guitar that hooked you on Ibanez?

[bammbamm]

RG-550DY was my 1st Ibanez.
It went through 3 paint schemes before I sold it, trying to acquire a Parker Fly...
which I sold back to get more Ibanezs, ultimately...

[Whey]

The Jem always got me intrigued on Ibanez, probably at first because of its differences with most standard production guitars. Then when I tried one, for the immense playability compared to most other superstrat guitars so both the features that matter for the ability to rock out made Ibanez stand out to me.

Happy owner of a Ibanez Jem7VSBL since 2004.
Soon to be owner of a Ibanez RRG-1CSS.

[Of Angels]

It's kinda cool to read how all of you came to love Ibanez...

For me, I remember being like 12 or something and seeing pictures of the RG line-up in Muciansfriend magazine and the like... at that time, they had the sharktooth inlays and black edges/hardware. They were definitely the most badass looking guitars ever... and then my birthday came around and I was getting either a strat or an S that had a natural finish on mahogany... real black metal looking guitar, haha. Anyway, I got the strat because I worshipped Eric Johnson at the time...

...fast forward to when I played a Jem. That told me that at least the signature series was amazing, but I'm not one to play someone else's sig... I read up on lots of high end Ibanez's for years, while not buying any, strangely. Then fast forward to about 6 months ago when I got rid of an old ESP M-II and then ended up with a brand new RG1570. Love at first touch. I won't get rid of that guitar ever - it's been with me through tough times already - almost like that one friend that comes along just before the craziest **** you've ever gone through and sticks with you straight through it. But that's the end of my ramble.

[DEADTUNES666]

I remember the moment I opened Circus magazine and saw/read the review on the JEM 77FP around 1988, the picture was in black and white and I still thought that it was the most gorgeous instrument I had ever seen...
I purchased mine in 89. When I first bought it I didn't know much about the Floyd, but I assimilated rather quickly.
Sometime in 1990/91, during a massive rainstorm, I was in a huge argument with my then girlfriend. She stormed out of the house, after leaving a few well placed f u's and go die, for me to reflect upon.
I was so angry that I grabbed my fp and hurled it off my back deck at her, as she walked off. It landed headstock in the ground, before flopping over in the mud. Ten minutes of b*tching had gone by, when I realized what I done.
I ran out grabbed the mud covered guitar, rinsed it under the shower to clean it off, wiped it down, and let it dry out for three days. When I picked it up again it was in tune.
I have never felt about another guitar like I feel about this one. I've been hooked on Ibanez ever since

[TequilaKing]

I was turned onto them by a guy at work who had 3 of them so I bought a RG550 off the bay for £200 about 3 years ago this summer

Totally loved it up until about 6 months ago...

... now I'm getting tired of trems and locking nuts and having to get the toolbox out just to change a string, worse still if I change gauges

I have two more Ibanez project guitars with trems on them, then no more I'm afraid.

If I were to buy another Ibanez now as a player it'd be a fixed bridge just like the RGA121 I recently bought. Other than that it's all Strat,Tele and PRS for me

[ibaraki_gaijin]

once i hit the age of 17 and got a saturday job i finally had the chance to earn enough to move up from my crappy squier...

went to GAK not sure if I wanted an SG studio or a real strat.. had pretty much settled on the strat when i thought why not try one of those pointy shaped quitars and walked out the shop with a JS100... Body shape was cool and it looked waaay more fast and shinny then an SG..

Regretted it for years, piece of **** lo-Trs and pick ups that sounded worse than my squier. Funnily enough at that point i had no idea who satch was but i had his guitar!

completely gave up on Ibanez, swore never to buy another. After all they can't build a trem that stays in tune why give them any more of my hard earned!

5 years later and after my first 4 guitar starved months in Japan my friend took me to Hard-Off (offically the greatest second hand store in the world, where 95% of my subsequent guitar buys have come from!). Was after a cheap SG or a tele again. Found a nice one too, except my mate was pissing himself laughing at the 80s relic he'd found collecting dust in the corner.

JEM 77FP for well under 400 pounds... SOLD
sorry ibanez i never should have doubted you
(although growing up on a diet of mostly Zappa I still want an SG one day!)

[spider murphy]

i'm not sure the model, but i'm pretty sure it was a 60s or 70s unit. it was the ugliest beast i'd ever seen...had abt 2 dozen switches(looked like nasa built it), a rotary switch, and a metal badge on the headstock that proudly read ibanez. even tho it was ugly as can be imagined i loved it(i think i was 11).

[Jemplyr77]

Whichever Vai had in his hands at the time! More specifically the FP and then UVMC.

[Variant]

For me it was my Jem 777 that I bought to have as a standard tune guitar next to my drop tuned Jackson Dinky. Eventually, the Dinky got sold and replaced by an RG550... and then it was onto RG7620 seven strings... and now onto the RG2228 eight.

[Mr Bungle]

For me it was the Satriani ads when he was pictured with the 540-Power circa '87 ish. Loved the contours of it, and had to have it. Still do.

Fell in love with 'em so much got the the sister 540's as well. (Saber&Triple Coil)..

[mushroomwick]

It was an old js100. The sales rep took advantage of my ignorance of the series and sold me a js100 for the price of a js1000.

Loved the feel of the neck, but hated the cheap hardware. The TRS is the worst think ibanez ever put on a guitar. I soon discovered that I could ruin any TRS in less than 10 min in my hands.

Later I saw an add in the local paper for a 540 Radius HH for $400 bucks. I bought it. Loved it. A few years later I bought a real js1000. Now, I'll trade it for another 540R HH or HSH in a heartbeat. The old 540R's are still, IMO, much better guitars than the JS. Its the neck. I love that Ultra neck. I sand the finish off mine. hmmmm creamy. I also dump the USA pickups for Duncans. Hmmmmm extra creamy and sustain.