Pawn shop find. I got the price down to what I wanted to pay. Serial number says it's a February 1980 MIJ from the Dyna Gakki factory. I think 1980 was the last year for the RS900 and its passive brother, the RS800.
The control knobs aren't original. These came with "factory mismatched" knobs - a gold speedknob for volume and a pair of Jazz style knobs for bass and treble. I do have the original knobs, but I like the Hipshots it came with. Otherwise it's a very original, uninterfered with, instrument. It even has its little truss rod well protector still fitted.
The Super 4 (love that name) pickup and Accucast B 2 bridge are original, and work perfectly. The brass nut is also an original item.
Around the back, it has the Quadra-Lock bolt system that was common to all the Roadsters until 1980. Basically machine screws into threaded neck inserts, with an aluminum cover plate.
Another feature it shares with the higher end Roadsters is the tri-tuned response neck. Yes it really was a thing. Ibanez has always loved gadgetry.
Just like the front, the back is very clean, with two minor surface dings. Nothing I feel compelled to fix.
Thankfully, the active electronics and all the wriring have survived their almost 41 years on earth without the attention of well meaning but hamfisted meddlers - or, as my dad calls them, "twacks".
It's a very clean and very original example, and I just had to jump on it. If I understand my Ibanez history correctly, the 900 and 800 were the low end Roadsters, deleted for the 1981 model year, and replaced in 1982 by the Blazers, renamed as Roadsters.
A quick going over shows the action is a little high for me, but not ridiculous by any means, and it could use another 3 thou of neck relief - currently it's 9 thou, it should be 12 ideally, as these need to be set up to 7ender numbers. There's little point setting it up properly right now as I don't have new strings until tomorrow. Another little thing I need to address is the frets. They are in very good shape, but as I took a fret eraser to them I could see they have been very lightly levelled but not recrowned and polished. Not a big job, I'll do that over the weekend I think. Apart from that, and a new battery of course, it's all good for a very reasonable 450 US Dollhairs.
The control knobs aren't original. These came with "factory mismatched" knobs - a gold speedknob for volume and a pair of Jazz style knobs for bass and treble. I do have the original knobs, but I like the Hipshots it came with. Otherwise it's a very original, uninterfered with, instrument. It even has its little truss rod well protector still fitted.
The Super 4 (love that name) pickup and Accucast B 2 bridge are original, and work perfectly. The brass nut is also an original item.
Around the back, it has the Quadra-Lock bolt system that was common to all the Roadsters until 1980. Basically machine screws into threaded neck inserts, with an aluminum cover plate.
Another feature it shares with the higher end Roadsters is the tri-tuned response neck. Yes it really was a thing. Ibanez has always loved gadgetry.
Just like the front, the back is very clean, with two minor surface dings. Nothing I feel compelled to fix.
Thankfully, the active electronics and all the wriring have survived their almost 41 years on earth without the attention of well meaning but hamfisted meddlers - or, as my dad calls them, "twacks".
It's a very clean and very original example, and I just had to jump on it. If I understand my Ibanez history correctly, the 900 and 800 were the low end Roadsters, deleted for the 1981 model year, and replaced in 1982 by the Blazers, renamed as Roadsters.
A quick going over shows the action is a little high for me, but not ridiculous by any means, and it could use another 3 thou of neck relief - currently it's 9 thou, it should be 12 ideally, as these need to be set up to 7ender numbers. There's little point setting it up properly right now as I don't have new strings until tomorrow. Another little thing I need to address is the frets. They are in very good shape, but as I took a fret eraser to them I could see they have been very lightly levelled but not recrowned and polished. Not a big job, I'll do that over the weekend I think. Apart from that, and a new battery of course, it's all good for a very reasonable 450 US Dollhairs.
