Ibanez Melody Maker (an giant Iceybomb)

[James]

They copied a hell of a lot of stuff back then that I had no idea about. Some of it must be incredibly rare outside of Japan. I'd never seen a melody maker before buying this one.

Next time I have the pickguard off I'll have a look at the pickups.

[Fran]

I found some info.

JESUS! Look at that dog ear Junior i'd give my left knacker for that.

I was looking at the grain on the back shot of your MM james, its superb. What is the guitar like in terms of weight? The Artist i had off you left me with a dislocated shoulder and permanent twitch, possibly the best sounding guitar i have ever owned though.

[william]

im kind of into that bob marley paul there. have i mentioned that the bob marley lespaulspecial is my favorite signature model ever?



hard.

[Sloan]

wow. i didnt realise that their copying was so extensive.

double-werd!
shit's awesome.

too bad the lawsuit shit is still pricey, i would snag one of the LP jr's if they were like $200. damn.

[James]

What is the guitar like in terms of weight? The Artist i had off you left me with a dislocated shoulder and permanent twitch, possibly the best sounding guitar i have ever owned though.

I think that Artist may have broke more shoulders than Chico's broke hearts. It was a very nice guitar though. If I knew I could deal with the weight I'd consider another.

Just put the melody maker on the bathroom scales and it's showing 6.2 or 6.4lbs (varies between) or 2.5kg which doesn't convert properly so keep in the mind the scales are inaccurate at that sort of weight and I'd say it's probably in 6 - 6.5lbs. Strapped on it feels light and is a little neck heavy not quite as bad as an SG but getting towards it. If you pick it up by the neck it feels fairly heavy but when you play it it seems light.

I've realised that putting 13s on it means the lower strings are sitting high in the nut. A slight bit of sanding to widen the grooves and this thing is going to be set up like that jag you sold Zaphod.

[Fran]

What is the guitar like in terms of weight? The Artist i had off you left me with a dislocated shoulder and permanent twitch, possibly the best sounding guitar i have ever owned though.

I think that Artist may have broke more shoulders than Chico's broke hearts. It was a very nice guitar though. If I knew I could deal with the weight I'd consider another.

Just put the melody maker on the bathroom scales and it's showing 6.2 or 6.4lbs (varies between) or 2.5kg which doesn't convert properly so keep in the mind the scales are inaccurate at that sort of weight and I'd say it's probably in 6 - 6.5lbs. Strapped on it feels light and is a little neck heavy not quite as bad as an SG but getting towards it. If you pick it up by the neck it feels fairly heavy but when you play it it seems light.

I've realised that putting 13s on it means the lower strings are sitting high in the nut. A slight bit of sanding to widen the grooves and this thing is going to be set up like that jag you sold Zaphod.

Cool, if the neck heavy thing bothers you get a good leather strap, the suede type side will grip your shoulder and stop it sliding.
13's? 0_o

[James]

It has those 'blind' fret ends with the fret edges being a small distance into the fretboard and a little bit of wood powder/shavings to fill the gap. I don't know if that's a feature on the Gibson. You've got to like the attention to detail. The guys running Gibson in the 70s must have been thinking "these Ibanez cunts have some fucking balls."

13s with this bridge setup gives some serious sustain.

[william]

that bridge style is my new favorite, evar. but im going to try and find a plain g intonation solution, without ruining the simplicity of the design (ie, no badass or whatever.)

also, my gibson doesnt have hidden frets. motherfucker.

[Mages]

ah ok, that's pretty awesome. I wasn't aware that the mid 70s copies were so good. I always heard the best period was 78-82. like some of the ibanez/greco copies of fender guitars from this period are a little off. Your guitar looks perfect though.

So were these made in fujigen then?

[James]

I've previously owned a 2355 ES-175 copy which was absolutely amazing. I think a little bit of that was not having played many good guitars by that point in my guitar playing life, and certainly not having played a good archtop. I bought and sold it for profit which is probably the only guitar related decision I regret. That one also had no serial number but they produced it for a longer period. So it was most likely a 72-75 or something like that. Now you could easily pay £800 for one. I currently own a very similar seeming ES-175 copy but it was made in the Matsumoko factory which Ibanez only used for a few Fender copies. It's strange though because it seems damn near identical to the Greco and Ibanez versions in pictures.

I also had an Ibanez artist. It was a binding + dots model that was mentioned earlier in this thread by Fran. From about '83 and an AR50 I think. Superb guitar, but it would break your back to play a gig with. To be honest, that is what made me go this route. When I thought about selling my Mustang in a fairly passing way, i quickly realised that I absolutely should sell it and buy something like that again. I started looking at old Tokai and Greco LP copies on ebay, and then came across this Melody Maker. For the first few second after the auction I thought 'what am I playing at, i have fuck all money and I just bought a guitar' now though I can honestly say it's one of my better decisions.

I haven't looked into where this was made, but the quality is all there. It is fairly worn which makes it feel quite different to both the Artist and ES-175 mentioned (which were both fairly pristine) but not in a bad way, just different.

[James]

ebay link

A 2342 LP Junior double cut ended on ebay this afternoon. It has a dimarzio instead of the dog ear, non original bridge and the tuners changed for more modern Ibanez ones. My money is on the original ones being the star type.

I bid on it but didn't want to risk that much with the non-original parts making it lose some of it's mojo factor. It went for £250 inc p&p.

Here's a pretty picture of a stock one with a non-lawsuit headstock.

[Gabriel]

Man I'd love an old Ibanez like that, they did a ES345 copy that is just gorgeous. I've never found one though which sucks.