What model is my Talman?

Log Out | Topics | Search Moderators | Edit Profile

Author Message   Jb (Jb) Posted on Tuesday, August 27, 2002 - 2:25 pm:    I'm new to the forum and I've just purchased my first electric guitar - a beautiful eye-candy looking retro Ibanez Talman. The color appears to be transparent butterscotch as shown in the photo below. The body appears to be solid wood with veneer topping covered with white pearl pickguard and chrome hardware. The fret board appears to be made of birdseye maple. The back of the head indicates that id is F515794 and it is made in Japan. If I'm interpreting the id correctly, the production year is 1995. However, I would like to know what model is it. Is it TC530? It has 3 single-coiled lipstick pickups, 2 controls (volume and tone), 5-position pickup switch, and built-in tremelo unit with optional tremelo arm. BTW, since some Talmans were made of resoncast (composite wood) in the nineties, what indications are used to determine that the bodies are made of resoncast or solid wood? Are the transparent colors used on solid wood as opposed to resoncast? According to a reference to Talman TC530 in this forum, the transparent butterscotch is not listed among the original colors in a 1994 catalog. Does the 1995 catalog show that this color is original? JB To forum editors: Thanks for having a great website on Ibanez guitars!   Mr_Roadstar (Mr_Roadstar) Posted on Tuesday, August 27, 2002 - 10:57 pm:    Jb, Looks like you have a 1996 TC830BT. The serial number indicates a 1995 build date, but it was probably late '95 for the '96 model year. Body is Alder with flame Maple top. The '96 catalog is the only one showing this model. Nice guitar, Bud! Cheers Steve   Jb (Jb) Posted on Wednesday, August 28, 2002 - 1:20 am:    Mr Roadstar, Thanks for the info! You're absolutely correct! In fact, I was able to find it at Richard Harris' Ibanez Rules!! website: 1996 Ibanez Catalog - Talman Series It's interesting to note that the catalog gave a brief description on the Sky "lipsticks" pickups that were used on these Talmans. The Sky pickups were created by Ken Armstrong of England to solve the problem of noises and inconsistencies found in the older lipsticks. Boy, these Sky pickups sounded good! Again, thanks for responding! JB   Mr_Roadstar (Mr_Roadstar) Posted on Wednesday, August 28, 2002 - 1:14 pm:    Jb, Pretty cool info on the pickups. Potted AND epoxied! Kent Armstrong has an excellent rep for making pickups. I can't say I'm surprised that Ibanez tapped him for their lipsticks. Just curious, what did you pay for your "top of the line" Talman? Cheers Steve   Shel Username: Shel Registered: 03-2003 Posted on Tuesday, December 28, 2004 - 12:05 am:    Hi! I am an avid follower of all threads on this site-what a great info source!I have owned my As200 since i bought it new in '82 and since then have added an Am255, Ar300, GR520 and silver TC825. A couple of years ago, I was checking out used guitars in a store here in Toronto. I spent a fair amount of time playing many different used strats, and on a whim picked up a Talman TC740. I was immediately immpressed by the build quality as well as the neck profile which was much more comfortable in my hands- I couldn't go back to any of the strats! Now for my question- A local guitar store has 2 Talmans sitting on its wall. One is a blue sparkle TC 825 and the other is a black TC 740, both were never sold ie 'new old stock'.Serial numbers start with F9 I think. I am tempted to buy one or the other but don't want to get ripped off. Any idea what they are worth? Any help would be appreciated Thanks, shel

Add Your Message Here Post: -Color- Black Red Green Blue Yellow Purple Orange Cyan Gray White -Font- Arial Courier Symbol Times Verdana -Size- Smallest (-2) Small (-1) Normal Large (+1) Largest (+2) Enter Item number: Username: Posting Information: This is a private posting area. Only registered users and moderators may post messages here. Password: Options: Enable HTML code in message Automatically activate URLs in message Action: