| Author |
Message |
Ibnzplyr (Ibnzplyr)
| | Posted on Saturday, June 05, 2004 - 11:21 pm: | |
Hello Jim!!!
It's great having you here. Your experience and insight are invaluable.
I wonder if you might recall something-- anything!-- development/where they were made/inspiration/genesis/any cool stories or details/production numbers/anything!!-- about the following unheralded guitars, some of which I have, that were made just a couple years respectively:
1) Ibanez Axstar headless guitars (AV 70/75) and basses (AX 60/65/1000) (mid 80's); [By the way, is there something wrong with the active electronics on these? My AX70 will not play clean. Noisy preamp?]
2) Ghostriders series: GR220/GR320/GR520 (mid 90's);
3) Roadstar Pro 580T --Turbot-- looks like a weird telecaster (late 80's) -- catalogue shows pink and green, but mine's black and not refinished; {By the way-- can you make one of these new?]
There is scant info on these and probably they won't be even mentioned in the new Ibanez book that coming out, so any info you have would be golden before it's lost forever.
Also-- did Steve Lukather ever play his Roadstar 1010SL model, or just endorse it? I hope it doesn't put you in a bad spot to say something about the relationship between Steve, the guitar with his name, and Ibanez.
That's great that Noah James is going strong!
Wishing you many, many years of success!!!-- Scott |
Jim_Donahue (Jim_Donahue)
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 08, 2004 - 11:22 pm: | |
Lot of questions here,
The First Axstars were designed by a guy named Tatsu Otsuki, This was the Shark Fin models, Actually these were made by another factory Cho-Shin (We called the shoe shine factory) It was a test to see if another factory other than Fuji-Gen could be used. Then a year later they came out with The Stienberger copies, All made at Cho-Shin except for the ABX1000, (Cho-Shin made all the jackson guitars from Japan and still do)This had real Stienberger bridge and head piece and was made at Fuji. But they did not have active Bass pickups so all the Axstars had guitar pickups in them. Yes that is some of the noise, the other problem is the Treble boost really does nothing but add hiss.
If there is a crackling noise check for cold soldier joints by touching all the soldier joints with a hot soldier iron, Some times if it sounds like frying eggs the op amp is shot on the volume pot, back then they used the 4558's but you can replace it with a Texas Instruments TL062 op amp. This will more than double the battery life.
The Axstars did not sell well and the Basses had major problems with the Top lock string pressure pads, they would strip because it was a Milled brass piece. So the Ax stars went away.
The 580 models, This was supposed to be the USA model, This is when H&S guitars were in Bensalem. The models the 580B (Ball Back) and 580T (talbot) came out. The bodies and necks were made in Japan and shipped to bensalme to be assembled with Dimarzio pickups. But no Catalog was printed so no one knew they exsisited, The Ball back had a wooden pickguard and the Talbot had a tele shape. maybe 5 month total of these and they were gone, When H&S moved to North Hollywood in 1990 they left all the 580 bodies in Bensalem and everyone in the checking and repair bought the 580T bodies so there are some strange versions of these around. Still I think there are some of these bodies left. This was mainly bad marketing, No Catalog and not such a great design that ended it. (H&S is Heartfield and Starfiled) Yes heartfield like Fender, StarField means Hoshino in Chinese Charicters and Heartfield is Fujigen, So H&S was a partnership bwtween Fuji and Hoshino is bensalme to make USA made guitars, they mover to North Holly wood in 1990, then Kurt Cobain came out and no one wanted custom guitars so they closed.
All the above is in detail in the book, that is why we wrote it.
Ahh, Steve Lukather, Hum I don't think I can say excactly what happened here , I know but its one of those things. lets say, people in Japan tend to drink allot, and do funny things when they drink. Actually the 1010SL was a fairly nice guitar but Steve was never happy with it, I believe some miss communcation. It states in the book that after Lukather and Holdsworth the Artist relatinships were changed to allow the Artist to have more control over the models.
Jim D |
Ibnzplyr (Ibnzplyr)
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 09, 2004 - 3:14 pm: | |
Jim:
I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. I couldn't imagine that anyone remembered these guitars. I can not wait until your book comes out. I will buy one copy to use and wear out and another copy to keep mint.
Take care-- Scott |
Ibnzplyr (Ibnzplyr)
| | Posted on Thursday, June 10, 2004 - 2:28 am: | |
Hi Jim:
You mentioned above that some of the 580T bodies might still be around-- how might I be able to get one?
Thank you-- Scott |
|
|
Thank you for supporting Ibanez Collectors Forum. Please help your favorite Ibanez guitar site as we endeavor to bring you the latest information about Ibanez custom vintage electric and acoustic guitars. Here you can discuss ibanez, guitars, ibanez guitars, basses, acoustics, acoustic, mandolins, electric guitar, electric bass, amplifiers, effect pedals, tuners, picks, pickups.
|