Cool Retro Ibanez 540 Graphic Guitars

[IbanezDaemon]

So some of you may have seen that graphic 540 Radius which is currently on the bay (top guitar in the list below) and has been up piles of times in fact but never any takers. Big bucks on it but it actually came from a series of about 80 1987 made Radius, Sabre and Power models. They are very rare, probably one offs, the seller on the bay states 1 of 12 but I doubt that's the case, it's also not a 90's model. Here are a few of them with more to follow:

 

[tedtan]

Were these Japan only models? A few of the finishes look similar, though different, to some of the USA custom shop finishes I've seen, but most are pretty unique.

 

[Daf57]

Wow! Those are so cool!

 

[Ironbird]

I tend to stay far away from graphic finishes, but some of these are super nice!

 

[IbanezDaemon]

Were these Japan only models? A few of the finishes look similar, though different, to some of the USA custom shop finishes I've seen, but most are pretty unique.

Probably. They were made in 1987 to be then sold in 1988 to celebrate Hoshino's 80th anniversary. A lot of people who worked on them were from the Nagoya Illustrators club. I'd say a lot of them ended up in the hands of employees and associates. You never see them popping up for sale.

 

[77zark77]

Cool ! Thanks for thr info

I knew the first one for being on the bay for a loooong time, as said, but I've never seen the others !

The "CF77" looks to have pyramids sticked on it ?

 

[tedtan]

Probably. They were made in 1987 to be then sold in 1988 to celebrate Hoshino's 80th anniversary. A lot of people who worked on them were from the Nagoya Illustrators club. I'd say a lot of them ended up in the hands of employees and associates. You never see them popping up for sale.

Yeah, this was definitely the first time I've seen them, except maybe that first one (CF84).

 

[ferret]

Really dig CF91 for some reason. The yellowed newspaper look works really well.

 

[ibanezgitarrero]

The 1988 Pro 540 Custom Collection is featured on a poster (I have a print of that). It dates to 1987 but the guitars were intended to be sold in 1988 to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Hoshino Gakki. It was the president himself, Joe Hoshino, who invited Japanese artists from within and outside the company to create unique designs for the Pro540 range of guitars, including all three types, namely Radius, Saber and Power. The Frankfurt Musikmesse trade show in the year 1988 featured a huge Ibanez booth with a guitar display shaped like a pyramid that held a total of 40 of these custom guitars.

Information on this series is extremely scarce on the interwebs. The poster is the number one source of information - it talks about the so-called "Ibanez Freedom Office" that approached a group of artists named "Nagoya Illustrators Club". This group was founded in 1973 and is still active today. I'm not familiar with the Japanese art scene, but if you are, you might recognize names such as Hideo Shimoda, Akio Taya or Takashi Kuwahara. Mr. Hoshino also came up with a number of eight designs of his own.

The guitars were made at Fujigen and given to the artists in an unfinished state, maybe with a primer coat. The poster features a total of 80 guitars, that's 56x Radius 540R, 16x Power 540P and 8x Saber 540S. It makes me wonder that the numbers go from CF1 to CF100 but there are large gaps in the numbering scheme and there is no pattern whatsoever. One possible explanation is that 100 designs were submitted and Hoshino's president selected 80 from that pool. In that case, the questions arises what happened to the remaining 20. Also it is unclear if each guitar is really unique in terms of a one-off, or if more than one copy of a design were made.

The designs are most diverse in looks and execution, the range goes from airbrush over other painting techniques to cloth applications, special effects finishes, engraving or even carving. The appearance can be either subtle and calm but also loud, colorful, visually striking, or it can be totally radical - there is even one covered with an artificial tiger fur. Many designs carry an Asian guiding theme such as Samurai warriors, or references to neon-style pop culture of the 80s. I suppose that most of the processed bodies came back to Fujigen to receive a clear coat, but others were left untouched after the artist finished them before final assembly and setup.

The vast majority of guitars was equipped, as shown on the poster, with IBZ USA pickups (OEM items from DiMarzio USA) in HSS configuration, plus two pots and three mini switches for pickup selection; this is pretty much the standard electronics as found on the 540 series as of 1987/1988. Three of the Powers have a lone bridge humbucker with a plastic cover (active? Low-Z?) and two of the Sabers have the triple-coil monster pickup with oversized bezel at the bridge. A Rosewood fretboard (possibly Ebony on some models) with small dots was very common, but there are 13 with Sharktooth inlays and white binding as well as 11 with Maple fretboard. Further statistical evaluation shows that 35 of the poster guitars feature black hardware, 22 gold, 11 chrome and 12 cosmo black.

So far I was able to track down only a small handful of CFs in real life or at least prove their existence through pictures. According to a trade show review published in "Fachblatt" 1988, about 40 guitars with graphic finishes were shown at the Ibanez booth during the Frankfurt Musikmesse in 1988. I found two pictures in other magazines from that time that show a few CFs. Also I was able to take pictures of different CFs at the Meinl Guitar Festival in 2009 when they were on display as part of the Meinl Ibanez Museum (Vintage Show) exhibition.

The CFs are out there somewhere - most without being recognized I would say. However, one found its way to me; the CF23, designed by a lady named Tsutomu So. I discovered it a few years ago in a private collection and was able to purchase it in February 2012.

Here are a few observations on the CF23:

• The surface is uneven. It is made up of multiple layers, i.e. a first course and almost clumpy brush strokes with some kind of oil paint, then a layer of gold glitter with burst effect, and finally small airbrushed flowers as an ornament and the signature "So". All that is covered by a clear coat that apparently was not wet-sanded and not polished.
• The back of the headstock, where normally a serial number sticker or decal is located, has but a small paper sticker with the hand-written marking "CF23".
• The neck heel says PRO-540S (sic!). And it's indeed a Saber neck with 43mm nut width and Wizard profile (instead of a 42mm width and Viper profile as a Radius neck should have). Maybe the neck was swapped or replaced.
• The neck pocket says 540, something Japanese and "CF13" (sic!).
• The trem studs are the original 1986 without the internal set screw that was introduced 1987.
• The spring cavity features a BackStop PowerPlay system.
• [IBZ Nerd mode] The string retainer features golden screws that is uncommon for Ibanez.

So if you guys happen to have pictures of CF guitars, please share them here!

 

[tedtan]

Wow, cool info ibanezgitarrero! And congratulations on a rare and killer guitar.

Is it just me or is that yellow headstock/neck at the top of the first picture covered in fake jizz? I guess that's to let us know we're supposed to bust a nut over these axes.

 

[TIBrent]

Oh dear lord, that CF98, DOES WANT!!!!!!!

 

[BigBaldIan]

Props to the OP for a blast from the past and ibanezgitarrero for one of the nicest 540s I've clapped eyes on.

 

[fortisursus]

Wow ibanezgitarrero the finish on your CF23 is unreal.

 

[77zark77]

Thanks a lot ibanezgitarrero

I'd like to "like" your post a hundred times but I can't

 

[IbanezDaemon]

Oh dear lord, that CF98, DOES WANT!!!!!!!

Here's a better pic of the CF98:

 

[ibanezgitarrero]

Thanks guys! I appreciate the positive feedback and the warm welcome on ss.org. Didn't want to hijack IbanezDaemon's thread, though.

 

[IbanezDaemon]

Thanks guys! I appreciate the positive feedback and the warm welcome on ss.org. Didn't want to hijack IbanezDaemon's thread, though.

No worries man. I got the info on these guitars from you in the first place anyway.

 

[ibanezgitarrero]

Here are actual pictures of some CF models that I took either at the Meinl Guitar Festival 2009 or the Ibanez Guitar Festival 2013. Both festivals featured an "Ibanez Vintage Show" with instruments from the "Meinl Guitar Archive" (a.k.a. Mr. Reinhold Meinl's personal guitar collection) and took place at the Meinl company premises in Gutenstetten, Germany. For those who don't know; the Meinl company is the German/European distributor of Ibanez and Tama products since the 1960s.

 

[77zark77]

What the hell is this ? :

 

[ibanezgitarrero]

What the hell is this ? :

It's getting off topic, but the guitar you are referring to is one of two protoypes, weird hybrids, let's say Ghostrider-meets-Artfield-meets-Roadstar-II style, that even the Hoshino guys have forgot about (they couldn't identify them when asked about). The theory is that these two (see pictures from the 2009 Meinl Guitar Festival) were shown at the Frankfurt Musikmesse trade show in the late 80s or early 90s and then stayed with Meinl ever since.