🎸 Stray Of The Day 🎸

❤️ Meet Roxanne! ❤️

Ibanez AFS75T Artcore • Transparent Red • Vintage-Style Vibrato

Some guitars are perfectly happy sitting quietly in the corner, waiting to be noticed.

Roxanne has never sat quietly in a corner in her life.

She arrived wearing an outrageously red dress, immediately commandeered the best seat in the house, and appears to be under the impression that somebody has hired a band specifically for her entrance.

And, looking at her, we can see why.

🏷️ Adoption Fee: £365 🏷️

Meet Roxanne, our beautiful Ibanez AFS75T Artcore, finished in Transparent Red and sporting enough vintage charm to make you start looking for a smoky jazz club, a double bass player and somebody who knows how to make a proper Old Fashioned.

Ibanez introduced the Artcore range to make the character and sound of traditional hollow-bodied guitars accessible without requiring their owners to remortgage the house, and Roxanne is a particularly lovely example of that philosophy.

Her fully hollow, laminated maple body features a pair of elegant F-holes, a single cutaway and a slimmer profile than the traditional big-bodied jazz boxes. The result is something that retains much of that wonderfully resonant hollow-body character while being considerably more comfortable to get your arms around.

Which is useful, because Roxanne has absolutely no intention of making herself smaller for anybody.

The Transparent Red finish allows the grain beneath to show through, while cream binding traces the body, neck and headstock. A black pickguard provides a little contrast, and the pearl-style block inlays running along her bound rosewood fingerboard complete the wonderfully old-school appearance.

Her set mahogany neck offers a comfortable, familiar feel, with a shorter 24.75-inch scale that makes bends and chord work particularly enjoyable. It’s a guitar that encourages you to settle in and play for a while, rather than spend the evening wrestling with it.

And then we get to the electronics.

Roxanne carries a pair of chrome-covered Ibanez humbuckers, controlled by a three-way pickup selector and individual volume and tone controls. There’s plenty of warmth and depth available for jazz and blues, but she’ll also happily wander into classic rock, indie and rockabilly territory when the occasion demands it.

She’s particularly good at those rich, rounded clean sounds that make you play the same chord several times just because it sounds so lovely.

But the most entertaining feature is hanging off the bottom.

That magnificent Ibanez-branded vintage-style vibrato tailpiece is not there simply to look pretty, although it is doing a spectacular job of that.

Paired with the adjustable bridge and roller saddles, it allows you to add those gentle pitch shimmers, wobbles and expressive flourishes that suit this style of guitar so beautifully. Think subtle movement and vintage character rather than attempting to recreate a particularly aggressive Ibanez RG.

Roxanne is many things, but she is not interested in dive-bombing her way through the floorboards.

As always, she’s received our usual workshop attention, including cleaning, fret preparation and polishing, and a full setup to make sure she’s ready for her next adventure.

Cosmetically, she presents beautifully, with that deep red finish looking particularly striking under the light. There are the usual minor signs of previous ownership to be expected from a guitar of this age, but nothing that detracts from her overall appearance.

What we particularly love about Roxanne is that she manages to be both elegant and just a little bit ridiculous.

She’s got the graceful curves of a traditional jazz guitar, the shiny chrome hardware of something considerably more mischievous, and a vibrato arm that looks like it ought to have its own dressing room.

She’s equally comfortable providing the soundtrack to a sophisticated evening or encouraging somebody to make questionable musical decisions at two in the morning.

And frankly, we approve of both.

Roxanne doesn’t need you to put on the red light.

She’s brought her own.

🏡 Could you offer Roxanne her forever home?

🎸 The Stray Chord 🎸

Rescue • Restore • Rehome

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