My Mate's Ibanez Blazer

[DrNomis_44]

Hi Everyone,


Yep, another new thread started by me...hahaha...anyway, I'm currently doing some work on my mate's Ibanez Blazer guitar to get it up and running for him, it has been modded a bit with some extra switches so I'm going to have to do some tracing out of the circuitry because of some wires that apparently broke off and I have no idea where they were originally soldered to, should be a fun project though, here's a pic of the guitar, as is:





So far all I have done is found some mounting screws and springs for the three pickups and mounted them onto the scratchplate.

What I need to do now is re-solder the broken wires to their respective solder tags, polish the bridge up a bit, do a re-string/setup on the guitar, and hopefully that will get the guitar into a playable state.

Oh, I also need to install a bridge-earthing wire too since there is no existing wire.

[wokkaboy]

so this is project#6 Doc think I have less than that on now ! Wow pretty old looking Ibby and rare to see some grain, might be an ash body. Weird pup config with what looks like a bucker in the middle and 2 singles neck and bridge.
No bridge earth bet it makes a terrible hum without it !

[DrNomis_44]

so this is project#6 Doc think I have less than that on now ! Wow pretty old looking Ibby and rare to see some grain, might be an ash body. Weird pup config with what looks like a bucker in the middle and 2 singles neck and bridge.
No bridge earth bet it makes a terrible hum without it !

Not sure what model of Humbucker it is, my mate probably told me what it is and I've forgotten, from what I've read in my mate's email he just sent to me, the configuration is like this, there's a Single Coil Neck Pup, a Humbucker Middle Pup, and then there's the Single Coil Bridge Pup, there's a switch to switch the phase of one of the Pups, a switch to put the Neck and Humbucker in Series, and another switch to put the Humbucker in Series, Parallel, or Split, there's the usual Volume control, Tone control, and the third control is a Bass cut, should be fun sorting it out.

[wokkaboy]

yeah it has an unusual control setup there Doc. Even the way is it a 3 way switch in line with the humbucker is mounted 90 degrees to the usual way.
I bet your mate or the previous owner/s must have done some mods, I'll check out how the Blazer looked out of the factory.

[wokkaboy]

I found this on Google images Doc looks like there were 9 different guitar models, are any of those model numbers on the headstock ?

[DrNomis_44]

I found this on Google images Doc looks like there were 9 different guitar models, are any of those model numbers on the headstock ?

There doesn't appear to be a model number on the headstock, but, there is this serial number on the Chrome Neckplate:

F801158

And just below that it says "Made In Japan".


On the front of the headstock it says "Ibanez Blazer Series".

[wokkaboy]

no worries Doc, there were probably many different years of manufacturing of these models. There maybe more information in the control cavity or unscrew the neck there may be a code or stamp in the neck pocket.
Or research the model number

[stan]

not a bad looking guitar, cool project

[DrNomis_44]

no worries Doc, there were probably many different years of manufacturing of these models. There maybe more information in the control cavity or unscrew the neck there may be a code or stamp in the neck pocket.
Or research the model number

I'm guessing that it's probably a late 70's early 80's Ibby Blazer since my mate reckons he's had it for a long time and it was his first guitar he got when he started playing guitar, I bet he'll be really happy if I can get the guitar back into a playable state for him with all the pickups working as intended.


Here's a closeup pic of the Bridge on the guitar, I don't think I've ever seen one of these before, the bridge itself is in two separate pieces, a flat piece of metal that the saddles sit on and another piece that anchors the saddles via the intonation screws, the strings thread through small holes just below the saddle screws, it's a fixed-bridge system, also, there are no springs for the screws too:

[wokkaboy]

sure you will sort it out Doc. Pretty sure there has been a new pickguard put on with what looks pretty heavily modified from how it came out from the factory. Strange why the middle pickup is so close to the bridge pup and that switch orientation.

Have you had a chance to look at the wiring yet ?
So is the jack side mounted ? what I can gather on that photo of the series the jack was pickguard mounted but there is now a 3 way switch there