![Pat Metheny transforms budget versions of his Ibanez signature guitars into art pieces.]](https://backingtracksfullcollection.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Pat-Metheny-transforms-budget-versions-of-his-Ibanez-signature-guitars-758x426.jpg "Pat Metheny transforms budget versions of his Ibanez signature guitars into art pieces.] 1")
A world-class guitarist rarely asks a brand for cheap versions of his own signature model… just to turn them into sculptural artworks. However, that’s exactly what Pat Metheny enjoys doing in his free time – the little he has between launching a record label, Uniquity Music, and releasing a new album, Side-Eye III+, that is.
“I get Ibanez to send me these cheap, $400 PM35s, the budget version of my signature model, and tell them not to put any finish on them,” the guitarist recently told Prog. “Then I set about them with a wood burner in various ways.”
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Sculptural art aside, Metheny also has another job title on his resume – being a D’Addario “string tester.”
“We do a great deal of testing with our artists,” CEO Jim D’Addario disclosed last year. “I’m not going to say that some are ‘better’ at it, but they’re more valuable testers because they actually take a more objective and scientific approach to evaluating what you’re asking them to test.”
