Cool story behind it..
When I was about 13, I really, really wanted an Ibanez. I'd been playing for about three years (if you can call it that... I made noise anyways
) and had Ibanez pics all over my walls. I had no idea how they played, but I knew that they looked cool and that I wanted to look as cool as the guys in guitar mag ads.
Anyhow. I had a Kramer at the time, and I got good grades and convinced mom and dad that the guitar was not going to be "just another hobby that I will get sick of" and that I needed something better. So off to Daddy's Junky Music, and lo and behold I come home with this Ibanez. I think it was less than $200, but it had a locking trem and the Ibanez was on the headstock in the same style as the high end ones.
I had it for several years and loved it. I broke the trem on it when I was about 16 and since I didn't know a damn thing about fixing it, I went to Daddy's, got about $50 for it and traded it in on another Ibanez. I forget the model number, but it was red sunburst with gold plated hardware and white binding all around the edges. (Yeah, it was as ugly as it sounds) I paid around $400 for this one.
Side note: I'll admit here.. I broke the ibanez playing air-guitar like a madman to an Yngwie album. Hey... I was 16!
So two years or so go by and I'm looking to get rid of my ugly stick. I go to a different
music store, and lo and behold, sitting on the wall is MY old Ibanez. And it's fixed! (Ibanez must have a warehouse full of bottom end tremolos, because it had a new out-of-tunerizer on it..) Call it fate - I had to have it back. I'd lusted over it every day when I owned it.
Needless to say, I bought it back for $350, and got $100 for my red one. This was my first "They always screw you at the music store" experience.
Anyhow.. That was 8 years ago, and I still have it now. It's still my favorite guitar and I've put a new trem on it, had the frets done twice, a crack in the neck repaired, the whole thing rewired once and put about 15 input jacks in it. Anyone who plays it agrees that it really sounds fantastic - the closest example I can give is that it sounds a bit like a strat. I don't want to replace the pickups or anything for fear of screwing up the tone of this rather old, beat up but stellar sounding axe.. I'd probably get $10 for it at a
guitar shop, but I wouldn't take $1000 for it if someone wanted to buy it.
I'd love to know exactly what it is.. Hence the point of this gigantic, rambling thread. So without further embellishment... Here it is.
Pardon the water spots... Naturally I wanted to clean it up a bit before taking the pics.. Then said "bah, screw it"..
- CQ7
