1998 Ibanez Artstar AF220 Thinline Archtop Electric Guitar, Near Mint w/ Super 58 Humbuckers, Japan Fujigen

Up for sale, a 1998 Ibanez AF220 thinline archtop in near mint, 100% original condition and in perfect working order. Built at the venerable Fujigen factory in Japan, this rare Artstar Series guitar was produced for only a single year. It features a unique body dimensions; fully hollow and just shy of 16" wide on the lower bout, yet with a body depth a hair shallower than 2 1/4".The body is constructed of maple, framed top and back by five-ply binding and a thicker deep red tortoise outer ply and heel cap. And although the Ibanez Wiki and other sources would lead one to believe the top is spruce, it is conclusively arched maple. The neck features three-piece mahogany/maple construction, capped with a bound rosewood fretboard, and acoustically the guitar has an airy, resonant quality with crisp treble detail. The Super 58 humbuckers channel the natural acoustic properties of the instrument and offer a pristine clean tone. The signal has more low end roundness in the neck position, with a brighter, more aggressive bite at the bridge. And while this Ibanez is perfectly tailored to complex Jazz chording, the pickups also handle gain very well, with greater feedback rejection given the slender body depth that many typically associate with archtops, very much akin to Gibson's ES-350T. This Ibanez is featherweight at just 6lbs 9oz, professionally setup here at Mike & Mike’s Guitar Bar with 11-49 roundwound strings, low action and accurate information.The three-piece neck has a medium C-shaped profile carve with robust shoulder, measuring .825” deep at the 1st fret and .890” at the 9th. The bound slab rosewood fretboard has a 12" radius, with pearl block inlay and stock medium jumbo fretwire. The frets retain their full factory height with well-rounded crowns, with only light wear beneath the plain strings on frets 1-9. This guitar plays cleanly in all registers up the 24 3/4” scale with a straight neck and responsive, optimally-adjusted truss rod. The original bone nut measures 43mm (1 11/16”) in width. The bound headstock retains the “AF220” truss rod cover, and the gold Gotoh SG38 tuners with pearloid buttons turn smoothly and hold accurate pitch. The F97-prefix serial notes Fujigen factory production and a 1997 build date, although this guitar wasn't technically officially available until the '98 model year.All the electronics work as intended, and the Super 58 humbuckers each meter at 7.4k ohms. Controls include a three-way pickup selector and dedicated Volume and Tone knobs for each humbucker. Gold-plated hardware includes the Nashville-style Tune-o-Matic bridge mounted on a floating rosewood base and the trapeze tailpiece. Plastics include the original quartet of Sure Grip II knobs, pickup rings, and switch gasket.The gloss Butterscotch Transparent finish is particularly well-kept, with cosmetic wear limited to a few faint finish scratches in the clear coat on the body as a whole. The gloss finish on the neck profile is similarly clean.A padded gigbag is included.