Ibanez AX120

Same as everyone elses, but mine was made in Indonesia. Finish was weather black. A 2005 model sold new in 2007 (ie clearance item.)

The bridge pickup sounded really good. Nice distorted tone. The neck pickup doesn't sound as good. It's not bad at lower volumes but when you crank up the volume it gets really muddy.

Fit and finish was really bad. Hardware was loose. Bridge mounting screws were loose. Tuner nuts were loose. Everything had to be tighten. Fret ends were pokey and not bevelled properly.

Bridge pickup poles do not line up with the strings!! It's like the AH2 is for a TOM bridge not a flat "fender" bridge.

Tuners are really bad too.

Action was set up for the factory strings (9's) and were a the high side. All guitars, even the expensive ones, need a proper set up.

This one just took a little longer. OK a lot longer...

So far everything is really soild with this guitar. I had to do some tweaking with this guitar from the beginning. With better tuners and pickups this guitar will be dependable.

I would always have a backup guitar even on my more expensive guitars.

The finish is already getting pick marks. I've seen other guitars in weather brown and black and it does mark easily.

Did not need any service

I've been playing for 27 years and wanted a slab top 24, 3/4 inch scale, double humbucker guitar. LP special or an SG. Epiphone or Gibson were out of my price range. For a little over $200 I got the guitar, a tour jacket, and a t-shirt. Free swag and good customer service from the online store sold me on this guitar!!!

I wished I'd asked where this guitar was made. I do believe that the Korean made AX had better quality control.

If it was stolen or lost, I would look for another AX but a AX42 or AX32.

I wished it had a TOM bridge.

Same thing the everyone else has said.

I've read a few reviews about people not diggin the AH pickups. I kinda like them. I'm able to get a variety of sounds. It's great with distortion, and it's got a decent clean tone to it. I play mostly straight forward rock, but it does good with metal and punk. I'm not really into a chug metal sound, so the pickups work well for what I play. I also screw around in alternate tunings, and it sounds great in standard to about a whole step down, after that is gets rubbery sounding, but it's not made for super low tunings, get the 7 string for that. Part of the reason I got this guitar was it sounds like an IC300. I had one and had to pawn it for school supplies. The mahogany body is great. It adds a nice warm tone for a very thin body. I use this as a back up to an 83 artist that I have, or when I need something in an alternate tuning. I use a peavey classic 50(tube) 4x10 combo, with line6 pod xt live, and a tube screamer(as a signal boost). It's a great rhythm, and does a decent lead, but is generally a "fast" neck. I can make any sound I choose to with it.

The action was a little high, but nothing big. I replaced the strap buttons with a strap lock system, but I've never had a problem with the buttons. I just want to make sure my guitar doesn't fall(even if it did I think it would do more damage to the floor). The tuners are ok, but could be better. I'll replace those later with grovers, but I'm not in a hurry. I don't pound on a guitar, but I have wacked it out of tune when doing leads. Overall these are minor complaints, but should be vocalized.

This guitar will stand up in a live situation. I could smash this into someone face, go to jail for murder, and when I get out of prison play it like it was brand new. Yes it will hold up. I cracked a little of the finish when I installed the strap locks, but that was my fault. I've had it for a few years and not a scratch. As I've said before the tuners could use replaceing, but that's about all. I never gig without a back up. If Murphy's law never went into play then I guess I would.

Never had to deal with them as far as fixing it or any other Ibanez guitar. I do find it really annoying that it takes 7-8 months to get a guitar ordered from Guitar Center(who's a dealer), but that could be G.C.'s issues not Ibanez.

I've been playing for about 11 years. I've done stage and studio work. I like using underdog equipment, because there is something cool about finding gems, and sounding better than gear snobs with traditional stuff. This is a reallly good guitar for the price. I'd like to see it with a through neck. If it were lost or stolen I would get one of the ar's with a through neck.

Made in 2004 in Korea. 22 medium frets. Crystal-cut body,solid mahogony, niiiice looking.Maple neck. 2 Ibanez Axis humbuckers. You get the picture from everything else.

I play prog-rock, jazz, punk, and classic rock. I play it through a Vox AD-50-VT 1x12 combo. I prefer to use only the bridge pickup and sometimes through both. The stock pickups are NOT bad, but the neck pickup sounds... muddy. Otherwise it sounds great. The guitar can make a good variety of sounds for the price, perfect for me.

This guitar plays like a dream. I have never seen a guitar for under 3 c-notes play this well. The maple neck is is smooth and well put together. The mahogony body is beautiful. I have the Weathered brown finish, and I'll say this, the pictures do this guitar no justice at all. Everything was tight and well put together. Excellent.

This guitar will outlive my grand children. Hardware's nice, strap buttons are solid nickel and very tight nice, nice, nice. This is my main guitar, but like anything, I always have a backup, 'cause God acts in strange ways.

No comment

I've been playing for about five years total, I own a couple of other Ibanez products, DT200 Destroyer, TS808, AD-9. I also own a Hohner acoustic. I wish the neck pickup sounded better. I would buy it again, since it's the best of thre AX's of any price. I like this guitar's looks and I like to play it. That's all that matters to me

Korean, Grey Nickel finish, 2 Axis HB pickups, 22 fret maple w/rosewood, Thru-body fixed bridge. Made in 1999, purchased in 2000.

It's OK... It had a raw sound, good for punk. The neck pickup had a really muddy sound, but the bridge pickup sounded good (sounded great with the selector in the center position), though neither were very high output. I replaced the bridge pickup with a SD Invader, and the neck with a Carvin C22N. Now it's a monster.

Marginal tweaking of the saddles and neck were needed upon arrival (it was a Musician's Friend purchase). The body finish was a nice grey nickel without flaws. The neck binding was kind of cheap, though, and the tuners were a huge problem (I've since gone with Grover machines), but for under $300, I expected a few quirks. Overall, it didn't surprise or disappoint.

I've been a gigging with it for 5 years, and still use it in my regular rotation. The strap buttons were replaced immediately w/ Dunlop locks, and as I mentioned earlier, I yanked the tuners rather quickly, but this thing can take a beating. It was actually my number one (and only) guitar for about 2 years, and I trust it, but as any musician knows, with any instrument, ALWAYS bring a backup. That being said, it has been a worthy road instrument.

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I've been a guitarist for 17 years, and for almost a third of that time I played through the Ibanez AX-120. I don't think I would buy this guitar again, but that's mainly due to the fact that I have a little more money to work with now. It's been very good to me over the years, and for a cheapo guitar, it rocks. It would be a great beginner guitar or pawn shop buy. Cheap tuners and relatively quiet pickups, but solid construction and tough-as-nails finish. I would recommend it to a starving artist in search of a deal, and I don't plan on getting rid of mine.

Made in Korea
22 Frets
2 Volume and 2 Tone knobs
2 Ibanez AH3 and AH4 Humbuckers
Mahogany symmetrical double cutaway body
Weathered Finish
Thin, bolt-on neck

Pretty average, suits the price i reckon.

My style is rock, and it sort of suits it. This guitar is meant for heavy metal, with heavy distortion. The stock pickups on this guitar are terrible. Clean channel is a disaster, but with heavy distortion it sounds average. It would sound great with an EMG 81/85 set up, but so would most guitars. I don't find it to be noisy at all. I am rating this category with the stock pups.

Factory set up was ok, I changed the strings and made a few minor adjustments, but nothing worth mentioning. The neck joint on this guitar is a monster, I hate it how you can see 4 big bolts sticking out the back. Finish was OK, no noticeable flaws.

It seems pretty stirdy and should withstand live playing. Strap buttons are fine, but this guitar is very neck-heavy and akward to play with a strap. I could depend on it, but I would still take a backup.

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I have been playing 12 years, and currently own a Cort M520, Washburn D10SCE and a 40W practice amp. If it were lost, I would buy something better. The thing that I like most about this guitar is it's looks, not the finish, but the symmetrical double cutaway. Sort of like a Gibson SG, but with tidier curves. But because of the shape, it has poor balance. It is very neck-heavy, and is impossible to use with a strap. The shape also makes it hard to reach the higher frets. It's not impossible, but difficult.

This guitar is nothing special and does not quite match it's price tag. Next to my Cort M520 (which costed $100 more) it does not come close. If you are considering buying this, reconsider. If you are looking at guitars in this price range, get a Cort (Cort actually makes most of Ibanez's guitars, and are better quality).

22 fret Grey Nickel finish (kinda sparkly silver - looks amazing) AX120 with 500k vol/tone for both humbucking pups and a 3way switch. Pretty meat and potatoes stuff. All you need though. Fixed bridge (NOT tune-o-matic style) with string thru-body design which increases sustain.

Out of the box this is by no means a really good guitar. A while ago I came to the realisation that while buying $2000, $3000, $4000+ guitars is all very well and good, you can get better tone out of lower priced guitars by upgrading the pickups and electronics and still have money to burn. And so the story goes with this guitar. Replaced the stock pups with seymour duncan invaders and the difference is night and day. I have a rule of thumb with amps/pups and that is "the heavier, the better" and the stock pickups are clearly thinner, lighter and flimsier than the duncans. Note that the string spacing of the ibanez is a wider trembucker style and that duncan only offers standard humbucker sized invaders...the reason for this is adressed at www.seymourduncan.com...which means that the bridge invader is SLIGHTLY out of line with each string. Makes no difference to tone. While invaders produce a tone which is not particuarly versatile, the guitar now excells at modern distortion tones (which is what I wanted it for). This guitar cannot touch a strat/tele tone but I have a strat and a vintage style maton mastersound which handle the rest of the sonic spectrum. So before upgrading the pickups i'd give this guitar a 5 or 6. Take some time to make these small changes and that rating goes up to a 9. Ibanez are renowned for their crappy stock pups. Change em and you'll hear the difference!

The guitar is finished adequately. Had some issues with fret buzz and after a few minor truss rod adjustments and a bit of file work on I think the 10th or 11th fret high E all is good. Tends to warm towards a slightly highter action which I guess if you're shredding may not be ideal. As I said, I use this guitar for one purpose and that is modern distorted one finger wonder power chords (thats not entirley true but you get the idea). For this the setup is fine. I do not expect an instrument to play perfectly out of the box but in the case of this ibanez I thought there was a bit too much work to be done to get her right. Also as other reviewers have noted the neck is particuarly heavy, or rather, the centre of mass is towards the neck rather than the body. This can sometime be an issue but I'm pretty well used to it and hardly notice. I just LOVE the GN finish though. I rang the ibanez dealer for the whole of Australia and they said the GN finish was discontinued but one of their distributors had one left on the other side of the country. As far as I know I got the last Grey Nickel Ibanez 120AX in Australia!!!

Well this is the thing about using cheaper guitars with pup/electronics mods to play live. With expensive guitars (that often dont sound as good without mods) I find that I'm mainly worried about not bumping it or setting it down wrong etc etc which means I'm more worried about preserving my instrument than I am about actually playing a show. Also add this to the smoke/beer/drunk guys/flying pool balls/sweaty etc etc environment of the pub scene and chances are that 5 grand PRS is gonna be scratched/flogged and/or covered in beer in no time. With this guitar I get great tone and while I'm careful with it I really dont give a fuck about polishing it after every song so I'm free to just go out there and rock! This guitar sure takes a beating and I'm so comfortable with it and happy with how it sounds that there's no way I'd change. "Rock Solid".

Spoke to Australis Music, the Australian distributor to hunt down the last one in Australia! They were helpful and quick!

Been playing for about 7 years. Guitar wise I have (in chronological order) a fenix tele upgraded with kinman pups (cannot say enough about these pickups), an ibanez rg220bk with duncan distortion trembucker, this ibanez, a maton mastersound stock for vintage style stuff, taylor 312ce for all my jethro tull requirements(!) and a USA fender strat with kinman trad pups which I use for anything from knopfler to chili peppers. These are run through either my ss fender stage 160 combo (suprisingly good amp), fender '70s silverface (just beautiful - loves stompboxes) or mesa nomad 100 w/4x12 mesa cab. Right now I am very happy with my tone because I have a selection of guitars which play really well and have really good pickups. I can authentically cover all the generic "tele", "strat", "vintage", "hot humbucker" and "acoustic" tones and then some. Along with the strat this is my main gigging guitar and it takes the cake with its light weight, solid construction and my carefree attitude towards it! I hate to post a glowing review of a cheapish ibanez because out of the box this guitar is "average" at best. It is only after some modification that you can significantly improve on the quality of this instrument. I'd be lost without it now!

Just look at the other guys- or the ibanez website. pretty simple, nuthin too fancy. i got the black one. (dont think they make it in black anymore)

I like the way it sounds. the switch makes it have 3 very different sounds and i like them all. i think it will sound good with any style of playing.

everything was pretty good. if i remember correctly, some of the frets near the high end caused a little bit of buzzing. i think i just messed around with the small screws to bring up the strings a little (got it about 2 years ago). One problem i have is with the finish. I mean it looks great, but it seemes to get scratched very easily from the pick or from trying to clean it with the wrong materials. These are not big scratches at all, the are only noticable if you looks very closely under certain lighting conditions. i guess they are not really scratches. just very very light marks. still looks great though, still shines.

I think this guitar would definately withstand live playing. everything is very solid and simple. theres nothing fancy on it, just pretty basic. has a good feel to it, everything on it is strong. the only thing is that the plug gets loose sometimes, but just tighten it up a little and its okay. Just like some other guys said that they dropped them and they are still good, i think that would be true if i dropped mine (although ill try not to) i think it would hold up.

never tried to contact them.

I've been playing for about 4 years. got this one about 2 years ago. love the way it looks and feels. love everything about it. when poeple see it, they love it too. the only thing that i wish i had on it is a whammy bar, but its no big deal. the light scratches are probably my fault, but even though they r there, they r barely noticable when you look hard.

i dunno when it was made, but i dont think that its too old may 2001, i think it has 22 frets. 4 knobs, 2 pickups (humbuckers) anyways you can find the info here http://www.ibanez.com/guitars/guitar.asp?model=AX120&color=1

i play punk like nofx and "grunge" like nirvana, the sound is great. i have used it with a Boss Ds1, and it sounded good, and with a Boss Me 30 (fx box) it sound ok (the box is crappyno the guitar) and with a crappy 65w amp its a copy i think.

I love its clean sound... FULL...

I like the sound of my guitar alot

the only problem i've had whit this guitar is that the pick ups fall every timne and then... its anoying. because i have to screw them back.. no biggie

this guitar could survive a nuke, it has falle several times (from high places to) and it only has couple of scratches, and im a very rude guywith my guitarrs (i smash them... usually)

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nice guitar for any music style
very good looking guitar, i had for almost a year now... i love it... i doubt im gonna change it..

The first thing that drew me to this guitar was the looks. The grey nickel finish really got my attention. Look at the other reviews for the set up. Over all I like all the features. The two things that bug me a little are the balance(a little neck heavy) and the position of the pickup switch(prepare to hit that damn thing while strumming). I love how well it stays in tune. I don't need bells and whistles.

This is a heavy metal guitar all the way but it will hold it's own for other music styles as well. It sounds very good clean too. I find myself EQ-ing the High knob on my amp down a lot because the pickups are pretty bright but my amp is pretty bright as well. Over all I really like the sound of this guitar.

Heavy neck. Balance could be better. Action is a little high for me. It is a solid setup. Not much to screw up because it's a simple guitar. But the quality is good.Alignment was good. I did have to tighten up a few screws but they have stayed tight.

I've dropped this thing I don't know how many times and it has withstood the shock. I always have a backup but this guitar should last a long time. I have yet to scratch off any finish.

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I've been playing for about 12 years and I do have better guitars.They are way overpriced however.I'm surprised at the quality for the price on the AX 120.I bought this guitar for the looks but I play this guitar for the sound. If this review was based on quality for price I would have put 10 on everything.

2002 AX 120, Japanese made (not a bad job too), grey nickel. 22 frets, solid mahogany. 2 volume, 2 tone. Standard Les Paul styling, except with a double cutaway and the fixed bridge.

I bought this guitar because I was tired of tremolos, I had an RG570 before this one. So far, I have nothing to complain about really, except that the guitar is a little neck heavy, it's better to play standing up (which is what you really should be doing with a guitar anyways), and that the pickups are a little on the downside. Don't get my wrong, this is a great guitar to have, but it could be better with some new pickups. That's all I have to say about that.

Factory setup was good. The action was set just right for my style. I play mostly hard rock, so this guitar just keeps 'em coming. The thing I love about this guitar is that it's built like an Axe (probably how it got it's name). I've "mistreated" it a couple times, but it still dishes out a can of wup ass every time.

Like I said, I've abused this thing a couple times, but you have to hand it to Ibanez. They know how to build a guitar.

It's an Ibanez, why need support?

This is a great axe. Perfect for those of you who like to play your music standing up, without the frills of a tremolo. So if you really want to dish out the goods, I recommend this AX. However, if you're a little picky (like me) about your tone, swapping the pickups for some duncans, emgs, or dimarzios would help the tone a lot.