Finally! This guitar has been on the absolute top of my list for many years, and I finally got one yesterday! The prices on these have gotten absolutely insane and I had basically given up hope that I would ever be able to justify purchasing one. But one came up recently on e bay that was listed as a player and had a few imperfections. So I was able to score this for significantly below what these have been going for. So here's a pic. Sorry it's so terrible, but I forgot my camera battery charger on vacation and it'll be a few days until a new one arrives.



Based on the description in the listing, I was expecting some seriously beat up player to arrive, but I was really pleasantly surprised. The frets are in really great shape with very little wear and while there are a few small dings in the body, you completely don't notice them since it's a natural wood finish. The gold hardware isn't perfect, but it's far from awful and based on other RMB2's I've seen (even really expensive ones), this is on par with those. The pickups are in perfect shape cosmetically and the EMG logos are unscathed.

But there are some flaws with the guitar. There are a couple extra screw holes in the body including two on the front. The extra ones on the back are from some previous owner setting it up for lefty and moving the strap pins. I'm going to play around with the holes on the back and see if I can fill and believable stain them.

At some point, someone did something with the neck and completely removed the serial number and logo. The logo has been put back with an aftermarket decal. In the listing, this looked really terrible, but it tuns out the guy who put it on there simply failed to peel off the plastic backing material. Duh.

Other than those, the only flaws are that the coil tap switch for the humbucker has been removed and replaced with a tone knob and both the tone and volume knobs feel kind of messed up. Not a big deal, those are easy fixes.

I'm withholding my real impressions of the guitar until I can get an 85 in the bridge (correct Reb Beach pickup) and I can get the guitar properly set up. The current setup is mediocre, the strings are old and are a heavier gauge than I like. I also have a strong dislike for the 89 in the bridge. After playing a few power chords, I understand why metal guitarists use this pickup, but I don't really like it for anything else. The neck was also covered with some nasty, gummy crap. I had to run over it with steel wool just to be able to play. I'm assuming that someone rubbed it with some oil that was not the correct type to use. But overall I love playing it, just like my RBM1.

Nice score...

My buddy is giving me a RBM100... of course not nearly as nice as yours....

Hey it also it matches your furniture too...

CongratsĦĦĦ Definetely you get an amazing instrument.. once set up properly you realized for the full value and quality sounds of this nice baby. All holes can be repaired by a pro luthier and if it´s a good one you even notice at touch or sight.

Enjoy it man.

Javier

Sexy sexy sexy.

very nice man.. love the guitar.

amazing

Congratulations, mate !

I own 3 RBM1 and the 2NT is the holy grail of the serie
I REALLY love to have one, one day...
they have a particular neck shape that I love

congrats once more !

Very cool, sub zero in fact!! Gotta love that guitar!! I will be interested to hear your opinion on it when you get it set up like you mentioned. Congratz on your new axe!!

Thanks for the comments, all!

The neck shape definitely is different on this guitar than on the RBM1, which I wasn't expecting. The RBM1 seems more standard Ibanez while this is more traditional, which is what I've heard Reb prefers.

I'm going to be ordering a few supplies for the guitar this week and have a question that I'm hoping someone can answer. What type of oil is used to finish the body? Tung oil I presume? What about the back of the neck? It isn't a nitro finish like a maple neck, so I'm assuming that I should use bore oil like on the fretboard? I don't want to make the same mistake the previous owner did and end up with a gummy mess on the back of the neck.

oh ! I didn't expect that !

I like the RBM1 neck shape so it's kinda Wizard little more rounded
(sorry my bad english cannot explain exactly what I want ,grrrrrrrrrrrr )
tell me - I'll try to do better

and I couldn't find any neck specs that can explain the differences !
maybe the only way to understand is to have one !

I'm not sure how well that translates to French or if that movie reference even means much to you!

yeah sure !
sorry for my bad English !

Fortunately, our fingers plays the same game !

Wow ! beautiful guitar !!

Nice one...

One thing I have always wondered about this guitar was the fact EMG's were used for the pups...

Since Reb... (ahem).... Mr Beach spent alot of time reseaching the different woods (Koa, Mohagany, Pau Ferrot) why did he go with an active pups setting.. Wouldn't a passive pups bring out more of the tones of the wood??

Maybe my understanding of Pups are backwards,,,,IDK??