Ibanez 440 SII

Japanese quality with a beautiful satin finish on a solid, archtop mahogany, thinline strat-o-form body, Gotoh tuners, medium frets, rosewood fret board, wicked neck - built for shredding, three pu's two singles and and a humbucker.

This guitar sounds so sweet. I'd love to here it through active pickups. It's no wonder that Steve Vai plays Ibanez. I play through an old Ampeg V4 head with a Marshall stack. It's LOUD! The S/S/H config makes this guitar really versatile, but I tend to use the humbucker the most - full and rich sounding. I can get it to twirp, too - very versatile.

Action is low, which is amazing if you were to see the neck. The guitar was well set-up, although this was probably done after sale. Everything was perfect.

This guitar has withstood live playing. Only complaint is it sometimes, when played hard, can detune a bit. Otherwise, for a thin guitar she really is a solid axe - very high quality craftmanship. No wonder everyone wants to buy everything Japanese these days.

Never dealt with Ibanez, and this guitar has seen it's share of winters.

I've been playing 15 years and I would never part with this guitar. I learned my chords on it. I've never played a neck so fast. I love the way it looks - the solid arch top; the way it sounds - especially the humbucker. I'm missing the trem, and that's a bummer. I can't really compare this to a Fender - it would be like comparing a club to a sword - different means to the same end. The Fender's got thick curves. The Ibanez is sleek and allows me to do amazing things that I couldn't ever due on a thicker neck. I love this guitar. If it were lost or stolen, well, I'm sure I would never find another one like it.

Japanese made, probably around 1990. 22 frets on a rosewood fret-board. Maple neck, mahogany body (I guess). Super-fast action on the neck. The pickups are custom EMGs; 2 silver-label single coils and a gold-label double coil. They sound great, crystal clean, which I like. Solid blue strat-style body, but it's so thin. The active pickups make it sound much bigger. Gotoh tuners with a strat-style bridge. It came with a hard-shell case.

I play rock, and I have yet to even approach the multitude of sound options this guitar offers. I use a 1970's 70W Fender Pro Reverb amp, and the sound is amazing - it just sings, no buzz, no hum, just really sweet, bright sound. The EMGs are a custom feature, and maybe if it weren't played through tubes it wouldn't sound as nice, but this is neither the time nor the place for that type of speculation.

No problems with the fit or finish, except for some slight oxidation on the neck plate. I bought the guitar used, but it's in excellent shape.

It better withstand live playing, because I just sold my backup to pay the rent. I think it will, or else I'll be standing there with somebody's Epiphone Dot trying not to fall over. No gigging yet, but I have confidence in it. It's small, but sturdy.

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I love this guitar. I've also owned an Ibanez RG220B, a really solid guitar that I recently sacrificed to make ends meet. Now that's a great guitar for the price. Of course, I have no regrets with keeping the 440 SII. I love the fact that it's compact yet solid, and you just don't see a lot of them out there. The EMGs add a more familiar dimension to the sound. You know what I wish I had? A little piece of ass right now, but I'll have to settle for a box of Kraft dinner and some music of my making. Gets me through the weekend at any rate.

This Japan Ibanez 440 SII has a very close resemblence to the S 540. It has the same thin Maghonie body and thin maple neck wit a very fine rosewood fingerboard with Jumbo frets. It got very good Gotoh tunners as well,with some kind of string lock system. I got the 1990 Model of the 440 SII.
it has 22 frets and the normal scale lengt arm the body is Maghonie with a very shiny thick Prolly nightblack gloss finish. there are two single coal pick ups (type S1) in the neck and middle position and one tappered (fat strat type)coal at the bridge position (type V2). there is a 5 way selector for these pick ups. The guiter has a very nice trem bridge (not the Floyd Rose type) but just as good and not as complicated.
I bought it second hand some 8 years ago from a good friend who sold it in order to get a Gibson SG (He was short on 425 $, so thats the price I paid) and I got it with a Gibson Gig Bag.

I bought the guitar because I needed a good guitar at the time. It suited my music style perfect. I was playing in a metal kind of band back then. I always used it with a Sovtek MiG 100 on a Marshall vintage 1960 ties 4x10" cabinet and later on a Marshall JCM 900 lead 1960 4x12" cabinet which made it even sound better.
The sound range of this guitar is incredible, from nice clean Jazzy sounds to the loudest Hardcore/Metal sound you can imangine!
It's got a very, very fast arm, sometimes to fast. I like the unique settings of the trem bridge, you can lower the action so low without buzzing. It plays best with a 0.10 set of strings, heavier strings make the guitar less verstaile.

The guitar was set up very good at the Ibanez factory. I only lowered the action just recently. There were no flaws when I purchased this guitar, and there aren't any now, appart from the usual dings and dangs from extensivly using it over the 8 last years.
The hardware oxidized a bit, but nothing that couldn't be removed with a cleaning soloution. I wish all my guitars ware made as good as this one. I only had the jack replaced after 7 years, all the other harware is still original. Ibanez used top quality materials in this one!

I gigged this guitar many,many times over the years. I only had a problem with the A and D strings that easily broke, but once I added an extra spring onto the trem system it never happened again.
The strap buttons are very well made with a broad ring at the end, I never dropped the guitar by accident while playing.
I can depent on this AXE for sure, it has NEVER let me down.
I gigged this guitar a lot without any backup, and when I brought a back-up I never needed it. Solid as a rock!

I never dealth with Ibanez, never needed too.

Well this guitar made me a better player over the last 8 years. I play now for about 12 and only had very crappy guitars (like Squier's) before. Since I played the guitar a few times before I bought it from my friend, I knew how good it was and what a bargain it was buying it from him. I use mostly my Fender Jazzmaster these days, which isn't as good as the 440 SII. I also have a customized Bellwood SG with Jazzmaster hardware and a couple of other guitars. I don't use the Ibanez often, since I play mostly surf music these days, but I can't part from it, nor sell it. If it were stolen I wouldn't get a new one (these babies were only produced from 1990 to '93) but I would be devestated.
I would like to thank Scott from VWall Guitars for his help in dating the guitar.