Mystery Modern Destroyer II

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Author Message   Timo Posted on Thursday, February 22, 2001 - 2:57 am:    I just aquired a Destroyer II that has many unusual features. It is in top shape with nary a scratch or chip anywhere. Really, it's in mint condition which indicates to me it's can't be more than a few years old. Even the protective plastic was still on the truss rod cover and the rear cover plates. Other features mentioned below indicate recent manufacture as well. I am interested in hearing from anyone who may have information on it. From the head down: Logo says "Destroyer" but it's clearly a Destroyer II not a Gibson Explorer replica. No volute at the headstock/neck joint. Unidentified tuners that say only "made in Japan" but not Smooth Tuner II's or Gotoh. Graphite nut. Smaller size truss rod cover plate. Split block inlays with Pau Ferro fingerboard. Neck is bolt-on with modern "all access"type joint. Pickups are Quantum 1(neck) Quantum 2 (bridge). Bridge is Gibraltar II in gold. Tail is Quick Change II in gold. Knobs are Sure Grip II's Knobs are placed in the old, early 80's style with the first one VERY close to the bridge pick up. The switch and pot cavities look like they have thick, black sheilding paint in them and the switch is different than the old 80's 3-way switch-in-a-box. It's open like Gibson 3-ways. The two volume pots have small casings, the tone pot has a standard size casing. The entire body, neck and headstock are bound in cream and are finished in red metallic including the face of the peghead. The serial is:F5133401, along with "made in Japan" This is NOT the recent, unfortunate DTX-120 that came out last year with the sadly malnourished and shrunken body. For all intents and purposes it appears to be a modern Destroyer II. I would really like to hear from anyone who may know about it. I am a big Destroyer II fan and this one is definately what I consider to be a catch but I would like to know if there are many more out there. I'll try to post pics if anyone is interested. Hope to hear from some of you soon. Thanks, Timo.   Bobby E. Day Jr. Posted on Thursday, February 22, 2001 - 6:22 pm:    Tim, just a side note, but last March my drummer gave me his '85 Destroyer II that he bought in Japan when he was in the Marines. Anyway, the axe is beat to heck, but the neck is as nice as the day it was new. What I'm planing is to restore her to better than original condition. I'm purchasing a complete Carvin 2 pickup package with all the electronics to put in her. ($109 for all the goodies!) But what I can't seem to get over is the inlays on the neck of this guitar. They almost look like reverse check marks, but more of a solid triangle shape. These are by far the strangest looking inlay I have ever seen. I just thought you might have an idea what they call these markers. Please feel free to e-mail me if you wish. Good luck in your Ibanez "Destroyer" experiences. Bob E.   Timo Posted on Saturday, February 24, 2001 - 2:53 am:    Hi Bob, I've never heard of or seen Destroyer neck inlays quite like you are describing. I imagine that anything might have been possible if your very generous buddy got his axe while in Japan. The Japanese market seems to get all kinds of cool stuff than won't necessarily make it over here to the US. The only inlays I know of for Destroyers are the plain dots and the split block type. A reverse check mark almost sounds like the Hamer "boomerang" inlay. But you say they are more of a triangle so I'm at a loss. Can you post a pic? What is the serial number on your guitar? That would give a clue as to the manufacturing date. Some notes on "restoring" your Destroyer. If you have not alredy paid for the Carvin stuff, I'd think twice about putting non-original type of parts in there. Not that it won't work its just that the guitar will loose any semblence of originality and that would really qualify more as "altered" than "restored". For collectors you can't get better than original. Anything that is off brand or non-original will impact the guitars resale value. Not to mention the Carvin pots have smooth shafts so you won't be able to use the Ibanez knobs. Another thing to be aware of is that Ibanez pickup mounting rings from that period used a unique screw hole spacing. I'ts very likely that you will have to drill a different set of holes to mount those Carvin mounting rings, another no no. You should be able to mount the Carvin pickups in the stock Ibanez rings but resist any temptaion to drill more holes(even small ones) in the guitar if you don't have to. Do you know if the pickups in there now are still the original ones? If so, they should be a covered Super 58 in the neck and an open V-2 in the bridge. If you take them out, DON'T LOOSE THEM! Let me know more about your axe. I'd love to start a thread on Destroyer II's   Timo Posted on Saturday, February 24, 2001 - 3:22 am:    I'm going to try my hand at posting some pictures. Forgive me if this doesn't work.   Mark_Hartman Posted on Saturday, February 24, 2001 - 2:20 pm:    Hey Timo, Here's a pic of a late nineties Destroyer that was not sold in the US market but made it to the states anyways. Sounds like you've got one of these. It has a bolt-neck and those cool block inlays like high-end set-neck Destroyers, Icemen and Rocket Rolls had in 1982. It's red metallic with a black nut and gold hardware - things you just don't see here in the US. I know for a fact that Destroyers were still available in Japan in 1996 'cuz I have a Japanese Ibanez catalog from then. Very rare indeed (and very cool too, I might add). I've seen a couple sold through ebay in the last year (or maybe the same one - or maybe this IS your guitar?!).   Timo Posted on Saturday, February 24, 2001 - 3:23 pm:    Hi Mark. Thanks for responding. The pictures you posted are in fact from the ebay auction that I purchased the guitar above through. So you did me a big favor by posting the pics because I'm still trying to figure that part out. The reserve was not met on ebay and I called the dealer who was selling it on consignment, made a deal and got it. Prior to this auction is was on ebay in December and did not reach reserve then either. I checked the serial number and it's the same one that's been on ebay twice. I believe it was originally purchased from a dealer in Santa Fe, New Mexico because I saw a tiny photo of it two years ago in a magazine interview of the dealer and I called them. What they described was basically the verbage of the first ebay auction ad many months later. So what I'm trying to find out is if anyone else but me has a DTII like mine shown above of if it is possible that it could be the only one in the US(!) By the way, is there any chance I could pay you for a color scan of the Destroyer information from your Japanese catalog? Let me know and thanks again for responding.   Mark_Hartman Posted on Wednesday, February 28, 2001 - 2:58 pm:    Here's a link to the 1996 Ibanez Japanese catalog scan (230k in size) - http://vintageibanez.com/destroyer/images/96_destroyer_japanese_catalog_scan.jpg Thanks for your request, which prodded me into an action I've been putting off for months. I finally took the time to pull the scsi card from my old computer and put it in my 'good' one so I can now use my flatbed without any hassle. You know how it is... Enjoy!   Timo Posted on Wednesday, February 28, 2001 - 11:55 pm:    Thanks for the scan Mark. It looks great! And that is the exact guitar I now have. I'm glad I now know exactly what the model designation is too. I was a little unsure if the fretboard was in fact rosewood since it is much lighter in color than my other DT's with rosewood boards. Pau Ferro looks very much like Indian Rosewood but both are very much lighter in color than Brazilian rosewood. Now I have to find someone to translate the ad into english. Any takers? Thanks again.   PS10 (Spiro) Posted on Thursday, March 01, 2001 - 12:46 am:    These were available in Australia and saw a new one as little as 6 months ago........ Black. quite lightweight with the new gibraltar II hardware... Didnt like the neck joint though.....   Mark Munchenberg (Munch) Posted on Thursday, March 01, 2001 - 3:33 am:    Timo, There are a couple of these kicking around new in shops in Perth, Western Australia. They've been on the shelves for over three years in one particular shop. I always thought they were cool, but not for me as they are not old, toooooo pointy, and have that bolt on neck - although it is a high quality joint. It never entered my mind that these things are not available in the USA (Anything you want, we got it land!). If you wanted to own more of them, I'm sure I could negotiate a great deal with the store. Hell, they'd probably pay me to take 'em away!!! Cheers, Mark   Timo Posted on Saturday, March 03, 2001 - 2:04 am:    Mark, having just purchased the guitar mentioned above I'm a little short of funds(again). However I would be interested to hear what sort of deal the stores you mention would be willing to cut. Of course, international shipping would have to be factored into the price as well... As far as I know, Destroyer II's stopped being imported to the US in the late 80's. Perhaps as early as 1986? I think the Phil Collen DT-555 was one of the very last models. This leaves a huge gap of time from then to now. The Iceman came back in the form of the ICJ100 a few years ago as well as a more intro level IC300. But no Destroyer II's all the while until the sadly malshapen DT-X model from last year. I welcome any feed back that can shine more light on Destroyers for this period of time. Either contradiction or confirmation is welcome. So in my case the USA is "everything BUT what you want land". This is why I jumped on the Japan model we're talking about here. Anyway, let me know what you may come up with in terms of price if those stores down under are just dying to let go of their DT dogs! If the price is right, arrangements can be made... Timo   Mark Munchenberg (Munch) Posted on Thursday, March 08, 2001 - 11:42 pm:    Timo, Can you believe that the guitars I've told you about have all been sold?? Neither can I! However, I was looking in a pawn shop today and they have a black one there. It is exactly like your red one, QM1 and QM2 pickups, gold hardware, bolt on neck etc. This guitar is in almost showroom condition. Has minor wear on the gold bridge, 3 tiny knocks in the finish on the bottom edge of guitar ( about the size of a biro ball point) and one very small compression ding next to the pickup selector. Guitar has original case and is priced at $799. This is $407.50 in USD. I believe I could negotiate a price of $600 - $650 for you - $306 - $331.50 in USD. Would you be intersted in it? You may have to pay import duty on it I guess, plus shipping. Regards, Mark   Laaz (Laaz) Posted on Friday, October 10, 2003 - 8:59 am:    The Destroyer Bobby E. Day Jr has is a DT-450, they were available only in the Japanese market. They were made from 1984 through 91 or 92. Very good quality set neck destroyers. I have one in black. Basically same guitar as the DT-555BK without the third pickup. Available colors were : BK = Black RD = Red WH = White CS = Cherry Sunburst I will upload some photos in a few minutes. Laaz   Laaz (Laaz) Posted on Friday, October 10, 2003 - 9:27 am:    1984 Japanese magazine ad.   Laaz (Laaz) Posted on Friday, October 10, 2003 - 9:43 am:    Well the photo option is not working so I uploaded the photos to my web storage at the links below. http://home.comcast.net/~tkwcomputers/84_jap.JPG http://home.comcast.net/~tkwcomputers/destroyer_DT450WT.jpg http://home.comcast.net/~tkwcomputers/destroyer_DT450_WTbk.jpg The White Destroyer is a friend of mine in Japan guitar. I am still trying to locate one for myself as well. I will post photos of my three Destroyers as soon as my digital camera is back from the repair shop. Laaz Note: The 95-96 DT-400 had a bolt-on neck & the neck was painted the same color as the body. The 2002 DT-420 reissue had a unfinished neck.   Johns (Johns) Posted on Friday, October 10, 2003 - 11:53 am:    Laaz: I don't think the failure is that the photo option is not working. If the magazine ad file in your link is the same one you were trying to upload, it failed because it exceeds the size limit (approx. 50k). Your file was 249k. The other two photos are 29k and 24k. These should have worked, but it doesn't look like you tried them. If I'm wrong in my assumptions, let me know and I'll try to figure out what's going wrong.   Laaz (Laaz) Posted on Friday, October 10, 2003 - 12:46 pm:    Ok I didn't know there a was a size limit. I got a message that the file didn't exist. Lets try this.   Laaz (Laaz) Posted on Friday, October 10, 2003 - 12:48 pm:    Nope still getting the same message "No such file or directory"   Johns (Johns) Posted on Friday, October 10, 2003 - 3:53 pm:    Laaz: OK, here's the barrage of questions I need answered: 1. When you press the Preview/Post Message button, do you get a form that has textbox and Browse button for each image tag that you've included in your message? 2. If so, are you able to use the subsequent File dialog box to navigate to the folder where your images are stored? 3. If so, is the complete path added to the textbox, on the first form, after you have selected a file and pressed OK in the File dialog? 4. The message that No such file or directory exists is weird, but telling you that it can't decipher some part of the path statement. Are you typing the path and file name into the textbox by hand, rather than using the Browse button? 5. Finally, are yo on a MAC or PC? Thanks, JohnS   Laaz (Laaz) Posted on Friday, October 10, 2003 - 4:20 pm:    Hi JohnS. I'm using the Browse button, navigating to the file, clicking it and then hitting the OK button. I'm running windows 2000 pro. Same response every time, I'm confused as well ?   Mr_Roadstar (Mr_Roadstar) Posted on Friday, October 10, 2003 - 6:57 pm:      Mr_Roadstar (Mr_Roadstar) Posted on Friday, October 10, 2003 - 7:00 pm:    I had to squash the hell out of the catalog scan to get the file size down. BTW, files are limited to 100k for upload. Cheers Steve   Laaz (Laaz) Posted on Monday, October 13, 2003 - 12:06 pm:    Here's a DT-450 for sale on Japanese Yahoo auctions : http://page6.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/f9406061 Same as mine but a 1985 model.   Laaz (Laaz) Posted on Monday, November 10, 2003 - 10:26 pm:    Well I got real lucky !!! My friend in Japan sold me the White DT-450 I recieved it today! Does anyone know how may White Destroyers were made ? I have been told by two Japanese shops that very few were made, anywhere from 25-100. Also the catalogs never listed White as a available color option... From what I have been told they were only produced in 1985. Thanks for any info, Laaz

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