The guitar that we know best as the Iceman debuted in 1978 although it existed in other names briefly starting in 1975. The Iceman is a very cool guitar with an elongated lower horn and a slight pointy bit in the lower bout. While the scale length is not odd in any way, it’s headstock is very long, as one might expect on a 12 string guitar. There is nothing that looks like it.

The best known player of the Iceman is likely Paul Stanley of KISS. I know the Iceman best from Steve Miller’s use on his Book of Dreams album, but many players have enjoyed success with an Iceman, including Nash Kato of Urge Overkill and Jay Yeunger of White Zombie. Even Tom Petty was known to play an Iceman.

The model that I have for this quick review was arranged for me by Fraser at The Arts Music Store and is called the IC420FM. The flame maple top version makes me think of Steve Miller and so when given a choice, I picked it.

Specifications

The Iceman IC420FM is a set neck design built from a Okoume body. The neck is a 3 piece Okoume design with a Jatoba fretboard, that looks great alongside the flame finish. For folks not knowledgeable about these woods, they are in good supply and excellent for musical instruments. Okoume is sourced from Gabon in Africa. Its grain pattern resembles mahogany and it is used widely as solid wood in Asia, but mostly as a veneer in North America. Jatoba is recognized by its orange-brown tone. It makes a great fretboard wood because it is so hard. It can be hard to work, but pieces made from Jatoba are strong and hold up well over time. Jatoba comes from South and Central America and is often referred to as Brazilian Cherry, although no cherries are involved.

By doing the set neck as a three piece, that chance of warp or twist is minimized. The fretboard is bound and the inlays are a combination of acrylic and abalone. There are 22 medium frets and on my sample, the fretwork is impeccable. The guitar comes with the Ibanez Gibraltar bridge and Ibanez Super 80 humbucking pickups in the neck and bridge positions. Each pickup has a dedicated volume and tone pot and they are topped with Seventies style knobs exactly like those on my very rare John McLaughlin Tree of LIfe Doubleneck. All the fixtures are finished in gold and look fantastic, with none of the cheapie look found on other instruments. For those that find this stuff important, it looks a dream. The pickup switching is classic 3 way, no push pulls, taps or other such things. The pickups are ceramic and boast incredible headroom.

I find the guitar balances very well whether on your knee or hanging on a strap. The neck is very comfortable and the factory D’Addario EXL 110 strings are just fine, although I would probably drop to nines from the tens that are on the instrument.

Playability

The guitar is amazingly comfortable, so much so that is is less likely to be put down quickly. The sound from the pickups is excellent and delivers a nice tonal variance across the selection options. Rolling off the tone or the volume doesn’t take you anywhere near Mudville, which to me is a really pleasing thing. Using the neck with the volume up, the tone rolled off and some drive from Strymon Sunset and you get that fabled woman tone easily.

The fretwork is as noted perfect. The nut slot is cut well and the action and intonation out of the box were ideal for me. The guitar comes with a gig bag, which is a very good thing considering its unique body shape.

While many players will go for a dirt oriented sound, I found that the high headroom on the ceramic Super 80s is really great for clean tones. They are definitely humbuckers but the cleans are glorious particularly when augmented with a really nice reverb. I could not find anything about this guitar that I did not like.

Example Sounds

I plugged the iceman straight into the Clarett 8 Pre and directed that into Logic Pro. I recorded using three tracks each with a different amp. The first part is just an open chord to give you a feel for the pickups, neck, both and bridge using a Morgan SW50R amp. The second part is just a simple pretty clean chord sequence into a PRS Dallas using both pickups and the third is a short chord sequence using the bridge pickup into a Marshall 2555. They will give you a basic sense of the possible with this guitar.

Good To Go Kit

When getting started or even upgrading, there is often more to the success than just the guitar, so I have decided to include a Good To Go recommendation kit. For this guitar, here’s my kit list.

Ibanez Iceman IC420

This guitar deserves a versatile amp. Why not have a look at the recently updated Catalyst 60 from Line6 to keep costs down while keeping versatility up.

High quality guitar cable - 20ft or less. Good cables last and are quiet. Cheap cables are a horror show. Consult your sales professional for their recommendation but I like cables from Pig Hog, Ernie Ball, Digiflex and D’Addario. Avoid coiled cables, they look cool to some but are noise factories.

Gig Bag - This guitar comes with a gigbag.

Guitar Stand - Hercules make the best stands but you can often get a house brand that will hold the guitar when it is not in its case and you are not holding it. Note that for this guitar, the stand MUST be one of the headstock cradle type.

Guitar Strap - Every guitar needs a strap and every player, even sitting should use a strap. Gravity always works and a strap will save your guitar at some point. Lots of choices. Avoid fabric straps where the edges are sharp which hurts, Seat belt material is cheap, but the edges can be rough. I recommend real leather that has suede on the inside, which helps rein in instruments that are neck heavy. My favourite straps come from Walker and Williams.

Tuner - No guitar is complete without a tuner that goes with it all the time. Pedal tuners are great, but every player needs an in case tuner, and the Snark tuners are hard to beat. I prefer the cheaper models that take clock batteries as for the difference in price to the rechargeable unit, you can order a sheet of batteries from Amazon, or you may find a card of them in the shop from D’Addario priced very low.

String Changing Tool - The D’Addario tools are great. One tool has a string winder, a string cutter and a bridge pin puller. Every guitarist needs this as every guitarist should learn to change his or her own strings. It’s not hard, and that quality guitar shop might even offer a free session on how to do string changes efficiently that you can attend live. Also, there will be about a zillion YouTube videos on the subject.

Wrapping Up

I really like the Iceman. At $1119.99 CAD MAP, it is an excellent guitar for the money. The antique blue metallic version does not have the flame maple top and costs $1049.99 CAD MAP, the same as the Autumn Burst colourway. There is also an Iron Label 7 string version at $1819.99 CAD MAP for those so inclined. If I was buying, I would definitely go for the flame maple version as it is what appeals to me most. I understand that some people may not like the look. I really do as it is not just another boring iteration of the same old same old shape. The Iceman comes from the time when Gibson and Fender (Gibson was particularly, and rightly, strident) about instruments that looked and sounded like their own. Particularly given the timing when the Ibanez clones were often better instruments. The Iceman and the Artist models were then and remain beautiful pieces of work.

If you decide to get one, please consider getting yours from The Arts Music Store as they help support the channel and please support the channel yourself by becoming a member on Patreon. Send in questions or post comments, I read and respond to all. Thanks as always. I’m Ross Chevalier and we will speak again soon.