Ibanez AF75

Laminated maple archtop, full hollowbody guitar. The tuners work!!! And they're stock! Two very nice pickups (for being "stock" Ibanez), although the bridge pickup is rated about 1/2 the neck, when the selector is in the mid position the bridge pickup REALLY adds some character to the mellow and dominating neck pup. A neck that's so smooth it's urgig "play me." The finish--wow, what else can I say--it stood out like a sore thumb at Guitar Center. And they have some FINE guitars there, but not one had a finish like the transparent cherry red sunburst. I've owned this baby for over a year. I've owned three other nice jazz guitars--I'm not naming names, but you guys know who the big brand names are--and this one SMOKES 'em all. In particular, I've played an Epi ES-175 reissue at nearly $150 more than the Ibby...really, if I were Epiphone I'd be embarassed to hear the difference. The pickups in the 175 were totally lame, flat and listless compared to the Ibby AF75.

3- or 4-note chord voicings in mid-ranges yield that acclaimed "scooped" sound. I don't know of any other way of explaining it, you can hear each note clearly among the chord voicing. The clarity is astonishing, but it doesn't become like a shrill harpy nagging you to tears. The neck pickup renders a typically mellow jazz sound, but still retains enough brightness to avert muddiness in the lower registers. Some previous reviewer said the action was too high, well take a gander at the thumbwheels on the floating bridge, dude...whatcha think that's for??? Interestingly, lowering the action via the thumbwheels did a little something special for the sound, too. It seemed to have "rounded out" single notes--made them more complex. Ordinarily I wouldn't give any laminated-top guitar a perfect score in sound, especially when there are solid carved-top guitars around, but since the Ibanez costs about $3200 LESS than the next equivalent upgrade in sound (which in my humble opinion) noticeable to experienced musicians, then I'm going to cave in and give THIS guitar a 10. GOOD JOB IBANEZ!

This guitar is unbelievably well-put-together. I own another Ibanez, and AS73, and it, too, is well-made. The Ibanez Artcore line sets itself apart from other manufacturers because of consistent, high-quality work. Okay, maybe they're not flametop maples, but the stain and paint work is nothing short of a work of art...seriously. You know what I mean when I say that side-by-side, compare a tobacco burst ES175 at an exorbitant price next to a tobacco burst Ibanez AF175--go ahead and do it. You'll see some extremely minor differences, but in terms of manufacturing processes affecting tone, tell me then other than name recognition, why you'd pay so much more for the Gibson. Further, I don't know of any other manufacturer offering so many different color options in their jazzbox lines.

Owned it for a year with no, NO, issues. When you keep things simple, use reliable parts, and have your manufacturing proccessed nailed down to a science, you're going to put out high-quality instruments. Oddly enough, this reason alone is why Ibanez's instruments are inexpensive. Read up on Dr. Edwards Deming concerning manufacturing processes and you'll understand why Ibanez can do it while Gibson can't. This guitar has slowly and quietly become my favorite among a Fender Strat, another Ibanez jazzbox, and an Ibanez SZ model.

Haven't needed to contact them--which again is saying something about how they get it right the first time.

I really am a bit concerned that I come off as "glowing" in my comments, but please understand that I am a harsh critic, a nit-picker. I can only find things right about the guitar's playability, tonality, structure and finish. Who cares among you how long I've played and which toys I have--the winner isn't the guitarist with the most toys, but the one who is most fondly remembered among a stadiumful of outstanding guitar artists--but of the toys I DO have, this guitar alone, if it were the only one I had or the LAST one I owned, is THE GUITAR I pick up when I want to express myself while in a somber mood, or when I want to ad lib on top of a recording. I look at the AF75 this way: Like the girl next door, all grown up, turned into an astonishing beauty, yet an approachable one at that. Unlike the higher-end, high-maintenance model-looks beauty that you'd like to play, but not own (because of the price and the fussiness).

Since I feel that way about a guitar, it's as if it were a person, and I feel that way about a good friend, then this is "The One." I cannot give it any higher endorsement.

Art Core 75 hollow body Electric, more like a plywood acoustic guitar than a Epi or Gibson Dot type. No sustain block. 2 Ibanez pickups of differant models, Groover type tuners, Tobacco burst finish, trapeze tail piece with floating bridge. 2 volume , 2 tone controls

I went to GC to look at a new model Fender Ranger Strat, more on that later, but decided for the AC75. I play Blues and Jazz, this guitar fits the bill. Since both PU are of differant type (EPIs are not) the Bridge has a Lead sound to it, really cuts through. the neck has that tone, with slight OD, Blues tone heaven. The idea on this guitar ssems to be,, if you play Blues, Jazz and Rock, this guitar will fit the bill,, all in style. no need to replace the PUs IMHO..
Unplugged, this guitar sounds more like an Ibenez Acoustic Electric I have. not louder than a solid top acoustic, but like a well built Plywood guitar that happens to sound good.
When I first plated this guitar, had to have it. Only a few guitars I own speak like this one does.

Finish is really nice, no apparent flaws to speak of. Action is a bit higher than I'm used to, but this is not a Strat. Frets seem to be finished well enough and are of equal height on most , except the 13th fret which is a tad high. This is VERY good for a production guitar. Fender and Gibson should take notice of this. Tone and Volume knobs are a bit cheap feeling like on a EPI LP, Selector switch feels solid though. The trapeze tail is not a solid piece, it has a subdued ornate design, no biggie. It seems thick enough and should keep the guitar in tune.

Its really an Acoustic guitar with Pickups. I have a Ibanez PF500 (I believe that is the model). Owned it for years with no issue, I see this guitar holding up the same way

I purchased the GC protection plan for the guitar, I know I know maybe not a good idea but I don't know of any Ibanez service center

I really like this Guitar what more can I say. as to the Fender I was looking at... Fender better do something about their necks for the MIM guitars. I looked at 2 MIM Strats both necks were twisted. I have several American made Strats, no neck issue. For a 600.00 guitar th neck should have no issues. I will not buy another MIM Strat

Red sunburst--hanging up at Guitar Center, making the Epi hollowbodies look just plain ugly!--I had to try it. Classic JAZZ GUITAR (I'm going to say this many times so it sinks into the reviewers trying to make an ES-175 type into a Steve Vai or Slash axe). About 3" deep, not too deep to make playing this JAZZ GUITAR difficult. The usual for the rest: Rosewood fingerboard, decent frets, flawlessly finished and flush with the sides of the neck; impeccable sunburst stain/paint job--juhEEzus it's a beautiful JAZZ GUITAR. Came with D'Addario .010s, just not up to the task for a JAZZ GUITAR. Oh...did I mention it's a JAZZ GUITAR rig--trapeze tailpiece in deco style, tun-o-matic bridge atop a rosewood saddle.

Yes, it's a full hollowbody JAZZ GUITAR and, as such, if you're not careful it crushes you with feedback. The ACH humbuckers are okay, just okay, but seem to do the job for this JAZZ GUITAR. The midrange frequencies are what sold me on this JAZZ GUITAR. I replaced the strings with D'Addario XL .012-.056 gauge flatwounds. Wow, nice sound now. The highs literally "zing" will brilliance (but without piercing your eardrums); the lows are a little muddy, but I'm not a fan of that side of any guitar (unless doing 3-stop chord voicings). Interestingly, it has a bit of a growl on the A through G strings at the lower registers, right in the sweet spot of the neck, around the 6th through 10th frets. Smooth, complex tones throughout without slipping into uncontrollable harmonics.

No problem here. Cosmetically, this JAZZ GUITAR is as beautiful as they come. Even the fake, "pearloid," fret markers don't appear cheap. Soft-as-butter, low-action strings with a slippery neck. I'm not impressed with the finish on the ART1 bridge saddles. I especially like the way the trapezoidal tailpiece provides just the right amount of tension, which accommodates JAZZ and blues playing styles. Were it not for the bridge saddles, I would give this JAZZ GUITAR a 10.

I am certain that the hardware will provide reasonable service--5 to 10 years--without replacement or repair. Everything seems so "tight" for a fairly light instrument. The volume and tone pots--GASP!--actually FUNCTION!!!! There is a noticeable difference between, say, 2 and 3 on the volume knobs as well as a difference between 2 and 3 on the tone knobs. Since a lot of jazz players value a JAZZ GUITAR that can accommodate slight tonal changes, I have to hand this category to Ibanez.

N/A

I won't bother with features, I'm sure it's been covered. Nicely finished hollowbody made in Korea.

I played this guitar in the store unplugged first and it sounded good. I plugged it in and listened with headphones and sounded good. The store was having a big sale and it was so packed it wouldn't have done any good to plug it in without headphones. I dedcided if I didn't like the pups, I would replace them. Took it home, plugged it in and wasn't impressed with the low output pickups so when I took it back for the free setup that came with purchase, I had them put 57 Classic in the neck and a 57 Classic plus at the bridge. WOW! This is a sweet sounding guitar. I have 4 guitars and this is my wife's favorite. Great clean tone, rich and full with cool overtones! With these pickups, this guitar will really rock too, although on some amp settings you can tell its made of cheaper wood. The best part is the clean tone. Before mod, I give it and 7. After the mod, a 9.

The look is what drew me to this guitar. It is very sharp looking and has a beautiful tobacco burst-like finish. I can find no flaws in the finish. The setup from the factory was pretty good, but I had it done professionally as part of the deal and it plays beautifully!

I've had no problems with reliability or durability. I don't have to gig without a backup so I wouldn't, but I trust this guitar. I use the original strap buttons and feel pretty confident in them, although I figure the electronics (other than the pickups) may be on the cheap side.

Never dealt with Ibanez.

I've been playing 24 years. My other guitars are a 50th Anniv American Deluxe Strat, a Gibson ES-335 Satin Finish, and a LP Vintage Mahogany. Each one is a little different from the other, each is for a different mood and style. My amps are a Mesa Stiletto Ace 50W Head into a 1960A cab, and I also have a Fender Deluxe Reverb RI. This Ibanez has the best clean tone of any of my guitars through either amp. Excellent clean tone after putting the Gibson pups on! I compared it to some Epiphone hollowbodies and the Ibanez was a much better feeling guitar in my hands. If it were lost or stolen I'd probably look for something different, but not because I'm unhappy with it. For a cheaper hollowbody I might be interested in a Dearmond T400. For what I paid, this is a great guitar.

Sunburst finish and cream binding is absolutely stunning. 2 humbuckers with individual volume and tone controls. 2 f-holes for acoustic playing. The wood may not be the most costly type but the species used feels top class.

The humbuckers aren't the best, my Gibson SG Standard has much better quality ones. Still they do a good job of making clean and distorted rock tones, though the sound isn't tight enough for metal music. Unplugged the sound is pleasant and makes you want to strum or noodle around. Plugged in you get a rich tone that has alot of hmph to it, it also handles lead lines well. The guitar is perfect but you might want to upgrade the stock pickups.

Out of the box it only needed a little adjustment here and there but overall it is top notch for the money. Fantastic.

If you are going to restring this guitar completely the bridge will move altogether and you will need quite a bit of time to get it back into the right position. You may find you need to slightly retune after playing a song too, The electronics feel sturdy and should hold. I've knocked the guitar a few times but surprisingly didn't find any chips or dings. It is comfortable when standing or sitting.

You will be really surprised by this guitar, it looks stunning and is easy to play. For the price I don't think you can get better and as a main guitar it does a great job. You won't be dissapointed.

Made in China in a laminate maple. As stated by others, this is a pretty typical hollow body Jazz Guitar, single cutaway, two humbucker pickups with individual volume and tone controls for each, trapeze tailpiece, imitation Grover tuners that work just fine and beautiful binding on the front and back sides, neck and headstock. The neck is a little thick for my taste, but not especially difficult to play with smaller than average hands. Mine is in brown sunburst and looks great.

I use this guitar for blues, jazz and a few rockabilly numbers as well. I play through either a Fender Blues Junior for practice or in smaller venues and a Peavey Delta Blues 210 for performing in larger venues. I find that the pickup output is somewhat weaker on this guitar than on my other guitars and have to turn my amps up to compensate for this. Also as with most hollow body electric guitars controlling feedback is an issue when performing live. However, other musicians have told me that it sounds like a vintage Gibson ES 175.

This guitar came set up for 10gage round wound strings which for my taste didn???t produce a jazz box sound from this guitar at all. I set it up to accommodate flat wound 11 gage strings and it now performs admirably. When doing the set up I found the bridge difficult to adjust and noticed that it had a couple of high frets. The former I had to use pliers to get the extra torque needed to turn the adjustment screws and latter I compensated for by giving a little relief to the neck.

The guitar does well in live performances and actually stays in tune better that either of my other two electric guitars, one with Grover tuners and the other with Shaller???s. I usually use more than one guitar when performing live, so having backup guitar is not an issue for me.

I have been playing since the mid 1960???s and spent a little time on semi professional circuit many years back. These days I perform for charity and at open mic nights with my girlfriend on bass, as a blues and rockabilly duo called The Jet Kings.

In addition to this guitar I have an Austin ES 335 copy and a Samick Torino SG copy. Each guitar in my collection are used on specific songs or music styles, as I feel suits them best.

When I compared this with a great many other hollow body electric guitars in the $300 to $500 range, this one out performed them all, including the Epiphone ES 175. While I would rather own a higher end Samick or Washburn hollow body Jazz guitar, or even one of the new Gretsch Eletromatic 5120???s, this Ibanez gave me much more than I was expecting for the money. So, overall I am rating this guitar as a 7, which in my opinion means that while it is not a great guitar, it is a good guitar.

Finish- Laminated Maple top; brown sunburst
Body style- Jazz body style, smaller than dreadnought but bigger than strat
Bridge floating bridge and trapeze style tailpiece
Tuners- grover style, stays in tune very well
Neck- mahogany set-in neck, awesome sustain and quick feel
No accessories
Made in China
22 frets
4 knobs
2 humbuckers
Passive electronics

It has a very versatile tone, can be used for jazz to rock. i play mostly classic rock and alternative and it works very well for me. you can also use some effects and it sounds very good.
I use a Vox AD30vt and a digitech pedalboard
Rich sound with all pickups; evens sounds good w/o an amp
Very wide variety of tones. I love everyting about the sounds

The action was already set-up perfectly.
Set with D'Addario strings, but were old and needed changing
The bridge pickup is at a weird angle but sounds really good
No flaws on cosmetics whatsoever, perfect

This guitar will be perfect for any situation you can think of.
The finish is beautiful(on sunburst model) and it seems like it will last for awhile
The strap buttons are solid and don't need changing
I depend on this more than my parents
I would use it in a gig w/o a backup

Never used

I've been playing for 4 years and i own a deluxe player's strat, a les paul custom and a Gretsch White Falcon. Also own a Vox amp and Some marshalls. My favorite feature of this guitar is you can play it unplugged and it just looks amazing. I just wish it had a stop tailpiece instead of a floating bridge.

Finish orange, made in china, bought at Thomann, november 2006. all features have been indicated by other users. HH configuration, no piezo, this is a pity. a piezo could have given this guitar much more versatility

348 euros

I have around other 8 guitars, but this is the my first hollow. the sound is OK, as acoustic and also as electric. Suitable for jazz, blues, etc.

Given the acceptable quality of the acoustic sound it is a pity that it doesn't include a piezo

The action was tarrible. (around 8mm, more than double than the recomended by Ibanez).

the bridge pickup was in a strange angle, opposite at the expected to be aligned with the strings.

some other flaws. frets & neck were covered with a strange paste, that I supposed were used to polish frets

some scratches in the pickup covers (paf type) as well as in the bridge

the slot for the fisrt string at the nut was oversized in deep. therefor, or the action was kept really high or the first string buzzed, even rested in the first fret

really, this is not the finish you could expect in any Ibanez guitar

It seems ok to play at home, or to be really carefull with it

sent back to thomann. still waiting for the new one (more than 3 weeks in the process till now)

I wanted a jazz type guitar. the look and some good reviews made me choose that one. It is quite pretty, with any doubt, but I think both Ibanez and the stores must put more attention on those annoying flaws that can take you to regret from your choice.

I could expect this flaws in any of those unknown or cheap brands (in fact I own 2 harley bentons, the brand of thomann and both are really good value!) but never in Ibanez

Mines the orange coloured one. I like it better than the tabaco sunburst job. I've got no complains with any of the hardware. Stays in tune. I would have liked a bigsby on it but i can't really use one so that doesn't matter. Very comfy to play sitting and standing.

Well if you ask me it'll play anything appart from metal. Of course too much gain will make it squeal like a bitch but lower amounts can make some nicer feedback. Front pick up is very nice with a bit of chorus. Both together with neck pickup at about 7-8 and a smidgen of overdrive is great for blues. Bridge is a bit crunchy clean though.

Almost pooed myself when i felt the action. lovely dovely. The only problem with mine was the fret marker at the 15th ffret is a bit loose and is peling up.

Strap buttons are great. I'd gig without a a back up even if i had a backup. You could thrash this thing and it'll hold up fine

neve delt with them which is good i suppose.

This is the cheapest hollow body ive heard of and I've been told if you put some gretch pick ups in it you wouldn't tell the differents. If it were stolen i'd hunt down who ever stole it and beat them till they bled out their eyes. all in all it is a lovely guitar and exelent value.

Sunburst model.
2 humbuckers with volume and tone controls for each.
Many tones available.

Unplugged it is quieter than a regular acoustic but it is definetely louder than an unplugged elctric. The sound unplugged is just a basic tone that should suit everyone's taste who are after a jam sound, I play it mostly like this as it's simple to just pick it up and play.
Though plugged in this guitar gives quality clean tones and also quality distorted ones too surpringly, and it doesn't feedback as bad as I thought it would. Both pickups have great individual qualities.
I use a Fender Blues Junior amp and the drive on it suits the AF75 greatly. A great rock, blues and jazz guitar.

The action is just like an electric's, just like my Gibson SG's. I wouldn't think it could be that low on this type of guitar but now I know.
There are 1 or 2 rattlely/buzzy frets but I think a good set up would sort this.
The finish is superb, everything about it, that's what attracted me to this guitar.

No scratchy pots etc and I'd expect it to hold well for many years but I've only had it 3 months so...

One slight downfall is that it goes out of tune a bit after a few minutes of playing but a good set of tuners would sort this. For the price though this was an absolute bargain, it's that good that my mate is going to get one also. If I picked it up in a shop not knowing the price I would say it would cost twice the price I paid. The best value hollow body electric in my opinion.