Ibanez GAX70

This isnt so much a review as it is a comment or two. I read about this thing in Guitar Player magazine's "50 great gear deals under $250" as one of 3 guitars that i was considering, the ESP M-50 and Jackson JS20 being the other two. So i went down to a music store and didnt even bother to play it after i strapped it on. Why? It's heavy on the headstock. I read a previous review on this guitar saying "thats something you get use too". Well, sorry Skippy, but i like guitars that i dont have to "get used too", a guitar i purchase should be able to conform to my own standards, not the other way around. I'm sure that this isnt a bad guitar, it looked rather solid and very attractive, but this just serves as a warning to anyone like myself who doesnt want to "get used to it", THIS GUITAR IS STOCK HEAVY AND IF YOU DONT LIKE THAT, GET SOMETHING ELSE.

1999 or 2000 made in indonesia. It has a 24.7 scale neck or something along those lines im not sure and dont really care as slong as it dosnt sound like mush. It has a maple neck with rosewood fingerboard that looks a lot like ebony. It has 22 frets and they're...i think medium or small...if they have small...but i like them. It has really decent tuners 3 to a side. It has two powersound pickups two volume and two tone just like a lp and a tunematic rbide & toggle switch. The finish on mine is just plain black and not visible anymore because its underneath green spray paint and lots and lots of stickers and acrylic paint. it's a starter guitar basically it was my second..it came with some cables.

It suits me well. I play mainly sabbath, tool and rage against the machine. When I play my own music it keeps up with me. I play a really hard and loud style of experimental jazz/hardcore lol if that makes any sense. My plan was to switch out the pickups but i never did and im not going to. The Neck gets lots of feedback after i added a cover and i just love it...i also took out the pickup and replaced it backwards. I use woman tone sometimes for solos. I get lots of really strange sounds out of it which is a good thing for me. I like the way this guitar sounds...i've played lots of esps gibsons and fenders and they sound like shit to this...kinda ironic aint it?

I adjusted the action when i got the home its bit higher now. Its a really nice guitar...well mine was. NO problems with it.

Oh god...I've rubbed my penis all over the dam thing. I've thrown it around hit friends with it...broken windows. It's very sturdy...but the strap buttons fell out both of them during a performance. I fixed that by just glueing a piece of wood in the holes and screwing them back in. Its the only guitar that i own right now that works. I have a shitty crate strat that i broke the neck on and a kramer eddie van halen style guitar that i turned into an art project and its painful to play now. The finish again..is still there...underneath all that jizz i've placed on it. I'm thinking about getting another one since they're inexpensive and high quality in my opinion.

never had to but i'm assuming i wouldnt have any problems.

i've been playing it since...christmas of...1999 i think...maybe 2000 i dont know. I've played guitar for about 2 years...im guessing. I love everything about it. It really is a well made guitar. Its really simple to use. and great for rage songs. I dont have anything else to say except...that maybe some people give it bad reviews cus they have really shitty amps like fender amps...i've played so many of those...and they make me feel like crying. I absolutely like the way the GAX70 sounds through a soldano head. I use a Rp200 and a crate ten watt practice amp. cus i dont want to have sex with the lady at the counter at the guitar store to get that soldano head...even though its probably worth it. But its ot for everyone i guess.

This has a 22 fret neck, humbuker pickups, seperate volume for each. lools kind of like a double cut gibson or sg. with an agathis body and a rosewood fret bourd with medium frets.

This guitar is perfect for some one that dosn't have that much money and play's hard rock like Tool and stuff like that. it is relativly noiseless.i use a marshall vs100 stack anditsounds huge. espeshely on the bridge pick-up.
Ihave to play lots of different styles from pop to jazz to rock because i play in a few school based bands and i can find a decent tone for all of them exept the bridge pickup isnt that great with a clean sound but dirty its great.

it Played like a charm right out of the box it has a great action. the finish good the colour is a very rich butterscoch. But the neck pick-up is a bit quiet.

This a relly good guitar for playing live, it is lite and very confortable it fits right to my body and if you like to go crazy on stage its won't let you down. I've used it alot live and even under the lights and all the crazy stuff on stage it stays in tune really well.

The socket did go wierd once but i took it back to the store a bought it at and they fixed it under warranty

Ive been playing for 4 years and i didn't have that much money so this is great. Its sounds ausome dirty and great clean. Its Great for Hard rock to funk to pop!If it was stolen i'd defently by anouther.the only problem i can find is the neck pickup and a little lacking in volume

2001 model, made in indonesia. 22 frets. H/H with vol/tone for each. Powersound(average cheapo buckers) passive electronics. Maple neck with rosewood fingerboard, agathis(very similar to mahogany). Transparent red finish on body, satin finish on bolt on neck. It kinda looks like a cross between a SG and a LP, sorta like a LP shaped SG with 2 cutaways heh, kinda a SG with a big butt.It was the look and finish that drew me to it at first, as well as the tune-o-matic style bridge. This is a simply designed axe, no complications. I love this more then any axe I have owned hands down(american strat,gibson sg, some others).

8 year player and this guitar doesnt sound bad for anything I like to play, from bluesy/jazzy stuff to punk to thrash. Using it straight to a small Marshall. It plays clean very nicely but also can break up and crunch very nicely when needed. Has a pretty full sound, good lows and the highs arent nonexistent like some other 2 hummer axes. Overall I like the sound of this guitar. Its much nicer sounding then the Gibson SG I used to have. Leading me firmly to believe that its the name Gibson that sells those axes, rather then a supposedly superior quality axe.

Action/Setup was *perfect* from the moment I dragged it home from the shop. No burrs or other defects on the saddles(though they are a bit deep). Pickups height was fine. Everything was pretty much perfect on this axe. No corrosion, very nice looking wood and finish, the neck is a dream to me to play on. The nut seems more plastic then graphite like they claim but still the sustain is quite nice. Electronics are silent, pickup selector switches silently. Everything was very well put together. No fret buzz at any fret on any string. Intonation was perfect off the rack(may have been more a testament to Sam Ash then to Ibanez(shrug).

This guitar will definately withstand live playing, although I would probably replace the stock strap buttons with some locking ones. It *is* a bit topheavy neckwise, but not uncomfortably so once you have played it for a little while and gotten used to it.

The finish is very.. VERY durable, this thing is like a tank heh. Very solid axe, and while I dont "depend on it"(I play as a longtime hobby rather then as pro) I would not hesitate to. I would not use it without backup, but my backup would be another gax70.

Dunno, some say they suck, some say they are good *shrug*

Only a few things I would change about this axe. First off being the pickups. They arent horrible, but definately dont warrant the name "powersound". Will probably put a "humbucker from hell" on the neck, havnt decided what to replace the bridge one with. Will probably replace the saddles with graphite ones, and eventually the nut. The truss rod cover is cheapo but no biggie.

Overall for the money this is a very nice axe. MUCH better and more solid an instrument then anything else even coming close to the price range. The body is solid, the neck is sexy. Great for the beginner, and solid enough to keep and upgrade as you wish. Much easier to play then my old gibson sg and sounds better too right out of the store. I have played the supposed "good" axes.. american strats, les pauls, sgs teles etc. I like this little Ibanez in general more then any of these for its simplicity and easy playing.

Made in Indonesia and probably in 2000. 22 fret, 3-way switch, two volumes, two tones, two humbuckers. Standard Ibanez PowerSound passive pickups. Agathis body, sort of mutant SG style. Transparent red finish which has stood up well. Tune-O-Matic Bridge, non locking tuners.

The PowerSound pickups sucked. I put a DiMarzio PAF Pro in the neck and a DiMarzio Super Distortion in the bridge. Plus, I just added two push/pull switches for coil-splitting and phasing. The PAF actualy sounds pretty good as a single. The new pickups made it sound so much better. The original pickups were muddy on lows and the highs could kill your ear drums. It is very quiet. I run it through a Zoom GFX707 multi effects pedal and a Ibanez ToneBlaster 15 amp and somestimes I put that through a Peavey keyboard amp I have lying around because it is huge and has killer bass to it. The guitar definitely has a full sound to it and pretty good sustain. With my current setup I can get a lot of different sounds out of it. I give it a 7 for the original pickups.

Action wasn't bad when I got it but I had to play around with it just to find whatever felt best to me. The original pickups were pretty well adjusted height wise, pretty even volume. The finish is good and solid. It has hit the coffee table a couple of times and hasn't shown it at all. Two of the tuners were a little loose but that is to be expected, nothing a screwdriver didn't fix in ten seconds.

I have no doubts about it surviving on stage, but you should always have a backup no matter how reliable a guitar may be. The hardware seems good and strong. I haven't had any problems with the strap buttons, the seem in there good.

Haven't dealt with them.

I have been playing about seven months now but I have always been mostly a piano/keyboard player. I also own a Johnson Strat Copy and a Danelectro DC-3. If stolen or lost I would cry and then probably go buy a Ibanez AX220QM. I like its shape, I find it very comfortable. For my level of playing it doesn't seem to put obstacles in my way like my piece of crap johnson strat(the springs vibrate and the g-string drops out of tune if you breathe on it). When I compared it to a lot of other guitars in this price range this one stood out. To my inexperienced ear it just sounded better and felt better.

got it about a week or two ago

Dunno what year, made in Indonesia. 22 frets, 2 humbuckers, 2 tone, 2 volume. Agathis body. the body is shaped like.. well, a SG with a fat arse. heh, its really sweet. mine's red. tuners are pretty sensetive, and stay in tune very well. even when im pissed off, they stay in tune. i dunno about the frets. they seem alright to me, a little too close togeather, i have long fingers so its kinda hard sometmes. im giving it a 6, because its a beginner guitar, but its a very sweet one.

the strings that were on it were nice (slinkys perhaps? feels like them) and pretty fresh so i didn't need to change them the action is fantastic, altho i should raise it a smidge, the E string rattles against the frets sometimes.

Suits my style of music very well. I play mostly Pearl Jam, early (altho any era is good) Smashing Pumpkins, some Creed, Nirvana, etc.

im no tone expert, but the tone isn't bad. i know that. it can get a very nice Pearl Jam sound, at least in my experiance anyway. i give it a 8 because this is exactly the sound guitar i like. I played it without an amp for a week or so, then today I got a Flextone 2. ill write a review for that after a week or two when i get over the inital "honeymoon phase".

like I said above, Action was awesome, a little low, but that can be changed. pickups are fine, the only flaw i see on the guitar is the fretboard is a little worn and you can see brown under the black. but i dont mind petty things like that. it doesn't seem to affect the sound. i like the Red model, there's a black and butterscotch. I wish they had Olive Green. On this guitar (as most Ibanez models, and some other brand guitars) I love the fact that the Jack is on the BOTTOM of the body, not poking out the front.

Seems pretty sturdy. Hardware looks good. I heard that the GAX is prone to electrical problems. so maybe the electronics might fizzle a bit someday. strap buttons look secure, i dont play standing much, so not too worried about that. Id gig without a backup, sure. if I did the backup would be annother GAX.

I haven't delt with Ibanez. but the people at the Guitar Center where I got it are really friendly. i know they're mostly that way to increase sales and whatnot. sometimes they're a little too friendly, but they're aright.

I been playing about a year off and on and have been looking for a good SG copy around $200. I just bought this a week or two ago, seems great. Got a Line6 Flextone 2 today. I compared this to a Epiphone SG special. I really liked this one's feel alot better. pluss i hate strap bolts on the neck. dunno why. I also compared it to the Ibanez GRX model. i think it was a GRX40? an acquaintance of mine has one and its nice, but i dont want a strat body. alto a Trem bridge would be nice once in a while, for Pink Floyd type stuff, ya know? the GRX models are good guitars also, but not what im looking for.

if it were lost or stolen, id buy another one. hells yeah! I doubt ill find a better guitar arond $200. I wish it had some EMG pickups, but enh, can't have everything. My advice? Go with this model, or the GRX models. they're both excellent guitars, prolly the best you'll find within the $200 price range. you can get it for around $189 but i was lazy and got it for $200. :)

1999 Indonesian made, 22 fret bolt-on neck. Multi-piece agathis body. Basic Les Paul pickup/controls/bridge. Butterscotch finish.

I play '70's rock, some metal, blues, etc. through a Tech 21 SansAmp for recording and either my Fender Frontman 25R or Mesa/Boogie Rocket 44 live. Acoustically the sound is very snappy, like you would expect from a longer scale such as a Strat. The bridge pickup is very bright, almost painfully so but this is a plus in some situations. Rolling back the tone knob to 4 or 5 brings it back into a more mellow zone. The neck pickup is fairly dark sounding. If your're willing to tweak on the controls the variety of sounds is pretty good. On the downside, there is some variance in volume string to string which can't be adjusted (fixed pole pieces).

The guitar was set-up fine from the store. I actually raised the strings a bit and adjusted the neck for a bit of relief. Finish was great, this is what got me to pick up the guitar in the first place. It is a little thick but for the price it's good. Everything except for the neck screws needed tightening. This wasn't a surprise since probably the last hands that touched the guitar were in a factory far, far away.

About the neck. It is fairly shallow, shallower than my Les Paul DC or Warmoth. The neck contour is a "C" shape rather than a "V" and this may make the neck feel different than what you are used to.

The pots for the controls look like they came out of an early '60's AM radio and what shielding paint there is looks like it was applied by a 4 year old. No joke. Everything works fine and it's not noisey so I'll just let this ride.

The fret work was better than that on my Les Paul (this is saying more about the QC at Gibson these days than anything about Ibanez).

The wood seems robust enough. Tuners are decent. Finish will probably outlive me. Electronics are questionable, though. Would I gig without a backup. Well, no, but this is my backup axe so draw your own conclusions

N/A

Playing 20+ years. Bought this as a practice beater and as a backup for my more expensive guitars. Its a basic, good guitar. It's a very good value. For 200 bucks, that's all you can ask for. Looked at some Epiphones and Squire Strats and the workmanship was better. If it was stolen, I'd get another one.

O.K. first of all, what the hell is wrong with everybody? This guitar is not as good as the ratings state. My guitar is a '99 or '00 model, I've had it about a year, and I think it was made in Indonesia. It's got 22 medium jumbo frets on a rosewood fretboard. The headstock is a 3x3 configuration which looks really cool. Although the tuners are not locking they work quite well and offer decent tuning stability. The guitar has a transparent red finish and looks really nice. The body is made of agathis and has the shape of a modified SG(Gibson). As for hardware and electronics on the body, it's got your basic Les Paul set up, 2 powersound pick-ups(more on that later) 2 volume, 2 tone,3-way pick up selector and a tune-o-matic style bridge. One of my problems with this guitar is the neck. WARNING-just because it's an Ibanez DOESN'T mean it has to have a fast thin neck. If your one of those people that likes a thin neck DO NOT GET THIS GUITAR! If you like a neck that's a cross between a Stat and a Les Paul and your poor, then go ahead. But keep in mind that while Ibanez's more expensive and mid priced guitars are very good and very well built their lower priced guitars are the sorriest excuses for pieces of shit imaginable.Oh yeah they did a piss-poor job on the fretwork as well. Also keep in mind that if you tune down, waaay down, the AX models are pretty small which means that they have some of the shortest scale neck length in the Ibanez line(24.75"). If you do tune down try looking at the RGXL models which have a scale length of 27"

I play everything from classical(yes classical) to thrash
Right now I'm playing a Peavey Raptor(don't laugh, it could castrate your guitar),Ibanez S470 through a Fender Princeton 112(think STP type distortion)
The pickups aren't that noisy unless you really crank the motha' The Powersound pickups really suck though. They're pretty muddy on the low strings and too piercing on the high strings. They also have no character at all. Despite all this you can manage to get a crunchy sound though, just down expect that Humph when you palm mute. The clean sounds on the other hand are pretty good, nice, crisp and tight with plenty of room. My advice to you is to save up a hundred more dollers and get the Ibanez AX22OQM if you want want the same body shape, this model is soooo much better than the GAX. Here's a rule of thumb when buying any guitar from Ibanez: NEVER,NEVER,NEVER EVER BUY A GUITAR FROM IBANEZ IF IT HAS A "G" IN FRONT OF IT. FOR EXAMPLE (GAX70, GSA60, GRX20Z ETC.) YA GET THE IDEA YET. IBANEZ SELLS THESE MODELS FOR LESS FOR A REASON... THEY'RE PIECES OF SHIT!!!!

Out of the box it was a piece-o-shit although I didn't know it 'cause it was only my second guitar and I was still young, stupid, and very much an amateur, I also didn't know this website existed. Action was about a mile high, intonation was awful, and the screws are a total bitch to get to(I'm talkin 'bout psycho ex-girlfriend kind of bitch!). The pickups were adjusted all right. The neck however...(see above)

I've never played with this guitar on stage before, but I think it'll be able to take it. The guitar overall seems like it could take a beating, but the neck joint on the guitar doesn't seem really strong so be careful. The strap buttons are also a pain in the ass, cause the front one keeps on coming off, the screws are also to big to put strap locks on and are too big for a locking guitar strap to hold to safely if your going to jump around alot. I would not use this guitar without a backup, but you should never go up on stage without some kind of a backup for your guitar and amp. The finish seems kind of thin but it shouldn't wear off if you take care of it.

Never dealt with 'em, heard they're assholes though.

My overall opinion is that this guitar is O.K. but please for the love of God DO NOT GET IT!(see above for reasons) If it were lost or stolen I'd be pretty pissed, just because it was my guitar and I payed for it. I would not get the same model though, I'd still want to get an AX model but definatley not this one.

Korean made, 22fret, fairly flat fretboard, 3-piece agathis body (roughly SG shaped), on 3-way switch, 2 each volume tone control, H-H pickups, tune-o-matic style tailpiece, passive electronics, clear butterscotch finish, maple neck, scarf-joint angled headstock, rosewood fretboard, plastic dot inlays, medium frets, plastic nut, enclosed tuners, no accesories.

I play in an original/cover band, so my style is rather middle of the road. The lows are thick enough, but the treble side is pretty sharp and not very useful. For gigs, I run through a Digitech RP200 amp modeller/effects box direct into the PA. The guitar seldom makes any unwanted noise. The tone knobs really don't do too much to change the sound of this guitar.. theres some change near either end of the dial, but in the middle its all mush.

This guitar contained no flaws when I recieved it. It was perfectly intonated.I changed the strings as soon as I bought it (old habit) and lowered the action a bit ( I like my action lower than most) but everything was set up nicely. The plastic nut had sharp edges on the fretboard side that stabbed at my fingers if I slid up into them, but a file made short work of those.

This guitar has taken a good beating. The hardware, while not top quality is sufficient. The finish is also quite thick, it hasn't scratched at all, and it took dropping it against the corner of my desk to dent it (playing along with online tabs... oops!) The top strap button was teh source of endless frustration.. the screw continuously worked its way out after several tightenings, wood-gluings, etc. I took it out and replaced the screw with a much longer one. Its been fine ever since. Also, the 1/4" jack tends to work istelf loose.. a problem I've noticed on alot of lower-end/imported guitars. I've had no dependability problems with this guitar... in a gig the lead guitarist's parker fly cut out on him mid set.. he has a spare strat. I've never had to go to a spare guitar. So yes, I do use this guitar at gigs without backup, but I'm thinking of buying an LP-style guitar and using this for backup and/or alternate tunings.

haven't needed repairs, and if I did I'd probably do them myself.

This guitar replaced my Squier Stratocaster, which was my first guitar. I've been playing for two years and own 6 guitars right now. I've built my own electric guitar since I've bought this one, but don't gig out with it. right now this is my main electric guitar since my custom stays at home. I'm looking to upgrade to something with a mahogany body and fuller, stronger humbuckers. If this were stolen or lost, I'd probably save my $$$ and buy something better, but as a starter guitar the quality is excellent. Also, the agathis body is very light. It makes the maple neck a little top-heavy, but its great overall for on-stage antics (which I do, to the extent my cable allows me). I like the tuning stability of the tune-style bridge, although it would be interesting to see it with a Bigsby style trem. Of course that wouldn't be particularly cost efficient. As a first electric, a back-up guitar, of a bar-brawler for when you don't want to get your Gibson wet, this is a real working-man's guitar. I've seen other gigging-guitarists switch back and forth between PRS's and JAX70s, so I'm not the only one out here gigging with one. stronger pickups would make for a much better guitar, but tats true of almost every budget guitar. Overall I've been quite happy for how much I paid for this guitar.

2000 model made in Indonesia. 22 junmbo frets, 2 volume 2 tone 3way pickup selector. Black finish, tune-o-matic bridge. It looks great and has good features.

I play mostly punk and metal and it sounds great for those, it has a thick sound. I tried some of the rg ibanez guitars, but this blew them away. The only one that sounded as good as it was a $480 ibanez. I play GAX70>DigitechRP100>Marshall MG50. It sounds great. It handles my perfered tuning perfectly (drop D down a half step). To sum it up it sounds like a much more expensive guitar.

The guitar was set up fine in the factory. The wood isn't great and I've had to have the neck straightend once. The action is a little high, but all you have to do is lower the bridge.

This is a guitar that can withstand a lot I've had it almost 2 years now and it still looks brand new. I play about 2 hours a day. I dropped it once and it still worked fine. I would gig without a backup anytime.

Never had to deal with them.

This is a great guitar at a great price, so if you're looking to aquire a first, second, or even third guitar I would highly recomend this.