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Electric · Iceman / Paul Stanley

1979 Ibanez Iceman PS-10

1979 Ibanez Iceman PS-10 — black body in case, cream binding, chrome pickups and cloud tailpiece

About this instrument

I'm no fan of Ibanez guitars. I've owned a few of them and every one, with the exception of the original PS-10, has been made using inferior materials and workmanship. Ibanez also has had a shady past. In the 1970s they were sued numerous times for largely making forgeries of Gibson guitars. They even advertised a guitar model as "Korina" when it was really only Korina color and made of poplar wood.

In the 1970's Ibanez wanted to have a design that would be all their own - something that would help them to break away from their tarnished image. That design was the Iceman. Ibanez landed Paul Stanley of Kiss fame as a top tier endorsement artist and came up with their own Iceman PS-10 model in 1978. Limited quantities were produced for three years. Now these are collector items but not because it is a good guitar.

Ibanez still used crappy pickups, bridges & tuners on this thing. It easily goes out of tune. The previous owner had the guitar modified with a Kahler locking tremolo and Seymour Duncan pickups. Even so, the sound produced is mediocre at best. The guitar feels as though it is high quality but sound says otherwise. Imagine how crappy the woods must be to make this hardware combination sound un-great. The guitar is unforgivably heavy too - weighing in at an unholy 14 pounds. But it does look really cool.

Specs

  • Body & neckMahogany
  • TopMaple
  • FretboardEbony
  • PickupsSeymour Duncan (modified)
  • BridgeKahler tremolo (modified)
  • NutBrass
  • Weight~14 lbs
  • SerialC795509
  • Build materials & quality7
  • Sound6
  • Playability6
  • Appearance10
  • Overall design5

Personal instrument — not for sale.