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Collectable Guitars

Collectable Guitars pt 38 – Ibanez RBM Voyager Reb Beach Model

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Reb Beach was the guitarist with hair metal band, Winger, who achieved a reasonable level of fame in the late 80’s and early 1990’s. More recently he has been a member of David Coverdale’s Whitesnake.

This is signature guitar produced by Ibanez in the early 90’s is probably the guitar Reb is most closely identified with, in particular in his Winger days. Designed by Reb “on the back of a napkin on a plane flight when I’d had quite a bit to drink!” the guitar’s design echoes design features of some of Reb’s favourite guitars of the time, in particular the Steinberger GM model with its rear cutout.

The RBM1 and RBM 2 were the original Japanese models and later came the RBM 10 and 400. All Designed by Reb himself, the Voyagers combine great looks with a good tone. They were made with a Hawaiian Koa top on a mahogany body and a 22 fret maple neck with Bolivian rosewood fingerboard (also known as Pau Koa) and round clay dot markers.

Early models were fitted with EMG pickups; and 85 humbucker and two single coil SAs. Later models had Ibanez single coil SB10 pickups on the neck and middle positions and an Ibanez HB10 humbucker on the bridge. Early original models had a locking Floyd Rose tremolo system while later cheaper models were fitted with Ibanez’s own floating Lo-Pro trem. Most models came with gold hardware. Top of the line models were the Japanese made RBM2NT down to the Korean made RM10 model

The RBM model was Made in Korea at the Cort factory, and is pretty rare today. Quality is good, (being an Ibanez guitar) and the body shape is unusual without being too outlandish.

These days Reb has an endorsement deal and signature model with Suhr guitars, but still plays an RBM live ocasionally

5 replies on “Collectable Guitars pt 38 – Ibanez RBM Voyager Reb Beach Model”

Hello, I was wondering if you knew how I could cross reference my Ibanez Reb Beach Voyager Guitar?? The Serial number on the neck is F119257. I was told it is a Model RBM2NT. Can you help me .
Thanks ,
Jeannia

I have one!
My RBM400 was made in Japan! and has the Ibanez pickups not the active ones (I think it’s better that way and I know that Reb will disagree with me)
I got it in Israel while I was working in a big musical instruments store, there were 25 that came to Israel in a shipment I ordered all of them to the store and took the best overall sounding and build one
we sold the rest of them in less then 2 weeks it is by far the best sponsored Ibanez ever made better then the Jem JS PG etc.

I wonder what is the price for my guitar today back then it was 12.000 INS = $4.500
The korean RBM 400 came later on before they stopped making them all together in around 1995 and sold for $500 to $700
I want to sell mine
give me an offer

Has anyone see the video interview with Norman Harris shown on http://www.vintageguitarexchange.com? Pretty cool. Harris talks about how he got started which in his case is very interesting and at the end shows 2 amazing guitars including a 1960 Les Paul with original “hang tags”.

In answer to Jeannia… the serial number only indicates the year of manufacture.. your serial number indicates that is a model made in 1991. Knowing that is 1991 we can say that withouth watching a picture could be a RBM1 or RBM2NT. To know for sure if yours is a RBM2NT just see on the body that must be Natural Finish if you can realize that body is only one piece of wood or in fact there are two different sections, the upper one thinner than the rest. If yours has two different woods is the RBM2NT version with the Koa top and mahogany body, if not it´s another model. Cheers¡¡¡

Looking to find the value of my Ibenez RBM10 series C473449. It is in excellent condition,all original, Black and Gold. I checked about 5 years ago and it was $1,400.00. Can you tell me what it’s worth today?