Ibanez Roadstar II from 1984

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MIJ (Made In Japan) Strats from the 1980s have a particularly good reputation. The enthusiast of such guitars could do far worse than this 1984 Ibanez Roadstar II. Whilst not a direct Strat copy, you can't deny the obvious Strat influences. Indeed, some would say that its an improvement on the Strat design. Personally, I find the shape quite pleasing. It is very yellow though and with matching pickup covers - perhaps it's a nice change from the multitude of all-red guitars we have shown on this blog before.

If you're interested in bidding, the auction is up in just over 4 hours as I type this. No-one has bid - as yet - and the starting price is $299 (item location is California), so someone could get a good bargain here. (Let us know if it's you).

Thanks to Oren Clark for pointing this one out to me.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

1960s Ibanez 3904 Montclair

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This rather wild looking guitar with four pickups, a bank of selector switches, multi-pickguards, metal control and output panel, and original vibrato carries the Montclair brandname but is - apparently - a 1960s-era Ibanez 3904 made at the Hoshino/Tama factory in Japan.

It's obviously heavily influenced by Burns, although I don't think it's a direct copy of any one Burns guitar. If anything, it's taken the Burns design and gone even wilder with it. It's a pity they resorted to using such a generic looking headstock on this - it's probably a stock Ibanez neck from that era - but it rather lets the side down.

Currently for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $849.50.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Ibanez S670FM

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A few weeks ago I was writing about the guitars I usually overlook when I'm browsing for new stuff to show on the blog, here is one of them - an  Ibanez again, the S670FM. It's hard to tell when classicism turns into banality, but once you go over its boring shape, you find a pretty nice guitar, with a thin round mahogany body (the Ibanez S series was intended to provide light guitars made of mahogany) and nice flamed top  - I usually loathe this but it's actually agreeable when it's not spoiled by a glossy transparent lack. Even the light sunburst is swell!

I like the routing for the jack output, and the sophisticated trem with fine tuning thingummies (sorry I'm too lazy today for precise technical details). If I was given one (yes, I'm the kind of guy who tries to win a guitar for free in these internet giveaways, because I promised to myself not to buy a guitar anymore if it cannot pay for itself, and I don't have a current project that allows that), I'd just add chrome humbucker covers (uncovered pickups are not my cup of tea) and probably enjoy it because I have nothing in this style, and I trust Ibanez for the sound...

Bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Ibanez Artstar AE-200

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This Ibanez Artstar AE-200 is quite an intriguing guitar, about which I couldn't find much information - feel free to contribute if you know more... The acoustic/electric hybrid guitars are not exceptional nowadays but this one is from 1988! It has a piezo pickup under the bridge and a mini-humbucker in neck position, and you can balance the pickups from full bucky for a jazz tone to just acoustic with the piezo. I have no confirmation for this but the slits under the strings next to the bridge seem to be sound holes - strangely located then because we are more used to semi-hollow guitars with a central beam prolonging the neck... Definitely would like to know more - it's very interesting... 

Bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Ibanez XV500 - so very very pointy!

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This Ibanez X-series XV500 in "Violet halfburst" is from the "be careful not to impale yourself" school of guitar design. It has Ibanez V5 pickups and an incomplete Ibanez "Pro Rock R" tremolo system. Some of the close-up shots on the eBay listing show a few battle scars - not unusual with an unwieldy shape like this. I don't suppose anyone reading will be surprised to learn that this guitar hails from the 1980s: May 1985, apparently. The seller describes the finish as being "flip-flop", but I think this might just be a reference to the two tone diagonal pink/violet colour scheme, rather than a colour-changing finish depending on from what angle you view the instrument.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Ibanez Darkstone DN600 SHM

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I hate KISS because they associated for decades Japanese asymmetric glittery guitars with falsetto voice disco, tongue showing and cheap carnival make up, when it should belong to androgynous people in glamorous purple fur coats and feather boas playing anthemic art rock. 

Anyway, here is the Ibanez Darkstone DN600, and no it was not released in 1973 but in 2010 - yes it happens that we show here recent models! I actually noticed the black model Darkstone DN500 when it was released in 2009 (finally a non-JEM solid body new model by Ibanez!), still, it was just another metal guitar. 

This one is different, not only with its glittery finish (they call it shattered mirror, I call it crushed glass), but it has humbucker size single coil pickups - like the P90s they do now for modifiers - that make it a more attractive guitar to me (I'm in a P90 phase). Probably it could still be considered as a metal guitar but who cares, you don't have to do metal with it - actually if the guitars were always used for what they've been designed for, rock music wouldn't exist...

Bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

1994 Ibanez Talman TV650

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The Ibanez Talman is a typical example of a series of great guitars that didn't find their players - between 1994 and 1998 several varations of the Talman were released, with different designs, woods (including a composite wood known as Resoncast), and pickups (humbuckers, minibuckers, lipsticks, P90s and different combinations), then the model disappeared, I feel, before anybody even had the time to notice that Ibanez could do something else than JEMs.

This beautiful Ibanez Talman TV650 seems to be a poly-hybrid - the body and the pickguard merge Telecaster and Firebird designs, with a typically Japanese long lower horn, the pickups are two mini humbuckers and a lipstick in central position, a rare but quite logic combination, the knobs and the switch come directly from a stratocaster but the control/jack plate that belongs to the Talman but fuse Tele and Strat gear in a genius strike.

I'm usually not a fan of golden gear but there it fits perfectly the the cream finish of the Resoncast body and the perloid binding. It's a superb instrument and it's a pity that it's been discontinued so quickly, it had the potential of a classic - we need news classics, the old ones are tired and boring. 

Look at another Talman here.

Bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

1979 Ibanez Marcel Dadi signature limited edition

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This Ibanez Marcel Dadi is not a guitar you will not see everyday - not only because its design makes it special with its strangely angular cutaways, its wide neck adapted to picking and its classical guitar headstock, or of its quite unique electronics with a mini-humbucker in neck and an humbucker in bridge, plus the rotary switch, but mostly because only 24 were ever released in 1979 (plus 2 prototypes), and if I see the way this one is put on sale on eBay, the people who bought them then have now no idea of what they have!

This guitar could be the ultimate collector, isn't it?

Bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

1983 Ibanez Roadstar II

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A few days ago I was telling about all the guitars I usually overlook because they don't immediately respond to my taste, and this was one of those, until I saw it in this simple black finish (sunburst and flamed maple often blind me!) When you really look at it, this Ibanez  Roadstar II appears to be an hybrid between a Fender Stratoscaster and a Rickenbacker 620, specially with the white binding...

So to me it is a serious upgrade to the basic strat design, and I also like the old school bridge humbucker / neck single coil combination (that's standard on Duesenberg guitars) and the big trem bridge. And it confirms what I always thought: if you really look for it, you will find cool stuff at Ibanez!

Bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Electric 12ers #5: Ibanez Artist electric XII

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Here we have the rare 12-string version of the Ibanez Artist from 1981. It's another Made in Japan guitar and is essentially a double cutaway LP-style guitar.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Ibanez Talman TC420

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OK, OK, OK, lately we've been showing plenty of über-cool guitars, vintage ones, rare ones, exotic ones, custom ones, but guitars need also to be simple, humble, cheap, practical, mainstream and still cool, such as this Ibanez Talman TC420 - a short lived model that existed in many versions but only between 1994 and 1998 (there still is an acoustic version).

The Jazzmaster-shaped Talman was first made of fiberboard (a MDF called Resoncast) with lipstick single coils à la Dan'o, then with mini-humbuckers, humbuckers, P90s and different pickups combinations, then it shifted to different kinds of woods - this is the case of the basswood TC420 that is one of the later models. I like several things on this guitar, particularly the strat/tele control plate with one knob and the jack socket (I wish I'd find one of these for my projects - I love one knob guitars) and the perloid pickguard (I usually don't like perloid but here it fits), but in general this guitar has a good feel (and I don't hate Ibanez just because Steve Vai is a show-off)(too many brackets).

Bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Ibanez X-ING IMG2010

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I could pretend to write something about this Ibanez X-ING IMG2010 but it would just be a simplification or a copy-paste of what you will find here and here - if you're in guitar synths and MIDI controllers, it's really worth a look! 

Otherwise just enjoy - or try to enjoy - this very 80s design, that was the last period when people still believed that electric guitar can evolve (and should have computer names)...

bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Ibanez Iceman ICB08 Bass

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This Ibanez Iceman ICB08 Bass is a particularly eyecatching example of a now legendary Japanese design.

Wouldn't it be fun if the control knobs were shaped like chess pieces? No, I shouldn't say that, someone will go and do it.

One thing that this blog has been doing for a while now is looking at the weird, the wonderful and the just plain outrageous guitars and basses listed on eBay.

Recently, however, I've been finding very little to get excited over. I don't know if this is just a temporary blip or if indeed I am getting jaded after years of doing this. As ever, if you see any interesting guitars on eBay or elsewhere (if it's a Strat, Tele or Les Paul, it'll need to be pretty special!) please let us know. Bear in mind that we may have featured them before (use the keywords at the bottom of the page to search what we have already featured). Please note also I'm not too keen on taking photos from guitar forums or personal websites. eBay is, I feel, a different matter as it's in the public domain and we are helping to promote the auctions.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Ibanez DT-250 X Series from 1984

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Now this Ibanez DT-250 X Series guitar is, to me, very interesting. It's not the Explorer-derived design that interests me, rather it is the finish that is very similar to my own DiMarzio "cellophane Strat". You can see that despite its vivid colour, the finish is still translucent - witness the fretboard's dot markers and the skunk stripe on the back of the neck - these are beneath the finish.

I'm wondering if this guitar could be another Harayama-built guitar? It's made in Japan and is from 1984, so the time and place both fit.

Harayama supplied bodies and necks to DiMarzio for their parts catalogue. It's perfectly feasible that they built guitars for other brands too. Also, DiMarzio offered a very similar body design in their catalogue at around this same time.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Unidentified Japanese semi-hollowbody

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Hello Again!

Last night I walked past the local pawn shop in town, and saw this beautiful guitar in the window. I called them up this morning and they basically wanted to throw it away, so I walked down there and purchased it for basically nothing. It was in terrible shape, but there is nothing a little tweaking, polishing and some steel wool won't fix! Now it plays great!

What caught my eye was the control plate, which you normally wouldnt see on an electric acoustic. I've also always had a thing for Bigsbys, and especially the (at least what I think it is) aluminium bigsby bridge!

Another interesting feature is the neck joint. It looks just like it would be a glue-in neck, with a long neck tenon and fretboard overhang, but it's got a neck plate with four screws.

The fret markers are usually on the 3, 5, 7, 9th and so on. But on this piece, I don't know if sombody at the factory screwed up, or maybe it's just a design twist, but there instead of the 9th fret, the marker is on the 10th. It does mess with your mind a little, and makes it a bit harder to play.

So why do I want to post this guitar on the Guitarz blog?

I really don't have any idea who made this guitar. The only clue is that on the back of the head it's stamped "Japan", which I would imagine it would be anyway. Does anybody know what year, or at least decade it is made? I know the Bigsby is an early Ibanez, but nothing else about it screams Ibanez. I'm sorry about the somewhat bad pictures, but my good camera is gone.

Thank you again Gavin and Bertram!
Pelle

Thanks Pelle for showing us this. Nice find! I'm afraid I don't know for definite what it is either, without throwing forward the names of the usual suspects of this era from Japan, namely Kawai and Teisco. The body does remind me of Seasick Steve's 3-stringed "trance wonder" - I believe that's a Japanese guitar too.

However, the chances are that if the trem is marked with the Ibanez "I", then the guitar itself is an Ibanez. The trem might be retro-fitted, but I feel it's unlikely. Don't be put off by the lack of resemblance to modern Ibanez guitar - early Ibanezes came in a wide variety of designs often copied or at least inspired by the ever popular models from Fender and Gibson.

Don't read too much into the 10th fret marker instead of the marker being at the 9th. This was standard practice on older guitars, and other fretted instruments (tenor guitars, banjos, mandolins) often continue this tradition to this day.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

70s Ibanez Les Paul Studio 2372 (pre law-suit)

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The Les Paul Recording/Personal is my favorite Gibson LP but for some reason I like it better as a Ibanez law-suit era perfect copy - maybe that 70s feel vintage Japanese guitars have... Of course at the time it was an infamous copy by the evil Japs (see previous post), but now it's the splendor it's supposed to be...

bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Devo's Bob Mothersbaugh and the Blue Potato guitar

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As a big fan of Devo I am excited that they are releasing new material for the first time in 20 years, and from what I've heard already it sounds like classic Devo!

I was also pleased to see that guitarist Bob Mothersbaugh is once again using the Ibanez "Blue Potato" guitar that he lost and was later reunited with. You know how we love wacky guitars here on Guitarz, and Bob's one-off Blue Potato is one of my own very favourites.

Watch Devo performing "Fresh" here.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

1970 Antoria 2358R (Epiphone Al Caiola pre-lawsuit copy)

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This Antoria 2358R is not only a pure beauty, it is also a complicated story.

The original model is an Epiphone signature guitar designed in 1963 for jazz musician Al Caiola (who sided the greatest such as Frank  Sinatra or Buddy Holly). In 1970, Ibanez issued a quite accurate copy - that's what they were doing at the time, before they started to get sued by Gibson - but the FujiGen Gakki factory that worked for Ibanez also made the same guitar for the UK brand Antoria.

This guitar is remarkable for being a thin full hollow-body E-335 without F-holes - this being being aimed at reducing feedback - similar to the B.B. King Lucille signature model Gibson released in 1983. I like the FujiGen Gakki model better for its curved control plate being further back an smaller than on the Epiphone, but the big round scratchplate is a little bit bizzare.

bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Ibanez Destroyer II with Japanese war flag finish

guitarz.blogspot.com

After my last post, I was wondering what kind of variations of Explorers exist.

The first guitar that comes to my mind is the Ibanez Destroyer II - and I've been lucky to find this 1984 model, with a very 80s Japanese war flag paintwork that gives exactly the feeling of what this guitar meant to be...

Ibanez started to make Explorer models in the mid-70s - already called Destroyers, they were exact copies of Gibsons. In 1980 they issued the Destroyer II with slight variations from the original model, but enough to give it a real personality, with a minimal recall of the famous Iceman in the lower horn...

I think its design is very outdated, but it might soon become a vintage guitar (though it's been regularly reissued since) with a sought after cool retro feel of the time when guitarists wore tennis head- and wristbands (I hated that at the time, we postpunks hugely despised glam-metal trend).

bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Ibanez Les Paul Custom Agent 2405

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Like the people who sell this Ibanez Les Paul Custom on eBay say, this guitar is more than a very good copy of a Gibson (from the lawsuit era), it's a real homage to the brand, combining the body of the LP with the headstock of their mandolin models.

Add to that the mother-of-pearl inlays, and you have a remarkable, beautifully classic and slightly bizarre instrument... (and it's the first time that I like a sunburst finish, isn't it weird!)

bertram

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