1989 Ibanez 540S with Custom ‘96 Neck

Details

This unique Ibanez 540S Sabre has a 1988 body and serial number plate, but a really superb, quartersawn wizard neck dated to 1996. This neck has abalone dot inlays, so it’s a bit different from the period correct ‘88 Sabre necks. After painstaking research, no Ibanez for the year 1996 would’ve had this type of neck, with the traditional neck joint (not AANJ). The Ibanez wiki makes it easy to research these details, so I also checked ‘95 and ‘97 just to make sure - nothing. I suspected this was a warranty repair or custom ordered neck since that’s the only way this neck would’ve been constructed. After removing the neck from the body, it is stamped WALRJ-22, which is the neck heel code for a custom ordered neck - sometimes these were necks assembled in the “custom shop” or “pro shop” in Bensalem PA as far back as 1988, and continuing through 90s - so this is an authentic custom order neck. It’s not a particularly flashy neck - no binding, custom woods, etc - but the quartersawn grain and abalone inlays leave a subtle hint at how great this neck is.

Otherwise, the hardware is all standard fare for 1988, with Gotoh tuners, an Edge bridge, and Dimarzio-made C2 stacked single coils. The bridge humbucker was replaced with a Dimarzio Evolution, which is a bit more output than the stock F2 pickup this would’ve had originally.