Cantaloupe Ibanez (!)

**grahambop** · 05-03-2021, 09:28 AM

I thought people might be interested to see this guitar in action, I’m not sure how many of these are around these days. It’s an Ibanez Artist 2619 which I bought new in 1978 (before my interest in jazz started). I wanted a double-cutaway solid guitar for rock, and this fitted the bill nicely at the time. The quality of build, finish and fittings is very good. It has coil-tap switches so you can switch either pickup from humbucker to single coil.

I don’t use it much now, but it can do jazz sounds quite well. Anyway, I decided to give it a rare video outing here, on Cantaloupe Island:

**TOMMO** · 05-03-2021, 09:48 AM

And it sure sounds great! I think that these are quite sought after these days and rightly so.

**kris** · 05-03-2021, 09:50 AM

Hi Grahambop,
Old Ibanez sounds very good ... and solo is even better over Cantaloupe/great jazz lines/.
Top over Virtual Jam.

Best
Kris

**grahambop** · 05-03-2021, 09:53 AM

Thanks all! Here is the same guitar in a more straight-ahead jazz setting. All I did here was roll the volume off a bit (tone is still full open) and pick a bit more gently.

**kris** · 05-03-2021, 12:09 PM

Originally Posted by grahambop

Thanks all! Here is the same guitar in a more straight-ahead jazz setting. All I did here was roll the volume off a bit (tone is still full open) and pick a bit more gently.

Great jazz sound!

**mr. beaumont** · 05-03-2021, 12:16 PM

Great sounding guitar...I always liked these...the one I got to try was quite heavy, but not ridiculous...As always, great playing.

**rpjazzguitar** · 05-03-2021, 01:23 PM

I remember that guitar. Sounds great. Always liked it.

**Ray175** · 05-03-2021, 02:26 PM

Great guitar. Those Super 80 tri-sound pickups were brighter and less hot than the super 70s on the earlier 1977 edition, but are great in a different way. In 1979 this axe was of course re-christened the AR300.
In 2016 Ibanez issued the MIJ Artist AR2619 Prestige which has specifications that are 95% to the original 2619 - I bought one and it' too is a great guitar for every style of music.

**wzpgsr** · 05-03-2021, 03:15 PM

There’s been one of these hanging in a local shop for a long time. You may have convinced me to take a closer look at it.

**Doctor Jeff** · 05-03-2021, 04:50 PM

From the headline, I was thinking this might be either a guitar in the shape of a melon, or possibly a kind of peach-orange colored guitar.

**Gitfiddler** · 05-03-2021, 05:39 PM

Great tone and playing on both of your recordings. Those old (and reissued) AR models are very nice guitars.

Back in the day Steve Miller played one similar to yours as an Ibanez endorsee. (You sound better IMHO). I've owned a few MIJ AR's over the years and they've all been stellar instruments. I think all of mine had wonderful sounding Super 58 pickups.