JS20th - It's hard to believe it's been 20 years since I saw the Surfing tour in 1988 at the 39th St Cabaret In Philly. Long since  closed, it was a great little place to see a show, and that night Joe blew away the 200 in attendance playing most of NOTE and SWTA. My toes were pressed up against the riser right in front of his mic stand, and not since Eruption came on the radio in 1978 had I heard anything the hit me that hard. That night I was turned me into a lifelong Satch fan, and at the same time, turned into an Ibanez fan. After playing a Les Paul for 10 years and watching Joe play Blackdog that night, all I wanted was a JS1BK. Still to this day I don't think any other guitar comes close to being a sleek, sexy, ergonomic, and just plain cool as the JS Series.

As hard as it is to believe, it has been 20 years, and to celebrate Joe signing with Ibanez and the release of this seminal album, Joe and Ibanez present the JS20th. A JS1200 at heart but with the original Edge bridge, it has been embellished with the chrome Silver Surfer and the SWTA cover art. A large part of making this model a reality was getting a license from Marvel to use the Silver Surfer image, and no small part of the large price tag was the licensing fee they had to pay Marvel for this one time use only.

There was no arguing that the JS20th was one of the outright stars of the Winter NAMM show, and the outrageous display drew crowds all day long. Without pricing and edition limits set Ibanez elected not to fully release the model so it was not available for purchase, but, it is now! Limited to 300 pieces Worldwide, 150 to the US, and available for immediate order. I will try and find out when models will be available to ship. No doubt Ibanez will put it in a case befitting of the guitar.