AR30

AR30 Brown Sunburst (more images)

The AR30 is an Artist series solid body electric guitar model introduced by Ibanez in late 1982. It was manufactured in Japan by FujiGen Gakki with production occurring between late September 1982 and August of 1983.

The AR30 was a spot model which does not appear in the Ibanez catalogs. AR30s were produced with two finish options: Black or Brown Sunburst. It is believed that fewer than a thousand examples were produced in each finish over the model's production run.

The AR30 has a double cutaway Japanese ash (a.k.a. sen) body mated to a set-in maple neck with a 22-fret rosewood fingerboard with dot position markers. Components include a fixed bridge with a Quik Change tail piece, dual Ibanez Super 70 humbucking pickups, Sure Grip knobs and Smooth Tuner II tuning machines.

Controls consist of independent volume controls, a master tone control, a coil split mini-toggle switch and a phase mini-toggle switch which control both pickups. This configuration allows the AR30 to offer more tonal versatility than the AR50 which it essentially replaced.

The early AR30s (produced starting in late 1982) had a simple ST bridge with studs mounted straight into the guitar; starting around May 1983 a change was made to the use the Gibraltar bridge which is bolted to anchors recessed into the body. The early examples also had original Sure Grip knobs which were swapped for Sure Grip II knobs in the middle of the production cycle.

The AR30's body is slimmer than its contemporary Artist siblings and thus weighs a bit less. Its body consists of a laminated wood (plywood) center block and Japanese ash (sen) wings. One other way production costs were controlled for this model is that the position of pickup selector toggle has been relocated to allow all the controls to be wired from a single rear control cavity; on the higher-end models the pickup selector is placed on the upper horn and requires a separate cavity.

The AR30 also has a simplified version of the normal Artist "castle" headstock shape that may be unique to this model.

The AR30 was discontinued in 1983.

Specifications

Related content: Artist series |

Specifications for AR30

Model name: AR30 Year(s) offered: 1982–1983 Sold in: Europe / USA Made in: Japan Price: MSRP: DM799 • SMAP: DM650 Finish(es): Black (BK) / Brown Sunburst (BS)
Body Body type: Solid body Body material: Laminated wood center block w/ Japanese ash (a.k.a. sen) wings Neck joint: Set-in Bridge: 1982–early 1983: ST fixed Mid–late 1983: Gibraltar fixed Tailpiece: Quik Change Knob style: Sure Grip II (gold) Hardware color: Chrome	Neck Neck type: AR Neck material: 3-piece maple Fingerboard material: Rosewood Fingerboard inlays: Acrylic dot Frets: 22 / medium Nut: Bone Machine heads: Ibanez Smooth Tuner II (1:18 ratio)	Electronics/ Strings Pickup configuration: HH Bridge pickup: Ibanez Super 70 (H) Neck pickup: Ibanez Super 70 (H) Controls: Two volumes / master tone / 3-way toggle pickup selector / 1 master phase switch / 1 master coil split switch Factory tuning: 1E,2B,3G,4D,5A,6E (E Std.)

About this table

Images

Additional details

Rear of body

AR30 ( with Humbuckers P-90 )

Headstock comparison between AR30 (left) and typical Artist "castle" headstock (right, from a '79 AR50)

Sources

• AR30 specs, Ibanez Collectors World (forum)
• Specht, Paul; Wright, Michael; Donahue, Jim (2005). Ibanez : the Untold Story. Bensalem, Penn.: Hoshino (U.S.A.), p. 268, ISBN 0976427702