"THE ARTIST"

A great many of the designs to come out of the Japan Custom Shop for this project have been primarily centered around the RG, its offshoots, and other modern Ibanez instruments. However, our luthiers in Japan also felt it was important to include several Ibanez “legacy models,” one of these being the Artist series. Of the many renowned solid body Ibanez guitars manufactured over the years, the Artist is probably the one most clearly recognized as the archetypal traditional solid body electric offering from Ibanez. It’s gone through many different iterations and been produced at a number of price points, but this one-off custom was modeled after one of the most high-end designs from this line, the AR5000. This model was a limited run guitar produced from 1980 to 1982, and this new design serves as a faithful reproduction of the original. The central features of the instrument are a Mahogany body, Maple neck, and Ebony fretboard with period-correct nickel silver frets, paired with a specialized 3-band active EQ and a stunning Mother of Pearl floral pattern that runs the entire span of the fretboard up onto the headstock. The finish also features a light relic to reinforce the historical nature of this model. This guitar represents an extremely rare opportunity to add a modern iteration of an Ibanez classic to their own collection of instruments.