The Bottle Opener

During high school, I played in a band named Tyr. We sounded great when we jammed, but we never had a lead singer. Therefore, our opportunities to play for audiences were extremely limited. We played standard rock and roll fare. In fact, I'm confident that many of the vintage songs that are offered on Rock Band and Guitar Hero were covered by Tyr at one time or another.

My buddy, Paul, played lead guitar and I played rhythm. Paul was a better player than I was. In fact, he was the first guy to show me a barre chord. This one simple idea opened up guitar playing for me. A barre chord is a method of using one or more fingers to press down multiple strings across the fingerboard. It allows the guitarist the ability to easily move from one chord to another without changing your basic finger shape. You simply move the "shape" up or down the neck of the guitar to make your chord.

At any rate, before we left high school, Paul bought a Fender Stratocaster. He loved blues music and a ton of blues artists play Strats. Paul was really concerned about sound quality. He emphasized playing the right chord, in the right shape...just like the albums we loved. I, on the other hand, was into the "look." I wanted to look cool. I wanted a cool-looking guitar. Although I liked blues music, back in high school, I was more partial to the bands that put on big shows...laser lights, explosions, pyrotechnics, etc.

I guess that's why I chose the Ice Man. I hate to admit it, but I loved Kiss during high school. Paul Stanley, the rhythm guitarist, played an Ibanez Ice Man. His had two humbucker pickups and it was really flashy with mirrors and black paint. I thought it looked cool. One day, Zeagler Music got an Ice Man. It was the IC-210 model. Now, this wasn't like Paul Stanley's model at all, except for the basic shape. But I fell in love...or maybe it was lust.

I worked out a deal with the salesman to buy the Ice Man. I traded my Aria Les Paul copy in and paid several hundred dollars. (This was a mistake...and, trust me, I've learned my lesson.) But I was the proud owner of one cool-looking guitar.


This guitar is built for rock and roll. The neck has a brass nut, giving the guitar more sustain. Sustain allows you to hold a note for a long time. Usually, lead guitarists will hit a note and just let it ring as long as they can. Watch "This Is Spinal Tap" and listen to Nigel's explanation. It has a long fretboard that allows the player to go all the way up the neck with ease. Also, it has over-sized frets on the fingerboard...NICE! Plus, this model came with what was affectionately called, "The Mother of All Humbuckers." A pickup on an electric guitar converts the vibration of the strings to an electric signal. Originally, the first pickups were single coil in nature. (Check out a Fender Telecaster or Stratocaster - both usually have single coil pickups installed, even in the present-day models.) Unfortunately, if not shielded properly inside the guitar, the single coil pickups can produce a humming noise that can be heard through the amplifier. In the late 50's, a Gibson employee took two single coils, placed them side-by-side, and reversed the polarity. He noted that it canceled the humming noise. It "bucked the hum" and, so, the humbucker was born.


During the 70's, Ibanez played around with putting three single coils next to each other and created this monster that was placed in the IC-210 models. It was known on the streets as "the mother of all humbuckers." It had four positions and could sound like a single coil or a humbucker. It was very versatile. Steve Miller supposedly played this model on the hit song, "Fly Like An Eagle."

When I bought it, I was attending La Tech. However, for a year, I lived at the fraternity house and you can only imagine what kind of treatment it received there. Anytime someone bought some beer or we tapped a keg, ole Catfish would have to get his guitar out and start playing. I'll bet I played Johnny B. Good a thousand times back then. During one of these parties, she received her nickname..."The Bottle Opener." One of my drunken buddies yelled out that the guitar looked like an over-sized beer opener. He was right and she's held the name ever since.

Unfortunately, the guitar shows the wear of all the partying now. She's dinged all over. But the worse thing that ever happened to her happened years removed from my college days. When we moved to our house in Monroe in 1996, I placed the guitar in the attic. I don't know what I was thinking. We moved during August and I'm sure I was hot and tired. Evidently, I wasn't thinking right. The heat has caused the wiring in the mother of all humbuckers to deteriorate and it melted the pickup cover that surrounded it. She still plays okay, but the pickup is crippled and can't give the tones that she originally had.

A few years ago, I took it to a guitar tech and asked him to clean it up for me. He did a good job, but there was only so much he could do. I thought about installing a new humbucker. However, I found out that they only made about 140 of these models and I was advised to leave it alone. So I've left her with original parts. Maybe someday it will become a collector's item. I doubt it, but my kids will have a cool guitar to fight over after I'm dead and gone.

If I had it to do over again, I'd keep the Les Paul copy and never make the trade for this guitar. But, having learned from my previous mistake, I'm not giving this baby up anytime soon. She's doesn't play much rock and roll anymore, but she can still crank it up loud when needed.