After enjoying some time with the natural color ST-III I acquired barely 2 months ago, I really wanted to have another in another color. This one popped up on ebay with the original case, paperwork, and in excellent condition and I had to pick it up.
It arrived in extremely good condition, other than a few small nicks on the top of the body it’s in superb shape for the age. This is another 1987 model, but this time fitted with the factory pickups - two single coils and a humbucker all made by Dimarzio. These pickups do not have model numbers, as Dimarzio provided a lot of OEM specific models that don’t necessarily have a direct comparison to a pickup in their catalog (Dimarzio did this for Ibanez and others). The single coils are very low output, proper vintage sounding, and the humbucker surprised me - medium to low output with a really flat response. I was expecting a higher output, mid-heavy pickup as was the style in this era and especially on a guitar like the ST3 which I assume was aimed more at the shred and rock/metal players.
Of course I have plenty good to say about the Ibanez Edge bridge and the neck, which has a lovely bare feel and a super thick rosewood fretboard. I know it’s tough to do a fair comparison between two guitars that are over 30 years old now, but this one feels very consistent with the other ST-III I have. Both play very similarly, with similar body weights and identical necks. Any tonal differences seem to be just from the different pickups and body finish than anything with the construction of the guitars, which is always a good sign - as a big Kramer collector, I’m not used to very consistent quality control!
I’ve also done some digging and found some details on these guitars from the catalog. It appears these two are both relatively mundane models, but they could be ordered with maple or ebony fingerboards, binding, graphic paint jobs, or even neck-through configurations. I’d love to see an ST-III with a bound maple board, what a cool guitar that would be - and based on some of the other custom configurations I’ve seen around the web I’m sure there’s probably one out there.