Grateful Dead Music Forum

I have an 81 Ibanez AS200. Great guitar. Scofield has said the early 80s Ibanez guitars were much higher quality than what Gibson was selling.

that guitar is beautiful, I cant wait to upgrade my axe to something on that level. I have a AG series Ibanez right now, and I absolutely love it. It has a faded look, which is I think is pretty unique considering I havent seen another one like it. gotta love semi-hollowbodies!

strumminsix wrote:Hajimemashite, I'm glad you are happy but I still stand behind my statement of questioning every guitars build quality.

Ibanez makes FANTASTIC gear. However, they've put out some real crap too. Many of the smaller semi-hollow bodies were too neck heavy to play comfortably. I'm not the only one who has said that either.

IMO, a quality build should result in a well balanced guitar.

i agree, doesnt matter if it's made by fender, gibso or prs, you have to inspect the guitar. there can always be duds...for an example i was looking at a SG yesterday and the strings we miss alligned...

if you or anyone is interested in buying a guitar, bring someone with you that plays and ask them what they think. they may spot something you are not seeing or feeling. sometimes we get blinded by the price and shinnyness of the new guitar...

I have the AS73... awesome guitar; it looks great, its very light, the bridge makes switching strings so much quicker. It has a nice construction and it sounds great too, I wish I had a decent amp to play it through. I got it for $275 at a Guitar Center. It was basically the cheapest guitar there and probably a better buy then a Mexican strat(about $450 I think). I definitely recommend the Artcore guitars.

I had one for a little while. Definitely a very nice ax for the price!

I agree with the idea that you should closely examine the quality of EVERY guitar before buying it, ESPECIALLY if you are buying it from somewhere like Guitar Center, and even more so if the price seems to be a bargain. When I bought the guitar I am playing now, I was in Guitar Center and they had a nice Gibson, I can't remember the series, maybe SG? I was thinking this should be a $1500 guitar and they have it on sale for $1200. So I play the thing for a while off the bridge pickup and it feels really nice and has a nice meaty tone like one would expect. So I switch to the neck pick-up and the thing is just dead, hardly makes any sound at all. So, bad pick-up, right? I tell the salesman that it has a bad pick-up and he just looks at me and in total dead-pan matter-of-fact tone says "Really? Well, you might be right." and puts it back on the wall where I found it. Caveat emptor!

I've had my AS 73 for a couple of years now. For the money these Ibanez guitars can't be beat. I've since changed the pickups to a set of Vintage Vibe P90 humbucker sized and now this thing can be extra sweet or roar like a beast.

I have a AFS85T. Very good guitar for the money. Only complaint is the frets are a little dinky for my taste.