Ibanez AS73

It's all been stated before

Not bad. Pickups are decent. As with most of these lower priced guitars, pickups should probably be upgraded.

Here is where I have a problem. As with most of these Artcore guitars, where the neck comes into the body, it is raised. Meaning, the fretboard is about 1/2" or more above the body, which is NOT comfortable when you play high up the neck.
And you have to raise the neck pickup way up which, to me, looks terrible.
If you look at the better made guitars, you'll notice that where the neck comes into the body (even on the Epi Dot) it's about 1/4". And that makes it easier to play high up on the neck.

When I was around 10, my parents bought me a really cheap guitar. The neck was at least 1/2" or so above the body. I HATED it!
With the old Artstar (which Ibanez no longer makes, sorry to say), the neck was not like this. It was done right.

So for the life of me I can't understand why people haven't said anything about this in these reviews. It's terrible! This is a CHEAP way to make a guitar.
The AS83 is the same way, as is most of the Artcore series, if not all.

There is no way I would buy one of these guitar. No wait. I did buy one off the internet but quickly returned it. Personally, I would rather get an Epi Dot with the huge chunky neck than one of these.
But then again, I wouldn't get an Epi Dot.

Remember back in the 70's when Ibanez used to make some of the best guitars? I liked them better than Gibson.

Ibanez, what happened??

Ibanez have been good in the past.

The Artcore are beginner guitars. If you can play, then why would you want one of these??

Ibanez, why are you making the necks of your guitars like this? Aren't there any guitar players employed with you? They should know better.

9
Rate this Ibanez Artcore AS73 a 9. It is incredible just wish it had a whammy. The frets are perfect and much much better than any other copy of a Gibson ES335 that I have played. Matter of fact why would anyone pay so much for the Gibson when this guitar is available? I would say it is one in the same as the 335. Mine is a Sunburst and I paid no stole this baby for 135.00. Yes sir I am a lucky and very HAPPY fellow. Can't find anything to complain about other than I wish I had gotten a case for it as well. Ok truth be told I wanted a red one, but hey for 135 bucks the Sunburst FLAMES just fine for me.

10
This baby sounds like your a player in a rock & roll band. It is crisp and full and wonderful and I do not think I will let it go. Might just get a Red one too. I play this on a Peavy home amp and the sound in a normal spare room is still incredible.

The action is just perfect for me not to low not too high. Kind of like baby bears chair... Just right....

Sorry Gibson, I do not see any difference in the strength of the ES335 that I don't see in this AS73. Ibanez is easy to contact but I have had NO PROBLEMS..

I will rate this an 8 only because I have not need any help for this baby. However I have called them on other matters and always got excellent attention and gotten my questions answered.

I have been playing, writing and recording for over 37 years and this guitar is likely the best I have ever held in my hands and I have played all of them. Heck go to your local Guitar Center and try this one and then try a ES335,,,, Oh don't forget to pick up the case.. You can afford it if you bought the Ibanez AS73... If you take the 335,, maybe after you pay off that loan you can get the case :) Sam

I just bought a cherry red Chinese made AS-73, not many variables in the options. First I have to say, I owned an Epiphone Dot Deluxe that I sold and regreted it later so I wanted another hollowbody for the studio. I didn't want to spend big bucks so I was going to buy another Epiphone and I stumbled onto this. For the money this guitar is crazy. It feels, plays, sounds, and records way better than the Epiphone. The fit and finish is amazing, and Ibanez never seems to let me down with their fretboards. When using it in the studio the sound was bright & clean but when overdriven it has a great crunch. The Epiphone needed much tweeking with factory pickups of course.

I use it mostly for recording through a Vox Tone Lab. The clean tones are great and the overdriven sound is Crunch Supreme! No noise at all. The pickups are very peppy... not like others in this price range. I have played many ES335 models, I can't hear the $2000,00 difference.... sorry Gibson.

I am pretty picky and I have not been able to find anything to mention with the fit & finish. The cherry color and the woodgrain are beautiful. Also, looking into the "F" holes the guitar is clean, no overspray, glue drops, scratches, ect. And the finish around the holes was a lot better than the Epiphones.

It's very solid. I do lots of bending and this thing stays in tune. Also it needed some set up when I got it and the truss rod responded acurately when adjusted. For $300.00 bucks this thing is amazing. I was going to drop some money for pickups & tuneomatic bridge but now I don't see the need. The only thing I changed were the nobs... they just didn't fit the look of the guitar.

I have owned several Ibanez guitar in my career, they have always been great and I never needed any support.

I have been playing guitar for 36 years, I now have my own studio and do work for others. I am loving these times.. great guitars for under $300.00. I have owned more guitar than I can remember, my baby is a 62 Reissue Strat I use for most recording. If you want that Gibson ES335 tone but don't want to take out a mortgage on a Gibson, this is your guitar. I have done the research for you, this is the best inexpensive hollowbody I have found.

I have a korean ibanez as73, blue sunburst, great looking guitar, all the fine made ibanez goodies, humbucker pickups

great sound, crisp, a nice jazzy sound.

It was a great guitar when i had it, everything was top notch and well adjusted. no flaws as far as i can see, u can never go wrong with an ibanez built guitar

my as73 was a 2000 model, as far as durability it was a piece of crap. while i was jamming in my room, my strap failed to keep it in, so the neck broke right in half. what i dont understand is that my floor is heavily padded with rug, and the fall was no farther then 3 ft. the neck is extremely weak, and as i further examined the wood inside, it wasn't as durable as you expected a ibanez FIXED neck to be.

I have a Chinese AS-73 from 2004. Standard goodies. Strong tuners, excellent body construction, good finish. It's a bare bones guitar, but that's what I like about it.

I play a mix of Hawthorne Heights / MCR. Hard rock with some jazz thrown in every now and again. The guitar has a great distorted sound. The bridge pickup is sharp and can cut through the mix well. The neck pickup is warm and blends well. Good sustain, good for jazzier passages.

I play a bare-bones setup: Guitar -> Wah -> Amp, so variety of sound isn't a huge deal for me.

The first AS73 I purchased quickly fell apart. The nut began to disintegrate, there were finish issues, and the 12th fret wasn't set well and produced dead notes. I swapped the guitar out at Guitar Center (place of purchase) and played all the other AS-73's before settling on one. Looking critically at all of them, I settled on one after playing every fret, looking over every inch of the guitar. I'm satisfied. The new one has no cosmetic issues, has stayed together perfectly, and plays like a dream. If you pay attention when you're buying a new AS-73, you should be able to find a good specimen, but they're not perfect across the board.

The guitar can stand up to most anything. It's fallen off a stand because of bass rattle and was fine. Most of the hardware feels and is sturdy, but the screws around the pickups are beginning to rust, and I may change those out soon. I swapped the buttons out for straplocks, but the buttons on there worked just fine. The pots are solid and sound free, and the pickup switch is very definite and crisp. I don't think I'd play any gig without a backup guitar, but if I only had this guitar, I'd be confident that the worst thing to happen would be a broken string.

I haven't dealt with Customer Support.

The sound is amazing, the construction is great. It outplays any Epi DOT 335 clone out there. Any time I see someone trying to buy a DOT, I hand them an Artcore first. They usually buy the Artcore.

I need to qualify this review by saying that I've only owned the guitar one day. So, like Chrysler, it leads the nation, as far as I'm concerned, with initial quality...LOL.

This is a new MIC (Made In China) dual passive humbucker, semi-acoustic, double cut-away electric guitar.

Features include:
Artcore Set-In Neck
Mahogany Neck Material
Bound Rosewood Finger Board!!
Laminated Maple top/sides/back Body
One volume and tone control for each pickup.
22 Large frets
Non locking Ibanez no frills machine tuners
ART1 Tun-o-matic Bridge (with unique design for ease in replacing strings)
ACH1 Neck, and ACH2 Bridge Humbucker Pickups
Perl Dot Inlay
Chrome Hardware
Transparent Cherry Finish

I'm a professional player and have been playing guitar, off and on, for nearly 36 years. My other guitars are a Hwy1 Strat and a MIM reissue 72 Tele Thinline.

I have played an ES335 so I can comment on how the guitar compares. Compared to the ES335, the Ibanez has less high end definition on the neck pickup. I may, one day, put Gibson Classic 57 pickups in my AS73, but for now, the Ibanez does have just enough of that ES335 sound to keep me happy.

Played by itself with no regard for the ES335, the AS73 sound is sweet and balanced played through my Vox AD50VT modeling amp (the best modeling amp in my experience/opinion). The neck pickup is full with lots of bottom end. The bridge pickup kicks the guitar into cut through the mix lead mode. With the AD50VT, I can get any sound out of the guitar that I want. I play through the 2X12 (Twin Reverb model) channel on clean, and through the Boutique (Dumble) lead channel. I haven't yet compared the AS73 to my dual humbucker 72 Thinline reissue as the Thinline needs new strings...wouldn't be a fair comparison.

I purchased the guitar for looks, quality for the price, and sound! I play in a band where we do R&B, funk, soul, blues. We do a little Aretha Franklin, Franky Beverly and Maze, Average White Band, James Brown, Al Green, etc. The guitar ought to fit in well with all of that.

As these are my initial impressions, I'll learn more about the guitar as I play. But I must say that it is very surprising to get this much quality in a $300 guitar. Put a Gibson sticker on it and charge $1000...no one would know the difference.

I must say that upon initial inspection of the guitar, that the finish is nearly perfect. If Ibanez cut corners anywhere else on the guitar to get the price down, then they surely didn't do it on the finish. The cherry finish is, in fact, a little darker on my guitar than the picture on the Ibanez website. The woodgrain that shows under the finish is very beautiful.

I owned an Epiphone DOT (which I gave to my brother) and I can compare the AS73 to that. Over all fit and finish is better than the Epi DOT. The pickup selector switch on the Epi was a piece of crap and the switch on the Ibanez is rock solid. Paint trim around the F holes on the Ibanez is properly applied and it was not on the Epi. The Epi had a good setup and so did the Ibanez...not too much of a difference there.

There was a little problem with the back pickup not working on the Ibanez. Might be a cold solder joint on the volume pot (that is easily fixed). Jiggling the wiring got it to work. That's the only flaw in an otherwise perfectly made and setup guitar.

Binding around the body is perfect. The guitar has stayed in tune despite string bends and heavy handed playing.

The guitar plays like butter!!!!!

I owned an Ibanez AS50 years ago and it was rock solid. Never had any hint of a problem with it. I would use it at a gig without backup (nothing should go wrong except a broken string). The finish thickness seems substantial and durable. The hardware seems solidly made. My impression is that it will be a dependable guitar.

No opinion here as I've never dealt with Ibanez. The folks at MMI where I bought the guitar are, however, very, very good in the customer support department. They can work on the guitars in house and my AS73 was expertly set-up by them.

Price for the value, fit and finish, sound. This guitar has it all. I may one day upgrade the pickups to Classic 57's, but it's not a must do thing. It looks good...damn good. Like an all-you-can-eat buffet!

All relevant details in other posts. Supplied with "free" gig bag. Quality of wood is not the best, looks dull and a bit cheap.

I am using this guitsr through a Line 6 210, a Vox ADVT30 or direct into my Zoom MRS-1608 digital desk. The sound is a disappointment, very flat and dull with surprisingly little sustain for its body type. Not a great deal of variety in any of the switching positions. Produces neither a decent "jazz" tone nor bites when wound up. Only way to get a decent response is to beef it up through effects (I use a Vox Tonelab) which somewhat defeats the point of having this guitar in the first place.

All okay except arrived with the strings wound down virtually off the posts.

Hardware seems okay but the bodywork seems a bit frail - not sure I would want to gig with it, but as much for its sonic properties as its construction.

I ordered this through a major French internet supplier who quoted 48 hours delivery and took nearly three weeks - didn't respond to e-mails chasing up delivery either. Has 2 year warranty but, given the delivery problems, not sure the dealer would honour it (this is fairly typical of suppliers in France, by the way)

Been playing many years, have several other guitars, electric & acoustic, this is probably the most disappointing I have bought. To be fair, I bought without trying so I guess I have only myself to blame though it in no way lives up to the advertisers description. Reading some of the other comments on this guitar I do wonder if I have simply got a duff one out of the run. An Epiphone 335 copy would have been a better bet. Would not replace it with the same model if nicked.

Chinese made, 2 tones, 2 volumes, rosewood neck etc... read the above reviews for features

I play jazz/funk and i use it frequently at gigs, the jazz sound is great, nice and bass'y, i tend not to use it for funk/rock as the bridge pickup is not really up to it. The Neck pickup produces a nice warm sound but its not perfect.On recordings it sounds great.
i give this 8/10 because the pickups could be better.

Finish is great, perfect even, action is great for jazz.... what more can i say.. tuners are fine, bridge is fine..

I have used this at around 20 gigs so far and have owned it 6 months nearly. it once broke at a gig, the jack socket came loose and dissappeared into the guitar : / !!!, luckily it was fixable and i managed to play it that night. That wasnt really Ibanez's fault, i just had not checked it thouroughly.

never had to.

for me this guitar is great, im considering changing the pickups as they are cheap and nasty but the rest of the guitar is superb and great value for money. Again, the pickups are the only thing that lets it down.. not for a ROCK player at all... jazz blues etc... GREAT!

Made in China. Really great neck. Width, thickness, radius, scale all perfect for me. That's the most important thing for me in a guitar, and this one's got it. Regarding features, it would suit me better if it had fewer. I'd get by with just one volume knob, anything more is too confusing for me. I'll work the wiring, once I get around to it. (which is very difficult on this guitar, you have to tie strings on all the knobs and then pull them inside and out the sound hole just to solder one connection differently for example)

This guitar has a very loud and articulate acoustic sound. and that's the second most important thing in a guitar to me, and it's got that to. The acoustic sound actually records well, making this guitar even more versatile. I've had to change the bridge pickup because it was to wooly and bassy and soft (the neck pickup is even more so, but I havent felt the need to change that yet, since I dont use it very often) I went for a Gibson P-94 for the bridge position, and it turned out to be a very good match for the inherent sound in this particular guitar. It really bites and and cuts, and it has a snappy quality to bass notes, which is great for 50's rock n roll. I am stringing it high action with daddario xl .12-54 (or 52 dont remember) and they work well in enhancing the acoustic tone and the P-94 goes well with fat strings. I use this guitar mostly for bluesy rock metal, perhaps somewhat like sabbath with a modern flavour, nothing too nu though... also greatly inspired by 50's guitar rock n roll. For something else I'll use something else but this guitar is great for that 'old n new' sound and feel. and the feedback, lovely. sounds alot better now than stock, but I'll rate it stock

cosmetically this thing is gorgeous. and it feels very solid. like the feel you get from the door handles on really expensive cars, like limos or something. it just feels like quality. even more so bearing the price in mind.

again, solid. I've also put strap locks on it, and they've liberated a lot, now I have complete faith in myself and the guitar when picking it up. I never thought straplocks would improve my playing, but they have, I play much more relaxed now. but the guitar itself oozes durability, my grand children will be playing this I'm sure

I have been playing since age 8 or 9, so that makes it 10 years. wow, more than half my life, that's something. I own only used instrument, I love to go look for guitar treasure in stores and in the paper. many of them are self-restored, and I do a pretty good job. I have been tinkering with guitars as long as I've been playing them. I haven't had to do much work on this one, but it will come over the years (I'm plannning on keeping this one.) I think I would look for something like this, If it were lost or stolen or broken beyond repair, yes, but if such a thing should happen, let it happen soon, before it gets played in real good. I've been playing this every day for about a year and a half, and it just gets better by the hour, thus becoming more and more valuable to me.

The playability and feel of this guitar is the number one selling point. It is not one for shredding, but there are guitars for that. I compared this to many a hollowbody, but this one had the neck I wanted. if i ever were to have a guitar custom made, the neck would be exactly like this, in fact, I should have a neck made in these dimensions to bolt on to a tele a have been reluctant to buy becuase of the neck on it. so... I'd say get it if you like the neck. I did

Right, this is a 22-fret semi-solid archtop. Sunset sunburst with a rosewood fingerboard, pearl inlays, 2 HumBucks, 2 volume, 2 tone, 3-way selector. high gloss finish and quality accessories. Follows the ES shape without looking too much like a copy. Larger-than-usual fingerbaord, great for bends and blues. A very fast guitar for it's style class, Ibanez Gibson-copy tone-o-matic bridge.

Technical: Almost-flawless design, quiet, clean pickups, a bit fiddley in the volume department,volume tends to "jump". Mates with any amp just great. has a very full sound with sustain that can make cats sing. Blues and jazz players will feel at home here, especially considering the Price tag. Pickup selector can be problematic with hard playing (one tends to bump it)

Nothing lacking here, one of the very few guitars that once intonation is set ACCURATELY, will not give problems with the G-string. The factory setup also leaves something to desire. you will have to set it up correctly. The finish is high-quality, but see if you can buy the one "still in the box", I have seen people wreck these in the shop because it is so playable.

This guitar WILL compare easily to it's 10x priced partners. good quality finish, very well constructed. Under EXTREME scrutiny small asthetic issues can be seen, but for a stage guitar, very worthwhile. I would take a backup with, another one like it.

Quite simply, after being offered cash for it by a pro after he lauged at me for buying it, it says something. yes, the price is oddly low, but that is the beauty of this instrument. It oozes confidence and style, not to mention real playability, this is not a guitar one has to be careful of and deliveres every time. I have played this instrument live 9 times, and I have had it for a month. Go Figure!!!