Ibanez has teamed up with long-running anime series Dragon Ball Z for a nerd-friendly collection of guitars, a Tube Screamer and accessories.
The martial arts fantasy show ran for seven years and 291 episodes between 1989 and 1996, and has been dubbed in 81 countries across the globe, cementing it as a huge part of Japan’s media heritage.
Ibanez, then, is celebrating its shared Japanese heritage with a surprise collaboration that has some notable players fawning.
The collection comprises two electric guitars – an eye-catching RG with a Son Goku motif, and a Super Saiyan Son Goku-inspired S-type – a Vegeta-emblazoned bass, and a classic Tube Screamer TS808 that gets a more subtle Dragonball theming.
The RG gets a bold, bright orange colorway and is spec'd with a gold Edge Tremolo and Gotoh tuners, a Super Wizard Neck for rapid fire shredding, and a HSH pickup configuration.
There’s a lovely Son Goku design on its black pickguard, and it ships in a hardcase filled with other goodies, including a strap, badges, and a certificate of authenticity.
Elsewhere, the S-Type features full body artwork inspired by Son Goku’s awakening to Super Saiyan, and is simply spec'd with a single humbucker featuring a dragon etching and a T106 hardtail bridge.
But the bass is arguably the prettiest of the trio. It too is geared for easy playing with a single humbucker, slim neck, and a B10 bridge.
Beyond that, there’s a concert-sized ukulele with father and son Goku and Gohan artwork, a piccolo guitar (there simply had to be, given there’s a character of the same name), a soft gig bag, guitar strap, and picks set.
There’s a bunch of t-shirts available, too, but this writer’s dreams of a Freezer-coded seven-string have sadly been dashed.
Yet the pick of the punch might just be the Tube Screamer, which rebrands itself with the Dragon Ball Z font, gets a single-star Dragon Ball led light, and some snazzy side decals. Stevie Ray Vaughan would have lost his mind.
It’s a shrewd move from Ibanez, too, given the huge crossover between the two worlds. The comments on its Instagram posts announcing the collection proves that.
Modenr fusion virtuosos Manuel Gardner Fernanes and Andrew Baena have both expressed their sheer excitement for the tie-in, with Clayton King gushing that “the DBZ RG550 is the greatest thing I’ve ever seen.” Jack Gardiner is even considering switching to bass given his love of Vegeta.
And in true Dragon Ball Z fashion, the announcement ends on a cliffhanger. We’ll have to wait a little longer to learn more, with the collection set to roll out to distributors in 2027.
There will be plenty hoping for some more high-end offerings with stage-ready specs though, we’re sure.
File it under pleasantly unexpected collabs, which have been a theme in recent months, with PRS parking up with Land Rover, Fender getting swish with British designer Paul Smith, and, perhaps most shockingly, Joe Bonamassa and a digital amp.
