Ibanez 2020

It was made in Japan, in the end of 60's or the beginning of the 70's. Has two fat single pickups and a big tremolo arm. The body is made of hardwood, I don't know what it means...but it's about 3,5 kg.

I like jazz, classic rock, britpop music, so that's the perfect guitar fro me. Sounds and feels like an old Fender Jazmmaster. The neck pickup has warm fat tone so it's great for jazz and the bridge pickup...is exatly what you need for surf music!!!! Coool!!!

Low action and very comfortable neck!!! I tried a lot of guitars, but only a Gibson from the 60's was more comfortable...

I had to change the pickup selector and the volume potmeter, but now it's reliable.

I've been plyaing for 15 years now. I also owned an Ibanez 320fm, but i did'nt like it, cos that's mostly made for metal. I also have an olda Framus jazzguitar, a Squier Strat and a Levin acoustic guitar. I use them with a Farfise alltube 40W amp made in 1962. The Ibanez with the Farfisa has the real vintage sound, I love it. The Ibanez is my main concert guitar. This guitar is perfect, who want something special and who likes vintage guitars.

Early 1970's strat-like guitar. 21 or so frets, with a nifty "zero" fret at the nut. Solid wood, with a black/red/orange sunburst - the only colour available. Even the neck is sunburst on the back. The 3-switch toggles between the two large jazzmaster-like single coil pickups. The bridge is fantastic - there is a little roller for each string so that the string-loaded tremolo bar does not affect the tuning at all.

The jazzmaster-like pickups and smooth, subtle tremolo bar make this ideal for surf music. I played it in a surf band for years. I have no idea why anyone would want this to play Black Sabbath. I have a 1971 SG and it doesn't sound anything like the 2020. With clean electronics and frsh strings it sounds beautiful.

I bought it in poor condition. It was no problem for me to clean it up and adjust it. The workmaship is generally good. It is over thirty years old and it still sounds new. There is no rust on it and the frets are all still ok.

This guitar is a tank. The strap buttons were almost useless, since the are just barely more than curved pegs. I replaced them with some buttons that would hold on to the strap better.

Playing since 1986. I own an old gibson sg, old fender mustang bass, old Ibanez artist, old fender vibrolux, some old nylon string guitars. The 2020 is my most unique guitar. I repainted it the same colour as an old orange volkswagon. It is similar in sound and feeling to an old jazzmaster or jaguar, without the price or the arrogance. It has an old retro-style Ibanez logo on the headstock which I love. I don't have much old japanese stuff but I can see why some people are attracted to it. It is my favourite guitar, and also the least expensive. I would buy another one in a heartbeat if ever I saw another.

This is just an update to the review, with some more info.

The kind folks at the Ibanez vintage pages were able to tell me that this guitar (Ibanez "2020" from 1970) was a copy of a Mosrite guitar, like the one that Johny Ramone used, but with a different headpiece. But back in 1970, the oriental copy models were rarely designed to work and sound like their models, they were mainly designed to *look* like the real thing (well, that is still true of many Korean copy models). So, not having used a genuine Mosrite, I cannot really tell how this compares to one.

I have also replaced the dead (well, semi-dead) neck pickup with a new humbucker. I took the old pickup apart to see what it was like, and as suggested by the position of the pole pieces, it was indeed a single-coil pickup, despite the PAF-imitation cover. Yeah, I know this kind of "faking" was also very customary in the oriental guitars of the era. No prob, with the new humbucker I can now get some very nice, full and dark blues sounds in the neck position, making it one of my best Blues guitars (next to a Gibson LP).

As for the bridge PU (which is still an original single-coil with a fake "PAF" cover), I have discovered -- to my surprise! -- that with the proper amp setup, it can give me Tony Iommi's *exact* live sound from the Live Evil album (and with different amp setups, I can also get his earlier live sounds, like "Live At Last", for example). With some other guitars, especially with a Les Paul, I can get kind of close, but not quite. (I haven't got a Gibson SG, though.) The similarity is so great that whenever I listen to Live Evil now, my brain goes like, "Hey! He's playing *my* guitar!" Kind of spooky, eh?

I bought this guitar for the weird looks more than anything else back in 1989. It's Japanese make (simply called "2020" in the catalogue), and I've heard it's supposed to be a copy model - of who knows what, it does not look like a Stratocaster to me. (Does anybody know?) You can see a photo of the guitar on the Ibanez vintage page: http://www.break-even.org/ibz70/imagesibanez/ImDLa/laO2020203.JPG (it's the one on the left, of course; the other one is a bass) or http://www.break-even.org/ibzscans/1970/70-1.jpg (1970 catalogue scan).

22 frets, as for the other components, your guess is as good as mine (see the Ibanez vintage page scans).

For the period, quite ok; but hopelessly obsolete technology by today's standards. Locking tuners, active pickups? HA! In your dreams!

This thing definitely sounds *nothing* like a Fender Strat. The bridge pickup (the only pickup that works, see below) has a very powerful intake but produces an amount of noise. As for the quality of sound, it is full, dark and heavy rather than bright and piercing. In fact, it is quite good for reproducing Tony Iommi's guitar sound on the early Sabbath albums.
There is also a characteristic "dustiness" in the sound of the guitar. Just like an old gramophone record.

The guitar is about as old as I am. You bet I have no idea what it was like when it was new!

The guitar was in a rather sorry condition when I found it. The neck pickup was dead (and still is, I haven't got around to repairing/rewiring it), and there were various little pieces missing. I haven't found replacements for all of them.

The action was frustratingly high, making the highest frets painful to use. I have tried to lower the action, and the guitar plays a lot more smoothly now.

I like the feel of the neck, it is very friendly to my fingers (compared to many modern guitars).

The vibrato bart of this guitar, btw, can be twisted up AND down, but its limited movement doesn't compare with the modern Floyd Roses. Besides, you'll go out of tune just like Jimi...

Obviously not immortal, since it had been heavily abused when I found it. But in my use, it has proved to be quite reliable. Of course I'm not gigging with this piece of museum gear.

I occasionally play this guitar when I want to achieve a somewhat antiquated sound. Any modern guitar will sound WAY too clinical for 1950s-1960s Blues or R&R, or early Black Sabbath, or Jimi Hendrix (you get the picture). This guitar doesn't, I'll give it that!

But as I said, the tech of this thing is hopelessly obsolete. Modern guitars make playing stuff so much easier. I have this guitar mostly for the curiosity value; most of the time I use modern guitars.

For the price, though, not bad at all. I'd rather have this than the basic cheap modern Strato clone, any day!