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

[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 :)