Tim Henson’s Ibanez TOD10N Signature Nylon-String Guitar

This is Tim’s first-ever acoustic signature guitar, revealed together with his electric signature model, the TOD10, by Ibanez on December 1, 2022. The guitar was based on the Ibanez SC500N, which was a model that Ibanez sold only for two years, between 1998 and 2000. Apparently, it was so unpopular, that the company deemed it a complete failure.

Tim bought one of those guitars while on tour in Cologne, Germany, and ended up loving it. He contacted Ibanez and asked whether they could produce a signature model for him similar to this, and they agreed after Tim sent them a demo of “Playing God”, which he recorded on the SC500N.

In 2020, we were on tour in Europe, we were in Cologne, Germany, and we to a pawn shop. I saw this Ibanez nylon-string, and it was like an S-shaped body and it had a nylon headstock. I picked it up, and it had all the upper frets access…

And I was like – wow, this sounds crazy. Polyphia riffs through a nylon-esque guitar. So, I bough it, it was like 700 euros.

Tim Henson of Polyphia: Redefining the Boundaries of Guitar Playing

Prototypes

The first prototype that Tim received was according to him “amazing but useless” because Ibanez mistakingly glued the bridge in the wrong place. This means that the gutiar just couldn’t be intonated properly, and the higher you would go on the fretboard, the more out of tune you would be.

As far as one can tell, Tim never used this first prototype publically.

Upon returning this first prototype to Ibanez, they made him a second one, and this is the guitar that he used in his YouTube video titled simply “Playing my new guitar” (image below). You can read more about this guitar here – Tim Henson’s Ibanez TOD10N Prototype (The Bread Guitar).

The third and final prototype that Tim received was more or less like the production model. It was finished in black, and it had the “Tree of Death” inlay on the fretboard, the same as Tim’s Ibanez TOD10 electric signature guitar.

Specs

The guitar features a solid Sitka spruce top and Sapele back and sides (Sapele is a tree species native to tropical Africa, very similar in properties to mahogany). The neck is made of Nyatoh, which is another unique choice, with a Walnut fretboard with Tim’s own “Tree of Death” inlay design.

The guitar is equipped with an Ibanez T-bar under-saddle pickup, and Ibanez AEQ210TF preamps, which means that it can easily be used with a guitar amp, and recorded without a microphone.