Whats your first Ibanez story?

kshands · #1 02-15-2009, 11:44 AM

Mine is.

I started playing guitar in May of last year and all I started with was a cheap Estaban acoustic/electric that my Granddad bought for me when I was in 6th grade for Christmas( im in eighth now). My Grandma worked at Shoe Show and someone brought in a news paper and forgot it. She started reading it and found a section on a man named Willie Blackmon and she called him and and got me a place in. To make a long story short, July 4th 08', I get a check every month cause im sorta disable, Guitar Center had one of those "The List" sale and I went looking for a new guitar. I had $500 and I found a Gibson SG faded and my mom paid the filling of the rest. It was $599. That night I think I had guitar lesson but I didn't want to go cause it the 4th of July. The next friday I had lessons and I took my SG. When I got out the car he said "Whats That?" I told him my new guitar. As soon as I walk in he pulls out a case and I was a Ibanez and it was the most beautiful guitar i have ever seen. That monday I had a dentist appointment that was really, really, close to Guitar Center so I took my SG back and got that Ibanez. It come to fide out it was a Ibanez RG3QM in heritage cherry burst which I have never seen on a Ibanez RG3. I went home without it cause I hadnt had the money cause I gave it to my mom to keep cause I super bad with money. I got it from my mom and gave it to my Grandma cause her job goes right by that shop. I couldnt get it till I got home at 6 from marching camp(percussion). As soon as I got home I pluged it in and OMG best sounding ever. Im currently changing everything as pickups and pots and switches.

As a matter of fact, while I was at guitar center on the 4th, I picked up a Ibanez but everybody was scrambling around so I had to make a suicide choice(really, really fast choice)

So thats my story I want to hear yours.

Roryrockslinda · #2 02-15-2009, 04:12 PM

My first experiance was in a guitar shop.
I was young, into your basic generic, bit of punk, bit of metal, bit of classic rock, undefined music fan yakno, and Dragonforce were hip on the scene of school kids then (this was about 3 years ago mind) and, as much as I didn't particually dig there stuff, I respected that they were known as hellish guitarists, I saw a natural mahogany RGA, and as I knew nothing but that Herman Li played a natural Ibby which was dark. So I pick it up, just out of curiosity, to see if these guitars actually help play fast or somethign, and I'm blown away. The neck, was perfect, the body, was comfortable, unfortunately I couldn't try it through an amp (really stingy guitar store) and it was just perfect, (little did I know the guitar I was thikning of was actually an S470, which is like the polar opposite of this) anyway, I then go nuts for Ibanez, I try the other Ibanez' in the shop, being a GRG and one of the low end RGTs (if I remember right) and feel a similar way, but nothing compared to this high end prestige RGA. So I look up everything on Ibanez over the next few months and make a decision "An S470 would be right for me" the trem was easy to use, it was comfortable and thin (I was considerably smaller back then) and it was HSH.
To aid this decision, an S520 was put in the aforementioned shop, which I loved, great body, great neck, but the HH had to go. As did that off inlay! I felt the S470 was much more suited. Also that S520 was treated so badly, dry fretboard, horribly sticky neck (too many kids with clammy hands like myself at the time! :P).
So yeah, the following february (2 years ago this month

) I recieved my S470, which I went on to love and cherish.

rob777vdy · #3 02-15-2009, 06:11 PM

my first ibanez was a 555 unfortunatly

for years i thought it was the real deal,yeah i know very dumb lol,but i didnt have access to internet and didnt know anyone else in my area who played guitar.the first proper ibanez i got was my 777vbvk which i still have.

scottop1972 · #4 02-15-2009, 08:58 PM

i had a Les paul, but i needed a car. so i traded the les paul for a piece of **** caprice classic. but.... i didnt have a guitar. this was in college so i was poor.....

about 6 months after i graduated i was out and about and i went into a pawn shop. and there it was a mint ibanez guitar. I had no idea what kind of ibanez but it felt awesome and the guy said that the autograph on the front was joe satriani's. the guitar was like 400 dollars and i knew in my heart that it was a steal. so i talked them down to 350. it had the original box it shipped in and the original case with it. i eventually found out it wasnt joe satriani's autograph but i didnt care. it was beautiful and it was mine. it was years later that i found out it was a 540 Radius. and the original price tag was well over 800 dollars. i still have this guitar and guess what...... its my main player and it does have joe satriani's autograph on it now.....

scottop1972 · #5 02-15-2009, 09:00 PM

here is my baby being held by the man himself.

jbandy10 · #6 02-16-2009, 10:51 PM

Mine's pretty funny.

I started playing guitar in like 8th grade. After that is was a constant thing for me. I devoured every genre of guitar I could find. Blues, rock, pop, punk, metal, R&B, everything. When I was like 17 I discovered Hair Metal. I thought it was one of the coolest kinds of music ever. Made me wish I was born in 1970.

But anyway, I remember the first time I saw an RG550 in mirror purple. I think Ritchie Kotzen or somebody was playing it in this 1990 video or whatever. I had seem some really cool 80's guitars before but that one was a beauty! I sold my Les Paul and ESP and bought 3 Ibanez guitars. The first was obviously that RG550.

Funny though, I only have one Ibanez now because of the music I play and that Ibanez is the same purple RG550 I bought back then. That was, and still is the best guitar I've ever played. And yeah that includes my les pauls.

psychoshredder · #7 02-17-2009, 12:42 AM

picked up a S540 , at that time, i can't even play guitar yet.
just feel the guitar in my hands, and know for the very fisrt time, I want an Ibanez..
I don't even know what model is it ( later I known it was S540).

took guitar lesson, buy my very first electric guitar which is NOT ibanez, the second electric guitar..again NOT ibanez... and later the 3rd one , finally : RG 250 MIJ Ibanez!!

I learnt from my friend who owned RG 550 LTD, and I realized his guitar wayyyyy so much better than my RG 250... so sell all my 3 guitars including the Rg 250, and replaced it with my very first 'quality' Ibanez : RG 520 QS...

the story goes on....

now I own : 9 Ibanez RG, all high end RG, MIJ.
but no S540 .....
damn!

Clonetool · #8 02-17-2009, 12:56 AM

Saw a poster went into the store bought it. Wow do you really need 2 paragraphs for that

prydogga · #9 02-17-2009, 02:18 AM

Mine started when I saw a kid who was 13 playing a xiphos and he was shredding on it, he also had a rg350 and when he let me play the xiphos I was blown away by the playability, as I had previously only played epiphones esps and so on, and I knew then that I had to have an Ibanez, so I got this:

MrMcSick · #10 02-17-2009, 03:17 AM

My first Ibanez was when I was a teenager in maybe 96-97. First REAL guitar I ever owned. Bought it used for $275. It was an RG570. Still don't know what year or color it was, thinking 89-91 but the red it was I never saw on these before. It was a darker metallic red, it was original though.

scotte_za · #11 02-17-2009, 05:05 AM

My sister mentioned to me one day that she had seen a 7-string Ibanez in our favourite guitar store that she might be able to organize me for my 20th birthday, and I must try it out to see if I like it. So, I sat down in the amp room and had an RG1527 passed to me. Lol I said "yes" pretty much as soon as I touched it, just because of the way the neck felt.

So now I have an RG1527 with a SD JB (bridge) and 59 (neck), as well as an RG2820 with a SD Full Shred(b) and Jazz(n). As far as I'm concerned, a Prestige Ibanez with Duncans can't be beat

Robotalk · #12 02-17-2009, 12:28 PM

In 2001, I had done my first tax return after being married in 2000. We had a child, and I didn't know that you could get a lot more money back by claiming a child. We got around $3000 total, and I said "Let's go the the Music Center!" She bought a $1000 Takamine, and I bought a new Jem 555 (there were no real Jems and at that point I didn't know what I know today!) for $995. That was one of the only times I dropped so much in a music store at one time (I'm poor). It was pretty cool, as we got the royal treatment, and free setups for quite sometime after that!

davidh · #13 02-17-2009, 04:11 PM

My first Ibanez was one of those early 80s strat types with the big rounded headstock, can't recall what it was called (EDIT: It came to me, a Roadstar!). I can recall I hated it so it don't count.

My first 'proper' Ibanez was in 1987 IIRC. I had previously had a Kramer Baretta but got fed up with the one pickup. Tried a BC Rich Gunslinger (even though it had one pup too) I travelled a long way to try and to this day that's the second worst guitar I *ever* played, and BC Rich were quite uncommon at the time. I liked LA GUns and they used one. Sorry about that.

I remember the 550s appearing in ads and thought they looked interesting. My fave band of the time was Jane's Addiction and Dave Navarro was playing a yellow 550 so it piqued my interest. I didn't like the maple board though, so I waited a little while. Eventually I found an RG560 at a shop in Derby. Anyway, this RG560 had a flame graphic (not flamed top, this was a flame/fire graphic). It lasted until around '92 when I stripped it and resprayed it. Didn't like the effect though and got a 550 body and scratchplate, turned it into a Maple neck/rosewood board RG550. That stayed with me until last year when I broke it up and sold the parts off.

waylay00 · #14 02-17-2009, 07:22 PM

Saw Steve Vai in March 2005. He really made me want an Ibanez, so I got my 1990 RG550 from a member here in early 2006. Since then, I've owned four Ibanezes. The first one is still here, along with an S540 that I acquired recently.

Acidhouse · #15 02-17-2009, 07:49 PM

A few years ago I saw an ad on CL for an '89 RG570 for $175.00 with original Ibanez case. It had some dings and a crack near the headstock. I called immediately figuring it was gone. It wasn't. Drove to the guy's house. He and I were about the same age, (then about mid-30s). He had owned the guitar since high school and had bought it off his buddy. Now he had bought some fancy boutique guitar and figured he didn't need the RG. He seemed like a great guy but I couldn't believe that he was selling his first guitar and one that he had owned for about fifteen years. I kept thinking, "man, no way you aren't going to regret this later."