New Guitar: 1987 Ibanez 540P with rare Maple Neck

I saw this pop up for sale on Christmas Eve and even though I’m trying to reduce my spending, I couldn’t help but get myself a little gift. I have really grown to love these early Ibanez 540 series guitars, but I was missing two things - a 540P, or “Power” model, and one with the exceedingly rare maple fretboard. Well, I checked two things off of my list with one purchase with this guitar!

It arrived just before New Year’s and I was thrilled - it’s a great player, sounds good, and in overall pretty good condition. The body shape is very interesting, and it looks much more rounded on the back. It suffers from the same problem as a Tele when playing it seated, it does dig into your chest just a little bit but it does have a cutout so it’s perfectly comfortable when standing. The contouring around the body is truly inspired and unique - this is a model I wish they had continued making.

The maple fretboard is of course, everything I dreamed it would be. The back of the neck is extremely smooth, there is some very pretty quartersawn grain, and the board itself is nice and smooth without being too glossy.

As with any guitar this great though, now I want another one! That will be a tall order though, there can’t be many 540P’s with maple fretboards around!

New Guitar: 1988 Kramer Pacer Custom 2 Holoflash

I know I already have a Holo-Crackle Pacer, but I saw this one and found it particularly enticing. It is an aftermarket holoflash job, as the serial number is slightly too early for this finish, and you can ever so slightly feel the texture of the holoflash film on the top (factory holoflash jobs were under enough clear coat that it feels perfectly smooth). That said, it looks great and is a pro job, so I’m pleased.

Another stand out from this one is the neck - I’ve had 12th fret inlay necks many times, but this one is in really tip top condition and as such the guitar plays beautifully. The factory pickup combination of JB + SSL-5’s also sound great, as expected, which makes this a great guitar to just pick up and rock out while looking really awesome.

New Guitar: 1982 Kramer Pacer Deluxe

Found this one for a really reasonable price, which is getting harder and harder these days as the value of Kramers seems to be finally realized in the market. I expected a good, quality instrument - as I do any Kramer - but upon arrival, I have to say this one really blew my socks off.

The condition is superb, clearly the previous owner really cared about this guitar. It came in the original case, also in great condition, and with the original electronics, pots, and switches inside. The guitar itself has had the pickups swapped out and the coil tap switch removed, I would’ve left it but I have no complaints as I can restore it any time I like.

A few more signs that this was so well taken care of too - the entire control cavity under the pickups is completely shielded with copper tape, and the lower floyd stud (a notorious break point on these Deluxe models) is in perfect condition, the paint isn’t even cracked. Even the fretboard is nicely oiled and one of the healthier looking Rosewood boards I’ve gotten from any used guitar.

It is also equipped with some tasteful mods, like a Trem-Setter and a very interesting pickup arrangement, with a Duncan TB-15 “Alternative 8” and two Fender American single coils. The Alternative 8 is very unique sounding, bright and scooped - a bit different from my usual preference, but I’ve grown to really like this pickup especially with more “congested” sounding amps.

New Guitar: Kramer Stagemaster Mach II - Flat Top

Another awesome neck-through Kramer added to the collection, and in the same exact color as my arch top Mach II Stagemaster! This color in the catalogs was called “Rose,” it’s essentially a transparent coral/salmon color. It’s a beauty - and really cool to have both flat top and arch top variations of the same guitar. I’m a big fan of EMG’s and this one is equipped with the common 81/SA/SA combination, a modification I probably wouldn’t have done myself but I’m pleased with anyway. The previous owner also added an extra, non-matching knob in place of the coil tap switch. That won’t do, so I’ll be fixing that up shortly, perhaps a vintage EMG 89 would be a great addition here, and I could keep the stock looking coil tap switch, assuming there’s no major damage under the finish where the new knob was added.

Here are some pictures comparing the flat top to the arch top.

New Guitar: Ibanez 540S Carribean Blue

Picked up this guitar from Guitar Center - again - labeled as a “540S.” This is certainly an interesting combination and one I’m still trying to figure out - it’s a 1989 Carribean Blue 540S body, complete with the Bensalem PA neck plate (blank serial number), but the neck has a serial number dating it to 1996. Even more interesting, the neck has the “S series” badging, and abalone inlays - but they are dots instead of ovals. Also, it is not an all-access neck joint… from my digging, any S series guitar with a Fujigen made neck after about 1993 should have this neck joint type. I can’t find any stock 1996 S series guitar - even in Japan or European catalogs - that has abalone ovals and a traditional neck joint.

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I also took some measurements, it is Wizard dimensions as well - and a very high quality build with the flat 17” fretboard just like my others. I’m not sure what to make of this neck, but strange features and history aside, it is an amazing player like any of my other Ibanez guitars. It’s not hard to imagine why Ibanez was able to weather the storm during the 90s while many of their competitors struggled, got bought out, or went overseas during the same period.

New Guitar: 1990 ESP Horizon Deluxe

Here’s a pretty unique one - a Bolt-on neck Horizon. Picked this up browsing Guitar Center’s listings for a fair price, and it has a really sweet arched top body shape with a great neck.

This also has a later iteration of the Sinclair bridge, ESP’s take on the Floyd Rose. These are great bridges, just as good as any OFR but with one major flaw - the saddles have offset screw holes and no one I can find makes replacement saddles. So don’t break one!

To make matters worse, the angular shape of the base plate on the Sinclair means a Floyd, Gotoh, or Edge trem will not just drop in - the body needs to be routed to fit a more squared-off base plate. I’ve seen too many hack-jobs over the years where someone tried to make a different bridge fit. I’m lucky and have a spare Sinclair bridge with 5 good saddles on it, so if I ever break one I have a few - but I understand most people who own these vintage ESP’s wouldn’t have access to that. If anyone happens to know a shop that can build a replica saddle based on a sample, please let me know and I’d be happy to supply some saddles from my spare to get it made… I’d love to keep this bridges alive into the future.



New Guitar: 1982 Kramer "The Pacer"

I have wanted a Kramer with the Rockinger bridge for a while. I know it’s an objectively inferior tremolo to a Floyd Rose, but since it was the original “Edward Van Halen Tremolo,” it has a certain value from a historical/collector’s standpoint - and that’s me.

I watched this one sit unsold for over a month, wondering when and if it would sell and at what price. Eventually it came down and I had to consider it - so I made a deal on it.

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Not only is this my first guitar with a Rockinger, but it’s also the first guitar I’ve owned with the traditional strat configuration of three single coil pickups. Most of the music I play calls for a humbucker in the bridge position, so this guitar won’t be the most versatile, but after playing it I have sorely been missing the positions 2 and 4 “quack” - and a split humbucker does not have the same snap that a true single coil has in this position for sure. Coupled with a clean amp, and occasionally switching on a light overdrive, there are so many great tones in this guitar.

The condition is excellent with only a couple of small dings - sadly the largest of which came from a loose screw inside the case during shipping. It also included the original warranty card, case keys, and inspection tag - very cool. Despite collecting tons of Kramers over the years, I’ve yet to get a set of these so that’s really cool to have.

New Video: Charvel Model 3A

Similarly to my BC Rich ST-III video, this guitar is now off to its new owner! Nothing like selling a guitar off that I will most likely never see again to put the pressure on to make a video!

I got this guitar years ago and it’s in truly superb condition. It was dusty and the truss cover still had the plastic on it! I imagine this guitar spent a lot of time sitting in someone’s closet or under the bed. I lowered the action a bit and really enjoyed playing it. The pickups are some of my favorites in the range and I find them to be very dynamic especially when paired with an amp without much compression.