1979 Ibanez artist

jimistone

jimistone

long standing member
I was browsing the pawn shop today and I saw a cherry burst ibanez artist guitar. It looked to be late 70's early 80's to me. The dude who runs the shop said it was a '79.
Double cutaway, cherry burst, gold hardware, binding...it looked like it was in pretty good shape up there on the rack. They were going to get it down for me to take a better look but I was at lunch and had to get back to work.

They are asking $299 for it. Is that price reasonable?
It seems like I remember ibanez made Gibson knockoffs in the 70's but "the artist" was their high end build and was kind of pricey back then.
 
I've never seen anyone ask so little for one of those. I would grab it if I were you and had the money.

There are several different models...the less expensive ones had dot inlays, while the higher priced versions had fancy block inlays. I think the binding and other finish details varied somewhat too.

Typically, I see people asking at least twice that for the least expensive models from that era and over $1k for the nicest ones. I've never owned one or anything, but I've read good things about them and have always kept an eye out for them as I like SGs, and these kind of remind me of those yamaha SGs from the same era...
 
I'm not too familiar with these but I've seen a few here and there at vintage guitar shops. That seems like a good price to me. Like heat says, they usually hover around twice that from what I've seen. Talk em down if you can and buy it if it's cool.
 
It's not an artist. I pulled up the 1978 ibanez guitar catalog and the guitar at the pawn shop is a cn200. The pickup switch location is different and the cutaways are offset just a tad.

Still a beautiful guitar but probably worth less that a artist.
 
I bought it. It's immaculate for a 1978 model. All original. The rosewood fingerboard is so dark it almost looks like an ebony board. I plugged it in and checked out the tone and volume pots...smooth operation and dead silent with no crackles or scratchyness. The action is very low and the frets are in good shape. The finish on the top is perfect...no one blemish. The back has the usual nicks and scratches you would expect on a 35 year old guitar. The "flying fingers" pickups are hotter than stock Gibsons but not quite in dimarzio SDH territory.
The only flaw I can find in the guitar is the pickup ring is cracked and missing part of a corner on the neck pickup.
All in all it's a guitar that has craftsmanship you don't really see nowadays and it is is unbelievably good shape for a '78.
I made them a $250 cash out the door offer and left with it.


When I brought it back the store my boss wanted it bad...so I let him reimburse me $250 and it's his now.
He gave me 10 bucks and said; "put some strings on it and play it for a while..maybe record some with it and hold on to it...I'm not in any rush to have it at my place"

He's more of a collector than a player and has several nice axes.
Is that cool or what!
:D
 
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