1989 Ibanez 540S + ‘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 suspect this was either a warranty repair, or custom ordered repair neck since that’s the only way this neck would’ve been constructed as far as I can tell.

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.