Ibanez has just totally reimagined the Icemen as a 7-string guitar with a multi-scale design and multi-voiced Fishman Fluence Modern humbuckers, and thus, one of the world’s most classic metal guitars has been reborn for progressive metal adventures in super-low tunings.
The Iceman has always been one of electric guitar’s most radical designs. Ever since it launched in 1977, officially becoming known as the Iceman the following year, it has captured the imagination of rock and metal players.
Players such as Paul Stanley of KISS and Tom G Warrior of Celtic Frost made it their own. System Of A Down’s Daron Malakian popularised it for the late ‘90s nu-metal generation. And Paul Gilbert put his own twist on it, with the long-time Ibanez signature artists collaborating on the Fireman, a sort of reversed-Iceman complete with his DiMarzio pickups and all that jazz. Hey, Brandon Small of Dethklok even had a fretless Iceman.
But we’ve never seen one like this monster 7-string guitar from the Ibanez Axe Design Lab, the ICMS721. It’s the first Iceman to have a multiscale fretboard, running a standard Fender-esque 25.5” on the treble side to 27.2” on the bass side. It’s made for super-low tunings, with that Mono-Rail G2 bridge super easy to intonate. Solid. No fuss. Tidy.
Available in Iron Pewter, it has a solid okoume body, a bolt-one five-piece Wizard II-7 neck comprised of maple with walnut strips. The ebony fingerboard has a 15.7” radius and there are 24 jumbo frets.
Those multi-voiced Fishmans are very au courant but who’s complaining? This is the Iceman for those who quite possibly either don’t know nor care who Paul Stanley was but are looking for an aggressive-looking statement guitar that’s built to, as they say, chug.
But that’s not all. Ibanez’s late summer, early fall release has also seen updates for Nita Strauss, Steve Vai and Joe Satriani signature guitars, with Strauss’s DiMarzio-loaded JIVA10 given a Torch Red makeover that makes the quilted maple top really pop.
Red is a theme. Satch’s JS2470CS has been given Cherry Sunburst respray. It’s still the same über-modern S-style we know and love, with the Sustainiac at the neck, the signature DiMarzio Satchur8 humbucker at the bridge.
Its Edge tremolo unit remains one of the best in the business and there is a set of Gotoh tuners to keep this MIJ electric tip top. And note that matching headstock.
And Steve Vai has the most ridiculously brilliant and ornate designs we have seen from a major brand in quite some time, his signature PIA looking super bougie with its 24K gold leaf floral print on black. It has the hand-grips, the PIA Blossom inlay, the DiMarzio UtoPIA pickups.
The PIA77BON2 is another incredible collaboration between Ibanez, Vai and Bonvillain Design Studio.
Last but not least, Angra guitarist Marcelo Barbosa’s MB10 looks like one seriously versatile S-style, complete with dyna-MIX10 switching, Alter Switch, T106 vibrato and locking tuners. Oh, and the frets are stainless steel. Nice.
No prices on these signature models just yet, but that gnarly Axe Design Lab Iceman will set you back £1,539/$1,699 street.
For more information, head over to Ibanez.
