Anthony Garone

Specifications

There's not a whole lot of information available out there about this guitar, unfortunately, so I'm going to have to rely on my old memory. Though, Jemsite has an Ibanez Catalog archive with details about this model.

Here are some of the specs:

• Year: 1991 or 1992
• Color: Candy Apple (CA)
• Neck: 1 piece maple Wizard 1 neck
• Fingerboard: Maple
• Inlay: CA standard dots
• Body: Basswood
• Tremolo: Lo-Pro Edge
• Neck pickup: Ibanez S1 single-coil
• Bridge pickup: Ibanez HB2 humbucker
• Made in Japan!
• Neck thickness at nut: 17mm
• Neck thickness at 12th fret: 20mm
• Neck scale: 25.5"
• Neck width at nut: 43mm
• Neck width at 22nd fret: 56mm
• Neck radius: 430mm
• Pickup selector: 4-pole, 5-way switch
• Hardware color: Black

Guitar History

When I was 14 or 15, just starting out on electric guitar, I was borrowing a horrible piece of wood with strings on it from an uncle of mine. He was very kind to let me have at it for a few months, but since I practiced so much (I'd play for hours and hours every day), I began to quickly see its limitations. Back in the day, you could get Ibanez catalogs for free from your local music shop, so I picked one up and immediately fell in love with the body shape. Plus, Steve Vai and Joe Satriani played Ibanez, so I had to have one.

My birthday isn't that far away from Christmas, so in 1997, my parents decided that they would buy me a guitar for $300, but they couldn't go over that amount. I was incredibly happy about this, but I knew that the chances of getting a decent Ibanez for that price were pretty slim. My dad, being a musician, understood the value of a decent instrument, especially for someone who was playing so much. That was a great blessing. What wasn't a great blessing was the fact that my parents aren't millionaires and Ibanez guitars weren't going for cheap back then.

If I remember correctly, Dad and I went out two or three weekends in a row looking for an Ibanez guitar within the $300 budget, but we couldn't find any. One of the last guitar stores we went to, I think it was called Guitar Institute or something in Phoenix, had this guitar on the wall. It was in pristine condition and it kind of had that effect like in the movies where the choir starts chanting and a bright light is glowing from behind the guitar. Just out of curiosity, I asked how much it went for and the guy said, "I'll let you have it for $300." I'll never forget that. In fact, I still remember what the salesman looks like and if I ever see him again, I will thank him for the deal he made.

When I first got the guitar, I set up special lighting in my bedroom because the paint finish was so beautiful and the sides would be a different shade of red than the front. It really was such a beautiful guitar in its heyday. It still looks great now, but it'll never be the same as it was when I was a teenager. Plus, I think I had different eyes back then that saw things differently than I would now.

Because of the floating trem system, I had no idea how to change the strings on this guitar. My dad had never used one before, either, so I had to figure it out on my own. I think it took me about two hours to change the strings the first time I did it. I still remember that night, too. Writing all this is bringing back so many memories.

Since I didn't have an amplifier, I played this guitar primarily through my parents' old quadraphonic stereo receiver. Eventually, I bought an old Peavey amp from my friend Matt Bentz for $35. I don't know what I did with that amp, but I know I let someone borrow it.

I played the crap out of this guitar as a teenager. When I would get home, I would play until dinner time, eat, do my homework, then play until I fell asleep. Sometimes I would fall asleep on the floor with the guitar still strapped on my body and my hands wrapped around it. In fact, I still do that. My wife has to wake me up every now and then to take it from me. Some things never change.

Because Steve Vai had a white DiMarzio strap on his guitar, I had to get the same strap for mine. I didn't like the way it looked, but Steve had such a huge influence on me, I had to have the same thing. I ended up getting blood on that strap, somehow, and threw it in the washing machine to clean it up. The texture of the strap has not been the same since. Further, almost all of the plastic on that strap has cracked and I'm stunned that the thing still holds the guitar up.

All of the fretboard and fret wear is my doing, which adds to the coolness factor. I love love LOVE the super-thin neck, which apparently a lot of people don't like about the original Ibanez Wizard neck. Over the years, I've banged this guitar up pretty good. I've used it for many gigs, including:

• The 1998 Jethro Tull Convention in New York
• Countless junior high and high school jazz band shows
• Winning the 1998 Chandler talent show as "Best Instrumentalist" (I played "Day at the Beach" by Satriani)
• Playing my first song in front of Steve Vai
• Recording my first album, Hansel Vs. Gretel
• Recording my second album, Mytopia

The back of the headstock was signed by Steve Vai, though the last two letters in Steve's signature (the "a" and the "i") have slightly worn off due to that part of the neck rubbing against the lining in the case. Steve has played this guitar and I almost saved the strings that were on the guitar at the time. Thankfully, I did not because strings are dirty and smelly when they're used.

Currently, this guitar sits in the tuning I write my non-standard tuning songs in. That tuning is: DADF#AE (low to high). It's still a great guitar, though I think there's a problem with the pickup switch/pickup electronics. This guitar currently has .010 gauge strings on it. I don't use it very much, but I still admire how it looks in certain light.

2006-06-12 16:28:44

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