Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith's Ibanez Destroyer has survived breakages and acts of god but, over 40 years after he got it, is still going strong.
The Jackson signature artist is usually seen shredding his Floyd Rose-equipped, Strat-gone-metal axe on stages with the British metal heavyweights, with his bandmates sticking with Fender’s recipe instead. But he does deviate for certain songs.
Before the American luthier caught his attention, he was playing another American-built electric guitar, the Gibson Les Paul. He was, in fact, headhunted by the firm’s founder, Grover Jackson, and he made the switch because he felt his guitars were better suited to the rigors of the road.
His first signature model arrived in 2007, but decades before that, Ibanez had been sniffing around and got a Destroyer, its take on the Explorer, into his hands.
“I got this the first time we went to Japan,” he tells Ola Englund during a new rig rundown video. “It would have been ‘80 or ‘81, and the good people of Ibanez came down to see us, and they gave me this guitar. I couldn't believe it. Someone actually gave me a guitar!
“I don't know what this wood is,” he says with a shrug. “I mean, it's not like a high-quality wood. I thought it was a cool shape, and it played alright. It plays pretty well still for 40 years old.
“I actually dropped it at a gig in America in the '80s and broke [the bottom horn on the treble side] off,” he reveals. “So we glued it back on.” Its stripe was added during the operation to hide its scars.
Though he liked it initially “for the nostalgia,” the guitar, which features a pair of DiMarzio Super Distortion humbuckers installed at a later date, became his main guitar alongside his trusted Les Paul Goldtop throughout the '80s.
“I probably recorded 'Number of the Beast' on this; the song, the solo, and everything,” he goes on. “I definitely use it in the video.”
Today, the guitar is still wheeled out to play the track from their 1982 breakthrough album of the same name. And it’s been through the wars over the years.
“It was in a flood,” he says. “It was all green,” and a chunk of paint on its backside has chipped away. “It shows you how much I’ve used it,” Smith laughs.
It shows that price doesn’t always equate to quality, a sentiment that Jack White can attest to, having shot to fame while playing a cheap giber glass guitar.
Equally, Alex Lifeson says his first guitar, bought by his parents for just $57, still plays a role in the studio. He says he wants to be surprised by guitars, which is why his budget builds remain by his side.
Smith has also revealed that two strokes of luck, one at the behest of a Roland guitar synth, led to him writing two of Maiden's biggest hits.
