… but I had such a good deal with this guitar that I couldn’t miss the opportunity.
I started being interested in this kind of design since Squier reissued the Toronado in its Paranormal series, based on an old Fender model discontinued in '06.
And I found out that Ibanez gave such a design a chance in 2012 with the Roadcore Series and in particular with this mid-tier model: the RC320.
While searching some information about it, I found a listing of a guy selling one not far from where I live. It was a really, really good bargain so I ended up buying it.
The guitar is a distillate of features from all the most iconic guitars manufactured in the last century: it has a mahogany body and humbuckers like a Les Paul or a PRS, an offset shape like a Jazzmaster/Jaguar, a 648mm scale and a bolt on maple neck with rosewood board like a Stratocaster, but with a flat radius and the crazy low action only Ibanez can make.
And as an upgrade, the previous owner installed a couple of Blues Engines pickups, that have a very apt name given the warm tones they produce.
I have in mind over the next months to upgrade the electronics and since the humbuckers are splittable, add a push/push potentiometer to experiment with an alternative configuration. I’ll try to post some pictures of the job.
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“To be honest I didn’t need a new guitar…”
The number of guitars one needs is n+1 where n=the number of guitars you currently own.
Really cool! Never seen this ibanez before.
Ibanez are some of the best bang-for-your-buck guitars out there. Love their necks.
One always needs more guitars 🎸
I had the Chris Miller (?) signature model that was similar to this. Nice guitar.
The one with the P90 in the neck position? I saw that one and it’s really cool
Good idea to go for push-push over push pull. I have them on different guitars and push-push is quicker and easier.
I haven’t found any manufacturers that do push-push with triple pole double throw, though.
I also put a free-way pup selector on a strat copy, which is an alternative to switchable pots. https://sixstringsupplies.co.uk/collections/guitar-switches/brand_free-way
I think I’m going to use this one from Allparts and I’ll follow this scheme here:
This way both the coils are splitted with one push: it’s a little less versatile but it’s less of a pain in the ass doing the wiringYes, that shouldn’t be too bad.
I went nuts and did humbucker coil splits, out of phase and serial (on an HH with 2 vols & 2 tones). The coil split doesn’t really sound all that much like single coil to me. Just a bit quieter. The series switching sounds good (fuller, brighter?) If you use crocodile clips, or temporary connectors (e.g. Wago clips) you might be able to try different re-wire options before committing to soldering.
I used Bourne https://www.bourns.com/docs/product-datasheets/PDB183-GTR.pdf which look similar to yours. The terminal pins were pretty small and hard to work with. The CTS ones are supposed to be easier, but I don’t think that they do push-push.
Have fun
The coil split doesn’t really sound all that much like single coil to me. Just a bit quieter.
I think that’s something that depends heavily on how the pickup is made.
Pretty much agreeing with the rest.
How much does it weigh?
I don’t have a scale, but I think it’s a little more than 5 kilos: it’s not a light guitar
Damn, this is super awesome 🤩 glad you didn’t pass up on this!
