[wabisabied]

Anybody have an informed opinion about the Ibanez ST300? There’s one on my local CL for $600 and it’s got me interested. I’ve been watching for a vintage MC series, and this ST popped up. Any info appreciated, thanks!

[lbpesq]

I really can’t offer any advice on the ST-300 as I’ve never played one. But I did lust for a Musician for many years ... until I got one. The neck was a baseball bat!

Bill, tgo

[PurpleTrails]

Tried one in a shop decades ago. It was heavy and I didn't like the neck, but I can't really remember why.

[HeadSpace]

They are indeed heavy, but actually they are significantly closer to, say, Tiger than the more popular Ibanez Musician is. Main similarities are that they are set-neck (not bolt-on or through-neck, like the Musicians), and a 25.5" scale with 22 frets. Musicians are shorter scale. The Studios are very Jerry in many respects and are unfairly overlooked. The Musicians are nice guitars, but not especially close to anything Jerry played (for more than one or two shows), despite their popularity among Jerry players, which is based, honestly, mostly on their looks, rather than any actual suitability.

[wabisabied]

Thanks for the insights, everybody. Good to know about the possibly fat neck.

HeadSpace, I wasn’t real sure about the neck being through body or set. It looks like a through body neck, but descriptions I’ve read, including yours, say otherwise. The 25.5” scale is appealing to me, as are the 24 frets (by my count from the picture in the listing.)

Also according to the listing, it has an “Upgraded dual tone knob” and “Upgraded Lace Sensor humbuckers.”

Not sure what the tone knob does that’s special. It looks like it has an outer ring and inner knob that turn independently and it’s where I would expect the volume knob to be. There are two other tone knobs where they usually are. Maybe it splits volume control for each pickup independently…?

And as for the Lace Sensor humbuckers, anyone know anything about those? My Strat has Lace Sensors, and I like them just fine, but they’re not humbuckers.

[tdcrjeff]

HeadSpace, I wasn’t real sure about the neck being through body or set. It looks like a through body neck, but descriptions I’ve read, including yours, say otherwise.

The way the body is laminated it kinda looks like a neck-thru, but in a photo like this you can see the heel joint.

[wabisabied]

The way the body is laminated it kinda looks like a neck-thru, but in a photo like this you can see the heel joint.

Cool thanks!

[HeadSpace]

You're right: 24 frets it is, that's what I meant, but my mistake. It's a truly epic fingerboard with lots of room...

[space]

I have one
They are not nearly as heavy as an MC
the neck is imo a dream to play
its a very well balanced guitar
its only drawback is the electronics
the PU's are ibbys version of super dist (V2 great PU's otherwise)
but the active electronics dont allow for turning up the low end
active off= vol only control
active on= treb and mids adjustment
Ive often toyed w the idea of turning mine into a passive Vol+tone+tone as i think it would enjoy be more useful
T

[greeenstate]

I recently just bought one of these. Neck is wide but fairly slim. Seems to play rather nice. Nut width is 1 23/32 (43.7mm) which is slightly wider then my fender, and quite a bit wider then my Gibson.

Electronics are kind of fucked so I need to tweak and fix that but will report back on how it all pans out. The plan is to Wolf-ify it with a couple dimarzios or DAllen pickups….

[broesau]

$600. Buy that thing. I had a ST200, really liked it, but sometimes the EQ board can go bad. Caps dry out, but I think you can buy a replacement board online somewhere.