Product: Ibanez AW100CE (left handed)
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted
02/05/2008
at
11:23am
by
Mike
Features
:
7
This guitar is a good looking guitar- solid spruce top, Fishman based active electronics, dreadnought cutaway and it played decent enough in the store ( bought new at Sam Ash in 2005)I'm not sure of the exact specs but that info is readily available online. I was looking for a decent guitar to use out because I was doing a lot of acoustic solo/duo gigs and I wanted the active controls and the cutaway. I was using a Gibson CL30 and a Guild D4 both with under saddle Fishmans. The Ibanez didn't compare with the playablilty or feel of my other two but I figured with a good setup it would do... Boy was I wrong... On paper the guitar looks great nad the finishes of the guitar appeared to be quality
Sound
:
3
This guitar sounds ok unplugged. It's a little harsh but passable.... I was looking for a decant live guitar so I wasn't worried about it's unplugged sound. Plugged in was where it went downhill... It was harsh and hard to get a balanced tone. Also the individual string volumes weren't balanced. I used it for one set and switched to my Guild. I took the guitar to a tech I use. This Ibanez uses a split saddle- which just looks like it might hsve just been broke. I switched to a one piece saddle and the unevenness of the string volumes got significantly worse. I looked up the replacement saddle and it was a one piece....
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
5
Like I said the finish was actually good. The factory set-up was sub-par but I will usually get my guitars done anyway so that wasn't a huge concern. The Saddle issues as described above were a concern...
Reliability/Durability
:
6
Once set up correctly and all issues straightened out this guitar would probably suffice as a back up or get you through in a pinch. I would not gig only with this guitar though....
Customer Support
:
1
IBANEZ CUSTOMER SERVICE IS AWFULL! There website is hard to negotiate. I tried to register on there online forum to maybe get some info and I kept getting redirected. Multiple emails were never answered... I don't remember what the warranty was nor do I care....
Overall Rating
:
6
I have been playing for around 20 years. Being left handed I don't have the cream of the crop to pick from but have found some great guitars. This was not one of them. I have owned a few other Ibanez's (a few RG series, 570's I believe) and I was never impressed with them. They don't have any real feel or heart...If it was stolen I would look at that as an oppourtunity to get something good. This guitar is a fine beginner guitar once set up correctly. I had the tech at sam ash look at it and he had similar experiences so he was able to straighten the guitar out. It played decent and sounded ok. I have since sold this guitar. Although this guitar, like many others, looks good on paper, It really didn't come through- In short, don't assume a guitar is quality because it has all the "right parts"....
