I was at Ibanez when the XV500
came out. Take a look at the old Ibanez promo piece I have lying around for that
guitar.
The guy in the photo was a guitar student of mine named Bobby Lonasco. The
cheering kids are actually high school students in their auditorium around the
corner from the Ibanez offices in Bensalem, PA. The ad came out in the May 31st,
1985 issue of Circus Magazine. Since we placed ads two or three months in
advance, the ad was shot in February or March of 85. The guitar debuted at the
January 1985 Winter NAMM Show. The guitar had the pre-Edge, Pro Rock’r locking
tremolo with Top-Lok behind the nut locking system. Some guitars had a more
basic strat-like non-locking tremolo. It used two dual-blade V5 humbuckers (made
in Japan). The finishes were strange, as well. I remember VT and BE color
designations, which were finishes that faded from black to red/violet or blue
metallic respectively. There may be other colors in the States as well as this
guitar was shipped to Canada, Europe and Asia with other finishes that those
distributors may have requested.
The guitar was designed by Fritz Katoh, who taught me virtually everything I know about mass-produced guitar manufacturing and design. He was the sole designer of all Ibanez guitars until I came along in 1984. Fritz was really aiming at the Japan domestic market with this guitar, as really strange guitar shapes were popular there in 1984 and 1985. The US basically had the model handed to them in order to compete (they thought!) with the strange-shaped Dean, Jackson and BC Rich guitars of the time. The model was short-lived and cases for them were always cracking as the huge point at the end of the body dug through from the inside.
Rich Lasner