NGD : '80s Flashback Content

zakk_speed

zakk_speed

New member
I swore I was done when I picked up the radius. Made a promise to myself even. And the first time this went around I resisted, but then it didn't sell, I started a conversation with the seller....and you know the story.

Delivered in a DeLorean about an hour ago :) Behold the 80's glory of a Five Alarm Red 540 Power Triple Coil. I cannot get a good shot of the color - its not faded as in the photos, think leg-warmer red-pink and you're there. Enjoy or cringe as you please!

DSCF5586.jpg

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The stock pups are as 'meh' as these IBZUSA's always are, so I have a couple of combinations I'm gonna try. Its an alder body, and it was only produced for 1 year. The neck is a wizrd but feels a little narrower on this one than some of my RG wizards.
 
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Re: NGD : '80s Flashback Content

With three coils you have a lot of tonal options. All of them are meh? It looks pretty hot, I must say.
 
Re: NGD : '80s Flashback Content

GuitarDoc said:
With three coils you have a lot of tonal options. All of them are meh? It looks pretty hot, I must say.
Click to expand...

Dont get me wrong, the IBZUSA are OK, just kinda 'not quite there'. They're not F-spaced so they dont line up with the strings, and I've had the same pups in many ibby's. I'll just wrap em up and store them with the guitar in case I ever want to return it to stock.

I've a bunch of SD's sitting in boxes that are better...the one i'm gonna try first is this, which should look and sound badass

DSCF5593.jpg


They'e an old PATB1 and PASTK-1N out of a Kramer I think, just about the right vintage for this bad boy. Triple coil PATB? Hell yeah :friday:
 
Re: NGD : '80s Flashback Content

^^^ I bet those will look and sound great in there. Congratulations!!:)
 
Re: NGD : '80s Flashback Content

That's the antithesis of the type of guitars I enjoy, and I love it.

Congrats, you lucky bastard, you.
 
Re: NGD : '80s Flashback Content

Excellent score on a rare piece - I saw a carotene orange one on eBay not long ago for a fairly decent price. I like the white HSS model that Joe Satriani plays in the 'Satch Boogie' video.

It's hard to turn down a nice 80s Ibanez - when I bought my Proline, I thought, 'ok, I just got a decent guitar finally, I'm all set', then when it arrived and I put it together: 'f***, I want more!'
 
Re: NGD : '80s Flashback Content

I don't know which, but there's one IbzUSA pickup that I tried once that sounded badass.

There's so much awesome going on in that guitar that I'm just mindblown. Congratu-effing-lations.
 
Re: NGD : '80s Flashback Content

tc said:
I don't know which, but there's one IbzUSA pickup that I tried once that sounded badass.

There's so much awesome going on in that guitar that I'm just mindblown. Congratu-effing-lations.
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Thanks for the nice comments folks - The F series IBZ pups are actually OK, especially the F2 and F3. These first run ones were made by DMZ AFAIK but always leave me wanting more. Anyways I'm an impatient git, and luckily the wife was out for a few hours tonight, so its already been Seymourized

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As usual it was a bit of a squeeze to fit the PATBs in, but there was just enough clearance on the ring and just enough room for the stack. The sound is pure 80's metal, the alder giving a bright growly edge that I've never heard a PATB produce before. I made a slight wiring mod so that splitting the bridge also splits the stack, and combined split is hum cancelling.

Added bonus was it actually still had the backstop installed. These things go for daft money, I'll have to spend some time playing with it

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When I had it stripped I measured the neck and its a 15" radius with a 42mm nut width, so confirms what I thought about the feel - it is a bit narrower and a bit more radiused than a wizard. Its the right neck as its stamped 540P on the heel.
 
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Re: NGD : '80s Flashback Content

Did it come with hairspray and lip gloss?

I have never seen triple buckers like that. What do they offer over traditional humbuckers?
 
Re: NGD : '80s Flashback Content

zakk_speed said:
Dont get me wrong, the IBZUSA are OK, just kinda 'not quite there'. They're not F-spaced so they dont line up with the strings, and I've had the same pups in many ibby's. I'll just wrap em up and store them with the guitar in case I ever want to return it to stock.

I've a bunch of SD's sitting in boxes that are better...the one i'm gonna try first is this, which should look and sound badass

DSCF5593.jpg


They'e an old PATB1 and PASTK-1N out of a Kramer I think, just about the right vintage for this bad boy. Triple coil PATB? Hell yeah :friday:
Click to expand...

HELL YEAH!!!! Awesome axe and pup stax!! Never saw a 3 coil ibby...
 
Re: NGD : '80s Flashback Content

guitarrob said:
Did it come with hairspray and lip gloss?

I have never seen triple buckers like that. What do they offer over traditional humbuckers?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I used to have mates who carried hairspray around :) O the '80s metal scene.

Its not really a triple, its just a single and a traditional bucker in one ring. So tone wise its more about looks...although someday I may wire it so the two are in series so its one big humbucker, and this guitar might actualy carry it off.

Playbility wise, its quite cool to get the middle single out of the way of your pick but still have access to a bright single tone. It'd be nice if it had another single in the neck like the latest musicman steve morse, but then it would lose some of its '80s mojo I think.
 
Re: NGD : '80s Flashback Content

Now there, THERE, is an 80s shredding machine!

:bigok:

Love the pickup layout; very unique! Geez that thing must sound so good!

:headbang:
 
Re: NGD : '80s Flashback Content

So does the single coil buck any hum from being near the slug? Kindof a leap, i know.. But sharing a slug bobbin might be an okay idea in theory.

Having a bright bridgy single coil & a bridge hb is def cool

I wish pickups were easily inserted between songs and on a slider to put anywhere under
the strings... Then i wake up,
 
Re: NGD : '80s Flashback Content

Khriss Bliss said:
So does the single coil buck any hum from being near the slug? Kindof a leap, i know.. But sharing a slug bobbin might be an okay idea in theory.

Having a bright bridgy single coil & a bridge hb is def cool

I wish pickups were easily inserted between songs and on a slider to put anywhere under
the strings... Then i wake up,
Click to expand...

Humbucking only when they're on together...and in the orginal config it wasn't humbucking in both-on mode, so I changed that when I installed the PATBs, so they can either be both humbucking, or both split but still humcancelling. Nothing special really just the standard SD two humbucker coil split scheme.

The switching is kind of wacky on this thing, and theres one position thats everything off which I dont think is ever a great idea..so someday I may change it up. Coils in series would be cool.

On your dream guitar I'm pretty sure Dan Armstrong had one that had Bill Lawrence pups in it. Needless to say, it wasn't Five Alarm Red ;)
 
Re: NGD : '80s Flashback Content

zakk_speed said:
Yeah, I used to have mates who carried hairspray around :) O the '80s metal scene.

Its not really a triple, its just a single and a traditional bucker in one ring. So tone wise its more about looks...although someday I may wire it so the two are in series so its one big humbucker, and this guitar might actualy carry it off.
Click to expand...
...I figured it might be a setup like that after some thought.
zakk_speed said:
Playbility wise, its quite cool to get the middle single out of the way of your pick but still have access to a bright single tone. It'd be nice if it had another single in the neck like the latest musicman steve morse, but then it would lose some of its '80s mojo I think.
Click to expand...

I think it would keep that 80's feel...even if you added another pickup. The paint job screams hair metal.:headbang:
 
Re: NGD : '80s Flashback Content

Man that is all sorts of awesome. It's a shame Ibanez doesn't make cool guitars like that anymore and they just stick to cookie cutter boring crap.
 
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