So rest assured, you've got the real deal there. We were very meticulous about making sure logo and headstock were perfect and any misalignment would result in the 'S' seconds stamp being applied to the back of the neck, and for guitars coming out of Fujigen, it just DIDN'T happen their own QC was impeccable. I worked for Ibanez and it wasn't an issue in any sense. They're just not objects for the obsessed collectors in that way. I have never seen a knock off of an Ibanez especially an archtop. But really, those guitars do NOT have the collector's cache that make them the subject of forgery and duplication. Also I would describe it as black much more so then grey.Check the headstock logo, the label inside the guitar and compare it with existing examples. However, the guitar plays as good as any high end Ibanez I have ever played, and the workmanship is top notch. I was able to buy it for a good price,and I am a bit worried. How would I check the authenticity of the guitar. Thank you, very much for the information. They are highly regarded and treasured among players and collectors alike. The PM100 was produced for only a few years, most of which had a dark grey translucent poly finish. Ibanez worked with Pat for a long time and there were many prototype attempts before they came on the design that Pat liked, and even more time before they came upon a design for production that he would agree to put his name on. Pat's actual working guitar was closer to the Joe Pass JP20 with different inlays, a natural finish and a tune-o-matic bridge. This was the first year of the run for those guitars although his own guitar predates that date by a number of years. The guitar was made at the top factory in Japan for Ibanez, the Fujigen factory which makes the Joe Pass, George Benson and Scofield models too.

For that particular model and run, it was the 582nd guitar to come out of that factory in June 1996.į is the month, F being the 6th letter of the alphabet, the 96 following it referring to the year of that run.

Guitar serial number lookup ibanez