Ibanez 1982 Roadstar II Series Reviews 
4 / 5 based on 1 reviewsI found this guitar at Music-Go-Round in Bellevue, WA about 3 years ago. I paid about $280. I had a few main attraction to the guitar that initially inspired the purchase. First of all were the unique looks, the shape is kind of that of a mix between the standard paul reed smith shape and of a carved top Japanese super strat. The guitar has a pretty good looking cherry burst over a birds eye maple top and a rosewood fretboard which also look nice. Furhtermore I was attracted to the bridge becasue it is an original design, its not just some bolt on fender or gibson rip off. Instead it is a nice, smooth unit that feels good to rest your wrist on.
Over the years the thing I've come to appreciate most about this instrument is its quality and feel. It does not buzz at all and the action is nice and low the way I like it so i can play a little faster. Also it has good quality sealed tuners that do a good job keeping it in tune. I've appreciated as well, the quality of the electronics, every other guitar for this kind of price that I've seen ended up with electronics problems but this one, at about 4 times the age of all the others is still running strong and true.
I really only have a couple of gripes about the guitar, one is that it flops way out of tune as soon as u go to use the tremelo and the other is that the sound is a bit thin coming from the generic humbuckers that I imagine they put on to keep the price low. I also suspect that the body is not made of a solid piece of wood, its made of some laminate i think because the back is painted over while the front is exposed due to the sunburst and because of this I think you can kind of hear noticably less sustain.
Quality I think is this instruments forte, it is by no means a tonemaster but its entry level accoutrements and low budget have come out to make a solid satisfying instrument that has lasted 20 years while staying in perfect shape. The feels awesome and has just enough finsish on it to make it look nice with out slowign me down and the electronics have been completemly unproblematic.
This is no U.S.A. made Strat or Les Paul sound-wise but I think it is an example of Japanese imports at some of their best. I've had many guitars in the sub $700 range such as a squire stratocastor for about $150 and an Epiphone LP for about $500 and I would easily say this guitar has been far superior in sound, feel, quality and looks. If you come across one and you are looking for a good budget guitar, give it some serious consideration, I've sure enjoyed mine.
macdady176@aol.com rated this unit
on
2002-06-11.
