This was delivered today. My mate in Nelson picked it up and brought it with him on his bi-weekly visit to Auckland for work. It was bought from the original owner who purhcased it in 1991. It's all original - pickups, trem (with the arm), case, case candy, a bit of a time capsule. This model has the original Edge trem and super sleek body (made from mahogany) meaning it weighs about 3kg.
As befitting all Ibanez shredders it's got the Wizard profile neck which is like a chopstick; 17" radius, massive frets, big scooped cutaway. Lots of fun to be had but will take some time to adjust as it's very very slight in the hand. But saying that this guitar has more sustain and low end punch than I'd have initially thought. These F2 humbuckers (in the bridge) are a precursor to the Tone Zone, which is known for a big booty and a rolled off high end, just like we all have here. Interestingly, the baseplates of these pickups are stamped DiMarzio: MADE IN USA on the bottom. The C2 in the middle and neck are the DiMarzio HS2 just with a different cover - that means they're hum-cancelling and wound to around 15k. Marvellous. Positions 2 and 4 do the quacky stuff well enough. Again, another surprise that it can go from mellow blues and cleans to all out riffage by just changing pickups and the volume.
Original case w/ case candy:
And get this, the owner wrote me a note about the guitar's history:
Oh, here's some fun work I did when it first arrived. The board was far too pale for my liking.
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It's a very cool guitar. I'm slowly dialing it in, and there's a very bespoke truss rod adjuster I don't have but need to get as this is back bowed quite considerably, but what is there is very nice.
Beehive knobs and switch cover thingy:
