Happy birthday to my Ibanez Artist Electric Guitar! She turned 40 this year. Here is a salt print of my favorite guitar. She has a lot of mileage and the wear and tear to prove it. However, she is just as sweet to play now as when I picked her up 39 years ago. I was the 2nd owner. My acquisition will remain private to protect innocent parties in my long forgotten past.
Her body is a sunburst maple with gold plated hardware. She is an AR300 model but has the tail of the AR 305. Not sure how that happened… She has a carved flame maple top. She has 3-way switches on the pickups for humbucher, single coil and reverse phase.
One notable thing about the Artist is the heaviest electric guitar I have ever played! Have to use a 4 inch wide strap to keep my shoulder from collapsing. This advantage is sustain forever and she stays in tune for months at a time.
She has gold hardware but the gold has taken a beating over the years due to my acetic personality and “hot” playing.
That is what is truly amazing to me. For 39 years I have been making music with this instrument. I am no “guitar hero” but can play good enough to please a crowd. I wonder how many thousands of songs have come out of her and how many (thousands?) people I have entertained over the years. Of course, probably been more than a few who have not enjoyed my music – Turn that down!!! But as the saying goes…
Those who loved me
Loved me well.
Those who didn’t
Can go to hell!
Read more about the Ibanez Artist AR300
