Ibanez AS73

22 fret, rosewood fretboard. Semi-hollow maple body. Transparent blue finish looks GREAT. 2 volume, 2 tone controls and 3-way toggle switch. ES-335 style with ibanez quick change tail piece and tune o matic bridg. Really nice feeling neck. Kinda fat and wide. Small feeling frets though. Fingerboard needed oiling as it was pretty rough feeling out of the box, immediately took off the 9's it had and put 11's on there. Otherwise great out of the box.

I try to play anything I can. This is great for jazz and blues styles. I wouldn't use this for hard rock or anything, but it does distort fairly well. I was worried that it would sound muddy but the opposite is true. Through a little Vox pathfinder 15 it's very bright and clear sounding. Neck p/u is full and punchy, bridge p/u is really bright sounding. With the 2 tones and volumes, a wide range of sounds can be achieved. Super-quiet didn't make any noise through a 75 watt peavey turned to about 2 o'clock. It's hard to get a really bassy sound out of it, but my style doesn't really call for that. Overall, sounds great.

Out of the box the strings were too light and the action was too high. But both of those were easy to fix. The bridge pickup was too high 'cause when I did palm mutes the pickup would pop, but that also is easy to adjust. Finish looks great but needs pretty constant polishing if you're anal about fingerprints and stuff. Haven't found any flaws at all. No complaints

Seems like it'll hold up. I'll probably end up getting some strap locks as I like to play it pretty low. I'd probably not hesitate to take this to a gig w/out backup unless i was doing more rocking stuff where I would want a solid body.

n/a

I've made guitar my life for about 5 years and have played through about 8 guitars and 4 or more amps. I'd recommend this guitar to anyone considering it. Great for most styles. Feels good to hold and play. Love the finish, love the feel of the neck, pretty much everything. I played a gretch in a guitar center through a little fender amp a while back and this Ibanez sounds great even compared to that. Plus, at about 1/10 of the price, how can you go wrong? One great guitar

ES 335-ish but not really a copy. Transparent Blue Sunburst. Maple semi-hollow body. Rosewood finger board. Ibanez ACH1 bridge and ACH2 neck humbuckers. Bound top, bottom, neck, headstok and F-holes. Ibanez Artcore Tune-o-matic style bridge. Ibanez "Velve-Tuner" type machine heads. 22 frets. Quickchange III tailpiece similar to the older Ibanez tail stops.

Playing it through Roland Jazz Chorus and Blues Cube amps it sounds warm and wonderfull as with a Fender twin. I was up all night playing it when it arrived. I liked it enough to know that I now want another one but with the Ibanez Bigsby-ish tail piece.

As with most guitars that sell for under $500.00 the setup was not that great. A bit of tweeking and a fresh set of D'Addarios was all it needed and this was expected. The pickup toggle has an unusually loose feel to it but it works fine. I may replace it but then again maybe not.

If you are looking for an ES335-ish guitar to hot-rod, this would be a great foundation to start from.

I bought this one used. It's a little over a year old so it's too soon to tell for sure. I wonder if the loose toggle is due to the previous user. In case this is the case I'll give it an 8.

Never needed to deal with them.

Been playing for over 30 years now. I use either my Roland Jazz Chorus 120 2x12 combo, JC-120H with 4x12 cabinet, JC-77 2x10 combo, JC-55 2x8 combo, Blues Cube 60/310, BC-30/210 or my Accoustic Chorus 100 amp depending on the venue.

This is my third Ibanez and I guess I've become loyale to the brand as with Ovation for my accoustic needs, Roland for my amps, BOSS for effects, D'Addario for string and Monster for cables.

As far as Ibanez goes, I have tipically preferred the older 80's products but this AS73 makes a good exception. It's a great value for the money spent.

i got the Ibanez AS73 Brown Sunburst for Christmas and I have to say that for $300, you cant get a better semi-hollowbody out there. It has 2 humbuckers with standard 2 tone and 2 volume knobs. Nice tuners that feel really solid. It has a set neck with tune-o-matic bridge for easy string changes. This guitar feels really solid. Like the review says below, it does not feel like a "cheap" guitar.

the sound is great, nice warm neck pickup and good almost twangy bridge pickup sound. I run it directly into a Johnson J Station and I have no hum whatsoever. You can really get some great tones out of different pickup configs.

The finish is excellant. No flaws on this guitar at all! The action was a tad bit high but some little tweaking and it was perfect.

im sure this guitar will stand up to time.

never had to contact them

Overall, i love this guitar. I dont how Ibanez can offer such a great guitar for so little money. If it were stolen, i would buy the exact same guitar again.

This is a 335 style guitar in Tobacco Sunburst. Neck has 22 frets and is quite wide and feels flatter than my Strat. It has a fairly flat arched top and back, and is maple as far as I know and has a sound block which helps to increase the sustain. It is not flame or quilted but still has nice grain pattern.

Controls are typically 2-vol and 2-tone with the usual 3-way switch and the jack socket is on the bottom edge. It has two humbuckers with chrome covers. Finish is quite good and polishes up great. Has stop tail designed for quick string changes and tunamatic bridge. Tuners are very good and whilst non-locking have adjustable tensioners.

Markers are dot type and frets are quit thin, definately not jumbo.

The body edges are bound black/white/black as is the neck, headstock and f-holes, all done to the highest quality.

At this price I didnt expect a case.

For the money I have to give this 10. The neck pup is warm and the bridge has got great attack but is never harsh. Thers is plenty of sustain - mine has the stoptail screwed hard down, and you can easily nail the Eric Clapton Cream sound.

The tone controls work well and you can blend both pups to get a variety of tones. This is a very vibrant toneful guitar and has gotta be the best sound for the money guitar around.

The pickups sound good and there is no feedback, hum or squeals, and I dont see any need to replace them as you sometimes need to do with budget guitars.

I just love the sound and tone which makes a nice contrast to compliment my Strat and LP

Factory set-up was OK. I found the rosewood fingerboard a little dry and the frets a tad rough but a bit of lemon oil and wire wool sorted that. I dont mind doing this, in fact I kinda feel its part of the bonding process. I have yet to find an instrument that is perfect out of the box.

Action was not bad - needed a little tweak, but the nut needed a bit of attention with the old needle file, ie. a bit high for my liking.

after a couple of days playing it feels really nice.

The general fit and finish is really excellant, especially for the price.

I would say this guitar feels quite substantial and will last if treated right, though the 3 way switch feels a bit sloppy, but works fine.

No experience.

Overall I cannot fault this guitar, sure its not a Gibson, but I dont care especially as I paid one fifth of the price. if it were lost I would definately buy another. Great value...go and get one, you wont be disappointed.

As described in previous reviews, this one is in midnight blue. The case is extra. I just bought it, so perhaps its a bit premature to review. But I respect this site for its user reviews so, trying my best to guard against any new buyer bias, here's my offering.

I play in an acoustic folk-rock band and was looking at a semi-acoustic electric a) for its sound contribution (especially jazz, blues, 60's-pop type tunes); b) for playability; c) for good quality at a good price (another big ticket instument/item would have to wait).

I had my eye on an Epiphone Casino as a mid-priced guitar with a reasonably good rep. (Beatles etc.). I had tried other Epi semi-acoustics. Was in the store almost at the point of purchase (had the Casino plugged into the same amp I have) so started comparing it to other makes of semi-acoustics. Saw the AS73 and took it down thinking it would be as much or more in price. I was stunned -- it was 1/2 the price.

As a semi-acoustic many features seem similar to the Epi. There is, however, no pick guard (OK by me); its body is not completely hollow; the design of the vol/tone knobs seem to make them more accessible; and, the pick-ups are humbuckers. The pick-up switch seems similar in quality, a bit of a flimsy feel to it, but didn't present any functioning problem.

Oh... I also checked it against a Gretsch (sp?), a much nicer guitar for sure, but also almost 8x the price.

The price made me think this would be a cheap sounding guitar. But the sound sold me. The Casino had a lot of hum. I use an acoustic guitar amp (Fender) so maybe that's a problem for a Casino. But the Ibanez sounded pretty good: smooth, clean, mellow or crisp ... a nice range of tones, and control. And at that price!?! I bought it.

At rehearsal the guitar performed as I had hoped. Worked well on the jazz tunes and rocked on the pop. I use a Martin and an Ovation acoustic guitars, and also an Ovation mandolin run through an Acoustasonic Jr and miced into the PA. Reverb & chorus Effx are on the amp and I have an overdrive & digital delay pedals. I need to fine tune my set-up to work better with this semi-acoustic guitar and know/expect there will be limits because it is an acoustic guitar amp. But I'm quite pleased with the guitar itself.

I really like the action and intonation, which was set up in the factory. And the guitar kept in tune reasonably well for the amount of string bending done at rehearsal, and was also easy to adjust. I like the width and feel of the neck.

More technical stuff I can't comment on (techno-peasant). The finish though is really, really, amazing, especially considering the price of this guitar. My musical friends love the look of it.

This seems like a solid guitar in terms of harware and finish especially for the price. Time, of course, will be the real acid test and is my only reservation. But it doesn't look, feel, or play like a cheap guitar. And if it doesn't stand up to the test of time, and can't be repaired, there's not a whole lot of money tied up in it. But I have no reason to expect it won't last. I'm being generous in my rating here -- call it new-buyer optimism.

I will be using it at our next gig and feel it is performance worthy. This is a guitar for particular purposes and I have my others which can back it up if that became necessary.

It has a one year warranty and was bought from a reputable dealer (Long & McQuaid in Toronto). I recognise Ibanez but it is just a "name" to me. L&M is helpful and friendly so my rating goes to them.

I've been playing music for decades, and perform part-time. This is a "second" guitar for particular purposes since acoustic is my main thing. My favourite feature is taht this guitar is very accessible price wise, coupled with it having the apparent quality of higher costing (mid-priced) guitars. My reservation is whether it will stand up to the test of time. We'll see.

335 Style Guitar made 2002 in China sunburst finish
H/H Ibanez PU's (new Serie), 2 Volume - 2 Tone Controlls, 3-way Switch
maple top, mahagony neck, non-locking tuners

I tried the guitar with differnt amps (Fender, Peavey, Marshall) and with my Digitech GNX-1.
It sounds great!
The neck PU is warm and round, the bridge PU has a little bit twang with nice round highs and a percussive touch.
No feedback problems from the PU's.
I compared it directly with epiphones and subjective the ibanez was better. It feels not like a cheap guitar, it feels like a professionel mid-price guitar.

The finish is great!
I give a 9 because a tried 4 guitars from the artcore-serie and not every one was as good as the one I bought.

i havn't it long enough .....

never tried

If you want a good 335-style guitar and you have not enough money for a gibson, buy it !!!

Ibanez AS 73 (ES 335 Copy). Brown Sunburst. Solid Maple. Rosewood fretboard. Two Humbuckers (Ibanez ACH1 & ACH2). Bound top and bottom, neck, headstok and F-holes. Ibanez Artcore Tune-o-matic style bridge. Schaller copy machine heads. 22 frets. The tailpiece of the bridge features a nifty design for easy access for string replacement. Very clever.

Currently running this guitar through a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and a 1963 Fender Bassman. The pickups have a very full round tone. Plenty of mids. The bridge pickup is has a little extra bite. The neck pickup allows for some very mellow sounds. Both pickups are quiet and very responsive. Plenty of volume without noise. They sound a bit compressed however. they provide a very crisp and neat tone. It would be very good for jazz. Gibson PAF's are looser and a little more frazzled around the edges. Correspondingly PAF's allow a little more flexibility if you are going after a hard-driven blues tone. The compressed nature of these pickups also resist feedback more than PAF's ...but it can be compensated for with just a little more gain on the amp when using the Ibanez vs. a ES335. These pickups also respond well to distortion considering how tight they are.

Fit and finish is remarkable. For the price, I'm still not sure how ibanez puts out a guitar with full binding and a flawless finish. It should be noted it's not single binding, it's a 3ply binding, at that. No sloppy seams, no low-budget lack of finishing work. The neck is seated and seamed perfectly. No gaps in hardware-to-body seams. It's a beautiful guitar all the way around. One note, Ibanez elected to put the plug on the side ala Les Paul instead of on the top like ES335. This is both good and bad depending on what you like. It contributes to a cleaner look however.

This guitar seems to be very sturdy. Nothing seems fragile. It appears well made, however, I have not had it long. The test of time will be the real judge, but for what it's worth it feels solid much in the same manner as a Guild Starfire 4.

I've had no dealings with Ibanez. The guitar is under warranty, it was purchased new. I'm not certain of the length of the warranty.

I've been playing since 1986. I own a bevy of Strats, Tele's and a Les Paul. I am very pleased with this guitar, it is one of my best playing guitars. I would not hesitate to make this purchase again. My favorite features are the neck and tailpiece (see above for note on the tail piece). The neck is not wide, but it's relatively flat. But not uncomfortably so. The design of the neck really caters to more modern players and allows a lower set up than what you might find on something with a tighter radius. Neck shape is a very comfortable shallow-C. I've played a variey of ES335 copies before choosing this one. I chose the Ibanez primarily for it's exceptional value. It gave me what I wanted, which was a quality ES 335 copy, at an exceptionally low price.

New Artcore model has appeared in the States, but not yet in UK. Bought it in Florida. They had the AS73 with or without bigsby or the as75 thicker body model. in antique brown look or translucent blue/black . I wnet for the blue one.
22 frets soldi maple body, front back. Mahogany neck with rosewood fingerboard. Twin ac1h humbuckers
Jumbo frets

Great for the blues, with a plummy sound for the neck humbucker, and a thinner one from the bridge. Adjusting the volume and tone controls gives a nice range of sounds, but the main thing is that the tone is very clear. No buzzing, no humming, just clear, even through my practice amp.
No dislikes (except that is not a Gibson e335)

Well set up, no buzzing. the blurb from Ibanez says they are the only factory to do a proper setup at the factory.
Pickups fine.
The paint and varnish had no flaws at all, nice finish, a great guitar just to hold, or to polish.

Seems solidly build, and Ibanez have a good pedigree

Bought at Funky Music in Naples,Florida USA. very helpful store - their personal service compared very well with others in Florida (notably Sam Ash where it was hunt the employee - then listen to their moans - no interest in the customer in 2 branches, did not try a third).

Had guitars for 30 years, no serious attempt to play them until last year or so! Started out with a nylon strung classical at #23 from a london mail order house. This was traded in at Gough & Davy Hull in 1978 for a Marlin Acoustic, which i still have, and it still plays well. Apart form a few dings, it remains in great condition. Original cost was #175 used.
Got a Westfield les paul copy, its ok, or seemed so until i got the ibanez
Just bought the Ibanez Artcore as73
I did hesitate before buying the ibanez as they had an Epiphone which played very nicely, but price difference sold me on the Artcore

Wel ,thats an acoustic, electric and a semiacoustic, what next? First a decent amp, the maybe an ovation