Ibanez Artist Guitar

  • Thread starter Thread starter frederic
  • Start date Start date
frederic

frederic

New member
I'm not really a guitarist, but I like dabbling. For years i've been using "quality" (ha ha) midi guitars such as the Yamaha G10/G10C and the even higher quality (ha ha) Casio Midi Guitar from the mid to late 80's to add feel to my midi compositions.

Anyway, now that you all know I can't really play guitar well, I've been looking to buy a nice guitar that I'd be comfortable learning on, then keeping for years to come because its a nice guitar. Low and behold a friend of mine gave me (yes, gave) an old Ibanez Artist guitar that needs some work. While the action, tone, and playability of this guitar is excellent, the hardware is rather "yucky" and the wiring/pots are fairly shot.

Is there a good source for replacement hardware, such as bridges, tailpieces, etc? The bridge looks very similar to currently available stuff, however the tailpiece is strange looking and my two local guitar mom&pops indicated they couldn't get such a part.

I'm hoping among you folks, I'm not the only one in need of oddball hardware :) The wiring will be a snap, I've done it many times before.

Thanks in advance!

Frederic
 
Fred, That is a great guitar. I used to have an Artist in the 80's and it was great! The tail piece you talking about should be 2 pieces, the actual part that holds the strings and the lower part (looks kinda like a cloud) you could find all that stuff in http://www.stewmac.com/

Hold your head up high son! you got yourself a fine Japanese guitar there.
 
eyeslikefire said:
Fred, That is a great guitar. I used to have an Artist in the 80's and it was great! The tail piece you talking about should be 2 pieces, the actual part that holds the strings and the lower part (looks kinda like a cloud) you could find all that stuff in http://www.stewmac.com/

Hold your head up high son! you got yourself a fine Japanese guitar there.
Click to expand...

StewMac, huh? Very cool. I typically have associated them with guitar building, so thank you. Their page is loading now :)

Thanks regarding the info about the guitar... it feels nice even though its a little beat up looking... construction and sound quality is very good. Definately not a cheapo plywood guitar, thats for darn sure (I have such a beast so I recognize the difference).

Cool!
 
The summer before I started playing guitar (this was after 8th grade) my family and I were on vacation in St. Louis, and my dad decided to go guitar shopping. We went to a store (J. Gravity Strings) and my mom, my sister, and I hung out there while he tried various axes. This was boring as hell for me at the time--if only it'd happen now! Anyway, he almost bought a beautiful Gibson ES-335. I didn't know from guitars at the time, and I had a strong desire for him to buy it. However, Satan must have intervened or something, because he went with a Washburn. Right after we got home, he discovered something about the guitar that made it unplayable (I can't remember exactly what--something about the high E string slipping off the fretboard). So he and a buddy schlepped back to St. Louis. They weren't particularly happy to see him at the store, but he managed to make them do a trade. He came home with an Ibanez Artist and a Yamaha SE700he. The Artist had various problems, the most pressing of which was crappy tuners. He fixed that pretty soon, and it became an okay guitar. It was the guitar I did most of my learning on. However, it's always had a buzz on it somewhere, and it needs a new nut, so it's not much of a guitar right now. The Yamaha had a shit tailpiece, and my dad took it to his work with the intent of machining a new one, but in seven years he never got around to it. I just took it off his hands for a while with the goal of putting a tailpiece on it myself.

I get nostalgic for that Artist every once in a while. It had a nice sunburst finish, and it was fun to learn on.
 
Fred, check it out,...
This is the exact guitar I used to have


ar500.jpg
 
Fred, my first guitar was an Ibanez Artist. I purchased back in 1975 and I still have it today. I love this axe. The tail piece you might be talking about is called a Scalloped Tail piece. The actual bridge is a tune-o-matic. The hardware is gold plated and will pit and rust over time due to acid from hand perspiration. A great site for vintage Ibanez is "vintageibanez.tripod.com". This site has photos, specs, parts and everthing else you need to know. Give it a try, It's cool. Good luck and hang on to that guitar.
 
vintagedrive said:
Fred, my first guitar was an Ibanez Artist. I purchased back in 1975 and I still have it today. I love this axe. The tail piece you might be talking about is called a Scalloped Tail piece. The actual bridge is a tune-o-matic. The hardware is gold plated and will pit and rust over time due to acid from hand perspiration. A great site for vintage Ibanez is "vintageibanez.tripod.com". This site has photos, specs, parts and everthing else you need to know. Give it a try, It's cool. Good luck and hang on to that guitar.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much for the feedback.

Yes, its a scalloped piece, and the bridge does look like a tune-o-matic, however I wasn't sure if it was identical in size to the official tune-o-matic as I had nothing handy to compare to. My other two guitars have Kahler variations installed.

Thanks for the link, I'm off to there now!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top