A lot of players really love the Ibanez Talman line of electric guitars. (I should know – I’m one of ’em and I love my sparkly TC825 with Bigsby). It’s been years since the model was discontinued, and in that time they’ve become highly prized by a loyal group of fanatics. These guitars were made at a time when alternative and grunge reigned supreme, and they blended Ibanez playability with vintage-inspired features and a vaguely Jazzmaster-esque outline. They’re great for alternative, blues, country, indie, classic rock… basically really solid workhorse guitars for anything that requires detail and character. It’s also one of those body shapes that lends itself well to different pickup configurations, which Ibanez experimented with back in the day. We’ve noticed quite a few Talman fans on social media, many of whom have modded their guitars with Seymour Duncan pickups in interesting ways, from P-90s all the way up to active Blackouts. And now the Talman is back with five new Prestige models (and more on the way) unveiled at Summer NAMM last week, all of which feature Seymour Duncan pickups. Let’s check them out!

There are three main models: the TM1702, TM1803 and TM1730. The 1702 and 1730 are each available with your choice of Maple or Rosewood fretboard. And each guitar comes stock with Seymour Duncan pickups: an APTR-1 (Alnico II Pro for Tele) rhythm and lead set for the 1702, an Alnico II Pro set with an SSL-2 Vintage Flat in the middle for the 1803, and a trio of Five-Two single coils for the 1730. The Five-Two is a pretty unique pickup with a dedicated group of fans. It’s designed to give players the punch and attack of Alnico 5 magnets on the three lower strings and the sweeter, more lyrical character of Alnico 2 magnets for the higher strings. This is a great choice for the Talman because it will really show off the range of tones the guitar is capable of.

The three-pickup TM1803 has an especially cool feature that those who are into unconventional wiring setups might like: the middle pickup has its own independent volume control so you can blend it in with whichever pickup setting you’ve selected. Or you can turn the guitar’s master volume down and turn the middle pickup’s volume all the way up to use just that pickup. If you’d like to wire your guitar up with this feature, there’s a diagram in our wiring library to show you how. Check it out here. You can also modify this diagram for use with a three-humbucker guitar. It works out to be more flexible than a switch since you can fade in as much or as little of the middle pickup as you want.

Here’s Premier Guitar’s look at the new Ibanez Talman line from Summer NAMM.

And here’s the entire current line-up.

Which one do you like best?