Grateful Dead Music Forum

I've been learning a lot about the Ibanez Musician as a potential Jerry guitar, thanks to this forum. I've never played one and would be reluctant to buy used without playing it first (such as an eBay guitar). I wondered how they feel, especially the frets. I saw one eBay auction advertising the frets as "huge," and that's a turnoff to me. I have a SG which sounds good but the frets are like speedbumps--they stick out so much. I can't get good runs without my fingers tripping over them. Does the Musician have high frets like this?

Jef

I'd say they are more like Fender's medium/jumbo. They are nothing like Gibsons.

I agree the frets are pretty good. Pretty close to a standard fender. The necks are nice and not too fat. I love v-necks however the musicians neck is a bit on the thin/wide side but very easy to play (very slightly curved fretboard as opposed to some flat fenders) but still far better in my opinion then les pauls. One thing that only bothers me just a bit about them is even though its great that they are true 24 fret guitars, the second octave frets seem to be closer together than on other guitars within the same scale. You really have to try one first if possible. Or try to get a beater for under $300 and just fix it up. In my opinion the 82's are the best. I really don't care for the older ones shape wise although they feel similar. The 82s have a very cool curve about them whereas the 78-79 etc.. are not carved tops or at least seem flatter. The horns loo]k great as well. I picked up my 82 for $325 it was red. I was going to attempt a refinish and upgrade myself until I found AO Guitars in Freeport, ME. If you have a beater Musician and want to Jerry it up maybe contact him. Very cool stuff.

Where ya at, Jef? Maybe someone here has one you could try out...

Chuckles wrote:Where ya at, Jef? Maybe someone here has one you could try out...

Central Illinois. I missed a chance to try a Chicago-area Musician a month or two ago, but that's a couple hours away. Anyone from downstate have a Musician?

Raising,
Did your MC have coil tapping?
It would have been thru the tone pots.
T

Also, What is the first 3 characters of the serial number?
If you dont mind
T

Jeff- I just picked up a beater Musician off ebay. I play strats and didn't have much of a problem getting used to bigger frets. Steel bends are easier for me on the Musician also. I was nervous about buying something used on-line and it turned out alright. Im going to start putting together a parts list for what i want to have done to it. Now after getting one i wish I would have spent more and got a mint one ! I still might do that ....hmmmmmm

The mint MC500s and 550s I've seen are stunning, but I'm not sure I want to go that high. I want at least a 300 for coil tapping though. I'm not in a hurry, so I'll wait til something nice comes around.

# G82....

82 Musicians had push pull volume knobs for coil tapping (at least on the lower end models, MC150). (Note sure if that is even the correct term) Basically it sounded more like a strat when you pushed or pulled up the tone knob. (always get the terms messed up)

Mine modded one has Series/Split/Parallel, one of them is way hotter (Series maybe?), I just call that the overdrive or boost setting. The split sounds like Jerry (in the middle) and the other (Parallel?) is like a regular humbucker guitar (less output kinda).

So funny about these as just 2 years ago I saw these guitars all over the place at great low prices. Ever since I started reading more on here they have gone way up. If I had purchased any other model I would never modify it as they seem to go up in value. The MC150-200 as said here before makes a great guitar to modify.

Raising,
thanks for the info.
The reason I asked is your guitar may have been intended as a MC350
The 150 had a mahogany body.
the 350 had the ash.
In 81 the 350 came in FR color with ash body
In 82 the 150 came in FR color with mahogany body

T