Ibanez Rhythm repair - pre '63

[Fretworn]

That pickup coil is more like a Jazzmaster pickup construction.

[Marcel]

Yay..! ... It only took 36 calender days and my much needed and anticipated package from Stewmac in the good ole' US of A has arrived. (Sad really, considering most items from China arrive in half the time)..... Now I can get stuck into getting this old Ibanez restored...

Hmmm... the package is smaller than I thought it would be, and the packing to items ratio is huge..

[corsair]

Is this to be a player or just a wall hangar? If it's going to be played regularly then decent machines would be a must?

Cool old guitar, though I doubt it has the serious collector cachet of old Americans; being an old Japanese guitar fanboy, I've been watching the values for years and they are only just holding their own at the moment, neither rising nor falling from values of about 10 years ago.

Shame, really, as they are interesting in their own right and those from the early 80s rival anything on the planet for playability and flexibility....

[Sonic Mountain]

Is this to be a player or just a wall hangar? If it's going to be played regularly then decent machines would be a must?

Cool old guitar, though I doubt it has the serious collector cachet of old Americans; being an old Japanese guitar fanboy, I've been watching the values for years and they are only just holding their own at the moment, neither rising nor falling from values of about 10 years ago.

Shame, really, as they are interesting in their own right and those from the early 80s rival anything on the planet for playability and flexibility....

Now's the time to buy some I reckon. I think there is a general move towards something a bit 'different'. The 80's stuff has some untapped gold in there.

Old odd ball stuff is starting to generate some $ as well.

On reddit a guy posted a Yamaha flying banana that he paid $1500AU for. I had one of those in the 90's I sold for about $200- mind you it wasn't a totally original one.

I really want a Flying Samurai 6 string, but clearly people are starting to pay top dollar for them....

[Simon Barden]

According to this it's a 58/59 http://www.ibanezcollectors.com/disc...tml?1122644712
(Is this Hasy your mate, as it's the same guitar).

They were also sold under the Guyatone brand with a few cosmetic differences (knobs, switches).
http://lowendkitschguitars.blogspot....ar-eg-80h.html

[Marcel]

Is this to be a player or just a wall hangar? If it's going to be played regularly then decent machines would be a must?

Cool old guitar, though I doubt it has the serious collector cachet of old Americans; being an old Japanese guitar fanboy, I've been watching the values for years and they are only just holding their own at the moment, neither rising nor falling from values of about 10 years ago.

Shame, really, as they are interesting in their own right and those from the early 80s rival anything on the planet for playability and flexibility....

My mate wants me to restore this to a player.... well at least back into something that can be played... of all his instructions getting to play it again is probably the one thing he stressed the most.

The current tuners have had it, are a bit bent, stiff to turn and definitely need replacing. I have got some vintage open tuners and some not-so-vintage tuners that my mate can choose between. A new set of 9-42 D'Addario strings, and a full set of pots of which one is a odd value and extremely hard to find. I'm not yet sure about the nut but I'm ready to replace it if things pan out that way. One thing that can't be changed to any degree is the neck as there is nil truss rod. Yep, the neck is basically just a stick with a flat side and some metal bits stuck in it, so my fingers are crossed that after all the other work that it will not need any frets replaced or a full fret job...

[Marcel]

According to this it's a 58/59 http://www.ibanezcollectors.com/disc...tml?1122644712
(Is this Hasy your mate, as it's the same guitar).

They were also sold under the Guyatone brand with a few cosmetic differences (knobs, switches).
http://lowendkitschguitars.blogspot....ar-eg-80h.html

Not the same bloke there Simon. My mate is my local prescription pharmacist... (you could say my local (legal) drug dealer...lol)

And it seems, according to the waffle on the linked page and because of the block inlay issue then this Ibanez is a '58 or '59 model...

It's a bit sad as to the state of the very thin inlays on this guitar, but the owner doesn't want them fixed. Actually, a few of the inlays are missing but you wouldn't know it unless you look very closely as the inlay recess is that shallow ...

[Simon Barden]

Strange that it's got the same serial number as your mate's - unless those photos are ones he found of your mate's guitar, though it sounded like one he'd found and bought.

[dave.king1]

Just dropped into this thread, back in 1968 we had a Guyatone version that got beaten to death a couple of nights a week.

It was used in a Hendrix inspired Wild Thing / 3rd Stone From The Sun medley and got smashed at the end, used to come apart cleanly at the neck pocket so we simply glued it back together and went again.

We did a gig one night in Campbelltown with Dr Candy's 3rd Eye Band and Ellis D Fogg lights and there was a massive spot mounted on the front of the stage that was manually operated by Ellis and the timing was all over the place so our singer who was wielding the guitar used it to belt the light to the other end of the hall before the ritual smashing of the long suffering Guyatone.

The thing had a very high action and was always all but unplayable but indestructible and fed back like a demon

[Marcel]

Now that the replacement tuners have arrive I put a few hours in today and had only one setback.... the new pots are all 6.3mm (1/4in) whereas the old pots were all 6mm... Darn, the things you forget to check...lol

anyway,.. cleaned the fretboard being ultra careful not to destroy the paper thin inlays. gave the frets a light buff and checked for levelling as there is some wear but considering its age not a lot. Put some stings on, tuned and set the intonation, which considering the carved single block chromed aluminium bridge came out pretty well too. Plugged it into my VOX VT40X and had a play...

Nil buzzes, nil pops or crackles... both PU's are fixed height yet give good level... all notes play, nil fret buzz or dead notes.... time for some chords...

You know what !! ... I like the tone of this guitar... very clear and very dynamic and responsive to the picking hand. Almost P90-ish... has an almost acoustic quality...(taps finger nail on PU casing) .. yep!! the PU's are microphonic, both are, and yet at these moderate volumes it's in a good way...

I'll have to try again tomorrow in daylight hours with the Marshall with some gain and see if these PU's feedback at all when things are cranked up ...