily as they peel.

Surfaces painted with an asphalt product are often a lost cause. Asphalts are extremely difficult to coat over effectively and even more difficult to remove. Generally, anything coated with asphalt probably isn’t material of any quality and you’d be better off replacing it. If you must paint over it, remove anything loose via mechanical methods and give it a good pressure washing.

General Notes

There are a few final notes concerning preparation. It is recommended to use a detergent such as Jomax or TSP when cleaning and pressure washing a roof. Water alone will not always remove all of the contaminants. A detergent is essential to achieving an optimal surface. Once your surface is clean and ready for coating do not leave it for more than a day or two before applying the primer. The more time you allow the surface to remain exposed, the greater the chance it will become contaminated again.

A Note on Lead

If you have an older roof you should familiarize yourself with the hazards of lead. Many old roof coatings and Terne formulations used lead in the mix. When grinding or scraping where one of these coatings is present you are releasing lead dust into the environment. Breathing this dust can result in lead poisoning.

The EPA has spent the last few years cracking down on lead as well. It’s treated much like asbestos now and heavy fines can result if you make a mistake handling it. Consult the EPA website for more information.

Metal Roof Coating Systems

Now that your roof is prepared for paint you need to choose the correct coating system for the existing surface. There are three main types of roof coatings for general residential application. These include traditional oils, newer Acrylic DTMs, and Acrylic Elastomerics.

Types of Coatings

Traditional oil coatings are linseed based long oils designed to bond tightly to the metal and provide as much flexibility as an oil coating can. This is the type of coating that has been used for many decades and remains the most common product in use today. The biggest drawbacks to oil coatings include lack of colorfastness, brittleness with age, and long dry times. The longer dry times make for slower turnaround and require that care is given to the time of day you are painting. In spring and autumn weather, painting too late into the day with an oil product can make it susceptible to spotting from evening dew.

Acrylic DTMs are newer products that have come down from the industrial and railroad divisions. These products have been formulated to take the place of traditional oil coatings in a world that is constantly pushing for GREEN building initiatives. They are very durable, have better colorfastness than oils, better flexibility on metal surfaces, and have a faster turnaround time since they dry rapidly. The drawback to the rapid dry time is that you must be careful not to apply them in direct sunlight or on very hot days to avoid lapping and flash drying, which will result in a less than desirable appearance and possible adhesion issues.

Elastomerics are more of a specialized product. They are more commonly used in commercial and hospitality projects, but can be used quite successfully in a residential application. An elastomeric coating is a waterborne blend of acrylic and elastomeric resins. It is much thicker than a normal acrylic coating and provides a thick rubbery membrane when dry. These types of coatings are generally used in warmer climates such as Florida due to their ability to reflect heat and provide a little insulation from the sun.  They often contain ceramic micro-spheres to further promote heat reflection. Elastomerics are most readily available in white, which is also the best color to reflect heat. Other colors are sometimes available, usually on a special order basis, and more common in cooler climates like Canada. Elastomerics behave very much like acrylics with the exception of having a much lower spread rate due to the their thick viscosity. Their heat reflecting properties as well as the ability to fill small pinholes are their strongest advantages. However, most homeowner generally do not like the appearance of elastomeric coatings, especially when they are available only in white.

Choosing a Product

Which type of product to use depends largely on the surface you are coating as well as the intended application. Considering the focus of this article, we’ll assume the intended application is your standard residential roof. Therefore, we can focus on what the substrate calls for.

When to Use Oil

An oil system should be used when you have a very rusty ferrous metal surface that you do not intend to etch and convert with a product like Ospho. Oil roof primers and paints are naturally better at handling rust bleed through and reducing future oxidation of the metal.

Oil products should also be used when the existing coating is already an oil product, especially when multiple coats are present. If you have an old roof with existing oil paint on it you are better off recoating it with more oil unless you are willing to strip the roof to bare metal. Acrylic DTMs and Elastomerics have an aggressive bite and will often bond to old oil without an issue. However, the acrylic and oil products expand and contract and a much different rate. This usually results in the acrylic coating pulling the old oil coating loose, which will result in peeling. The top coat is only as good as what lies beneath it.

When to Use Acrylic DTM

Acrylic DTMs should be used on any surface that is not friendly to oil products. These include aluminum, galvanized, and Terne products. You will get a much better bond to the properly prepared surface of one of these metals from an acrylic than you will from an oil.

Acrylic DTMs should also be used when colorfastness and flexibility are a major concern. They will greatly outperform oil products on both accounts.

Acrylic DTMs are also the product of choice when trying to coat over old asphalt products. There is no guarantee in this situation that anything will really stay bonded to the old asphalt surface, but acrylics have a better chance of adhering than oils.

In general, any new surface should be properly prepared and coated with an Acrylic DTM unless the specific properties of an elastomeric are called for. Oil will eventually disappear under pressure from the EPA. There is no reason to coat a new surface with a dying technology and have to deal with conversion issues in the future.

When to Use Elastomerics

Elastomerics need little explanation. They are such specialized products that very few situations will call for them. They are primarily called for if you are specifically looking for their heat reflecting properties.

Application Dos & Don’ts

Generally, application of any of these systems will consist of applying one coat of rust inhibitive primer and two coats of finish with proper dry time between coats. It is important that the primer be rust inhibitive on ferrous surfaces. In the case of oil products you will most likely be looking at a red oxide metal primer. Acrylic DTMs are also available in a red oxide variety. Both types also commonly come in gray and sometimes white, but red oxide is preferred for the greatest rust inhibitive capability. Elastomeric coatings should be applied over a coat of red oxide acrylic DTM primer.

If you have a sound existing coating and are applying a coating of the same type of product over it, i.e. oil over oil, then fully priming the roof is not necessary. Spot prime any bare areas and then apply two coats of finish product over the entire roof.

Application via brush, roller, spray or a combination thereof is acceptable provided proper film build of each coat is achieved. Use a film gauge to check this if necessary.

Avoid applying a coating in direct sunlight, especially waterborne coatings. Also be sure to honor the approved range of temperatures for the product in question. Generally, surface temperatures should fall between 50 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Surface temperature refers to the temperature of the surface you are painting, not the ambient air temperature. A metal roof that has been in direct sunlight for a while can be much hotter than the air around it. Too hot of a surface can cause the solvents in a product to flash off too fast and prevent proper bonding. This can also result in visual defects such as dull and shiny spots and a crinkled film. Too cold of a surface can retard drying and curing of the product and also result in adhesion issues.

Avoid painting too early or too late into the day, especially in spring or autumn weather. Dew is often the culprit when visual problems occur on an exterior paint film. Painting a surface too early in the morning when the weather has been very cool does not give dew time to dissipate and can result in adhesion and blushing issues. Painting too late in the day allows dew to form before the paint film is dry and can also cause blushing.

Be careful to get good coverage on the seams of the roof. These are the most difficult areas to coat well when applying product with a roller or brush. The flat surfaces are much easier to achieve full coverage.

Refer to the documentation or sales representative of the specific product you choose to use for full recommended application procedures.

Conclusion

The proceeding information should make it clear that application method is only one small part of the equation when dealing with a metal roof. Properly identifying the existing surface and correctly preparing it for a coating are essential steps to achieving a good looking paint job that will last for many years.

The length of this article may make painting your roof seem like a formidable task, but be assured that it is not. There are simply numerous variables that need to be covered. Once you have identified the substrate and chosen a product to apply, you’ll always know the best system for future use. Then it all comes down to common sense and knowing how to use your painting equipment.

This article was written with an emphasis on identifying the surface to be painted, properly preparing it, and choosing which type of coating is best for your application. Application tips have been provided but application procedures have been kept to a minimum. Once you’ve chosen a brand and specific product for your job, it is best to adhere to the manufacturer’s recommended application procedures first and foremost.

I hope this information has been helpful to those of you about to tackle a roof painting project. Please feel free to comment with any questions or concerns. I’ll try to keep this article up to date with any new information that seems relevant.

Disclaimer

I have worked in retail and commercial sales of residential and industrial coatings for over a decade. I am not a chemist or a metallurgist, though I do frequently have input from the chemists and field representatives of the paint manufacturers with which I deal. My knowledge is based solely on my real life experience with the products and situations discussed above, not on any official training. Please use this information as a starting point for your project, but discuss the details with your local paint representatives before proceeding.

Contact Us

Please contact us with any questions regarding painting a metal roof, or with any inquiries about metal roof paint, prep, and application products.

Contact Darkling Designs here:  https://darklingdesigns.com/contact-us/

Contact Morris Paint here:  https://www.morrispaint.com/contact/

By Chad Simmons – Morris Paint & Floor Covering, Inc.

The post Painting a Metal Roof appeared first on Darkling Designs.