Possibly of interest to guitarists only...

[dwenius]

It's a 1978 Ibanez MC-400 Musician. It's got a neck through design, with maple and walnut for the neck. The body is walnut top and bottom, with a mahogany core. You can't see it in these pix, but the bridge is mounted on a solid block of brass that is sunk into the body of the guitar, so, sustain = Yes. Plus all manner of nice little "we are a fledgling Japanese company who are trying very, very hard" touches, like gold-plated brass hardware, abalone dot markers, and pearl tuners. It also has whack electronics, including three way toggles for each pickup (serial coil, parallel coil, coils-out-of-phase), an onboard preamp, and a 3 band eq. Instead of a volume/tone knob combo, you get "volume" and "gain" knobs for the pre-amp, then an on/off switch for the EQ. Should ve versatile enough (cough).

I have been looking at these for a while, and bid on several, but the issue got a little more pressing when I discovered that the Kahler locking trem on my old Peavey guitar was on its last legs. It has allen screws, andwhen I went to replace a string I discovered that two of them are stripped. Kahler went out of business a decade ago, killed off by the floyd rose people, so replacement parts are now made of unobtanium. Ebay auctions want upwards of $150 for a replacement Kahler, and I think I paid less than that for the entire guitar in 1990 (note to JMU peeps: yes, from Shannon Dove). So: complicated. Might be time to retire the workhorse. Back on the "wheee!" tip, if I got a guitar made new this year with the same features as the mc-400, it would cost upwards of 3 grand. I got this one for about 1/4 of that. Ergo: score!

Comments

[wisn.livejournal.com]

Delightful machine. Looks like Ibanez was on an Alembic tip at the time, especially in the color choices and tailpiece shape (although Alembic's is an inverted vee rather than a triangle).

I like guitars of the era; the experimentations were more functional than the wiggy stuff that came out of the 60s, and although there were lots of failures the successes were plentiful. And now that they're all 25-30 years along, the ones that have been handled well have aged into beautiful tone and touch.

[dwenius.livejournal.com]

Yessiree on the Alembic angle. I have been drooling at Alembic's current line (particularly the Further guitar, the "Wolf" clone) for ages, but damnation, they want a king's ransom.

However, I did stumble across this guy very recently, Phiga Guitars. Handmade goodness, stellar woods, nifty electronics, weird body shapes, starting prices under $850. A little too much of that Texas sun, methinks, but he makes a good looking ax.

I'm still giddy over the Ibanez, though. Now if it would only get here...

[wisn.livejournal.com]

Rick Turner, Alembic's cofounder, is still designing and building under his own name and as Renaissance Guitars. I don't think I've ever played a bass as supple as his Electroline, and used Turners are trading for less than old Alembics, probably mostly because of name recognition - I prefer the Turner basses, myself, although his guitars look goofy.

A couple thousand is lot for a quality guitar (and think of all those lucky bastards who scored mid-60s Fender kit at yard sales), but I compare that to the fifteen grand my sister had to pay for her concert French Horn.

[dwenius.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip on Renaissance; agreed that his guitars look weird. But who am I kidding, I'm done with new gear for a while anyway, unless I trade out existing stuff.

I've been trying to convince myself for a while that I'll never be able to afford an actual strat from the era when they were really high quality. Even a 20 year old strat fetches a grand these days.

There are other good custom builders out there, most of whom I've found through deadhead gear freak postings: Moriarty, Phiga, Ressurection, or you could win the lottery and try to find a used Cripe. I figure, the Ibanez is 3x the guitar I've ever owned previously. If I ever decide I need another, I might as well have it made. But that's a dim, distant dream, far beyond any rhyme, reason, or ability I can justify :)