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1987 (first year issued) RG550DY

This guitar is not only unique because of the modifications. Notice the way the 'edges' are finished. This was manufactured when the RG550 was a new idea. I believe only the first production run of these had the rounded off edges on the body design.

This pickup combination is the usual for me; All DiMarzio® pickups: Bridge-X2N®,
Middle-(this is an option in some guitars) usually a DiMarzio® HS-2™ stack single-coil, Neck-DiMarzio® Fast Track-1™ (it fits in a single-coil mount, but it's a mini-humbucker designed to have the tonal characteristics of a single-coil) It's nice-n-loud.

1. This of course is the older style Ibanez® Edge locking trem'. Definitely my choice for a bridge, over anything else. I'm a little rough on trems' and I use the thing all the time, so I have worn out the fulcrum studs and had replaced them a few times on some guitars. The locking nut and machine heads (not pictured) are also the original "black" hardware. When these models were first introduced, the "cosmo-black" finish was not available on the 550's.

2. The Edge trem' has one major flaw with its 'plug-in' style arm socket. It can't be adjusted, and the small nylon bushings have to be replaced constantly just to get it to fit snug. I found a way to replace the socket with a standard retro-fit Floyd Rose® replacement arm. They screw on and never wear out. They don't break off like the other ones too. I also put hockey-tape on the end of all my trem' arms. There's no slip when holding it while picking, and it's good to have a friction surface when doin' all the flik-n-flutter-n-trill-n-shudder.

3. Here is my most common switching set-up: The one closest to the selector turns the neck pickup on regardless of the 5-way position (this gives me 7 positions instead of 5). The next one down is the on/off switch. The lowest one sets the coil-tap option for the bridge pickup (this only functions when the 5-way is set between the bridge & middle pickups). The 5-way is wired like a standard 550 (or JEM) 1-bridge humbucking, 2-bridge/middle (outer switch options coil-tap), 3-middle stacked single-coil, 4-middle & neck, 5-neck single humbucking.

4. These pickguards are custom ordered to fit the single-coil in the neck position, and cut for only the 5-way selector. Since I don't use pots (only switches), I just drill these where I want them. These are also ordered in CLEAR. The color is painted from the back. You can choose ANY color regardless of the paint base, and the clear on top gives it that thick glassy plastic coating look. Depending on your monitor, the actual color is purple & the pickups are pink.
    The screws are larger flat-top sheet metal style. This gives the pickguard a chunky 'industrial' look to the edges. They're practical too; when I'm taking the pickguard off with a power tool, it's a lot faster & they never strip. ...HEFTY!

5. "The Handle". Here's where I really have some fun! Probably the only thing I actually copied from the JEM models. When I saw the first 'root-beer' model it was all over for me! Had to have it! Not only my 550's get this handle. A few other guitars (including two Charvels have had this done. I don't like the look of the standard finger hole "monkey-grip" as much. The orginal design Steve Vai put in his own guitars also looked more like the oval handle. The monkey-grip style wasn't developed until Ibanez® made Vai's guitars.

6.

7. I've been scalloping my necks for many years. Virtually every neck I have is scalloped. The maple fretboards get the total neck scalloped, and my rosewood fretboards are scalloped from the 12th fret-up. THIS neck has also had the back radius re-shaped by hand. Everyone who plays this loves the shape and compliments on how good the neck feels. It was an experiment, and it came out better than I expected. My maple scallop jobs are all finished by hand with a standard 7-coat semi-satin-gloss tung oil finish.
    If you didn't know; the standard fret-wire of a 550 has a wider bead than the JEM's.