Is This Ibanez Hollow Body A Good Buy?

[soundchaser59]

Ok..... so I'm dinking around town on my "day off" (which is every day at the moment!) and we stop in to the newest latest and greatest music store in town to see what they got!

I dont see anything special, Behr*****ger amps, Danelectro pedals, some nice Fender leather straps, the used Baldwin 6 foot grand needs work but is fun to test drive, a couple of used Crate amps.......and.....

An Ibanez AF75D-TRO hollow body electric, similar to this one in every way (except color).


Here is the sales hype:

-----------------------------------
Big archtop tone for little bucks.
The Ibanez Artcore AF75 Electric Guitar has a fully bound all maple body that provides tight resonance without feedback. This guitar is perfect for that muted jazz tone and fully flexible for everything from alt rock to pounding punk. Mahogany neck with bound rosewood fretboard is a delight to the digits. ACH1 humbucker at the neck and ACH2 at the bridge provide a beefy, quiet signal with pronounced mids.


Ibanez Artcore AF75D Electric Guitar Features:

Maple top, sides, and back
Full hollow, no soundblocks
Mahogany neck
Bound rosewood fretboard
ACH1 humbucker at the neck
ACH2 humbucker at the bridge
-----------------------------------


Any advice or opinions? Why do some of these Artcore guitars say "Mahogany neck" while others say "Mahogany SET neck"? What's the difference? Is this a decent and reliable instrument at a fair price? Or is it a fall apart in 6 months piece of smoked carp? I thought the sound was pretty nice, and it played in tune all the way up and down the neck with leads and chords. It was definitely easy to play and easy to like. Is it sugar coated lemons underneath the shiny coat? Or is it a decent piece of ear candy inside and out? We are only talking about $350 bucks here, but I cant afford to break the bank on the Chet Atkins Gretsch stuff, so if this is worth the price I would probably go for it just to have a compliment for the Strat I already have.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or opinions!

 

[Red Barchetta]

First, the "mahogany neck" and "mahogany set neck" could just be a difference in ad typing, or it could be that the "set" one is a glued in neck, whereas the other is some kind of bolt on neck. If the one you played looked like it had a glued in neck (Like a Les Paul), then it is likely just the different sales bit they put out. If the neck looked bolted on (like a Strat), then that explains the difference.

As far as if its a good guitar for you, you said:

I thought the sound was pretty nice, and it played in tune all the way up and down the neck with leads and chords. It was definitely easy to play and easy to like.

To me, that kind of sums it up. If YOU like it, and it plays good for YOU, and YOU like the tone, and it gives you a complimentary tone to the guitar you already have, then go for it.

It is not gonna be stellar quality at that price, but if it sounds good and plays good...what the hell.

Just my .02

RB

 

[darren]

I've loved almost every Artcore i've tried. Amazing guitars for the money, and because they're relatively inexpensive, they're a guilt-free pleasure!

 

[Anonymous]

if you like that guitar why not?

i had an artcore semi (like es 335) last year. nice woodwork and finishing
if you prefer many patches of wood and glue. ibanez produces them in china
very cheap, btw the price in us is quite high, here in hk we get it
for ~250 US$

the artcore model was looking very impressive - thats why i gave it to a friend
who did what its good for: he hang it on the wall

the hardware got stains immediately, the frets and whole neck are pure
machine work and the sound is (thats why i buy a guitar), to be honest,
thin and like playing on cardboard.

its even not easy to produce a well balanced semi body, even for the experienced
like gibson, gretsch etc. - ibanez is well experienced in this kinda guitar,
thats why i wonder that they accept and publish such a result in their productline.
i owned an ibanez semi in the 80's - it was better than any gibson at that time.

usually the neck is one piece of wood going through from the machine heads to
the back end, the back and front cover and the sides (zargen) are fitted to this.
i assume a set neck means this are then two pieces of wood glued together.

 

[soundchaser59]

Ok, now I have thrown a new twist into this deal..... the other local music store here, the one with the used stuff, has this guitar for $350 with Ibanez hard case included:

(this is the actual axe and case for sale, I played it earlier today)

(and a better photo of an identical model)

This one is semi-hollow, and consequently feels way more solid and sounds and plays much better than the full hollow AF75 at the other store for $450 with case. Plus this one is very slightly used, and I could tell as soon as I started playing it that the original owner had someone set it up. The intonation was perfect all the way up the neck, the frets were dressed, tuning heads are solid with no play in them at all, the bigsby-imitation whammy works fine, stays in tune, perfect action, not a scratch on it, neck is straight, it's 3 years old, made in Korea in November 2005. I believe this guitar was retailing new for about $450-500 bucks. Very tempting. I like it, and I have a pretty good idea what I am and what I am not paying for. So all things considered, this looks and feels like a slightly better deal than the first one I played at the other store.

Looking at the second photo again, I just realized one other reason I like this one better........it doesn't have the "large frets" like the others, it has medium frets. CoooooL! No wonder it played so well for me.

Any more thoughts on this new twist? Again, we are only talking about $350 bucks here, and this would not be my main axe. This thing would only be for some basement recording or lite gigs when the Strat sound just isn't exactly what the bluesy or lite jazzy side of me needs. I would also be tempted to put flatwound strings on this thing.

 

[Red Barchetta]

I think it looks very cool. It has a Gretsch Duo-Jet kinda vibe to it....If it sounds and plays good....go for it!

RB

 

[soundchaser59]

I would certainly be open to suggestions about what kind of pickups to put on the thing. It responds way differently than the Strat to an identical signal chain.

If I had mo $$$$$ mo $$$$$ I would buy the little Fender Frontman amp I used to play the Ibanez! That was nice!

 

[soundchaser59]

Well, I went back to the first store and did another sit down with the first AF75D that I tried a few days ago.

I was not impressed. I know both guitars (the AF75 and the AM78T) are supposed to be Artcore guitars, but man that AM78T is built waaaaaaaayyyyy more solid and precision than that AF75 is. The difference in construction is visible to the naked eye, and you can feel it when you hold it and play it.

The AM78T at the used shop is a much better and nicer guitar. I'm glad I went back, and I'm glad I did some more looking around, cuz that AF75 is just not quite up to my kind of playing. Is that just because it is full hollow? I know the block of wood in the middle of the semi hollow makes a difference, but man the AM78T is just (relatively) flawless when compared side by side with the AF75.

I guess flat wound strings on electric guitars are not very popular. Nobody in town even has a set on the shelf. Got a nice tan suede leather Fender strap for $20 bucks, though!!