1985 Ibanez AM-75, Artist Stage Master

This is a 1985 Ibanez AM-75, Artist Stage Master, semi-hollow body electric guitar. As the back of the neck says, "Crafted in Japan". You can see that the serial number is A850171. The tuners which are also clearly visible are Ibanez Smooth Tuner II and are as good or better than USA Grover Rotomatics.

This is one of only 2 or 3 guitars that I have ever bought - used or new - that I have not changed out hardware. Usually, I swap out pickups and tuners, at least, but not on this baby! Well, ok, maybe a little cosmetic change... like swapping out the black tone/volume knobs (as shown in the pictures) for knurled, stainless steel Tele-style knobs - it's just looks so much better next to the stainless steel bridge. For you purists, I have stored away the original knobs.

The pickups are passive humbuckers but with a different twist that I'll get to shortly. They are black and have the Ibanez name on them. In fact, the pickups are IBZ pickups which were a collaboration between Dimarzio and Ibanez.

With 3 toggle switches in addition to the regular complement 3-way pickup selector and volume/tone controls, the humbucker pickups are specially wired for single coil taps as well as parallel configuration, yielding tones that ranges from a Gibson Les Paul to a Fender Stratocaster and some very interesting in-between sounds.

The 3 toggle switches appear to be a factory installed option.

Interestingly enough, there is hardly any volume loss which each pickup setting. Of course, this might have something to the pickups weighing in at about 13k ohms each in humbucker mode.

Another interesting twist is the stock, Ibanez Pro Rock'r, double locking tremelo on the guitar as you can see to the left and right. I did not show the tremelo arm, but it is glossy black as well. You can dive bomb to your heart's content and it stays in tune. According to a page from Ibanez's 1985 catalog (500K JPG), the Pro Rock'r bridge assembly, "makes accidental mistunings a thing of the past".

Also note the 3 toggle switches that offer the wide range of tone I mentioned previously.

The bridge is massive, well-constructed, and easy to disassemble.

The guitar provides serviceable jazz tone when set to the neck pickup (ala Les Paul), but where this guitar really shines is with an overdriven amp; Oooo-wwweeee, what a blues and R&R machine!

The guitar weighs less than a Gibson Les Paul as it is semi-hollow with a large piece of solid mahogany from stem to stern. Even so, it is about 1/3 heavier than my Epiphone Joe Pass. Keep in mind that the AM-75 is a small bodied ES style guitar measuring less than 13.5" wide at the lower bout.

The string lock, known as an Ibanez Top Lok II, is visible to the left. This completes the double locking tremelo mechanism. You can choose to use or not use the string lock. if you choose to use it, then you will end up using the fine tuners on the bridge to tune up. No worry as the fine tuners work very, very well!

The binding and finish are in remarkable shape. The binding is complete and flawless, having aged to a gorgeous yellowish creme color. The finish has a few scratches, but nothing through the finish and you really have to look hard to find them. Again a great testimony to the Japanese state of guitar building in the 80's.

The action is a low 2/32" at the 17th fret. There is no - zero - fret buzzing! The frets are in near perfect shape as is the rosewood slab fingerboard. Not bad after 15 years,huh?

All the hardware is corrosion free which I understand is not the norm.

According to the previous owner, I have the original case, but I did not take any pictures of it.

If interested, click on the thumbnail of this page from Ibanez's 1985 catalog to get more of an idea of where the AM-75 fit in to Ibanez's line back in the 80's. Please note that the picture is over 500K bytes.

Ibanez 1985 Catalog Click to enlarge

Many of you non-Ibaneezers may not be aware of the Ibanez underground collector's market. Over the years, Ibanez has spawned its own culture of collectors and admirers. Here are a couple links to get you started:

• Collector's Discussion Board
• Ibanez History
• Ibanez Vintage site