Every guitar I own but one was purchased at an independent music store (aka a mom-and-pop shoppe). This did not occur out of some quiet protest against the mega-chain music stores that have changed the face of our industry almost as much as the mp3. It was simply because independents were the only choice for over 100 miles. To be truthful, since the Guitar Center chain became to the music industry what Starbucks is to the coffee industry, I’ve had the privilege of buying my instruments straight from the factory. So I haven’t needed the chains much. I’d do well to remember that as I write about the last of the independents. Still, I didn’t support the ‘enemy’ in this week’s column, it supported me…

-Rewind-

My first electric guitar was, as I’ve mentioned previously, a Japanese knockoff of a Fender Stratocaster. It was purchased at a mom-and-pop by my mom and pop. I was so proud to wear that guitar—at first. If the shape of a guitar is modeled after the shape of the classic female (and it is), the Strat is Ann Margaret covered in paint (look her up…), or maybe Julie Newmar in her Catwoman suit. I’m using superbabe vixens from the ’60s and ’70s for a reason—it is during this time that the Strat became imprinted on the American pop psyche, so the guitar archetype deserves a female metaphor from the same era.

I was a kid who could barely play when I got my Strat knockoff, and the guitar seemed huge. Because it was poorly made, it was no joy to play. But its tobacco sunburst finish and white pickguard looked like a real rock ‘n’ roll guitar. This was a time when cheap knockoffs began to take hold in the States. Like most knockoffs of any product, they looked great but performed awfully. I swear that for years after playing this guitar I suffered from Obsessive Compulsive Tuning-on-Stage Disorder.

My main axe (squeeze, thunderwand) was purchased in 1988. It was also made in Japan, but it wasn’t a knockoff. It was an original, and an early edition at that. The guitar was an Ibanez Saber. This would be my third Ibanez, and my best.

Since it was the ’80s, Ibanez, being popular with the original shredder set, was enjoying much success in the market. It didn’t hurt that Gibson as a company was suffering, and Fender was in flux, outsourcing their name to cheap guitars with the classic Fender look and the cheesy Squier sound. The Saber was somewhat revolutionary when it came out, and has since become a part of Ibanez’s core catalog. Its double cutaway was definitely Strat inspired, but it looked faster, and was, which is partly why I bought it. When I purchased my Ibanez Saber, it was thinner, lighter, and more contoured than any other well-made electric guitar out there. Ultra-thin and aerodynamic was how Ibanez described it, which to me made it sound like a cross between a condom and a cafe cycle. It was loads thinner (and therefore lighter) than a Strat or a Les Paul, and yet it sustained as much, if not more, than either. Mahogany will do that.

Though I have no idea how or why one applies aerodynamics to a guitar, strapping something on that was R & D’d in a wind tunnel is way guitar hero-ish. Truth be told, even on a big stage, my top speed from stage right to stage left is about four miles per hour. It’s slower going the other direction because of the bass drag. Probably be faster if I wasn’t rocking so hard…

The store I bought this and one other Ibanez from is still around, if in name only. Technically it is a small chain of three stores. I know for a fact they sweat for their living. They are surrounded by the dreaded big box music stores, who no doubt have this micro-chain’s demise charted out.