Hi everyone!
I'm new here, but an old hand as an Ibanez user. First let me tell you about my background w/Ibanez guitars. I started using Ibanez guitars before they were popular. No one really knew anything about them, but I just thought they were great playing, inexpensive guitars. I got my first Ibanez Roadstar when I was in the military, around 1983. I played that thing whenever I could. It had a Tabacco Sunburst finish, maple neck, and I believe 3 single coil pup's.
When I got out of the military and came back home, I was suprised to find that none of my friends were familiar with Ibanez guitars. I showed a local music store my Roadstar, and convinced the owner, who was a friend of mine, to start bringing them in. Well, that started a whole slew of new Roadstars being added to everyones guitar collection, as well as mine.
Well later on, Steve Vai comes out of Alcatrazz, and the Frank Zappa Band, to play with David Lee Roth. He then turns the guitar world upside down with his playing, and the new Lochness Green "Jem".
Here's where my title starts to make some sense:
Being a long time Vai fan, I bought a Lochness Green Jem. It took me 7 months to pay for it on layaway, working as much as 60 hrs a week. 3 months after I got my Holy Grail, it was stolen! THAT was painful, and it hasn't been recovered.
My bud, (who owned the first music store to bring the Ibanez line into the area), felt really bad for me, as did all of my friends. As he had just received a new shippment from Ibanez, he gave me a Desert Yellow RG 550! It turns out that he, and some of my other friends, put together some money to purchase it for me! What a great bunch of guys!
Everything was right with the world, but it still stung to not have my Jem. A few months later, my music store owner buddy calls me up and tells me to come into his shop. He just got a new RG 550 in, and said that he's putting it aside for me, 'cause he KNOWS that I'll want it.
This would become my second RG 550. The color was RoadFlare Red and it had a maple neck and fingerboard. Things were really looking up, untill...
Well, the Fire. Yeah I couldn't believe it! The place that we rehersed at burned to the ground! I lost both RG's, an Ampeg SS 120C, a 4x12 Marshall cab... basically everything I owned. The worst thing, NO INSURANCE would cover my loss. I won't get into the details about the little nuclear holocaust I tried to wage on the owner of the building, but the end result was I got nada, nothing, zero, zilch, zip... well you get the idea.
So this is how it tallied up after the day was over:
CURSE:4 Danny: 0
Well things are looking a little better! I just got my first Ibanez after many years of worrying about the "CURSE".
A friend of mine that works at GC called me up Friday and says that he has something for me. He KNOWS that I'm going to want it. Okay, I go down to GC. Apparently, a MIJ RG 470 (VK,
Cosmo Black Hardware) had been found, that was hidden or lost somehow. The guy that put it on lawaway made a payment, bought 2 Evolution PUPs for it(which were in the gig bag), and never came back to get it. Now, get this. He put it on lawaway almost 2 years ago! How the people at GC misplaced it (or maybe someone was saving it for themselves), is not known. My bud just happened to look at a guitar case that was in a back room and noticed something behind it. "It" was a green guitar gigbag(a really nice one) with the RG and the PUP's inside! I got the whole package for $300 bucks!
I just had my NEW RG set up, and it plays fantastic. Some of the frets had to be leveled, and all of them were then polished. The action is so low(just how I like it!) that a 1.5mm pick won't fit between the fret and the high E string(at the 12th fret) with out raising it. The pick will actually be held in place by the string tension!
I didn't have the Evolution PUP's put in, because I wanted to hear what the Ibanez V7, S1, and V8 sounded like. They were a little muddy, so I disconnected the tone pot and they opened up quite a bit. Much better sounding, IMO.
But I've decided to add the Evolution PUP's, and a few custom touches. I was thinking about putting a
mirrored pickguard on it, but i don't know if the JEM pickguard will fit on it. I've got alot of ideas, but I'd sure like to hear some of your thoughts on what I can do to "Customize" this baby.
Thanks for taking the time to read this LOOOOONG Post!
Danny
