Hi folks,
My holiday present to myself was an Ibanez AW-60, built in Owari Asahi, Japan. I'm so excited about this wonderful dread. Maybe you guys don't know this, but after the copycat stage in the late '70s (the lawsuit era), Hoshino (Ibanez / Tama parent) introduced the Artwood series as Ibanez's finest lutherie products. In my opinion, these might've been the best acoustics to ever come out of Japan, possibly only rivaled by the Kazuo Yairi-build Alvarezs.
Anyway, this AW-60 was the humblest of the first series Artwood, built between 1979 and 1981. But, like its bretheren, it has no plastic on it. It's all mahogany with a satin-finish Sitka spruce top (the higher Artwoods had gloss-finish German spruce). It has a wooden pickguard, which was a signature of the first series.
I guess I'm also excited because the fellow I bought it from was only listing locally in the Chicago-area Craig's list and wouldn't ship. For $100, I think I scored big time! There are some serious cracks in this guitar, but they've been stabilized with humidity, and the guitar sounds really wonderful!
Before stringing 'er up with D'addario PBs:
Nicely bound (purfled?) heel, yeah the button is plastic on the AW-60. Shame. :
Look at the gorgeous grain on this major honkin' chunk of Ebony fingerboard!:
The -60 joins its 12-string brother, the AW-75, which incidentally I bought new in New York in 1981. Yes, I'm attached to Ibanez guitars!
My holiday present to myself was an Ibanez AW-60, built in Owari Asahi, Japan. I'm so excited about this wonderful dread. Maybe you guys don't know this, but after the copycat stage in the late '70s (the lawsuit era), Hoshino (Ibanez / Tama parent) introduced the Artwood series as Ibanez's finest lutherie products. In my opinion, these might've been the best acoustics to ever come out of Japan, possibly only rivaled by the Kazuo Yairi-build Alvarezs.
Anyway, this AW-60 was the humblest of the first series Artwood, built between 1979 and 1981. But, like its bretheren, it has no plastic on it. It's all mahogany with a satin-finish Sitka spruce top (the higher Artwoods had gloss-finish German spruce). It has a wooden pickguard, which was a signature of the first series.
I guess I'm also excited because the fellow I bought it from was only listing locally in the Chicago-area Craig's list and wouldn't ship. For $100, I think I scored big time! There are some serious cracks in this guitar, but they've been stabilized with humidity, and the guitar sounds really wonderful!
Before stringing 'er up with D'addario PBs:
Nicely bound (purfled?) heel, yeah the button is plastic on the AW-60. Shame. :
Look at the gorgeous grain on this major honkin' chunk of Ebony fingerboard!:
The -60 joins its 12-string brother, the AW-75, which incidentally I bought new in New York in 1981. Yes, I'm attached to Ibanez guitars!