Maxxas
MX-3

Ibanez Maxxas MX-3 (Japan)

serial number: #F744681

i bought her for a ridiculous price at a pawnshop in Italy, oddly enough cause she's never been marketed in this country. the shop guy didn't have a clue what a Maxxas is, but he thought she was just a showy cheap guitar... i said 'Yes, she is!', so he sold me her for... no, it's too low, i can't tell it!

well, first of all, this guitar is painfully lightweighted, surely due to the resonance chambers achieved inside the Honduras mahogany body.

the neck is one-piece maple, finished, and the fingerboard is rosewood, 22 medium-sized frets and dots inlays. as you can see, the body is totally rounded off anywhere, to better fit the player's body, and it's very thin as well. only god knows how they did a semi-hollow body with that shape! the headstock is tilted back, with a cool and elegant shape. the pick-ups are IBZ/USA either on neck and bridge, mounted on metal rings. the sound is incredibly low-ish, totally different than any other Ibanez i've ever played. the sustain is literally infinite, and the attack is freightening, nothing less than an EMG-equipped guitar. the dynamics ain't that easy to handle, like any other Ibanez, it needs a few minutes playing. on distortion this babe blows your mind, but if you want to play trash or something really heavy, you'll need a compressor, cause dynamics are explosive! controls are volume, tone and a 3-way switch. the finish is Cranberry Red, black on center fading to metallic red on the edges. the neck finish matches the metallic red, and the headstock as well. this is the MX-3, i.e. the HQ tremolo and Magnum Lock tuners equipped version. i couldn't believe the HQ was so massive and sturdy, very heavyweight and reliable. the Magnum Lock tuners (by Gotoh) are sturdy and massive as well. the nut seems to be graphite. the string should be poked à la Strat, i.e. inside the trem-block, from the rear of the guitar, and they would stop when the end-balls rock against the trem baseplate, but i strung her up instead by locking the strings right at the 'foot' of the block (flush with the rear surface of the guitar) kinda a string-thru-trem block with metal bushes that keep the end-balls poking inside the trem-block, to help increase tone and sustain (not that she needs it). all the hardware is chrome finished, and the 'MAXXAS - A Division Of Ibanez' headstock logo as well.