1983 Ibanez Artist

[ch willie]

Worked my bum off at a trashy convenience store for six months in 1981 to buy an Ibanez Artist.

It was beautiful and sounded wonderful. I swore I'd always keep it.

I sold it to buy a girl a ring. She preferred getting ringed by several other guys.

I had no guitar, no girl, and no ring.

Last year, I bought an Ibanez and I love it as much as the one that got away--I mean the guitar, not the girl who got multiple ringings.

Licks are rough because I have arthritis and wish I could buy new hands. Maybe if I sold a girlfriend....

 

[Señor Verde]

Sounded nice man! I had an '86 AR300 and an '86 AS80. Those old Japanese Ibanez sounded great. Although, both mine were prohibitively heavy and had very slim-taperish necks. They looked and sounded great though. Congrats on the score!

 

[ch willie]

Thanks SV. I replaced the harness with 57 wiring. The pickups are the original Japanese ones, so they're different but equally great.

I'd say the Artist is at least a hearty 11lbs+. I don't gig much anymore, so I won't be slinging it around my neck, and I have much lighter guitars for live gigs.

I'm pretty much in love with it. It's easy on my hands.

 

[Winkyplayer]

Loved those Ibanez guitars as a teenager. Seriously thought about buying one from that time period just recently. They're not giving away the late 70s/ Early 80s models, though.

 

[Brian Krashpad]

Congrats! A late friend of mine had an old Artist as his main gigging guitar for years.

 

[jb_abides]

I've got an 81. Took some time to find a lefty.

Really dug it since a childhood friend had one, back in the 80s!

Also was always after one following the magazine articles, just never could find a lefty so my first electric was a MIJ 62 Reissue Tele. There are worse things.

I'd still love to get a lefty AR300... they are out there but rare.

 

[ch willie]

I think I remember that ad. If not, i saw similar. Mine has different stock pickups. I hadn't expected the guitar to sound this great, nice surprise. It's moving up the list to the top five of my six strings.

 

[jb_abides]

Super 70s with the stamped covers and older script logo.

 

[jb_abides]

Super 58 with pole pieces

 

[jb_abides]

en français

 

[ch willie]

Heyyyyy. Thanks for these.

 

[Wilko]

I had the hollow version. Long before Gibson was making the 339.




Had a lovely Iceman too. 1978 sunburst

 

[jb_abides]

You righties have all the fun...

 

[ch willie]

I'm so glad that you guys know how great these guitars are. I was getting it out of nostalgia, not because I thought it'd be worth a shart. Now it's a serious contender. It sounds good clean or dirty. I just turned 60. Wish I'd found one like this 10 years ago. But maybe I'll get 10 years out of it....

 

[Wilko]

 

[deytookerjaabs]

I had two many years ago. The first was a 335-esque style, the second was the solid body but it had a built in distortion circuit. Well built guitars at the very least though they had binding crumble issues.

 

[ch willie]

Stop that, Wilco. I've just bought an Explorer bass and have a sixer Explorer on it's way. I don't NEED Iceman GAS.

It is beautiful, really beautiful. Did it play well?

 

[Wilko]

Stop that, Wilco. I've just bought an Explorer bass and have a sixer Explorer on it's way. I don't NEED Iceman GAS.

It is beautiful, really beautiful. Did it play well?

It was a lovely instrument. Very well built and set up great. Sold it a few years back. Being a ‘78 that was pre “Iceman”. Was an artist model IC-300.

Past on one with the weird three coil single pickup and never forgave myself so when o saw this i snatched it up.

A bit too pointy for me so I let it go to a good home.

 

[ch willie]

I wasn't into pointy ones til I traded a crappy bass for a Jackson Kelly Bird. I've always loved Explorers, but now I'm hooked on them.. I play 0 metal, and am off playing rock and pop at the moment too. Just playing originals, jazz, and classical. Pointy basses sound great with that stuff.

 

[brandtkronholm]

Super 70s with the stamped covers and older script logo.

Dang, I love the look of these, especially the violin/amber/tobacco style sunburst finish.
I'd love a 24-fret model with the Butterfly pickup-covers, just like the one pictured in this ad.
However, I've not found one that had a neck I found comfortable enough to justify the purchase.
Dang.

These things still have great bang-for-thre-buck!
Thanks for posting the old advertisements!