I got this one off eBay about three years ago for $180. I've researched this guitar a bit since and, based on the urban legends, it might be an early seventies model cos it doesn't have a serial number and some peeps say it's one of the Ibanez "Lawsuit" Gibson copies that are rumored to be better than the originals of the time. I wouldn't know, cos I've never played a seventies LP. It certainly doesn't have near the oomph neither the huge yet crisp sound of AC's LP Studio.

When I first got it, the bridge pup would feedback like a bitch even on half loud volumes. I got some candles, melted them, took off the humbuckers and wax potted them and it's been kicking tone since. That's how I discovered it's wearing PAFs. Yep. Wanna buy 'em? 

I've many a time contemplated replacing the pick ups with something more powerful but I keep on shying away cos there's some sort of dusty, voodoo-hazy warmth about the PAF-on-Cortez tone that gets me every time I plug it in. What the hell, it's an old horse, it's gotta sound old.

It's made in Japan and resonates old in a very neat old way. It sounds like those sepia yellow-ish pictures of the late seventies/early eighties would sound like if you could plug them in and shred. The ones where everyone's skinny and hairy and eats flowers. Compared to newer stuff, it's like there's a little missing from all of its frequencies. The treble, mid and bass only go up to eight, if you know what I mean.

The setup and hardware is very Les Paul, apart from the neck which is a bolt-on. There's not one bit of cheap material on it. It's got a brass nut, which some peeps gotta have, although I have to say I don't understand why they think it's better. It does make the tone kinda twangier than what you'd expect from an LP type of axe, but that's about all I've noticed.

The neck pick up is smokey and dark, kinda flabby on the bass and got enough cream to give you all the clean channel cholesterol your Edge lovin' organic string bean eating ass can take.

It's not gonna be my main axe any time soon, but it's certainly a keeper. We all wanna play an old guitar - there's something about them. I don't wanna shell eighteen grand on a '59 Custom just about yet, and until I do, the Cortez does an excellent job in helping me get the vintage out of my system with style.