Ibanez Artfield AFD-40 BG-Z (1988)

After searching the net and countless shops in Germany, England and France for years I finally bought one of these rare guitars in 1999.  And it was worth all the time that I put into it... It was a AFD-45 and it now belongs to my good friend Oli. Check his site for the details !

The Artfield was made between 1988 and 1990, offering 3 different models in several variations (see my Artfield ad pages for the scans !). The AFD-45 is the model with the more sophisticated active electronics... The guitar was top-of-the line when they were available, with prices ranging from about $1300 to over $1700 or so (this is an information that I read in an article about the 1988 Frankfurt Music Fair). The neck has 30 frets and is thicker than the "wizard" necks that were already available back then on the 540-series.
It just feels good to play with it. The frets are non-jumbo, and I did not expect to get used to them so fast. The body is relatively small and extremely ergonomic, better than any other guitar that I know. Currently I own 2 Artfields ! :-)  But: if you have one for sale (preferably another AFD-25) or you know where do get one, drop me a line. Thanks !  I bought mine over the web from a shop in France. There seem to be some more... 5 out of the 12 Artfields that I was able to find out about were located in France. An Ibanez clerk at the 1996 Frankfurt Music Fair told me that there were maybe 100 of these made. Wild guess though... No one was able to tell me more details on these so far or to confirm this information. Anyway these are rare, but surprisingly inexpensive.

This here is the 3rd Artfield that I bought. I really liked the AFD-45 but the tone was not really what I wanted it to be. So I kept searching for another one with passive electronics that would match my needs even better. And in late 2003 this AFD-40 BG-Z showed up on German ebay. No question what happened then :-)

The differences to my AFD-45 are: passive electronics (IBZ/USA C1 / F1 pickups), chrome hardware, mahogany-maple neck.

Specs:
- Bubinga body
- Mahogany-maple 5ply neck, 30 frets
- HQ-tremolo
- Chrome hardware
- Magnum lock pegs
- IBZ/USA F1 humbucker (bridge)
- IBZ/USA C1 single coil (neck)
- 1x volume, 1x tone controls
- 3.way switch

Also I wanted to say "hi !" to all the nice people that I met on the internet during the "AFD quest". It actually took 5 years  to find the first one of my Artfields. So my greetings go out to Bob, Oli P. and Scott just to name the ones that matter the most. Cheers !

If you came here through a search engine, go here for the frame. The pictures are copyrighted, do not use them without my permission. Thanx !