What if: Ibanez Q54 Headless with Hard Maple Fingerboard and Vibrato Bridge

We haven’t yet tried a headless electric guitar, but we find the Ibanez headless models among the most intriguing. When we ask ourselves why we haven’t gone so far as to seek one out yet, we wonder what modifications we would make if we could. As we typically do wonder.

We really like the aesthetics of the white ICHI10, so let’s start there.

We’re partial to having a humbucker in the bridge position, so let’s grab one from one of the Ibanez Q54 models:

We also still can’t get onboard with the roasted maple fingerboards, at least not with the way they look. So, what if we used a classic light hard maple fingerboard like the one on the Ibanez RG550?

Probably the main feature that’s a dealbreaker for us regarding the Ibanez headless guitars is the fixed bridge. What we’d love to see is a modern reliable vibrato bridge like the one that Hipshot has been building, often seen on Kiesel headless guitars.

So. Starting with the white Ibanez ICHI10 headless, swapping the medium brown roasted maple fingerboard for a much lighter hard maple fingerboard, dropping a humbucker in the bridge position, and trading the hard tail for a whammy bar, it ends up looking something like this.

What do you think? If Ibanez were to offer a variation like this, would you be interested? We here at Fret5 would certainly like to get our hands on this!