AR100L+

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Author Message   Pitviper Username: Pitviper Registered: 08-2005 Posted on Saturday, August 13, 2005 - 1:21 am:    Hello all... I am a newbie here, but a life long Ibanez (Artist) lover. I wanted to share my Ibanez story with all of you. My father Larry Henley, (might be known to a few of the older members)..was the front man for the Newbeats in the 60's..their *ahem* best song was "I like bread and butter". Later he went on to write "Wind Beneath My Wings" that did fairly well and won him 2 Grammy’s for best song and songwriter of the year. In 1984, he and I were visiting some local pawnshops in the Orange County Ca. area and we stumbled into a rather large one. I had been looking for a lefty electric. (I had been frustrated as a left handed guitar player for the longest time having almost no selection available to me without special ordering.) The ONLY left-handed electric guitar they had hanging up was this beautiful AR-100L for $350 but at the time...being anti-Japanese (don't say it, I know)...I let it pass. A week later I did some research on the Artist line and also began seeing professionals use them. I went back in asap and took it down off the hangar and was helped by a woman who obviously knew nothing about guitars...I started to haggle with her...pointing out the bad intonation, Japanese make, and many other BS things that were NOT wrong with it. Finally I walked out with it for $200 cash and a Gibson Les Paul case! I've owned it ever since. Prior I used a '69 Les Paul and a 335 or 336 Gibson (forgot which) double cut-away, strung upside down and of course struggled with them...to say that I was so surprised that this Artist blew them away is an understatement. IN every respect..in every way. I know a lot have said it..but it is entirely true. Finding a Lefty AR-300L if it exists, or any other model is a pipe dream for me. I know they are out there, but who's selling them? I am an inlay artist in my spare time, so I do inlay work on occasion for many people within my father’s connections. My specialty is being able to take a finished guitar, like this Ibanez pictured...and do custom factory type inlays inside the frets. Some here might think that altering a vintage guitar is wrong, and in most all cases it certainly is...but in my case...I HAD to have the split MOP and Abalone I've seen on so many other fine Artists. So on every inlay job I had..I always selected the best-figured MOP in the batch and set it aside...Finally, after many months...I had the best pearl available. I also selected the best hearts of red Abalone I could find, and after a few more months...I had what I needed. So now she features split MOP/Abalone RIGHT hand Inlays(I liked it better that way)Gold MOP truss rod cover..Gold MOP selector ring and a hand carved MOP selector knob. I put a little personal touch on the 23rd fret too. My job was much tighter and nicer than most if not all factory block Ibanez inlays…..after all…I was only doing one of them, and it was MINE! This is my "custom" final result..my treasure..my baby..yeah I know it sounds a little juvinile..but she means that much to me. Hope you all can enjoy it too.   Acetan Username: Acetan Registered: 09-2003 Posted on Saturday, August 13, 2005 - 1:21 pm:    Nice shell work. What's the motivation to have the inlaids larger than factory's? Just curious. Ace   Pitviper Username: Pitviper Registered: 08-2005 Posted on Saturday, August 13, 2005 - 3:01 pm:    Thanks Ace, and that’s a good question When I began studying other Artists and their inlays I noticed right off a problem that I was going to run into. That was the bottom markers starting at the 12th fret. All of the top dots, the 3rd thru the 9th were no problem, but the dots on the 12th were spread horizontally outside the diameter of the stock inlay, past that the dot sizes were also vertically larger than the skinny bar inlays on all Artists. Not to mention the 21st fret dot was lower in relation to the others. So to match in their correct proportions to the 12th in width, and compensate in the height for the dots, were to two issues. So the only solution other than filling and attempting to mask it, which I didn't want to do, was to make the inlays larger. So the 12th fret is a 7 piece and under that are all 5 pieces. That also meant the top inlays had to be adjusted too in order to make the whole inlay flow in proportion. Looking at paper cutouts of the pattern in many shapes on the fret board prior to any inlay dictated the best size to keep everything uniform. I almost changed my mind prior to this inlay based on those “problems”, but in the end I wanted the “look” so bad that I just went for it. So yeah, it’s not within factory spec’s … what made it worthwhile for me was when I first saw it side by side compared to the factory inlay jobs on many Artists over the years, and the subsequent looks on peoples faces, but mostly the players. They all said how lucky I was to get an Artist with all those unreal fancy inlays…..and to the man thought it was a special order Ibanez custom inlay. :-) Course I laughed and with humility I told them I didn’t get lucky.. Mike   Acetan Username: Acetan Registered: 09-2003 Posted on Saturday, August 13, 2005 - 5:53 pm:    The inlaids are nice of course but I think the truss-rod cover and the switch tip are crowning touches. Ace   Pitviper Username: Pitviper Registered: 08-2005 Posted on Saturday, August 13, 2005 - 10:36 pm:    Ty Sir... I can make both if anyone wants them.

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