Tony MacAlpine switches to Ibanez!

[Petie]

I thought something like this was going to happen after he put a few of his main Carvins on the market a few months ago.

His site says he'll be playing Ibanez 6, 7 and 8-strings. Cool! Welcome to Ibanez Tony!

http://www.iheartguitarblog.com/2009...to-ibanez.html

[Ibanez-Mag]

Cool!
Maybe playing with Vai has something to do with it?

But are there any brands Tony haven't worked with?

/Magnus

[IbanezFreak777]

Originally Posted by Ibanez-Mag

Cool!
Maybe playing with Vai has something to do with it?

But are there any brands Tony haven't worked with?

/Magnus

Maybe Ibanez paying him money has more to do with it....

[Ibanez-Mag]

Originally Posted by IbanezFreak777

Maybe Ibanez paying him money has more to do with it....

Could be, could be

/Magnus

[Myst and rain]

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ocLjbdR2Hz...ine_ibanez.jpg

S series? Interesting...

[Rich]

Originally Posted by IbanezFreak777

Maybe Ibanez paying him money has more to do with it....

Ibanez doesn't pay any endorcer to play their guitars.

[IbanezFreak777]

Originally Posted by Rich

Ibanez doesn't pay any endorcer to play their guitars.

I find that hard to believe especially if a player has their own signiture guitar. If My name was on an Ibanez Guitar, Id assume some sort of payment, for my help in selling their guitars..

And although you are the Jedi master of Ibanez guitars, I highly doubt, you know for sure that Ibanez have never paid a cent to Satch or Vai, or any other guitarist that have their own signiture model. I Just cant understand why they wouldn't pay people to play their instrument, to help sales. Every other product on the planet pays famous people to advertise their stuff. Case in Point Michael Jordan and Nike relationship... Same as Ibanez and Vai. So why wouldn't Ibanez pay VAI ???

[skins345669]

7-string S with ZR sounds good to me.

[Rachmaninoff]

So can we expect some Tony MacAlpine 8-string signature model?

[kotornut]

Now I don't want to knock any companies, but maybe Tony has switched because Ibanez offeres better guitars and selection of guitars.

Ibanez and most companies don't pay endorsees just like Rich says.

[NickCormier]

Originally Posted by kotornut

Now I don't want to knock any companies, but maybe Tony has switched because Ibanez offeres better guitars and selection of guitars.

Ibanez and most companies don't pay endorsees just like Rich says.

Have you ever played a Carvin? Outside of LACS and J-customs, almost every Carvin is a higher quality instrument than production Ibanez guitars (of a same cost) It must have something to do with specs, such as Tony enjoying Edge lopro's or ZR trems that are specifically Ibanez, maybe they are considering doing a specific TMac custom, or at least a LACS model for him.

As great as Carvin is, their options are quite limited, so im sure it has something to do with Tony wanting something they couldnt do, or just wanting to get more publicity as an "Ibanez endorsee" as most of the shredders seem to gear towards, while Carvin is more of a overall/vintage fanbase.

I personally sold all my ibanez's to buy Carvins, and my main 6 string right now is a Carvin neck on an Ibanez S body (Carvin necks are #1)

[shreddersymphony]

If Rich says that he's probably right, but I spoke with Andy Timmons and he told me the reason he cut his contract with Ibanez short is because they wanted to force him to play only their guitars. Sure sounds like an endorser kinda thing to me. He wanted to also use his fenders live and in the studio. But they did reissue his older signature model recently, so who knows.

[Petie]

Maybe there's a difference between having an endorsement and having a signature model. Does anyone know if guys like Vai and Satch get a royalty from sales of their sig models for their design input? That's quite different to being paid to endorse the guitars.

[Rich]

Artists get a percentage of sales of a signature model, and top tier will get free guitars on top of that. The model sells well they get paid well, it doesn't, and they don't. That is the only way an endorcee gets paid, outside of being paid for doing road clinics, store appearances, etc. MOST endorcees have to PAY FOR THEIR GUITARS! They get cost pricing, ie. 50% of Custom Shop estimate, but the majority of endorcees are paying to play their Ibanez. Nobody is being paid to play Ibanez. That is the way I understand the system works.

[buddroyce]

Originally Posted by Rich

Artists get a percentage of sales of a signature model, and top tier will get free guitars on top of that. The model sells well they get paid well, it doesn't, and they don't. That is the only way an endorcee gets paid, outside of being paid for doing road clinics, store appearances, etc. MOST endorcees have to PAY FOR THEIR GUITARS! They get cost pricing, ie. 50% of Custom Shop estimate, but the majority of endorcees are paying to play their Ibanez. Nobody is being paid to play Ibanez. That is the way I understand the system works.

You're bang on with that one Rich. The notion of getting paid to play a brand is quite misleading, although I have heard of 'incentive packages' being involved in some endorsement agreements where some $$$ exchange hands, but usually that $$$ is supposed to have a specific purpose like paying for road clinics like Rich mentioned. The idea of paying someone to endorse a product is generally looked down on with most companies.