Ibanez AF155-AA with mystery pickups

[zenreso]

Hi -
Long timer lurker, finally a registered member and first time poster.

I recently purchased a new Ibanez AF155-AA from an Ebay retailer. When the guitar arrived I noticed that the pups did not have the typical S58-N or S58-B stamped on the pickup covers. I wondered if they were the Super 58 Custom pickups that were supposed to ship with the Artstar guitars or the lower grade ACH pickups. I removed the pickups to check and to my delight discovered this guitar shipped with Super 58's! The guitar also plays and feels better than the AF155 whiskey burst I played a short time ago and that was a nice guitar. I just didn't like the whiskey burst finish and passed on that one. Now I'm glad I did.

Has anyone else ended up with an AF155 shipped with Super 58's? Just wondering if I got some one-off from the factory when someone was having an exceptionally good day.

I've always liked the Super 58 Customs, but REALLY like the full sweet tone of these Super 58's.

[M-ster]

We're gonna need photos and audio clips, please!

[Para]

That's probably a new model for this year it's not listed on the UK website if it has Super 58's that's a bonus enjoy it.

[ArchtopHeaven]

i agree with para probably a new model spek

[palindrome]

I recently dedided that the whole thing is really bastante confusing:

EDIT (English version)

Search results - super 58 - MEINL Shop

[peterbright]

The Super 58's are good PU's...enjoy them.

[GNAPPI]

I have an AF100 (with the lightning bolt head) and it has S58's and I think that all models from 100 up always shipped with them. The ACH were IIRC on everything else.

[TOMMO]

Ibanez recently upgraded their lower and midrange models from ACH to Super 58 pickups.

[zenreso]

It's an AF155-AA-12-02. I'll post some pics and a couple of sound clips when I figure out how to do that.

[zenreso]

I'm really liking this AF155 with the Super 58's. I played one solo gig with it so far and a few friends familiar with my music and sound commented about how much they liked the sound of the guitar. I'm running it through an AER Compact 60/3.

I'm at the beginning of a nice n steep learning curve for jazz guitar, but find this guitar is working great for my general playing style. Very versatile.

The pups are warm, fat, and articulate.

[palindrome]

Re the link I posted the other day, I have grasped now that the Custom 58s are a well-defined category after all.

But what I




still don't get is this:

[GNAPPI]

Re the link I posted the other day, I have grasped now that the Custom 58s are a well-defined category after all.

But what I




still don't get is this:

Odd, even the same part number. Recently I was in a big chain store that had a large sale sign over an item that read:

PRICE REDUCTION -

WAS - $19.99
NOW - $19.98

Holy cow! A one cent saving! I made my kid go away from me making believe he didn't know me because I started saying (loudly)...

WOW, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT A ONE CENT SAVING! AND TO THINK IF WE HAD COME TOMORROW WE WOULD HAVE MISSED THIS!!! WHAT LUCK!!!

A nearby employee looked at the sign, and noticed commotion I made and laughed apparently they never even noticed the "markdown" till I pointed it out! :-)

EBAY sellers have the above strategy too. Often you see something a lot higher from the same vendor, I guess they think you'll run to get the cheaper one because it's probably a mistake in pricing?

[Falling_leaves]

Totally confuse me....

Super58, Super 58 custom, S58, Super 58 humbucker for Signature, AR AS???? AF?

WTF.....

[palindrome]

On second thoughts, the older Super 58s used to have two screws on one side for left/right tilt adjustment, right?

Perhaps this is the point about a specific version for AF/AS120s (assuming that the mistake may really be in the photos, which sort of look suspicously identical).

Still wouldn't explain the large price difference.

(GNAPPI, the part numbers are not identical.)

[GNAPPI]

On second thoughts, the older Super 58s used to have two screws on one side for left/right tilt adjustment, right?

Perhaps this is the point about a specific version for AF/AS120s (assuming that the mistake may really be in the photos, which sort of look suspicously identical).

Still wouldn't explain the large price difference.

(GNAPPI, the part numbers are not identical.)

Yeah, noticed that but I wasn't wearing my glasses when I wrote it :-)

[Para]

I can't be dead sure but I think the George Benson Super 58 is a slightly hotter version and the Pat Metheny Super 58 is a silent version (whatever that is, perhaps you can't hear it ) with a wider response but they are just listed as a Super 58s as far as I can tell.

[palindrome]

Actually, the Silent 58 ist a defined (and considerably more expensive) category of its own:




And the Benson models seem to be fitted with the 90€ pickups I have already posted (even though the assignments given for the neck/bridge versions are not conspicious by excessive consistency):

3PU1J158G1 For models: AR2000/AS200/AM200/PM100/GB200
3PU1J158G2 For models: AR2000,AR3000,AS200,GB200,JSM100,LGB300


So I'm still trapped:

[BigMikeinNJ]

​I think the ads are misleading, like the ones you see on eBay, a set of Super 58s for less that $200.00, sometimes WAY less. Reading the fine print you see they're out of a AS103 or something like that, in other words they're Super 58 Customs. Gotta look very carefully if the seller provides photos. Do you see the stamp in the lower right hand corner of the cover, that's a Super 58 Custom...

Well the good old Super 58 that came out in 1982 has really only had one change, and that is it no longer has the two adjustment screws on the left (boo hop as that made it pretty easy to say Yeah Super 58).

All these MIC AS103s, the AF155s and so on with mounted in the top hum buckers, those are the Super 58 Customs. They are quite nice pickups for the money. You find a used AS103 with the stamped hum buckers you are getting a nice guitar but guys let's be real - a set of Super 58's (not customs) sell for about $300.00, whereas you can get new sets of the Super 58 Customs for about $120.00 a set. As to whether the pickups in the George Benson GB200 are different than the ones in the top end Pat Metheny models, I don't know. The LGB30 uses a Super 58 Custom, part of why the price is just $1000.00 retail. Not knocking them, know a lot of guys that bought AS103s or AF105s and other models MIC with the intention of yanking the pickups and after playing them found a way to dial in just the tone they wanted...

Me I'm a dyed in the wool Super 58 guy, those, the Duncan Seth Lovers and the Gibson Classic 57s are what this old boy likes...

[palindrome]

No, I didn't even include the Customs in my pics, as I had been able to identify these as a defined category.

Here goes:

Neck (3PU1H58NG)For models: AF105BM,AF105SM,AF105,AF125,AF151,AF155,AFJ95,AK10 0,AK105SM,AM103BM, AM93,ARC500,ARX500,AS103BM,AS103L,AS103SM,AS103,AS 93,AWD102,PM2,PM35,SJ500,SS500



Bridge (3PU1H58BG)
For models: AF105BM/AF105SM/AF105/AF125/AF155/AFJ95/AK100/AK105SM/AM103BM/AM93/
ARC500/ARX500/AS103BM/AS103L/AS103SM/AS103/AS153/AS93/AWD102/SJ500/SS500

[palindrome]

​The LGB30 uses a Super 58 Custom, part of why the price is just $1000.00 retail.

OK, but given the prices for both picksups, this part of the reason should really be negligible.

This one may be a whole lot more important:

[BigMikeinNJ]

I don't know what site you are pulling these photos from but it seems to me they're crazy off on a lot of stuff. That tailpiece is remarkably like many used on lower priced Ibanez arch tops and there's no way it's 612euros... GO look on american ebay, or better yet, look on the Ibanez website. Try that... You'll see many parts for sale, Super 58 pickups, bet that tailpiece is about $175.00 American tops, if that much.

Seems like their pictures are impossible to blow up to really scope out what you're buying and they're prices are all over the map. Stick with buying from Ibanez. In the U.S. you would go to an authorized Ibanez distributor, like Guitar Center. Go to the counter armed with the part number from Ibanez's website, and have a clerk order the part(s). I did that when needing a new set of pearl handled velve tuners for my old GB10... Clerk ordered them, I plunked down a deposit, got a call about a week later that they were in. Got a break on the final price too because Guitar Center was having one of their regular sales. Know many an Ibanez collector that were able to get pickups, pick guards, tuners, ect. to restore their guitars with.

As an exercise try this go to Ibanez's website


www.ibanez.com

select your country and the Ibanez site for your country will appear, up in Support, select PARTS and then enter the year made and model. In no time I found the GB200 and the pickups and tailpiece were readily available. You get the part numbers and that is what you go to your local Ibanez dealer with. Ibanez changed things, they no longer list the prices. My best guess is the Super 58 will cost you the equivalent of about $170.00 each, maybe a little more in certain countries, and get the part number for the tailpiece, I'd bet ya a home made pizza it's no 612 euros (I'm better know for my deep dish Chicago style pizza than I am my personality, lol)...

Anyway it's been nice chatting with ya, check out the Ibanez site. Any of you guys looking to dress up your Ibby hopefully you find the parts you want there. I only needed one velve tuner but boy not being able to tune the low E string is a real B*tch.

[Para]

I have an LGB300 with Super 58s, an AF200 with Super 58s and an LGB30 with Super 58 Customs and they all sound different the LGB300 sounds slightly hotter than the AF200 not so smooth and the LGB30 sounds a bit hotter than the LGB300, not surprising as the Super 58 Customs are alnico 5 magnets and the Super 58's are alnico 3, I keep meaning to meter the pickups in the LGB300 and AF200 and see if they have the same output but I keep forgetting to do it. On the Ibanez UK site the parts do not list all those pickups and one Super 58 has been discontinued.

[palindrome]

Big Mike, I agree that the 600€ price tag on the GB tailpiece is totally absurd. I didn't really take it seriously as I was posting it.

I guess this is simply a boo-boo by meinlshop.de, as are the identical pics for different pickups. On the whole, however, the items or prices listed them are not unrealistic. I have ordered items from them in the past and really can't complain.

I've also been aware of the Ibanez support site but really can't be bothered to take the time to check all item numbers and prices against each other (hence my haphazard posting of pics; the whole thing would really take a few cups of strong coffee and a spreadsheet study to assemble all those bits and pieces of information from various sources.

Ibanez is an incredible company. I guess it's their policy to keep everybody puzzling and involved in endless circular discussions about pickups and suchlike ;-)

[MoCee]

Re the link I posted the other day, I have grasped now that the Custom 58s are a well-defined category after all.

But what I




still don't get is this:

Ibanez uses codes for their three types, including "subtypes" of Super 58s. I got this info straight from the Ibanez sales rep who knows his Super 58s. If the serial numbers have a "J", they are Japanese, with the exception of the 4 wire Japanese S58s, which have a serial number as follows: 3PU00A0005 or 3PU00A0006 - still MIJ S58s, just 4 wire. The serial numbers: 3PU1J158G1, for example, are two wire and more expensive than the 4 wire - he said because these are the pups installed in the MIJ Signature series for Benson, Scofield, Metheny, etc. Now the C in a S58 serial number does not mean China, it indicates Korea. Which leave us with the Chinese S58s which have various part numbers such as 3PUS58N4GDG.

[drcraigmjones]

Plus the fretboard is ebony on the 2014 I purchased, a truly beautiful guitar!