My 2350

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Author Message   Sleepybrighteyez Username: Sleepybrighteyez Registered: 9-2007 Posted on Sunday, September 16, 2007 - 5:23 pm:    I've been doing a bunch of reading in this forum to get info on my Ibanez 'lawsuit' LP rip off. This is my favorite guitar, so I'd like to post a few pics and tell the story of how I came across it if that's OK. I've had this guitar since I was sixteen or seventeen (now twenty-eight). My family was on vacation in Florida and I found this guitar in a pawn shop. My dad was unsure about buying it, so he made me wait a few days before returning to check it out again. When we returned, a guy was playing on it, but after a few minutes he threw it back on the stand saying it was a POS to his girlfriend. I was like [insert angelic music here]. My dad talked the shop owner down from $75 to $50, and it was my main Christmas present that year. This has been my favorite guitar ever since, and I really had no idea what it was, other than an Ibanez rip off of a Les Paul. It wasn't until years later when a friend of mine told me about the whole 'lawsuit' stuff. However, in his version of the story, some angry Gibson workers actually went around sawing the head stocks off of some of the Ibanez's, which made them a rare find. After doing my own bit of research recently, I have come to the conclusion that is not true. No big deal to me though, cuz I still love this guitar. Also, I think he exaggerated on its value, again no biggie. I believe mine is a 2350 from '74. It's not completely original though. When I bought it, the pick guard was missing (still is), and it was pretty dinged up, most notably a crack along the edge near the output jack. The saddle has been replaced, as the original was broken by my wife. She had placed the guitar (inside its case) out in the hallway, and while cleaning our room, threw a pillow out there which knocked the guitar over, face first and guess which part of the guitar made contact with the floor first. Lucky for me, I was working at a music shop at the time so I got a replacement real easy (I kept the broken one for sentimental purposes though). Since we had to remove the strings, the guitar tech helped me clean the fretboard up a good bit. A couple of years later, a friend of mine did a little work on it as well. He flattened out the frets, cleaned it up, and replaced the nut with a brass one. I didn't ask him to replace the nut, which kind of annoyed me, but it did make it sound better. I have a couple of questions though. The pickup selector switch seems to only use one pickup when placed in the middle position. In either the up or down positions, you can tell that each pickup works fine. I would like to fix that but don't know how. Also, I've considered replacing the humbuckers with newer ones. Is this a good idea? Should I have the crack fixed? Can it be? There are also a bunch of minor dings in it. The two plates on the back look pretty chewed as well. I don't know if it's possible or worth fixing the finish and hardware. This is my favorite guitar though, and I do try to take care of it. I'm sure I could do a better job. I don't ever plan on getting rid of this guitar and I would like it to be my main axe when I start gigging again soon. Any advice would be great here. Here are some pics.   Sleepybrighteyez Username: Sleepybrighteyez Registered: 9-2007 Posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - 11:55 pm:    Any info would be greatly appreciated. I basically am wondering if it's worth the money to put into bringing this baby up to par, or if it would cost me the same thing to just buy a better condition same model. I really like this guitar, and wouldn't mind buying another one if it came down to it. I was pricing pickups and it seems I could easily spend a couple hundred on them, when a better condition 2350 goes for under $400. This one just has that sentimental value... heh   Ducati Username: Ducati Registered: 9-2006 Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2007 - 11:20 pm:    Great story. Not the most valuable guitar out there, I would say under $500, but who cares, your dad bought it for you and you love it. The wiring could be fixed easily and there are plenty of cheap replacement pickups out there. Let us know how it goes!   Sleepybrighteyez Username: Sleepybrighteyez Registered: 9-2007 Posted on Friday, September 21, 2007 - 1:21 pm:    I went by a local shop this morning to get an estimate on fixing the electronics and replacing the nut and jack. For an exact estimate I need to bring it in, but the ballpark figure (close to $100) wasn't too bad. That wouldn't include pickups though. The guy told me the shorts could actually be a problem with the pickups themselves. They use an out of house tech so I need to bring my guitar in to let him really take a look. He suggested Duncan pickups. I'm still unsure what to do about the body work. I plan on using this guitar a lot (always have), so it may not be worth fixing up the dings and the crack if I'm just gonna beat on it some more. Sound quality is the most important for me at this point.   Roland_g303 Username: Roland_g303 Registered: 5-2007 Posted on Friday, September 21, 2007 - 2:08 pm:    If you like how the guitar sounds now I would strongly suggest against changing the pickups. Make sure if they fix anything for you that you ask to keep the original parts. I think it looks cool beat up the way it is. You might just have a bad solder joint somewhere on the selector switch or on one of the pots that is causing the pickup position problem. My opinion would be to keep the guitar as original as possible. Patrick   Sleepybrighteyez Username: Sleepybrighteyez Registered: 9-2007 Posted on Saturday, September 22, 2007 - 12:41 am:    I will definitely ask for original parts if any get swapped out. I wish I had the original nut. That still irks me. The brass nut has a brighter tone and better sustain, but the guy did a shoddy job filing the grooves and the high E string is easily pushed off the fret board on the lower frets toward the nut. I have the original broken saddle (that had to be replaced). I also like the beat up part of it. It hasn't gotten any worse since I've had it. That guitar is like my baby. That was my biggest worry that the crack would grow and make it unplayable. Then again, look at Willie Nelson's acoustic and I guess I can't complain. I think there is a bad solder joint in there but I am no guitar tech. With the switch in either the up or down position, you can clearly hear the difference between the two pickups. In the middle slot, it prefers the bridge pickup but if you wiggle it a little you can get it to go back and forth. I think the jack problem is a ground problem, but again not sure. The treble pickup sounds great on the guitar, but the rhythm one is a bit muddy. Maybe it needs to be cleaned? I don't know much about that stuff. It needs a tune up that's for sure. Then I can rock it out again.   Chipsotoole Username: Chipsotoole Registered: 2-2004 Posted on Saturday, September 22, 2007 - 1:31 am:    I'm assuming it has Super 70's pickups in it....These are great pickups (though sometimes a bit too powerful roll them off to volume 9)...I think you'd be hard pressed to find a better vintage sounding pup from modern choices..Replacements come up on ebay quite a lot if they're actually broken on yours...Reckom it's probably accumulated dust and dry solder joints. I just had my AR100 jack input resoldered and the volume pots cleaned for the princely sum of 3 Dollars while I waited...(dontcha just LOVE Thailand...Such a "can do" attitude. As for the other stuff...Does a wee crack really matter?

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