[Almost Enough]

Product:
1980 Ibanez Blazer

Price:
I actually acquired this through a lucky find at a garage sale. The man divorced his wife and forgot the music equipment in the garage, so I got three vintage guitars, a tube amp, and a vintage Cry Baby. I only paid $100 for the batch! However, I have done some work to the guitar, so, total, I would say I've put about $150 into this particular piece.

Experience:
I've been playing MUSIC for eleven years, the guitar in particular for seven years. I'm twenty now, and have yet to be in a band. My style is mainly chordal and rythmic, and I would say I am very accomplished at what I do (I'm a theory geek). However, I have been told I have slow fingers because of my inablity to effectively copy faster lead parts.

Features:
Except for a few new wires and a new jack, this is a stock 1980 Ibanez Blazer. Three passive single coil covered pickups, volume knob, tone knob, and polarity switch for center pickup. Maple neck, wood grain body, brass hardware, and a wood grain body.

Sound:
As said before, I am a very rythmic and chordal player. I like to concentrate a lot on my chordal tones. I use a lot of effects, including a Jekyll & Hyde, Flanger Hoax, Small Clone, and a DD-3, all through a Fender Bassman 50 and an Avatar Cab with Celestion Vintage 30's. This guitar drives my effects pretty well, though not like a set of humbuckers. The tone on the guitar is naturally very bright.
First position has a very full, but bright, tone. It's pretty bluesy, and drives the low ends of my amp a bit more than all the other pickups.
Second position is probably my favorite, because I like to play a lot of funk. Great Strat sound, even better than my MIM Strat (more about that later). This setting gets good low end along with those clean, crisp highs.
Second position with the polarity switch engaged is very high end and shrill. Sounds a lot like listening to bob marley on an old radio. Very cool built in effect (and very easy to install on any strat-style guitar). I use this for getting a "radio" type of sound, or when I really want some nasaly-trebly sounds. Imagine playing through a half-cocked wah, closer to the high end.
Third position has a nice chunky sound, and it actually drives my distortion the best. When using my effects, I spend most of my time on this pickup. Well balanced sound, and, depending on if my pickup is sinking in at the moment (more on that later), is a lot hotter than my other pickups. I can get my amp to get some good dirt with this one.
Fourth position has a very high pitched typical strat sound. This one is good for when I'm doing some playing that I want to at least half-way mimic an acoustic sound. This is similar to the Second position, but not as fat. Sometimes that's better!
Fourth position with the polarity switch engaged is like second position with the switch engaged, but a little more full sounding. I'm not quite sure why it works that way (my logic says that it should be the other way around, but I guess not).
Fifth position is like a very shrill strat. I normally have to play with the tone knob a bit on this one and find a sweet spot. It's a little to shrill for my taste when using distortion and other effects, but, just as with every setting on a guitar, I can always find it useful for something.
***All these above are my opinion through my amp with my strings and my effects and cables, etc. This is not how it sounds through every amp, or is it how it sounds to every person. This is pretty subjective, but it's about as objective as you can get. I love the way this guitar sounds, but I've worked it until I get the sound I want.
---All these settings above are with volume on 10 and the tone knob on 10. My amp is at farily low levels with the bass rolled back quite a bit.---

Playability:
I had my guitar set up by a local shop because it had been in a garage for five years. I also had the frets milled. The action is very low, so I naturally get some rattles when playing harder. The guitar plays smooth and the neck is the right width so that it doesn't hurt your hand, but it doesn't feel like you're going to snap the neck.

Reliability:
The guitar has brass hardware that is starting to corrode, but I like the way it looks, so I'm going to keep it how it is (until it gets too bad). I tend to be a little rough on my stuff, so naturally this is going to be a "worst-case-scenario" sort of reliability review. I have some dings and chips in it, but the guitar sounds much better than my 2000 MIM Fender Strat ever sounded, and deffinitely feels sturdier. My pickups sink in often, but that is due to some hardware failing. I'm not a fan of how the pickguard is the only thing protecting the electronics inside (I had a problem with the plastic pickguard cracking and breaking, so I replaced that small part). Overall, this is one of those guitars that you can use for years, and when it gets ugly, you throw stickers on it, but you just can't find the tones anywhere else.

Other:
Can't say much else. I love this guitar, and it loves me back. I use it weekly, and I actually prefer it to most Fenders. It's too bad they discontinued it. Oh, by the way, that polarity switch is one of the coolest features that I get commented on most. It's nice when you can change the timbre of your instrument so much that the musically un-trained people actually notice!

Overall:
This guitar can be used for ALMOST anything that you'd use a SSS style guitar for. It's great for my style. I have a "happy" style. I like that.