Ibanez USA Custom Specifications

USRG - USA Custom RG

Wizard Neck Measurements

Thickness:
19.0mm at fret-1
21.0mm at fret-12

Width:
43mm nut
57mm at fret-22

Radius: 16" fretboard radius

 

PBC Guitar Technology

I started building the Ibanez USRG-10-20 and 30 in 1993 and in 1994 started building the ATK Bass line. These several thousand Ibanez were built in Coopersburg PA. by PBC Guitar technology which was my company at the time. All of these instruments featured our special Tension Free neck and other than the electronics and hardware, were built to finish by PBC. We stopped building for Ibanez in late 1996. I learned to have a great respect for this fine Hoshino (Ibanez) company for the quality that they demand and deliver. - Dave Bunker, Pres. Bunker Guitars

Tension Free Neck - Explained by it's Inventor Dave Bunker

The Tension Free neck puts very little stress on the wood and instead of compressing the neck from one end to the other it just pushes the neck up to forward bow or back to back bow in a simple fulcrum method with the rod being pinned through the neck at the 17th fret and adjusted with a screw at the 22nd plus fret.

My attitude has always been since that truss rod necks are old technology in that while they can put back bow on a neck they do it at considerable tone loss and stress which can cause everything from twisting to constantly being out of tune. This was very graphically shown to me by top Boeing engineers who assisted me in the design of the Tension free neck. All wood is very unstable which makes it very unpredictable when stress is applied to it.

Ibanez at first was worried about the Tension Free but after Mr. Hoshino inspected and tested it they went with it. The ATK bass [also made by PBC for Ibanez] won bass of the year in 1994 in the retail/wholesale magazine partly because of the [Tension Free] neck design.

The Tension Free neck was harder to adjust on the USRG20 [and USRG30] guitars because of the locking nut being mounted on the neck end instead of the headstock as is common on Ibanez guitars. I still get lots of calls from customers who bought and play the instruments and in 90+ % of the cases they really like the instruments. The only thing I felt lacked about the Tension Free neck idea was people not fully understandings not only how it worked but how to properly adjust it. If people call me, usually in minutes they have their necks adjusted and are as happy as lambs.

One thing that impressed me at the Bensalem, PA Ibanez facility were the mass number of standard truss rod type necks which were replaced by Ibanez (literally thousands) because of twist and other reasons. Ibanez I'll state again, is one of the finest company's I have ever had the pleasure to do business with. Their inspection and quality control far surpasses any of the other company's. - Dave Bunker, Pres. Bunker Guitars