Re: Ibanez Iron Label 7 string *or other 7 strings*
Any info on its "Made in Where"? I've found non-Japan Ibanezes to be less than impressive... if it's an Indo, you might as well go with the lowest possible model with the same neck profile and upgrade it, if you gotta buy new (just hardtail! always hardtail... Ibby non-MIJ Floyds suffer from the Licensed plague). The only Ibanez not out of Japan to ever make a positive impression on me was a $25 used Gio 200 beater bass that I stuck an Seymour APB-3 active into ($35 CL score
), now THAT was pure value for money, and played pretty cool too. But those $400-900 new models hanging on the walls at GC are pure disappointment distilled. With Ibanez these days it's either splurge the extra bit for Prestige MIJ (and BUYER BEWARE! new line of "prestiges" outta indonesia making their way into stores as we speak), or trawl craigslist forever for $100-150 (really!) old Ibby pre-prestige moniker MIJs, for a few days for the same for $250-400, or buy a $500-700 used MIJ Prestige. MUCH better guitars for MUCH better prices, and some of them just STOOPID GOOD DEALS.
And just to back up all my quoted numbers and recommendations, personal Ibby GAS history, 2010-2013:
$100/CL - '99 Soundgear SR885 (FujiGen Japan) 5-string active bass w/ premium gigbag, traded on w/ $400 profit (and kept the gigbag
). Sounded awesome unplugged, godly neck, but didn't need 5th, didn't like ADX5 pups.
$150/GC(!) - '87 RD707 (FujiGen Japan) passive P/J bass, old RG complimenting bodystyle, AWESOME, holds its own against everything in the store up to MIA Fenders, only really loses to a MusicMan
$25+35/CL - '04 GSR200 (Indo) 4-string bass + Seymour Duncan APB-3 active pup, wanted to experiment with installing actives in a bass... sucked before, pretty cool power afterwards
$125/CL - ~'72 Westminster-branded rebadged Ibby Model 2393 Les Paul Custom w/OHSC (Japan, looks more like Matsumoku, but maybe FujiGen cuz ibby), Super 70s/maple/proper pancake body. Needed lil work: dry pots, switch
$200/CL - '91 "Saber Custom Made" aka 540 S aka Roadstar Pro Radius (faux-USA neck plate, FujiGen Japan) w/ random Ibanez (?) bass hardcase. DiMarzio USA pups/bloody epic LoPro Edge trem/Wizard neck/carved mahogany (!) body - all the goodies. Seller was calling it an RG760 (lol), but at that price with these specs, who really cares?!
...with stuff like that out there, why on g-d's green earth would you buy new Indo or Korea??? As to specifically 7-strings, I've recently seen a 7620 and a 7420 I think, both Japan and upgraded to EMG actives, both from the same seller, and both strangely enough same price, $350 I believe - and that's hardly the best there is, just the most recent that comes to mind. Don't really watch 7-strings much. Oh, also saw a Prestige 1527 (I think) years ago for $250, still kinda sad I didn't snap her up. That thing was awesome.... and if you take some of the guy's suggestions and detune to baritone on a normal 6-string, as long as you stick to 25.5" scale not LPs, and stick to the better Ibby-proprietary Floyds or hardtails, you can pretty much take anything of series 500 or higher, at worst maybe have to swap the bridge pup out, but still end up with a better guitar AND $500 more left in your pocket. Oh, right, that thing you linked to was what, $800? If you still wanna spend that much cash after reading all this, $750 can put a Steve Vai signature 7-string JEM into your hands pretty easily. Bit more impressive than what you were looking at, right? And this ain't no Squier strat, so you really won't ever get whispers behind your back of "duuuude, get a load of this - he bought his guitar USED, haha" - more like "oooh, SCORE!" and "whoa, I'm drooling".
PS since we're both in SoCal, my craigslist observations should be quite relevant for you, since LA/OC/IE/SD all have pretty similar prices, and if it's over a $100 difference, you can always drive instead. I mostly watch OC and LA, but have occasionally ranged as far as IE and SD, and ended up seeing pretty much the same deals, possibly slightly better in SD even.
PPS/EDIT: Hehe, looking back at the list - here's a Pro 5string active bass, a pro 4 string p/j passive, a pretty professional-grade vintage-ish Lester, and a sweeeet Superstrat, all for $100-200... all that's left unfilled is a Tele. Anybody know of any IBANEZ JAPAN TELECASTERS???
