The AFD45 is a Artfield series solid body guitar model introduced by Ibanez in 1988. It was produced in Japan by Iida Gakki.
The short-lived Artfield series was a line of premium guitars which offered innovations such as the new All Access neck joint, multi-ply necks and locking tuners along with three new body shapes in exotic woods.
The AFD45's body shape is a non-symmetrical, sculpted, offset double-cutaway design with rounded shoulders and a short pointed lower horn with a deep cutaway and a much longer pointed upper horn. The profile shows that the entire body has an arch shape. The overall shape is somewhat reminiscent of the Maxxas series body.
AFD45 side view
The AFD45 has a bubinga body bolted to a mahogany and maple neck with a 30-fret rosewood fingerboard with small dot position markers. The fretboard is beveled past the 24th fret, so only the upper strings are accessible up to the 30th fret. Components include three Ultrasonic single-coil pickups (made by Bill Lawrence) with two set directly adjacent to one another at the bridge and the third set apart at the neck, an HQ synchronized tremolo bridge and Gotoh locking tuning machines.
The AFD40 is a similar model with a humbucker pickup at the bridge and chrome hardware. The AFD5 and AFD25 are related models with similar components but different body shapes and gold hardware.
The AFD45 was discontinued after 1989. Although it appears in a 1990 catalog, no example with a 1990 serial number has been seen.
The AFD45 controls consist of a master volume and master tone. The third rotary control is a 6-way switch to allow serial or parallel connections for the two pickups set at the bridge. The toggle nearest the neck is a 3-way pickup selector (neck/ bridge pair/ all three). The next toggle is a series/parallel switch for the neck pickup. The final toggle activates a mid boost.
