Ibanez Neck Stamps and Neck Pocket Stamps

Stamped RG3120

Neck Pocket stamps

Rare case of stamped Korean RG (Cort made)

Korean (black) and Indonesian (red) guitars without neck / neck pocket stamps.

Model number

On most Japanese guitars and many others you'll be able to see a stamp of the model number in the neck pocket. This is quite often the most reliable way to identify uncommon guitar models.

On the other hand on most of the Korean/Indonesian made guitars there will be no visible stamp at all. As always though you can find some exceptions.

H&S stamp

H&S was an early "custom shop" of Ibanez in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, where a lot of guitars from Roadstar Pro series were assembled. They got finnished bodies and necks from Japan and assembled them up to order. Those Roadstar Pro necks have the "Custom Made" inlay on the 21st fret and Bensalem neck plate.

Neck Stamps

Roadstar II necks

Roadstar II necks where interchangeable but still stamped with the specific model numbers. So it's not uncommon to find RG410 with RG440 neck stamped on it, or opposite. It may not even mean that the neck was replaced, they were just used that way straight from the factory.

RG5xx and RG7xx series

Most guitars from 500 and 700 series will be stamped with just RG550 or RG750 respectively as all those guitars have the same necks. Some Japanese guitars with Wizard 2 necks, like RG470 or some Europeans 5xx series will be stamped with RG550-R#2 or similar, where R indicates Rosewood fretboard and #2 - Wizard 2 profile.

RG7620, 7420, 7621 and 7421.

First year RG7620 had neck stamped with "URG7-520" and body stamped with "RG7-520". Pre-2000 7620s and 7420 share a neck design, and they're all stamped with "RG7620". Similar with 7621 and 7421. It's most likely due to the fact that when Ibanez upgraded RG762x neck to the 3 piece Maple/Bubinga for 2000, RG742x were fitted with surplus RG762x necks.

Letter stamps

Necks that weren't dedicated to specific model (for example US Customs, H&S Custom shop or replacement necks), were stamped with letters decoding type and features of the necks.

Meaning	Available options
Neck type	W - Wizard, U - Ultra, V - Viper
Headstock type	A - Angled
Nut	L - locking
Fretboard material	R - rosewood, M - maple, E - Ebony
Fret size	J - Jumbo, L - Large
Others	T - sharktooth Inlay, R - Reversed Headstock, A - Abalone/Pearl blocks
Numbers of frets	22, 24

So for example WALRJ-24 would be a Wizard neck with Angled headstock, Locking nut, Rosewood fretboard and 24 Jumbo frets. The list above is most likely not complete