Ibanez Destroyer

not sure what year this guitar is, its a ibanez from japan, its 22 frets, the guitar is great !! its approx 18 years old and still plays like NEW. i would never buy any other guitar !!!

it sounds really good!!!!!

everything is great

The most reliable guitar i have ever seen !! pretty heavy though

great!

These guitars are great ! they sound good. and verry reliable !!! i wouldnt recomend a guitar more then this one!!

OK well to make a point right away I don't own this guitar, but I played one...an original issue Destroyer, so I'm told (1972??). It is a friend's guitar but I just wanted to give some unbiased info on the guitar without rating it, considering there is so little info on it in the database. I can't even be sure what type of woods were used on the guitar, but it does have a nice cherry sunburst finish on what appears to be a maple top. Dual humbucking pickups with somewhat moderate output and a tune-o-matic/stopbar bridge.

I have many styles, but this being a dual-humbucking guitar I was looking for a raunchy blues rock sound. It seems as if everything I play somehow goes back to this sound. Strange as it sounds, I can be playing a punk/emo song and it will quickly turn into a Led-Zep lick-fest. I played through a Crate Blue Voodoo head and two side-by-side cabs. Though I have never been a huge Crate fan, as I let the gain increase the crunch from these pickups was all I needed to jam on everything from Lynyrd Skynyrd to Radiohead and back. The clean sound was decent, better than most Gibsons I have played. Needless to say, it failed miserably on Pink Floyd songs but this guitar isn't an active strat, afterall. This sound was better suited toward hotter blues rhythm. (I use a lot of minor 7ths with hammerons and pulloffs).
Very usuable sound overall, but not the tone to stop at.

I don't even know how the guitar has been modified as far as setup goes, but it did take some getting used to as far as the neck goes (it's quite thick and heavy). Perhaps it's unfair to be saying this so just keep in mind that it was designed to be like a Gibson...it is NOTHING LIKE the modern Ibanez Wizard, Wizard II, Wizard 10,000 or whatever other fast necks they have now. The finish, as I stated, is quite attractive in a simple and understated manner.

It's damn old and in great shape.

Never dealt with Ibanez, but I do own an Ibanez acoustic and will soon be purchasing an S-series electric so we'll wait and see...

This is a 1977 Ibanez Destroyer purchased new in August of '77 for $350 w/hardshell case. I am the only owner. The body is made of Alder, I beleive, but is finished in amber like the original Korina Gibson Explorer of 1958. There were two Super 70's humbucking pickups originally, and I changed the bridge pickup to a Dimarzio Super Distortion way back in 79. I'm on my second one of those now. There is a volume for each pickup, but only one tone control. No big deal for me, I always leave tone control wide open anyway. It's been refretted once, with medium jumbo frets. The neck is the absolute greatest ever on any guitar I've ever played in 36 years! Any other guitar I buy will have the neck planed down like this one. Tapered and thin, but wide accross the fretboard. Just a fantastic neck! Gibson has never made one this great. The only reason I give it a nine is just because the Gibson style pickup configuration does not lend itself to too many variations in sound. But qualitywise, this thing blew Gibson out of the water, thats why they sued them over it.

Geez, this is a hard question. I formed my sound around this guitar, so I guess it fits me perfectly, but I know it isn't for everyone. With the Dimarzio it is fat with tons of midrange and medium bottom end, and medium high end. But I usually eq some extra highs into it. I use a Line 6 AX2/212 with it, and I can get an amazing variety of sounds, but you can't make it sound like a Strat :-) It's Gibson sounding all the way. I guess the sound is limited, but it suits me just fine...another 9.

Guitar was created by some talented people way back then. You know, I don't care if something is handmade or whipped out by some machine, as long as the end result is good. This thing is just the best guitar I've ever played. It's all banged up from 22 years of road work, but it's still my baby. I've played many Gibson Explorers, and none can even touch this Ibanez in quality or sound. If Ibanez ever re-issues these, I'll buy a dozen of them...SERIOUS! Are you listening Ibanez?

Totally dependable, it has 22 years of hard gigging on it and shows no signs of giving up the ghost yet. Only reason I use a backup is because I put a Kahler on it in the 80's and it likes to eat strings.

Never had to deal with them, they made a perfect ( dare I say that ?) guitar as far as I'm concerned.

I really butchered this beautiful guitar back in the 80's by routing out the top for a third pickup like a Gibson Black Beauty, and I had a Kahler added, which added another hole in the body. Worst mistake I ever made. I have been playing for 36 years and I've seen alot of guitars come and go. I used to use a 55 Les Paul as a backup for this guitar. I sold it because it couldn't hold a candle to the Destroyer. Did I mention the balance? Maybe this is a big reason for the Destroyer/ Explorer success over the years. They are the most balanced guitars I've ever played. That weird shape wasn't just an exercise in art. It was designed ( thank you Ted McCarty ) with balance in mind. If you've never played one of these guitars, pick one up and strap it on....they feel great! I will buy as many of these as my pocketbook will allow, but for now, it's just me and her. I couldn't do without her, wouldn't trade it for anything. If they would let me rate it at 11 I would. So anybody reading this who has one for sale, drop me a line. These things are now going for $600-$1000 bucks, and are still a great value. Check out my website if you wanna see pictures of my baby. http://www.geocities.com/sunsetstrip/studio/9035/index.html

Gibson Exployer (exact copy) with a much more playable neck. Solid Korona Wood with a thru neck, Two Super 70 Humbuckers, Master Volume, Two Tone controls and a three way switch on a white pickguard. The neck was a work of Art, Very smooth and fast. It also sounded good acousticly ( a good test for any electric)

Standard Ibanez pickups and hardware of the time were all replaced. Seymour Duncan Custom in Bridge, Bill Lawrence L350 in Neck. A brief period with a Bill Lawrence L500 in bridge before SD. Machine heads (tuners) were Schaller. Bridge and sadle remained original. The solid wood and straight thru neck combined with the duncan gave it a great sound.

Perfectly set up when I bought it second hand. Ibanez were allegedly sued by Gibson over building this guitar. Again the neck was better than the Exployer (in my opinion), thinner, better contour.

I had this guitar fully checked out before and after a tour or every 3 months for harmonics,action connections etc.

It was stolen after a tour and I would buy another but only as a collectors item not for stage. It was a great guitar for the early 80's. I would be interested to know the neck size and contour if anybody has one or knows the info. Also fret sizes etc. Please e-mail me at any time.