Greetings to all the people of Jemsite! Long time lurker here, I just thought I might share this with you.















I got this as a part of a trade with my thrusty tech/luthier. As far as I know, he was the original owner. The guitar has some history, as you can see: the neck was broken at the nut screws, it has been repaired professionally. Also, it has been refretted, now the fretwork is immaculate. Other mods include a bare neck (the lacquer has been stripped, now it's smooth as silk), a new bridge pickup from an RG2550, and a new neck pickup from an RG565. Latter is called the 'SB1' and it is just sensational. This thing definitely doesn't look minty, but I think it's badass with all the battle scars and visibly rich history on the body, and it resonates like no other Ibanez I've ever had. I hope you like it - I certainly do. Cheers!

Love it.

I had a 560 back in the day and still miss it. Excellent guitars.

Congrats!!!! Enjoy it!

a true "battle axe"! love it

sounds like the fretwork turned out great so as long as the neck plays nice and is stable then it's all good! a few battle scars give it character! congratulations!!!

Interesting guitar. I wonder if it's actually an '87 or if it's a parts guitar? As far as I know, the RG560 didn't exist in 1987.

Very nice...I generally am not a fan of black guitars, but this is lovely. Nice score

Thanks, guys.

The first catalog showing the RG560 is from '88, so you might be right. But my tech told me that he was the original owner of the guitar, he bought it new from the one and only local dealership (I'm Hungarian, there was only one official dealer in the whole country at that time), so I guess Ibanez did a first run in '87. I can vouch for the guy.

I just googled 1987 RG560, and there are plenty of relevant results. Some say that RG560s from that year were Japan-only models. I can't post links because of my low post count, but a '87 RG560 looks legit anyway.

Classic!

Nice score! My first Ibanez was a new RG560 I traded a Les Paul for back in about '87. It was quite awesome. Congrats! Did the guy say how the neck got broken like that?

nice! always like getting guitars from luthiers - cause they always keep 'em in good shape even with the dings. liking the springs on the trem - looking like they've had some miles. Did he put a custom pup in the neck spot? Also what were the original pups on these?

Don't know about the US but here in EU they sold the RG650 in 1987. I've got a 100% original and in mint condition RG560VP with the 1987 silver sticker on headstock. It was originally imported and sold by the swedish distributor Crafton. I know this because I've talked to the people at Crafton.

Thanks! As far as I remember, it was a stage accident: he did a classic headbanging twist during a concert, and smashed the head of the guitar against his amp head. The headstock fell off immediately. After that, he used the repaired guitar only at home, so the last couple of years, she was a retired case queen.

Indeed, he took good care of the guitar. Also, the fretwork is immaculate, you can set crazy low action on this axe. When I first played the guitar, the action was so low that I even asked him to raise it a bit.

He got the neck pickup from a guy he worked with, as the original owner of the RG565 replaced the stock pickups with DiMarzios. I'm a DiMarzio guy, but I never heard a better DM single coil than this SD1. That pickup is like no other. The original set was: V1-S1-S1. The middle pickup is still the S1, quite a strat-like character, it adds a lot of versatility to the humbuckers. Normally I hate middle pickups as they get into my picking's way, but this has enough output and low magnetic pull even when the height is set pretty low, so I'm OK with that.

I recently bought a Jackson SLSMG Eerie Dess (stunning guitar, I'll post an NGD thread in the right section later today) which was my dream guitar for years. But this baby is so fantastic that I probably play it more than the Jackson. I might replace the bridge pickup with a D-Sonic I have laying around, but other than that, I'm pretty pleased with the playability, the resonances and the sounds of this particular RG560. Way better than my last 6-string MIJ RG, an RG570. I love it just as much as the two RT250s I've had; those were my favorite Ibbies by a mile.