Ibanez Cimar

I tried to find out when it was made, to no avail. I estimate around '95. 1 volume, 1 tone. S/S/H pickup config, the mid single coil and the humbucker are stock pickups, but the neck single coil is from my friend's Fender Strat. Passive electronics. 21 frets. Maple neck and fingerboard, not sure what wood the body is. Standard tremolo. It's basically a Strat copy. Mine came with a free gig bag.

I play mostly rock, alternative, and punk, and it suits my playing style. I use it at home with a Fender Bullet Reverb (going to get a Fender Deluxe 112 later on), but I play over my friend's house on his huge 150 watt amp (I forget the brand). The stock pickup I had in the neck position sounded really flat and dull, but when I put the Fender pickup in it sounded much better, a lot more full. The mid single coil sounds real nice playing clean, it's not too full, not too bright. I use the humbucker when I'm playing something a little heavier than regular, almost always with distortion.

I bought this guitar used, and it was in pretty good shape. However, about two days after I got it the volume pot went bad and I had to get it replaced. After that I never had any more problems.

I'm not in a band and I don't plan to be in the near future, so I couldn't say how it would hold up live. It seems pretty sturdy, I've dropped it a couple times and it was unharmed. I'm probably going to get straplocks because the strap I have now falls off a lot (probably not because of the guitar, but the cheap-ass strap I bought). And I don't play gigs, I mostly just play for my own entertainment or just while hanging around other people. But if I did, I think I'd keep a backup no matter what guitar I had.

I've searched everywhere and no one seems to know that the Ibanez Cimar exists. Not even Ibanez. The warranty is probably expired, since I bought it used, if there even was one.

I've been playing for about a year and a half, and this is my second guitar. I don't own that much gear, because I usually borrow all the stuff I need from a friend of mine who has a ton of guitar stuff. If it were stolen, I probably wouldn't buy a new one, but it's still a decent guitar. I compared this one to a couple Squier strats and my friend's strat and it was better than the Squiers. I didn't have a lot of money to spend, so it was either this or a Squier strat, and this one came out on top. Another tone control would've been nice.