Setting up an Ibanez IMG-2010 Guitar Synth controller

I have the joy of owning an Ibanez IMG-2010 Guitar Synth, which can be had quite cheap on Ebay, yet are excellent quality Steinberger style guitars, and originally sold for quite a princely sum. Wayne Joness’ very informative GR-300 site extolls the qualities of this beast in great detail. I’m yet to do the conversion to a DB-25 pin connector and fit the G-202 hex fuzz circuit, but it’s planned.

One slightly tricky issue with them is that being a headless neck, the truss-rod tightening bolt is located at the base of the neck between the neck pickup, under the fingerboard lip. This is an Allen key which needs to be shorter than normal in order to get in around the tight corner. Ibanez used to ship a special short length Allen key, but my S/H instrument never came with it. After searching around for exactly how much to cut down an Allen key and what dimensions to use, I had to resort to some trial and error, cutting down the key progressively (be careful as removing too much will not allow the key to sit in the bolt socket). Previous Ebay postings had indicated it was a 5mm width Allen key (likely easily obtainable in the U.S. via your last Ikea furniture package). I ended up cutting it down to 15mm, although the image shows it 0.89mm more than that (I assume it was originally specified as 15mm), using a Dremel tool with the metal cut off wheel.

When doing this, follow all the usual safety precautions – cutting hard steel down will kick up many sparks, so wear proper eye protection and be careful that the key will become hot, and lightly file over the edges of the cut to remove the sharpness and ensure the key doesn’t catch on the edge of the bolt.