One for the Ibanez lovers

[Ringo]

First year of production, pre-lawsuit Japanese Ibanez Les Paul copy sold in the U.S.A. under the brand name Penco. It is equipped with Super 80 "Flying Fingers" pickups and Gotoh "star" tuners. It came originally with Maxon pickups, which in and of themselves are fantastic, but I found a set of the Ibanez "Holy Grail" pickups, the Super 80's, and installed those (Ibanez just reissued the Super 80 pickups for some of their high end instruments; the 80 designation does NOT mean 1980's.) I also replaced the stock tuners with the "star" Gotohs. Otherwise it is stock. It is the best guitar I have ever played. Better than a real Les Paul of the same time period and worth over $1,000. I got it for $289. These "pre-lawsuit" guitars are appreciating FAST because they are great. A lot of them were made by Ibanez and sold under various brand names. Those are the ones to look out for. Also look for Tokai Japanese guitars. They are also getting to be quite valuable and they play great. I'd keep away from Hondos and Corts unless very reasonably priced.

[Ringo]

Oh yeah I put Straploks on it, all of my guitars have Straploks.

[mannish]

I had an Ibanez Lawsuit ES175 maay years ago one of the best I ever owned

I have an ESP made kramer strat awesome guitar

I had a Tokai Strat but let it go

I ain't opposed to a japanese Hondo or Cort

I think some of the USA makers slipped in quality during that time and Japanese makers were knocking them out of the park

Tokai, Edwards, Burny...etc better than their american counterparts