Ibanez AF80

Think it was made in Japan. Nice guitar, laminated archtop, I guess you would say that it has a gloss heritage cherry sunburst finish. 2 volume 2 tone knobs. Humbuckers, probably stock (I got this guitar used.) Simple appointments as far as archtops go. Binding, but not a lot of inlay on the fretboard. Stock tuners. Floating trapeze bridge. I think of this as a nice, working class archtop. You wouldn't be ashamed to play it in public for its tone or looks, but you wouldn't be as obsessivly worried about this guitar as you would if you had spent thousands on a handcarved archtop. I think, for price range, it is an excellent value.

I was concerned about the sound for awhile. It sounded, uh, "boingy" or "twangy", but a lot ot that was corrected by upgrading my amp to a Roland Cube 30 and by getting a professional setup and going from roundwound 11's to flatwound 12's. That smoothed it out and gave it a nice string to string balance and a smoother jazz tone. Tones range from the "Ellie Mae Clampett coming down the stairs" smooth tone on the neck pickup that I associate with jazz, to a brighter tone onthe bridge pickup that has just enough twang to make me think of the tone of 60's Chet Atkins records. Sound, Before good amp/string change and setup-7, after-10. Again... this is no high end archtop, but for the money, good value.

Slightly noisy pots, the rest seems passable. I have wondered about what a pickup upgrade might or might not do, but really dont want to put $300 into what was, minus the case, a $400 guitar. Has a couple of nicks near the floating bridge, but you don't really see it unless you are close. Again, the professional set-up really brought out the strengths of this instrument.

I only gig in the bedroom with my dog or wife in attendance. It will stand up to that easy. Seems solid though. The hardware doesn't feel as solid as that on my Taylor 310, but again, for a $400 archtop, this is a very nice guitar

Used guitar, does not apply.

Been playing, uh... 35 years, although that is deceptive, some of that was more like 3 years ten times. Own Taylor 310, Gibson Les Paul Jr. and thats it. I like this guitar, alot. It is my favorite of the three (today), although they each have such different strengths, that to compare them would be kind of silly.

This is an update to my previous review, after playing it for three years and the "new toy" feel is gone. If anyone still cares.

The guitar played much better once I finally got the neck properly adjusted. I still have a problem with high frets; my next project is to take it to a shop and have the frets reseated and properly dressed (might as well have a bone nut put in while I'm at it). I got tired of the cheap tuners and put Schaller M6Vintage (rotomatic copies) on it and am much happier now when I tune it. The old ones felt ... well ... cheap, because they are.

Standard cheap korean switch is awful as usual. I replaced the entire insides with quality pots, switch, and jack and now the mysterious acoustic buzzing has gone away (apparently the cheap switch would resonate under certain circumstances). While I was at it, it replaced the cheap humbuckers (I swear I won't write "cheap" again) with pickups from Harry Haeussel and now IT ROCKS! no sorry, I couldn't resist ... of course there's no comparison between the ... inexpensive ... original units and the new ones. The guitar has virtually no 50 HZ hum anymore, and the neck pickup sounds just the way you (I) want a jazz
pickup to sound.

While I was at it, I replaced the awful speed knobs with bells, and put
strap locks on it. Is there anything original left? hmm ... the pickguard, the tailpiece (probably not for long; it's the last piece of chrome on the guitar, I'll have to put a nickel one on it).

So all of that cost about half of what the guitar cost in the first place; what's the point? We're getting close to the price of a used
Heritage. Yeah, well, I'm stuck with this guitar until further notice as my CFO (chief family officer; i.e., my wife) just doesn't understand my deep need for a class axe so I thought I would make the guitar as comfortable as possible. And the neck is wonderful, very comfortable, and with the new pickups, it sounds good, too. So there you go. If you find a used one for a decent price, buy it. I still like its lack of fanciness, and the guitar has gotten comfortable after three years. I've played a Tele for the last 20+ years, and this is the first "second" guitar that has stayed in my favor for longer than three months. As a matter of fact, it's all I play anymore. Too bad I had
to spend so much money beating it into shape.

1998 Ibanez AF80, Korean made, full-body laminated maple archtop. 22 frets. Standard double-humbucker jazz setup. Pickups are presumably Super 58s, but I don't know for sure. Deep cherry sunburst finish. Rosewood bridge. Unknown Asian tuners, medium jumbo frets, chrome-plated hardware, multiply-bound top, back, neck, headstock, singly-bound f-holes. Came with an Ibanez hard-shell case.

I've been looking for an inexpensive jazz box for about 18 months now, and settled on this one. It gets all the usual nice warm jazz tones; I can also get a nice blues tone from it. My first guitar with humbuckers, and it's peculiar not hearing the hum. I play it through small Fender solid state amps (Champion 110, Princeton 65). It gets the jazz sounds I was looking for.

The action was fine for the light-gauge strings it came with. I use the usual .012-.052 flatwound set, and had to raise it a bit. Pickups needed no adjustment. The guitar contains no serious flaws. The fingerboard binding near the neck pickup is rough, but only noticable if you look carefully. The rosewood fingerboard is also discolored on the bass side, running diagonally from the nut to about the tenth fret. The chrome on the tuning machines (Gotohs?) is very rough. The 18-year old Schallers on my '72 Telecaster still look new, despite hard use. I don't expect these will last that long. The chrome on the trapeze has pinhole rust. The plating on the pickups is ok. The finish is deep cherry sunburst, very pretty.A

The Ibanez is very well made, and has already survived repeated attacks by my young son. No rattles, finish is durable. This is supposed to be my gigging guitar, so we'll see how it works out.

Never dealt with Ibanez or other customer support.

I've been playing since 1973, a variety of styles. My one and only guitar since 1980 has been a '72 Tele, so this is quite a change for me. I've been looking for a archtop for 18 months or so and looked at Epiphone, DeArmond, Cort, Yamaha, and basically anything else built in the Samick factory in Korea. The AF80, which isn't manufactured anymore and this is the only one I've even heard of, is more or less identical to the Epiphone Joe Pass, without gold, and with dots on the fingerboard instead of blocks (both plus points for me). I looked at quite a few Epi JPs, since it's the most common guitar of this type, but the workmanship on those seems to vary quite a bit. My second choice was a Yamaha AEX 520, which is a semi-hollow, bolt-on neck guitar. If the dealer refused to throw in the case, I would have walked and bought the Yamaha (which is 300 marks cheaper). Overall I give this guitar a high rating, because considering what I was willing to spend, and that we are in the lowest price class for an archtop, I got a lot of guitar that looks, sounds, and feels good. If I drink enough, I can close my eyes and pretend I'm Herb Ellis. The sound is there now, if I can only get the fingers to move correctly. In general, I think the Korean guitars are good deals, if you take your time and look carefully at them before you buy.
What do I wish it had? Nickel plating instead of chrome. Single-layer binding everywhere. Nothing instead of the cheesy painted whatever-it-is on the peghead. A bone nut. A Fishman transducer bridge. A switch that makes me play like Howard Roberts.