Need Info on NW40

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Author Message JohnS Posted on Tuesday, October 02, 2001 - 12:47 pm:    Howdy Acoustic Lovers: I got my first Ibanez acoustic this past week. It's an NW40. Highly flamed maple back (bookmatched), sides and headstock veneer. Bookmatched solid spruce top. Maple neck and fretboard. The serial number starts with 83??????H. However, the block inside has 82??????? stamped on it. Is this an '82 or 83 model? Can anybody help fill in the details on this model? Maybe somebody has catalogs on acoustics from 82-83? I'd like to find out more about the whole NW series. I've seen 10s, 30s and 40s. Thanks, JohnS ICW Tom Diak Posted on Tuesday, October 02, 2001 - 10:32 pm:    John, There are two catalogs currently up for auction on Ebay. Oddly enough '82 and '83 acoustic and semi acoustic guitars. Check it out, maybe the person auctioning can tell you if your guitar is included. I think there's an NW10 for sale too. Regards, Tom Diak JohnS Posted on Wednesday, October 03, 2001 - 8:02 am:    Tom: Thanks for the heads up on ebay. The only '82 or '83 catalogs I can find are for full- and semi- acoustic electrics, they don't have any true accoustics in them. Maybe my search missed something. If so, can you post the auction item numbers? Thanks, JohnS JohnS Posted on Monday, October 29, 2001 - 1:59 pm:    Here's the latest addition to my Ibanez collection. It's the NW40, part of the Natural Wood series. I see the identical guitar in an April '82 catalog, but it is designated as the NW340. The serial number on the inside label is 83010633H. The neck block inside has the number 821201 stamped on it. If anyone knows how to decipher these, please let me know. Gitfiddle1 (Gitfiddle1) Posted on Monday, October 29, 2001 - 3:14 pm:    WOW !! Does it sound and play as good as it looks? Steve JohnS Posted on Monday, October 29, 2001 - 8:47 pm:    Steve: Well, I asked my wife to sit in the next room while I played my '72 Martin D35 and then the NW40. After I played the same 2 songs on each, she couldn't tell which was which or in which order I had played the guitars. When I asked her to guess which one I was playing at the moment, she guessed that the Ibanez was the Martin! Considering that she told me to buy the D35 after hearing me play a friend's, I'd say she was a fair judge in this test. If anything, she should have been biased toward the Martin. It's not scientific, but it does illustrate the point that there is very little "real life" difference in sound. The difference in materials does give the Martin a slightly deeper bottom end. But nothing you'd notice if playing live. The fretboard radius on the Martin is flatter. The neck on the Ibanez is somewhat thicker. But neither feels as natural to my hand as the Artist necks. If I wanted to make the NW40 a "perfect fit", I'd shave down the back of the neck, change the frets to something with a little more meat (I'm not sure if that would be higher or wider) and put on new bone nut for good measure. Hmmm, did I just describe an Artist neck? I paid more than 3 times the amount for the Martin, but there is nowhere near that differential in sound and playability. BTW, I have to retract my statement at the top of this thread that the NW40 has a solid spruce top. The endgrain in the soundhole is VERY close to being a match with the top grain, but now that I've taken a real close 2nd (and 3rd) look, it doesn't match exactly. So it must be a laminate...definitely bookmatched, though. However, after A/Bing the solid vs. laminate top, I'd be lying if I said that the solid top had a noticeably better sound. Does that answer the question? Gitfiddle1 (Gitfiddle1) Posted on Tuesday, October 30, 2001 - 2:58 am:    Solid evidence of a fine guitar, I'd say! It's my understanding that a laminated top doesn't necessarily sound different when new. But the laminate won't "age" the same way a solid top will. In any case, your Ibanez certainly isn't suffering any ill effects. Thanx for the in-depth analysis. Cheers Steve JohnS Posted on Tuesday, October 30, 2001 - 10:53 am:    Steve: Considering that one of these just went for less than $300 on ebay (no HSC), you gotta love them. Well, the Ibanez is 18 years old and the Martin 30. In 12 years we'll test them again and see if the Ibanez's lam top has lost ground to the solid top Martin. Care to place a wager now? John Kenny Posted on Wednesday, November 07, 2001 - 11:01 pm:    Wow, its amazing to me that so many people have this guitar. I bought mine in '84 for $180. I still have the single page flyer that they had at the music store to describe it. There is more trim on this guitar than any other for the money. It has both side and top purfling, an inlaid backstrip, bound neck and headstock, and an inlaid abalone (or synthetic equivalent) neck and headplate. I have found the sound to be rather bright (not suprising given the nearly all maple construction) If I were to change anything, I would make the same guitar with an ebony fretboard. I hate how the painted maple fretboard is wearing out and chipping over time. Also the neck wood appears to be of dubious quality, and is laminated out of multiple pieces of wood. My neck has required considerable adjustment until it settled down, including truss rod adjustment and fret dressing, and I have had several frets pop out around the neck body joint. Once the strings lose their initial "twang" the guitar sounds much better. It actually seems to like older strings that don't have the zing. This appears to counter the all maple brittleness. I am not sure I could accept the comparison to the Martin. Rosewood bodies have a cleaner tone, with less twanginess, and have a tubbier bottom end. If you are in the other room, you will not notice this, since the bottom end gets lost quickly as you move away from the guitar. Nonetheless, I love the bass sound from this guitar. It is why I bought it in the first place. I now have a Gibson J-200, and while it is clearly a better sound overall, with far better and deeper bass from the jumbo body, and clearer treble from the all solid wood construction, I still love the NW40, both for sound and looks. The bookmatched flame maple back and sides are nothing short of stunning, laminate or not. As to whether or not the top is solid or laminate, my sound hole end grain appears to be contiguous, unless there is a very (and I mean very) thin top laminate. I have looked at other laminated top guitars, and you can always see clearly the multiple layers. With this guitar, you cannot. I agree that it does not sound as good as my solid top guitars in treble sweetness, which is supposedly the hallmark of a good solid top guitar. One more note, I replaced the bridge pins with ebony pins, and it made quite a difference. I am considering replacing the saddle with a bone one as well, but I love the plastic compensated saddle. I also love the fact that Ibanez gave me three saddles of different heights in a little bag. Enuf said... JohnS Posted on Thursday, November 08, 2001 - 4:21 pm:    John: Glad to hear that you love the NW after all these years. BTW, do you have a 40 or 340? They changed the designation at some point...don't know why or if some specs may have changed along the way. What's your serial number? Regarding the laminate top: after looking at the catalog sheets that Cameron sent for the NW, Floral and Vintage series, I noticed that the only guitar that was identified as "Solid Spruce" was the Stephan Grossman model. All the rest just say "Top: Spruce". The omission of the word "solid" is probably intentional. The maple fretboard is not like any I've seen. I expected it to be like a maple necked Strat. But it has almost no grain pattern. My reaction was that it was flood varnished after the frets were installed. There's also a texture to the finish that's not natural. You used the term "painted". Can you elaborate? Why do you say the neck wood is dubious? Do you see defects, knots and such? Or because you've had warping problems? Because it's laminated? The 3 piece lam necks are standard on many of Ibanezes high end models from the 70s on. I'll have to try those ebony bridge pins. At some point, I'll probably have to replace the nut, but I also think the compensated bridge is worth keeping. John Kenny Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2001 - 10:13 pm:    Hello JohnS, Mine is the NW40, which I think was the earlier model. From what I can see, the difference was that mine has a straight grained maple or what could be spruce headplate, while from the pictures here I would say that the newer model has a flamed maple headplate. I tend to agree with you that it is unlikely that the top is solid. The maple fretboard does appear to have no discernable grain, and an unusual finish that does not appear to be as hard as a Fenders finish. The wood also seems softer than the wood on the back. I have noticed some finish coming off the surface in the lower, open chord positions. The wood pieces in the neck have swirls and hwat could almost be constued as knots. It does not appear to be as good quality wood as the wonderful sides and back. The finish on the neck was definitely applied before the frets were installed. I know this because I have had svereal around the neck body joint come loose and need to be reseated. The neck "moved around" quite a bit for the first 10 or 15 years, requiring constant truss adjustments and fret drssing to eliminate buzzes. Eventually the neck settled into a more constant shape that has been setup for reasonably low action. I would agree with the point about the compensated bridge. Several guitar setup people have commented on the design. It was one of the first guitars I saw with a compensated saddle. Gibson only started using them a few years ago! I am constantly impressed with the level of binding and purfling detail that these guitars have. They have both side and top black / white lines. My two Gibsons have top purfling only. Martins typically only have top purfling as well. I realize labor is less in some places, but Japan is usually not a low cost place. I might also add that the guitar had several loose pieces of wood inside when I bought it that caused no end of buzzes with certain notes. It took a small mirror and constant string removals to find all the tiny pieces and remove them. All that said, The guitar is now my old reliable, and is also the most beautiful one. I would love to get a second one on Ebay. I watch for them at a good price. Asb2 (Asb2) Posted on Tuesday, January 14, 2003 - 10:23 pm:    I also have an NW-40. I may have one of the original advertising brochures. If I do, I will scan it. There were four different ones listed as I remember, the NW-20, NW-40, NW-60 and NW-80 all with different types of wood. I bought mine brand new around 1983 (serial #83010655H). Don't remember how much it cost at the time. I'd love to know how much it's worth now, not that I'd consider selling it. I loved it for the look and the bright sound you get from the maple. I saw a similar Ibanez on eBay called a Model 699 Concord. I suspect that one is older. Cwhitelaw Username: Cwhitelaw Registered: 12-2006 Posted on Thursday, December 14, 2006 - 1:01 pm:    I don't know what else to say since you all seam very familiar with the nature of this beautiful guitar... except I have one too. It's for sale on e-bay only because I'm moving and have to lighten my rediculous load (electric guitars, amplifiers, drums, ughh).

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