Electric Guitars

[roundtree]

I purchased this guitar the other day. This one has a burstbucker and seymore duncan pickup installed, and the wiring may have been reversed so that the secondary switch affects the bridge rather than the neck pickup. The guitar is in great condition for being 35 years old. It looks like it had a fret dressing recently, neck is straight as an arrow. One small complaint is that I wish the 1-5 frets still had some more height to them under the high strings - I like to bend a lot there, apparently so did its previous owner. Not terribly low but I suppose I should consider a refret within the next five years or so. Now before I tell you what I paid for this guitar, can any of you shed any light on what it may be worth?

[danswon]

Not sure if it's just me but no image is coming up

[allthumz]

I don't see anything either. The page isn't loading quickly.

I hope you paid nothing for that! ;-)

[roundtree]

Oops! I'll figure that out later, sorry guys

[roundtree]

There we go

[Pine Apple Slim]

No idea of the value but I like it!

[Marko]

I hope the answer you get makes you happy, but at least you’ve got a gorgeous guitar. 

[roundtree]

I know, I love it. The sounds I am getting out of this through my ac15 are amazing. Going from an epiphone dot to this, makes the dot sound like a plywood toy. I love the pickup combo and doubt I'll be changing anything - except putting a pair of nickel covers over them to complete the look.

The feel of this guitar is top of the line. I haven't played many gibsons, except the cheaper ones they leave low enough to touch at guitar center. They never jumped out to me when I touched them, they felt like my epiphone did, maybe a little better neck feeling but not that much. I haven't played a 3000+ dollar es-335 but this is what I'd want it to feel like. The feel of the neck, binding, fret ends in my hand is amazing. Neck shape is perfect. The guitar feels very solid and the attention to detail in the binding and finish are great. The sound is clear and articulate and ballsy, and the extra coil tapping or phase switch, whichever it is I'm not entirely sure yet, adds a whole new dimension of quacky and totally unique sounds to the arsenal. 

I saw one of these sell on ebay for 1750 or something like that. But it still had the flying fingers pickups, original pickguard, gold tailpiece...This one's been modified a bit. It also has a gold  piece labled "kaleo" seemingly super-glued or epoxied to the finish between the pickups, which I'm not too happy about, but will learn to live with... Since it probably looks better than whatever the finish would look like underneath if I found a way to take it off. 

I saw another sell on ebay for 800 or so. It was in pretty bad shape; chunks of binding missing, pretty beat up.

Is ebay even a fair or accurate way to gauge the value of these instruments?

Apparently these are somewhat rare, they only made them for a couple years before switching to the smaller, slightly pointier-horned body style, I belive this may have been the last year, or '79. Anyway I'm pretty happy with it regardless of what it is worth, as I'm sure it will only go up in value over time. 

[Surf90]

I have a '78 2630 that I have owned for 20 years. Great guitar.  It is the predecessor to the AS200.  I believe the stock Ibanez Tri-sound switch affected the bridge p.u. only for out-of-phase and coil cut.  Value is tough to estimate because there are not a lot out there.  About $2K is the most I have seen and always over $1K if the guitar's condition is not a big issue.

[roundtree]

Thanks surf90. Could you clear up my confusion with the switching by any chance? IE what position combinations do what? I hear the biggest difference when the pickup selector is in the middle and the little switch is up - sounds outta phasey. But when just on the bridge pickup o hear little difference with the little switch. Does phase/coil tapping depend on the other switch as well?

There seems to be no change when on only the neck pickup, which seems right.

[roundtree]

Also, the tri sound switch only has two positions, but I read that there should be three?

BTW, I paid 850

[Surf90]

My 2630 does not have the stock pu's and tri switch installed although I have all of the stock parts.  It seems the Tri switch affected the neck pu.  Yes I believe it should be 3 positions: one for coil cut, one for pu in series and one for out of phase.  Check the link below:

http://www.chucke.com/guitars/2630/Ibanez-2630.asp

Under $1K seems like a great deal today.

[Surf90]

Sorry, it would be helpful if I actually had my guitar wired stock... but there may not be an out of phase position.  From some research it appears to be neck pu in parallel.

[benzem]

Great deal. Leaves you some room to refret.

All orig they go for around 2-2.5k. Yours about 1500.

I have an '81 AS200 that is stellar.

Enjoy! Great find/taste in guitars.

[benzem]

Oh and ya mine has 3 pos. Is it still called the trisound?

[roundtree]

Yeah I don't know what the deal is, mine only has two positions, maybe it was replaced, if so I'm really not sure what it does. But I suppose knowing what it sounds like and when to use it is what's most important.

I think the choice of p'up replacements was a good one - burstbucker neck and seymour-Duncan bridge. Not sure which model the Duncan is, and the burstbucker could be anything for all I can tell. But the sound is amazing

[roundtree]

Now that's what it's supposed to look like.

[humbuckerstrat]

Nice axe 

[Marko]

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roundtree wrote:

...

It also has a gold  piece labled "kaleo" seemingly super-glued or epoxied to the finish between the pickups, which I'm not too happy about, but will learn to live with... Since it probably looks better than whatever the finish would look like underneath if I found a way to take it off. 

---

I’d remove it, then get a small plaque with my name,or maybe even a name you decide to give the guitar,

or just a cool design on it and put that in its place. 

Again, gorgeous guitar. 

[tyleresco]

Do you want to sell it? I can make you a good offer.