The STW is a double neck S series solid body electric guitar model introduced by Ibanez in 1999. It is also referred to as the S540TW or the 540S-TW. It was made in Japan by FujiGen and was a spot model which never appeared in a catalog.
The STW is modeled on the S540 with a sleek, thin-edged double cutaway (triple cutaway?) body. Its lower neck has six stings while the upper neck is a seven string.
The STW features a mahogany body with two necks both of which are one-piece maple with bubinga reinforcement and are attached with a traditional bolt-on neck joint with a stamped metal plate. The serial number appears on the back of the 6-string headstock and each plate is stamped with a non-matching production number. The lower, six-string neck has a reverse headstock. Both necks have 22-fret rosewood fingerboards with abalone oval position markers.
Both necks have Ibanez pickups. The seven string neck has dual V77 and V87 humbuckers, while the six string has Quantum pickups and adds a middle single-coil. The six string neck has a Lo-Pro Edge double locking tremolo bridge with a locking nut while the 7-string has a fixed bridge.
Controls consist of individual volume controls for each neck, a single master tone control, a 5-way pickup selector for the six string neck, a mini 3-way toggle pickup selector for the 7-string neck and a 3-way neck selector toggle (6-string/both/7-string).
The 540STN is a similar model with 6-string and 12-string necks that was offered in the early 1990s. These two S series twin necks are among just a handful of such models sold by Ibanez since the 1980s. Since the S540TW was discontinued after 1999, the only production twin-neck models have been 2670RE Artwood Twin reissue from 2006 and the Xiphos XPT1400TW in 2010.
It's believed that as few as a dozen examples of the STW were produced.
