Ibanez AR250

I bought this used for $100. At the time it wasn't working but it was a simple wiring problem. It has 2 passive open humbuckers with 2 vol and 2 tone controls, 3-way selector, beautiful sunburst finish on a maple top and mahogany body with cream binding on the body and neck, set neck and hardtail. Korean made but with a lot of attention to quality. Looks and sounds great. I replaced the bridge p/u with a Seymour Duncan. She really sings now.

I play rock, blues, some heavy stuff and so on with a myriad of effects: comp, distortion, od, flange, chorus, envelope filter, vibrato, reverb, etc. All through a small (30watt) class A tube amp. This is a pretty versatile guitar; I can play The Cure, New Order, then AC/DC, Black Sabbath, ZZ Top and so on. The original p/u have a nice fat sound to them but the bridge sounds even better with the SD. Now it can get more of the highs as well as the fat.

I bought it used so I had to reset everything myself. Everything was easily adjustable. But she's like butter now.

This guitar seems to pretty steady. I don't know what it went through in a previous life but it looks good except for some minor cosmetic stuff. Of course, the head stock will probably snap if it falls like similar guitars.

I feel really lucky to have found this guitar. It's a keeper. My wife wouldn't let me spend a bunch of money on another guitar and this one satisfied my Les Paul itch. Probably wouldn't get much for it if I tried to sell but it completes my collection (Epi Sheraton II, and an Alvarez Custom Classic w/ mods) and I love building these things up with mods. I'd like to replace it if it were stolen. In fact, I'm on CL looking at a AR300 from '79.

2001 Korean made model with transparent red finish and cream colored edging. I purchased this in 2002 with the hardshell case for around 450$. I thought it was a deal and it sure beat the hell out of my old beaters.
I really fell in love with the finish first, then the price tag and ultimately the sound. It came with the AH series of pickups, the bridge was replaced with a PAF Pro.
The VVTT setup is a must for me and I don't think that I would ever buy another without that set up.

I play mostly rock/blues/classic rock and it works great. I wouldn't know about metalish type musics.
Like I said, I changed the bridge pickup to a PAF Pro, it lessened the trebleness of the sound and increased the output a weebit. I also do agree with the other reviews that the neck pickup has a solid creamy dark sound that is just fantastic for when the situation arises.
The pots need(ed) to be replaced, they don't swell enough and the sound/tone is very abrupt when you dial them down.

The guitar was set up descent, the intonation needed to be fixed and there wasn't any string buzz.

I've played this guitar live for 5 years and I only have a few dent's on the top of the guitar, you have to hold it at an angle to view them so for me it is no big deal.(If I had a guitar I was that worried about it wouldn't leave the house and then what would be the point?)
I took it into a friends shop and had a bone nut put on, new bridge, and had him tweak it up a bit.

NA

I love this guitar, especially after you mod it to fit your needs. It looks great, plays great, and it feels great. I've always wanted a LP but it seems that this guitar has filled that spot for me. I would like to buy another one of these as well as the hollow body version they made

I bought this guitar in the spring of 2005 and it had been sat in the shop for sometime so im guessing its around 2 or three years old. As specs for this guitar are listed previously I shall not bore you with the technicalities..its your usual 2 x humbucker, 2 x tone, 2x volume, Les Paul set up with a STUNNING flamed maple finish. The guitars body thickness in nice and slender so despite being a mahogony body, its nice and light and is contoured to minimise chaffing on the poor old rib cage. The maple cap has a slight arch to it like all good Les Paul wannabes should be and the neck profile is nice and wide with a flat radius...reminiscant of a Gordon Smith guitar I once owned..All in all its a beauty on the asthetics side of things.

I play a great deal of rock and such so this guitar suits my needs quite well but i have recently purchased an ibanez rg which frankly outshines the artist in the rock department. I find that comparing the artist to a 'Balls out' Rock machine leaves the artist sounding a little weak. The neck pick up is the nicest of the two and has a great tone with bags of sustain but the bridge pick up is thin and weedy and just doesnt punch through.....If replaced with a duncan or dimazio pick up i feel this guitar would benefit hugely. My one serious complaint would be the Appalling quality to the electronics and the pots.....they are NOISY AS HELL and sometimes dont work at all...the decrease of tone and volume as you rotate the controls is sudden and a real disappointment....The electrics in general are ATROCIOUS.

Guitar was set up nicely from the factory and is great to play as long as you dont plug the thing in and have to listen to those pots... but finish and fit is nice and this guitar really looks the business.

Everything on this guitar tells me that physically it will take some punishment live... The neck is a little to easy to bend back but im guessing its just a pliable wood.... the only let down are the awful electronics but I guess I just was unlucky and found myself a dud.... with a few pounds spent on new wiring and pots we should be rocking and rolling with no problem..

No dealings as yet so could not comment

I have been playing nearly 15 years and the guitar is one of many I have owned. For an entry level price you get one hell of a guitar (as long as the electrics on yours arnt as shoddy as mine were). I have to say I absoloutely LOVE the finish..and it plays nicely too but if it were lost or stolen I would probably select another Les Paul Type guitar as its replacement. For the money, I would save bit more and get another RG or at least shop around for another glued neck, Maple cap affair...it was the finish on the artist that has convinced me not to sell it...nothing else..

Pair of humbuckers, volume and tone for each and a three way toggle switch. Very pretty vintage sunburst color on a maple capped mohogany body with nice comfortable body carves. Nice one piece mohogany set neck with excellent action. Very comfortable to play.

Only one strike against it is the ABR "Tune-O-Matic" bridge. This model bridge sucks on any guitar it's installed on. Ibanez would do well to drop using the "standard" bridges and stay with there own Gibraltar II bridge on all there guitars. I take a point off for using the ABR bridge, otherwise this guitar would of rated a ten.

I removed the ABR Tune-O-Matic bridge and redrilled the body for the Gibraltar II bridge. It was well worth the effort. The Gibraltar II is one of the best bridge designs I've ever played and Ibanez should stick with it.

Like the previous reviewer, I have another set of pickups, DiMarzio PAF Pro's that I may put in this but the original humbuckers sound pretty sweet so maybe not.

Out of the box it was fine. As I stated above the only complaint I had was the ABR bridge. After upgrading to the Gibraltar II bridge, I rate this as excellent however I leave the score down to the "out of the box" rating.

I was sceptical about these Korean made Artist's, I have a couple of the older MIJ Artist's that are just plain sweeter than sweet but they are both also heavy as sin. The older I get the more weight matters. These Korean Artist's have thinner bodies and therefore weigh less. This is great for long gigs. I was suprised at how well these Korean Artist's are made. Worth every penny even when you account for the cost of upgrading the bridge.

Ibanez was very helpful to provide the part number for the Gibraltar II bridge assembly. So much so that I also purchased the Quick-change II tail piece to complete matching this newer MIK Artists to the old MIJ Artist specs. I've included the cost of upgrading the bridge in the "price-paid" area above.

The only reason I purchased this was because I got a good price on it. It was a floor model that was more than a few years old and the shop included the Ibanez AM50C hardshell case in the deal. Overall, I am very satisfied with this guitar.

I am a part-time professional guitarist and have been playing and gigging for over 30 years now. I've always preffered the Artist over the Les Paul, it's just more comfortable to play and a little bit easier on the wallet.

Double Cutaway maple top Ibanez claims to be 1/2" thick and a mahogany back with a nice body contour for easing the pressure on your ribs (very nice), wide radius fingerboard (15" I think) with a solid maple neck set into the mahogany body. Rosewood fingerboard with just a small hint of filler (typical of Korean-made guitars), and the old-style headstock, which I like much more than the newer ones that look like inflamed vaginas. The finish is a nice honey sunburst similar to my McCarty Burst on my PRS. I bought this slightly used, and I do mean slightly because I could find no signs of player wear and tear at all. I got a hardshell case out of the deal too, which is an added bonus for a guitar that costs less than $400.00 Set up already with 10s and is represented by two Ibanez humbucking pickups and their bridge, which kind of looks like a midget tune-o-matic. I'm not sure of the tuners, but they seem to work very well. Not tons of features, but the quality control over at Ibanez is obviously very good. The appointments are nice, and for a standard double-humbucking guitar, it's a very impressive instrument.

I have a set of Seymour Duncan '59s that I plan on installing once my Seth Lovers come in for my SG, but to be honest, these stock pickpus are quite good. They seem pretty balanced and don't persuade my amp to lean towards ultra-high midrange or trebly harshness. I could be entirely happy keeping these stock jobs in permanently, but I can only guess the '59s will make a really good sounding guitar sound great. This guitar does offer a nice, warm tone that's a little more focused than my SG, perhaps because of its maple top. It's not quite Les Paul like, but the body is a bit thinner than a Paul's, and as a result, it's quite a bit lighter. The sound is actually pretty close to my PRS McCarty. Their bodies are about the same in thickness, and that would translate the similar tone. I would have to be honest and say in a blind fold test, I could just as easliy pick this guitar over much more expensive models if I were to base it on playability and tone. In fact, I've played and owned more expensive guitars that don't sound as good as this guitar does. Very impressive.

To the contrary of some other reviewers, I lucked out with this guitar. Being slightly used, the previous owner either had it set up with 10s or it just happend to come out of the box in excellent condition. My guess is he had it set up. I picked up this guitar and thought I'd just see if I like it, because if I did, I would just get a brand new one from AMS as they are closing them out. But, something happened when I picked this one up. It just felt like it had a little something extra that I wasn't expecting. It also had a spectacular feel and playability to it, and despite trying other guitars in its price range, I kept coming back to this one. Through any amp I tried, it sounded very good. I also am wondering what some of these other reviewrs are talking about when they complain about the balance. I think the weight ratio across the whole guitar is fine. Plus, with the body contour, this is a very comfortable guitar to play. It also feels much lighter than a Les Paul. Go plug into a Les Paul and see just how balanced that big thing is. I used to think rock stars played their Les Pauls with the lower bout pointing downwards because it made them look cool. Now I know it's because the body of the guitar wants to drop to the ground like a freaking concrete dart. In other words, the balance, to me, seems fine and is very comfortable. It's not as light as my SG, but it's close.

I am also very impressed with the aesthetics, appointments and attention to detail. No shortcuts here folks. You can't say that about every Asian-made guitar. Hell, you can't even say that about some American-made guitars (Gibson, are you listening?) I love my SG, but the tone knobs are very loose, and the pickup switch makes a terrible scratchy noise when I get my hand close to it. The tuning seems very stable and all the hardware appears to be of decent quality.

I don't know. I've never played with it live. I did buy this guitar to take on the road with me when I travel for business. I tried the Squire route, but absolutely hated the tiny neck and crappy hardware, so I sold that and decided to compromise between affordable, but playable and this is where I'm at. I also intend to use this guitar for garage jams, but as good as it sounds and as playable as this thing is, It gets as much playing time as all the other guitars I have. The 59's will make this a serious gigging and recording axe too. Everything appears solid and well-made. Are the pots the ultra-top-of-the-line? Probably not, but they don't appear to be the super cheap ones either. Neither do the tuners or other hardware. I would confidentally use this guitar at a gig without a backup or anywhere else for that matter.

Never had to deal with them, and I am not sure about the warranty since I bought it used. Don't care though as it seems solid and has been played for a while, so I'll worry about that on my own.

I have to rate this highly. I started out looking for a travel and practice guitar that I actually wouldn't want to throw in the trash after 5 mins. of playing (thank you Squire!), and I ended up with a great sounding and highly playable guitar that is actually challenging my higher-end axes. I've heard very good things about Ibanez. Not just of late, but they've always been meticulous with their quality control. I mean, they make some real beaters you can go pay $200.00 for new and you run into similar limitations as I did with the Squire, but for a mid-priced guitar that I got for nearly half of what they used to sell for new and a hard case, I am really pleased with my purchase. It's a shame Ibanez discontinued these, but I think they have an alternate all-mahogany model and then they also offer similar maple/mahogany versions with more delux appointments and a higher price tag. This guitar is a real sleeper and is a great deal for anybody wanting a dual humbucker guitar with the maple/mahogany body combo. And as I said earlier, the stock pickups and hardware are good. Personalize it with your own pickups of choice and throw a Tone Pros bridge and some Grover Tuners, you now have a professional-grade instrument that you can be proud to play alongside with anything out there.

A 2001, Korea, 22 frets, solid body maple archtop on mahogany, double humbuckers, double cutaway. same specs as the reviews below.

the sound is great for rock, rock and roll, blues, etc. i play through fender solid state amps. not noisy at all. gives the basic les paul rich full and bright sounds. because of the maple top, it is crisper than the Gibsons i've had that are all mahogany-- Les Paul special double cutaway and Gibson SG gothic. works well with distortion too. lots of variety. i switched out the bridge with a Seymour Duncan JB under the assumption that it would be a good upgrade, can hardly tell the difference, which tells me the original stock pickups don't need to be change since they are comparable to the Seymour Duncan JB. Stock pickups 9, JB 9.5

I adjusted the bridge and saddles to get better intonation and action. it was okay before but better now. it is typical of lower priced guitars to have to do some adjusting. because it has such a great neck, it is capable of very low action. has beautiful bookmatched maple top. bridge is properly routed, no flaws. seems high quality overall. extremely smooth neck, plays well the whole length.
nice weight, not too heavy like les pauls. better balance than my gibson SG Gothic which is also great guitar but cost more, better finish than my gibson SG.

seems very durable excellent for live playing, durable hardware, excellent finish that looks like it will last, as i said better than my gibson SG by far. strap buttons look solid. overall, dependable. i'd give without a backup for amateur sets, for paid sets i always bring a backup in case a string breaks.

never used

overall, this is an outstanding guitar, especially for the price. i've been playing for over 20 years. I have owned about twenty guitars, including gibson les paul special, gibson SG, gibson firebird, strats, teles, jazzmaster, ESP and two 70s ibanez. The Ibanez AR250 is comparable to the gibsons i've owned--most similar to the gibson les paul special, but much cheaper.

Made in 2000. It really is stunning for the price. Beautiful fit and finish--it looks like it should cost a lot more than it does. I suppose it is like most beautiful Korean guitars I have owned or played, the cost has to be kept down somewhere--it is usually in the hardware.

Mine came with upgraded pick ups, but I have not pulled one out to see exactly what it is. They sound nice (whatever they are) and have chrome covers just like a Les Paul P/U--nice touch.

I have to admit I love Ibanez guitars--I challenge you to find something close to a Les Paul this nice for the money.

Sounds just like a humbucking L/P clone should. Not a lot of tonal variation, but it has that meaty LP sound--at least it has way more than $400.00 worth of beefy LP sound! Nice sustain, good tone.
I tend to believe most change the P/U's for a reason, so I'll knock off a couple of points... I am trying to be fair (even though I think you should buy this guitar!).

This is a beautifully constructed guitar. I am probably biased, but I believe it compairs to any new Gibson/Epiphone LP I have looked at or played. This includes one of Gibson's $2000.00 jobs (I'll have to give Gibson the nod on superior hardware, tho). The binding looks great, outstanding flamed top, nice frets, tuners are probably not all that great--but seem to work fine--probably goes for the bridge and tailpiece, too. All the chrome work is nice--not really too much to complain about. I have not had any trouble with the pots, but my pot-metal switch broke. The knobs look nice but are not going to last forever (a couple are already a little wobbly). Still, all-in-all, what is not top of the line quality can be replaced as it fails. I can't see how you can really complain too much as this total package is such a bargain.

My low E buzzed a little, but I adjusted it out via the bridge. Lots of adjustment there, it was really pretty easy.

I think the balance thing is a little over-blown---try an Explorer for a really poorly balanced guitar. It really isn't all that bad--just get a big, rough strap if it bothers you (that's what Gibson recommends to "fix" the Explorer balance trouble, anyway!).

Some of the hardware will no doubt need to be replaced as time goes on, but I can live with that. The +'s far outweigh the -'s.

I forgot to mention my strap buttons were repalced with strap locks--nice touch.

Ibanez has always meant quality at an affordable price--I don't foresee this will be any different.

Good luck here, Skippy!

I own several older Ibanez guitars, and have played friend's LP's and Strats. For the money, the only other guitar I have seen/played that can touch it is my Godin Exit 22. I would have to toss a coin to decide which one to sell, then disregard the results, anyway. Both are very much underpriced, eh?

I bought my Artist 250 in spring 2004. It has since been discontinued (for now). I believe it is a 2003 model, which features:

24.75" scale neck
22 fret (medium I think)
maple neck
mahogany body, double cut
flame maple top (nice to get a real one under $400)
2 Ceramic Humbuckers (Axis type, Ibanez puts these on just about every guitar they make between $200-$600)
VVTT controls, like a les paul, 3-way toggle, no coil tapping
tune-o-matic style bridge with tailpiece, but not the decorative one found on older artists.

Overall, I think it has pretty decent features. It looks stunning, but coil tapping would have been a really great option, especially in this price range.

The sound was pretty good stock. I found the pickups to be fairly unresponsive on clean settings, so I swapped them out. They weren't bad, but I had a Dimarzio PAF Pro sitting around, so I got a Dimarzio Fred for the bridge and threw them in. Sounds great now. Articulate even in thick distortion, and very full and dynamic on cleaner settings. I play through a peavey classic 30, and it sounds as good as any guitar I've ever had. I would say the sound isn't very versatile, but what it does, it does well. I don't know how to rate it, since I changed the pickups. I guess a 7 prior to the swap and a 9 after.

Ouch...this guitar came to me in pretty weak condition. The action was too high, but lowering it resulted in some crazy buzz around the 13th fret...which will probably have to be filed.

Also, 3 of the 4 pots were scratchy. I tried the spray cleaner...didn't work. I have to replace all 4 of them. The pots I pulled out of it are absolute crap. So I guess it is an improvement, but that isn't the sort of thing you want to do the first week you own a guitar. The switch is also pretty cheap, and I will probably change that sometime soon.

The actual finish of the guitar is great. Binding looks good, fret edges are smooth. The flame top is exceptional.

It was really dissappointing...the guitar looks beautiful, it just took some time before I could actually play it because of all the shit I had to fix.

I would gig with this guitar no problem. I have had other ibanez guitars and they seem to hold up fine. Finish looks quality too. I'll deduct a point here because I am pretty sure that switch will crap out if I don't replace it, but then again, maybe I am just being picky.

I can't rate it, but I have heard it is non-existent

I have been playing for 7-8 years now. I didn't intend on buying this guitar, but I saw it for $399 ($40 under dealer cost) and thought I better pick it up. It looks great, and sounds great. I am just frustrated with how much I had to do to get it to play great. It wasn't supposed to be a project guitar, but I had to redo the set up, and replace hardware immediately. Also...many others have mentioned it: This guitar is poorly balanced. Play one standing up before you buy it to see if you can deal with that. I guess overall, I am upset that I got a lemon, but all that stuff was fixable, and when I got it set up, it was a great guitar, end of story. And for the price, it can't be beat.

22 fret,Korean made,mahog body/neck,nicely flamed arched maple top w/nice red/brown-burst.
Double cutaway with nice tuners, medium frets, tune-o-matic, hardshell case included.
H/H with V&T for each PU, passive no coil tap or series/paralell.

Seems to be a great all around player!
Through any nice tube amp, this thing shines very nicely. The neck PU has a creamy tone to it and the bridge PU digs in with just the right amount of bit.
Not noisy at all with the stock electronics and it covers the H/H area no problem.

Bought it through ebay and it was shipper USPS.
It got to me set up fine. Fit and finish was just fine, the Korean builders are really doing a great job for the money!

I have a 1979 Ibanez that I bought new, and I still use that guitar. I don't see why this one would differ.

25+ years, would buy another, it's a great guitar that does exactly what it should!
I gave a 8 on features and a 9 overall because it could have push/pull pots for either coil taps or series/paralell and that would give it all the feature I would need.

Harmony central invite us to be critical. This guitar has a terrible balance but I have resolved this problem. Thus I can't be critical, I love everything about this guitar. I have played the original Artist from the 70's and I assure you this guitar does the job equally as well. In fact, I find that my AR250 is more comfortable to play (it may have something to do with a different fretboard diameter I suspect).

The BALANCE problem can be solved easily. I simply took it to my local store and asked them to drill a hole at the curved base of the neck where it joins the body of the guitar. Then I moved my strap button and presto! Do make sure, however, that the hole is not drilled into the neck joint bcause over time this could pose problems for the joint when you insert the screw. Instead, make sure that the screw is tightened into the neckpiece only.

The sound is great. Balanced, warm tone, fantastic sustain (which is particularly admirable considering that the body's relatively thin)

Factory set up left something to be desired but this is not a major problem. Balance was problem at first but I managed to fix that quite easily. Finish is exceptional. As I said, one of the most comfortable playing guitars I have ever picked up.

I would confidently gig with this guitar without a backup.