Ashurbanipal
Well-known member
So, I got this thing on evil bay a couple of weeks ago and I've finished doing it up for the moment. I flatter myself that I rarely get stirrings of gas, and when I do, it's the pinpoint accuracy kind, none of this wanton whoring :smokin:. I've been toying with the idea of getting another superstrat to complement my RG, something with a different pickup config and better trem. Was looking at old Roadstars but never thought much about Prolines because they rarely come up on evil bay, until one day...
The specimen in question is an '86 Ibanez PL1770 in gold pearl - the Proline guitars were producted '85-'86, the final year seeing the introduction of the Edge trem, and two neck through models, over both of which Jackson threatened to sue Ibanez because of their similarity to the Rhoads and Soloist, if I remember right.
Spec: alder body, bound maple/ebony neck with oil finish, passive pickups (Super 7F neck/middle, IBZ bridge), non-recessed Edge. It's stock except for the strap buttons (originals were funky boomerang shaped) and some screws. This guitar has been played a lot but it's still in good shape where it counts. First step was to clean it up - being disassembled for shipping speeded things up.
Neck mojo.
Dinks from shipping :grumble:, because someone forgot to put some card under the trem.
Overall, cat approved.
The trem had some funk and rust on it, so it had to be completely taken apart and stewed in silicone spray overnight.
Some dip$hit stripped the screws so I couldn't get the intonation screw plate off, oh well.
I'd love to know what involved this... However, the knife edge is still firmly seated and trem action isn't compromised.
Reassembled. Interestingly, this guitar didn't come stock with locking posts, but I don't believe this will be a problem - no ovalling or loose inserts in the last 25 years.
The most significant damage on the guitar - I bet there's an interesting story behind this too. The pot and the scratchplate will be replaced.
Wiring. Well, someone messed around at some point and left behind a bunch of spaghetti. Don't know if it worked or not, as I didn't plug the guitar in before working on it.
In progess...
Looks like these guitars were routed HHH, no doubt too finnicky for Ibanez to readjust the routing jig for angled singles. You can see that the single coils are comprised of steel slugs powered by ceramic magnets (?) on either side. The whole lot is then epoxied into the cover.
Done! Matches the amp rather well too
.
So, how does it sound? Different to my RG, which is good. The bridge pu is really aggressive, not surprising as it's powered by three magnets, according to the '86 Ibanez catalogue. The singles are also fairly powerful - they lack that full-blown classic Strat glassy character but I'm satisfied with them, they sound good clean - love the neck/middle tone.
Even though it's reverted to stock wiring with the tone cap in parallel, it's going to need a treble bleed mod, as the highs get a bit muffled when the volume turning down. Any recommendations as to the type of mod? I'm asking because the guitar has singles and a bucker, and some mods (i.e. those with resistor) are touted as better for buckers. Opinions, s'il vous plaît.
You're probably wondering about the switching, thought it's simpler than it first appears. The five way is like any other - in this mode, the tone pot operates as push-push split for the bucker. Press the top black button to turn pre-set mode on, cream ones switch the pups on/off, and the bottom black button splits the bridge.
The neck on this guitar is nicely done - profile is similar to Wizard, maybe slightly different shoulders and less shallow; love the ebony! Trem is stiff! I'm thinking of getting some softer springs, Raw Vintage probably, and maybe even a brass block. Nice to have finally a non-sloppy arm! The trem does have some up bend as it rests about 2-3mm above the body.
Weight is about the same as my RG. The alder body by itself is very light (even fully loaded), so most of the weight comes from the neck. It's those tuners, but thankfully they don't make the guitar neck heavy. The body is also a bit smaller than the RG, and in conjunction with the radiusing, makes it more comfortable.
Overall I'm very pleased with it, I can see why people praise 80s Ibanez guitars. Even though it's been around the block, it's still solid - no planned obsolescence with this one. At this point, I'm going to replace the tone pot, scratchplate, and springs; down the line it'll need a fret job, but for the present it's all good.
The specimen in question is an '86 Ibanez PL1770 in gold pearl - the Proline guitars were producted '85-'86, the final year seeing the introduction of the Edge trem, and two neck through models, over both of which Jackson threatened to sue Ibanez because of their similarity to the Rhoads and Soloist, if I remember right.
Spec: alder body, bound maple/ebony neck with oil finish, passive pickups (Super 7F neck/middle, IBZ bridge), non-recessed Edge. It's stock except for the strap buttons (originals were funky boomerang shaped) and some screws. This guitar has been played a lot but it's still in good shape where it counts. First step was to clean it up - being disassembled for shipping speeded things up.
Neck mojo.
Dinks from shipping :grumble:, because someone forgot to put some card under the trem.
Overall, cat approved.
The trem had some funk and rust on it, so it had to be completely taken apart and stewed in silicone spray overnight.
Some dip$hit stripped the screws so I couldn't get the intonation screw plate off, oh well.
I'd love to know what involved this... However, the knife edge is still firmly seated and trem action isn't compromised.
Reassembled. Interestingly, this guitar didn't come stock with locking posts, but I don't believe this will be a problem - no ovalling or loose inserts in the last 25 years.
The most significant damage on the guitar - I bet there's an interesting story behind this too. The pot and the scratchplate will be replaced.
Wiring. Well, someone messed around at some point and left behind a bunch of spaghetti. Don't know if it worked or not, as I didn't plug the guitar in before working on it.
In progess...
Looks like these guitars were routed HHH, no doubt too finnicky for Ibanez to readjust the routing jig for angled singles. You can see that the single coils are comprised of steel slugs powered by ceramic magnets (?) on either side. The whole lot is then epoxied into the cover.
Done! Matches the amp rather well too
.
So, how does it sound? Different to my RG, which is good. The bridge pu is really aggressive, not surprising as it's powered by three magnets, according to the '86 Ibanez catalogue. The singles are also fairly powerful - they lack that full-blown classic Strat glassy character but I'm satisfied with them, they sound good clean - love the neck/middle tone.
Even though it's reverted to stock wiring with the tone cap in parallel, it's going to need a treble bleed mod, as the highs get a bit muffled when the volume turning down. Any recommendations as to the type of mod? I'm asking because the guitar has singles and a bucker, and some mods (i.e. those with resistor) are touted as better for buckers. Opinions, s'il vous plaît.
You're probably wondering about the switching, thought it's simpler than it first appears. The five way is like any other - in this mode, the tone pot operates as push-push split for the bucker. Press the top black button to turn pre-set mode on, cream ones switch the pups on/off, and the bottom black button splits the bridge.
The neck on this guitar is nicely done - profile is similar to Wizard, maybe slightly different shoulders and less shallow; love the ebony! Trem is stiff! I'm thinking of getting some softer springs, Raw Vintage probably, and maybe even a brass block. Nice to have finally a non-sloppy arm! The trem does have some up bend as it rests about 2-3mm above the body.
Weight is about the same as my RG. The alder body by itself is very light (even fully loaded), so most of the weight comes from the neck. It's those tuners, but thankfully they don't make the guitar neck heavy. The body is also a bit smaller than the RG, and in conjunction with the radiusing, makes it more comfortable.
Overall I'm very pleased with it, I can see why people praise 80s Ibanez guitars. Even though it's been around the block, it's still solid - no planned obsolescence with this one. At this point, I'm going to replace the tone pot, scratchplate, and springs; down the line it'll need a fret job, but for the present it's all good.
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