Ibanez AW12-NT

Well I will just try to add to the existing reviews that I completely agree with. This is a basic guitar with no add-ons, just how I like them. Mine is the black model and has a glossy finish on the body and matte finish on the neck so that your sweaty left hand can slide up and down with ease.

You can see the wood grain of the solid top through the finish which I guess is good since it shows they didn't put too thick a finish on. The tuners are excellent - actually better than the Grovers I have on my more expensive guitar. I find the Grovers too high-geared.

The guitar has a very pleasant sound. I bought mine for $100 on Craigslist as a "beater" guitar to take on my frequent work trips to Jamaica. I would agree with the assessment that it has nice trebles, reasonable bass oomph for a guitar with laminate sides and back and muted mid-range. Overall it has a pleasing sound and I enjoy listening to it as I play.

I have what I assume is a stock model with no custom luthier mods. It has a very nice action, easier to play than my EZ-play Zager which is much vaunted as being easy to play. Bar chords are achieved without exhaustion and I seem to be a better player when I pick up this instrument.

Fit and finish are very good for the price.

The guitar is well made and survived storage in a Florida garage by the original owner ( which is why I only paid $100 for it ). Hardware is good and finishes are durable

You can only get these guitars used now. Much better to buy this than a new Yamaha or Fender if you have $200 to spend of a knock about guitar or if you are looking for a 1st guitar to see if you really want to dedicate yourself to learning the instrument.

There's no other review for this cheap, rather finely made import so here goes. The body is gloss finished. Solid spruce top. Dreadnought shape. The tuners, which are surprisingly good, are Ibanez in-house made die-cast enclosed and they work really very well. I'm an old fashioned guy, and I don't expect to find tuning machines of this quality on a cheap guitar.

The neck is the 25.5" "Martin" neck scale. It's pretty substantial width-wise, and fairly deep so it's a handful, but not too much so. I got no accessories for it as I bought it used from a luthier who'd had one of his students upgrade it. I bought an inexpensive hard case for it for about $60. I don't know how old the guitar is or where it was made, but I suspect Pacific Rim origin.

The student-done upgrades are these: Leveled and crowned frets, bone nut, compensated bone saddle, ebony bridge pins. Golly-Bob, Howdy does that work make a difference.

It has 22 frets, I think, but it's at home right now and I'm not, so don't hold me to that number. Body joins neck at fret 14. There's no cutaway, so the number of frets after 14 is just academic IHMO.

There's no electronics, no tuner, no EQ. It's just a guitar. The body is nominally mahogany, but it's stained pretty dark so it looks more like a rosewood color. Anyway, it's got laminate sides and back so what it looks like is also sort of beside the point. The top is solid spruce, as I said.

There's basically no "features" so I'm not giving it a score here. But it's a great piece of cheap guitar manufacture and I'm very glad I own it.

It sounds like a Martin. Well, sort of. I'm told they sound great. Back when I was in college, all the rich kids' parents had bought them D-28s. I didn't like the way they sounded. Still don't. I say it sounds like a Martin because it has a bit more high end, and about as much bass as you can get out of a plywood body. Very little midrange, compared to my all-solid wood Gibson J-50. Based on that acoustic profile (good clean treble, bass you can feel, minimal mids) I say it sounds like a Martin. Others might disagree.

Probably because of the upgrades, it sounds and plays like about an $800 guitar. Considering I paid $275 for it used, I'm very happy with the way it sounds.

Suit my style? Well, my style is that I like to be able to play the guitar whenever I have time, but I own guitars I wouldn't take to the beach or to a campfire. I bought this one for that purpose, and it serves admirably in that role.

I can't vote for its "sound" either, because it was modded when I bought it, and I don't know what it sounded like from the factory.

I know nothing about the factory set-up. Like many inexpensive guitars, this one benefitted from an expert "advanced" set up with major upgrades. It plays very easily for a long scale 6-stirng dreadnought that is slightly neck-heavy.

However, I will vote on Action, Fit, and Finish because this guitar is amazingly well made. My luthier friend has each of his students buy one of these guitars, or one like it, and upgrade it for several reasons. One is that they will then learn what benefits flow from which upgrade jobs. Second is that the student needs to learn what standard to shoot for in building custom guitars. If you can't build one that's this tight and right, then no one will pay you $2,000 to make them one. Why would they, when anyone can buy a very well made low end instrument for $300 or less?

This guitar is amazing. I'm surprised anyone can make money building and selling a guitar like this for the price it sold for new, which I'm told is about $250-300.

This guitar is strong like ze bull. I wouldn't be afraid to play it in a bar. The hardware is solid. The finish is one of those bullet-proof poly jobs that is very durable. The strap buttons are fine. I wouldn't use it on a gig without back-up, but then I don't gig at all anymore and I have a second acoustic 6-string, so I won't need to use it without back-up. Actually, it probably would be the backup.

When I got this guitar it had been hanging in my friend's office for months without a case or humidifier to care for it. It was thoroughly dehydrated as can only happen here on the Sonoran desert. It survived that, so it's pretty tough.

Used guitar=no warranty. I don't care. It's solid, and I have a good luthier and a good luthiery school to rely on for repairs. No score here, as there's no support available from Ibanez. That's not a knock on Ibanez. It's just the way it is.

I've been playing nearly 40 years. I own one other very nice, and expensive, all solid wood acoustic 6-string. And three electrics; one plain and two fancy.

I have no regrets about buying this guitar. I wanted a beater, and I was hoping to find one that had the shorter 24.75" "Gibson" neck scale. That didn't work out, but this guitar is a great beater for a very nice price. It pays to have friends in the business.

If it were lost or stolen, I'd lobby the bride hard for permission to buy a replacement. I couldn't get another one of these, though, because Ibanez no longer makes them.

What I love about it is how fine it is for the money. What I don't like is the longer neck scale, but the more I learn how to play the more manageable that becomes. I chose it because it had been seriously upgraded and played like a dream for very little money. The bloom's not off that rose yet.

The insight I will share is that if you know of someone who can do the work right, buying an inexpensive solid-topped guitar and having the upgrades I listed here slapped into it will net you a very nice instrument. You should be able to get a bone nut and saddle made for about $100. Quality bridge pins are less than $20 on any street corner. Leveling and crowning the frets is also probably another $100 or so. Watch out for cheap bad tuners on cheap guitars. If you have to replace the tuning machines, you shouldn't buy that guitar. I'd recommend an Ibanez for a start. Be careful about the bridge pins. Some Ibanez models have cylindrical bridge pins. If you upgrade them, be aware that most replacement bridge pins are tapered so you may have to have your bridge reamed out.

This is a great "second" guitar at a great price. It's a little neck heavy, but it's a dreadnaught so it's quite easy to control. Mine is heavily modified, but all to great effect.

Gloss poly finish on the box, satin poly on the neck. Rosewood bridge and fretboard. Stock fitting is plastic nut and bridge saddle, cylindrical string holes and cylindrical plastic bridge pins with no slots in the bridge. Very nice Ibanez made-in-house diecast tuners. The bound neck is the Martin 25.4" scale. It's not too fat or wide and I like it even though I really try to avoid these long scale guitars.

I bought it used and I have no idea when it was made. The serial number is stamped on the inside and is illegible, though I've tried with a mirror and a flashlight. 22 frets, solid spruce top. Body is laminated wood and seems to be mostly mahogany.

The guitar has a very nice loud clear voice. It's had some mods done to it before I bought it and these contribute to its distinctly clear and clean sound. I play it with .011s. The luthier I bought it from told me it would handle .012s, but probably not .013s. No problem. I hate fat strings. I don't want playing to be that difficult. I think I'll stick with .011s.

I like the sound, and the bargain price for a solid top and quality tuners. I dislike the longer neck scale but it's a common place and this is only my beach and campfire guitar so I can live with it. The bass is a little unfocused, but again it's a cheap guitar and the sound is better than I expected.

This guitar was a "project" guitar for a student of a luthier friend of mine. The student bought the guitar stock, and then fitted a hand made bone nut, and hand made compensated bone bridge saddle. Then he leveled and crowned the frets and tweaked the truss rod to optimize the playability of the guitar. That's about $150 worth of work, but the result is amazing. The guitar plays and sounds very, very nice and intonates beautifully.

The fit and finish of the factory's work is incredibly well done. The guitar is impeccably turned out down to the last detail. You didn't used to be able to buy guitars this well-made in this price range. It's a new world out there.

This is a reassuringly solid and well-built guitar. I expect it will last a long, long time. But I don't really know so I'm guessing here.

I don't expect I'll get much customer support for two reasons. I didn't buy the guitar new, and I don't think they make this guitar any more.

High marks here, and not just because mine is modified to be better than stock. New, you could have bought this guitar for about $235 when they still made it. That's a great price for the quality in this instrument. I've been playing for 35 years. I own a Gibson Montana made acoustic as well as this Ibanez, plus more electric gear than is relevant to this revieiw.

If I'd known about the cylindrical bridge pin holes in the unslotted bridge I would have been spared a surprise. When I bought ebony bridge pins for it, they were tapered and wouldn't fit in the holes right because there is no taper in the cylindrically bored bridge. I paid a luthier a very small amount of money to fit the pins by reaming the bridge.

I love the high quality and the low price. I hate neck heavy guitars, but the technique for controlling this one is simple so I can live with it. My favorite feature on this guitar is the amazing quality of the Gotoh-like Ibanez tuners. Followed closely by the high quality finish and craftsmanship.

I didn't really comparison shop this buy. My friend the luthier called me and offered me this guitar, modified and upgraded as described, for $275 with no case. That's not a price I could beat at retail for an instrument this nice. I bought a new hardshell case from an Ibanez dealer for $59. Smokin' deal on a very, very nice second guitar.

I'm giving this guitar a very high rating, even for the stock instrument. It's very well made. You have to look at guitars like this one if you want an inexpensive quality dreadnaught.
Lost or stolen? Well, there are inexpensive short scale guitars out there now, and I'd have to look at them if I had to replace this one. And if my wife would let me. I'd look at whatever Ibanez has to offer in this price range for sure.