Ibanez 2395

I believe this guitar was made in 1974-1976 in Japan. I don't have the guitar anymore so I don't know the exact date of my guitar. It was given to me as a gift by my uncle in 1988. I have no idea what he paid for it, but I sold it in 1997 for $300, including the case.

22 fret neck, bolted on, and seemed to be a maple fretboard with large black squares for odd and 12th frets instead of inlay. Headstock is black with the old Ibanez logo (which looks like the old Gibson logo from a distance). The headstock also looks like a Gibson headstock. This apparently was one of the reasons the Norlin Group, parent company of Gibson at the time, sued Ibanez.

It's a blonde semi-hollow body guitar built in the same style as the ES-335 with a few differences. Namely a 5-way chicken-beak switch as well as a two-way toggle, all somewhat clustered around the 4 volume and tone knobs and lower f-hole. Additionally, the output jack was near this cluster instead of on the side/round of the guitar like Gibson's guitars. The result was that too much bending of the cord would eventually lend itself to cracking the surface of the guitar, loosening of the jack itself and maybe even breaking out/off of the guitar. When my uncle gave the guitar to me, it had already started to crack around the jack. This is just poor design.

The guitar was incredibly light. I was almost convinced it was made of balsa wood. Because it was so light, the guitar seemed to be very flexible. The neck was easily bendible (and bolted on), so much so that it was very hard to keep the guitar in tune. There was always creaking and barking coming from the guitar as I moved it around. The feedback was tremendous. Very little structural bracing of any kind.

If I remember how I handled the guitar, I would say it probably weighed about 5/8ths of what a Gibson 335 weighed.

It had black binding, front and rear. Bridge was tune-o-matic style with a trapeze which rarely stayed in one place (bolted on with one screw if I recall).

Cannot remember what type of tuners.

Here's a picture: http://www.ibanezwiki.com/download/attachments/131350/13.JPG

The sound was great. Two humbuckers on a super light semi-hollow body guitar. You had all the fat neck pickup sounds, chimey bell tones and crunch that a Gibson ES-335 gives you. But without the sustain and way more feedback. You also had more settings since it had a 5-way chicken-beak selector as well as a 2-way toggle. I have no idea what each one did, but my guess is that you could split the humbuckers, or maybe adjust phasing or something. All I know is that you had a lot of control over the tone.

Action was good with size 9 or 10 strings, but because the guitar felt so flexible due to the construction and sub-standard fit and finish, it often felt like playing a rubber band. I think I had tried putting size 11 strings on there at one time, and the neck was just bending too much so I went back to 10. I even hired someone to give the guitar a bit of a tune up and do some expert intonation and I think the guy gave up. I think had I known as much about guitars then as I do now, I would have been able to work on it more and learn to play around its insufficiencies.

I really don't think this is a live guitar. You will break the output jack off of the guitar, crack the surface of the box, and will have hard time staying in tune. However, it probably is a great guitar to experiment with tones and stuff for recording. In fact, even as it may sound like I've been dismissing this guitar in my review, I actually regret selling it back in 1997 or thereabouts for $300. I had simply run out of patience and needed a guitar that I could play in a band with. Now I play in my bedroom mostly, and I bet I would have a ton of fun with this guitar.

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I have been playing since 1986. I was in my 2nd year of playing when I got the guitar. I sold it after I got frustrated with trying to use it in band situations about 10 years later. I wouldn't count on this guitar to be a workhorse or go-to guitar. However, for a collector, this guitar is a great addition. And if you like to noodle, this guitar has incredibly wonderful ranges of sounds. This guitar is what it is and nothing more. It's an early Ibanez attempt at copying the Gibson 335 cheaply.