Pink and green snakeskin finish???

[Jemmm]

With the Maxxas, Rich wanted to design a lightweight guitar that did not look like the pointy-headstock Jacksons and Kramers of the time. He was also trying to create (with the semi-hollow, non-locking tremolo models) a small guitar that would sustain and “sing” at moderate volume, like a Gibson ES-335.
Bill Reim, the current President of Hoshino and the company’s former Art Director, and Rich fashioned the first Maxxas of modelling clay, which Bill had worked with extensively in art school. The original prototype Maxxas was semi- hollow with a mahogany body and a strat-like non-locking steel bridge. The tuners were locking Sperzels and the knobs were metal Tele-style. All of the hardware was plated blue. The body, neck, and headstock were the same light blue metallic color that some of the production guitars came in.
The Ibanez USA design team (Rich, Bill, etc.) made one with a pink and green snakeskin finish for an initial meeting with Steve Vai. It was the first Ibanez ever brought to him. He was very impressed by it, but since it was semi-hollow, it fed back badly at sound check. This meeting led to Vai’s working with Ibanez to create the now-legendary JEM Series.

Any know any pics of this "first" Ibanez Maxxas with pink and green snakeskin finish?????

[nuno]

get the "Ibanez: The Untold Story book". for about 35 bucks you can get all the story behind...