Ibanez SA160

I bought mine brand wen around 94. Mines Korean made metallic blue. Mahogany body with 22 fret bolt on neck. It sould be noted that most Ibanez bolt on built in the last 15 years or so have an interesting heel that makes them play like a neck through. I scalloped the fingerboard because I thought the frets were a little small for me and I put graphite sabbles on because the high E string started beaking after a while. I also put a couple of Duncan picups ing mine and blocked the trem so it can only be pulled up, and the guitar never goes out of tune this way when you snap a string.

I play metal blues and classic rock. I've owned a couple of high end Ibanez with locking double locking trem in the past. I've found that Ibanez tremelo hardware is total crap compared to the hardware on my Jacksons and ESP's. I like the Ibanez neck a lot and usuall don't use the trem so I play this guita often. I usually play through a Marshall TSL stack. Mine sound great. in bothe the bridge and neck positions.

Factory was OK, I just ajusted mine a little. I set my guitars up myself. This guitar is one of the easiest guitar tp set up, all you need an allen wrench to set the action and a couple to set the intonation.

I have had problems with the input jack a few times in the past. Blue lock-tight should fix that.
Great paint job, no scratches on mine yet and I play it often.

I've hear Ibanez is a bitch to work with unless you just purchased your guitar brand new withen the last 6 months.

I've been playing since 1981. I started on a Les Paul copy and went to a Kramer Pacer in 86. Shortly afterwars switched to Jacksons. In the early 90's Ibanez stared making their neck more like Jacksons. If you want a nice metal/rock guitar and don't want to deal with a tremelo this may be a guitar worth checking out.
I have absolutly no tuning problems with mine althought I usualldon't have the trem bar on, but when I do this guitar still stays pretty much in tune.

Check other reviews for exact details but what grabbed my eye was sexy quilted maple look, contour-carved look, recessed input jack, 5 selector pup switch for S/S/H and cool SAT30 bridge with trem. Read on . . .

It sounds right on for overdriven metal, tasty blues and spacey clean sound -- what more can you ask for?

Okay, I bought this on-the-spot after a 15-min jam with a Marshall amp at Guitar Center. It was used and looked it with enuff dings and dents to get the on-the-road, stupid-punk-teenager abuse, vintage wannabe a rocker award. But the used price was sweet. It played and sounded HUGE!

This axe new or used shows solid build and dependability.

I have been playing since 1967 and this was an easy buy for me as it had great action, good neck feel, and really played and sounded awesome, even for one abused little puppy. I own 12 (or more) axes, 3 basses some Fender, Yamaha, Ibanez, Agile, Samick, Tokai, Electra, Kay, ZZRyder, Rogue and the like . . . This Ibanez SA160 Quilted maple Amber axe I gladly "stole" for $125 tax included and walked right out the store with no gig bag but proud to show it off. I have the feeling this may be my new "go to" axe for awhile as it is already beat up a bit but roars like an angry wildcat!

Bought mine (used)a few months ago as a back-up. Amber version, 22 frets, Korean made. Beautiful quilted top. Pictures don't do justice to the look and colour of this guitar. Very solid lacquer, no scratches, no flaws, even when used. Comfortable thin neck,(not that thin like f.a. a S470) kind of a strat shape mahogany body, 5 way switch HSS. Only one control for treble, would like another one, just like my strat. But i'll live with that. It has a tremelo wich i blocked. I don't use it and this way it keeps my guitar better in tune.

The former owner was a pro-musician and changed the stock-pu's for a set of EMG's. (81-SA-SA) Can't tell about the sound with stock-pu's, but with the EMG's it sounds very powerfull, yet dead quiet (NO HUMM!!)and even usable for a clean sound. A bit more output than the Kinmans in my strat and a bit 'darker'. Makes a great versatile backup for me. I play in a coverband, (70's, etc. until now, all kinds of music, except for metal)I use an American strat with Kinman pu's or this Ibanez into a Boss GT6, into a Fender HotRodDeluxe.
(no effectloop, no 4 cable method etc. just straight into the amp)It does the trick for me. Can get all the sounds i want. (

When bought used, it came with 12's flatwound. (setup was used for powercords..) Put 10's on it, had to raise the neck a little, blocked the trem and replaced the inputjacket. This guitar is flawless, great fretwork and the stock tuners stay pretty well in tune. No need to replace them. This guitar can compete with guitars twice or three times the price.

If you take care of your gear, any guitar will withstand live playing. I believe that there is no need for backup with this guitar, but i take no risk. Also, whe do some songs with an altered tuning, or sometimes i need that extra bit of power from a HB. Therefor, i always take 2 guitars out on a gig.

No experience!

I'm into playing for some 15 years now. I own an American Strat, and a Yamaha LJXC-6 acoustic jumbo. Great guitar, great sound!
275 euro for this guitar with a set of EMG's, i would replace it in a heartbeat! I love the versatility of this guitar, a shame that it came with only one tone-knob. The EMG81 is great for leads, it cuts trough anything.

I have an oil/satin finish mahogany "weathered brown" model. Finish was near perfect with one tiny glossy spot. The body is made of two pieces almost invisible in their joinery at the pickup jack. It is a stunning guitar, and astonishing for the cloeseout price. Which is why it gets a 10.

The electronics are adequate, the neck is fast, and it just feels good. It's a guitar that wants to be played.

Sound is sweet and bluesy to hard metal with the diverse S-S-H. The singles pick up all kinds of junk (motors, lights, etc.), but the 5-position switch lets you have a number of hum-bucking options. Mahogany sustain means you can hit a note and go grab a sandwich. I love the sound, but it's not in the range of a custom guitar costing 20 times as much... why that would be surprising to some people is rather odd.

Fantastic set-up! By far the best factory set-up I've seen. I tweaked it here and there just for fun, and ended up bringing it right back to where it was originally. Low, fast and buttery.

I don't gig, but I have a buddy who wouldn't hesitate to bring this on stage.

I am giving this a 10 based on value. It is comparable to much more expensive guitars, and really just feels good to play.

The origional finnish was a glossy black. Silver hardware. Non-locking tuners. No included accessories. Twenty-two frets. Volume, Tone, 5-way selector. S/S/H configuration. The best feature of this guitar is the neck. Very thin and fast. If you do anything to this guitar, do not destroy the neck. do not paint it, re-finnish it, sand it, ect. It is to fast and good a feature to chance ruining.

I purchased this guitar a bit over two years ago, and am writing this review as an experienced owner of this product. I have been playing guitar for over four years. I have a very eclectic taste in music, therefore, I play from a variety of very different genres. I use a Fender Stage 160 (2 channel/ 2x12") Amp, and a collection of effects pedals. Like almost all guitars, you will eventually have to tweak little things in order to tailor it perfectly to your hands when you get it home from the store. With this particular guitar, the first thing I did was remove the factory strings, lower the action, and put Ernie Ball Super Slinky strings on. After a few months, I replaced the humbucker with a Seymor Duncan "Dimebucker." This helped the sound greatly. Hardly any feedback, as opposed to small but annoying ammounts before the switch, and a much deeper tone. While I had it gutted, I figured I would replace all of the wiring and electronic connections to assure durability. If you want a great sound, I would reccomend replacing some if not all of the pickups on this guitar. Lately I have been dissapointed with the bridge, only because I would rather have a Floyd Rose for certain sounds I have begun to experiment with.

The action on this guitar would be perfectly fitted for a beginning guitar player, but not a guitar enthusiast or someone who has been playing for a number of years. I personally have my own obsessive-compulsive guitar settings/tweaks. I lowered the action, like I mentioned earlier. The guitar was very solid. You cannot really understand how something works untill you take it apart and reassemble it, so I chose to do just that. I removed everything from the body to paint it. The neck was surprisingly held on very sturdily, as was everything else. The bridge gave me no problems, however I did alter the settings a bit for good measure. This guitar was basically flawless as far as condition. The wiring was very well completed, all covers, rings, ect. fit perfectly.

This guitar has served me well on many occasions in live situations. I would not worry about technical difficulties caused by this guitar on stage. I have only ever had small problems, but all have been caused by exterior sources such as pedals, amps, ect. The strap button on the front has given me no problems, however, the button on the butt of the guitar strangely loosened itself. I left it on, but drilled a new hole just above it for a locking strap device to be completely sure. This also affords unlimmited combinations of strap usage. I personally never use a guitar on a gig without a backup, but if I absoloutly had to, I would feel comfortable with this guitar flying solo. Keep in mind the fact that I have made numerous alterations to important aspects of this guitar. It is for those reasons only that I feel ultimately comfortable with this guitar on stage.

The only repairs this guitar has experienced were administered by me, so I have never had any severe horror stories in that department. I have never had to contact Ibanez, but I feel that they most likely employ the same quality with customer issues as they do with their guitar creations.

As I said before, I have been playing for over four years. I own several guitars including basses and guitars of all kinds. 12 string acoustics, 12 string electrics, acoustic basses, electric basses, ect. They are all different brands. In my opinion, no guitar has ever made every kind of guitar perfectly. There is usually only one that can be considered their masterpiece, therefore, I try to find the best of the best for which ever specific type I am looking to purchase. If this guitar were stolen or lost, I would be dissapointed in the loss of time and money I spent to make it what it is today, but I would probably not buy this again, however I would buy an Ibanez.

Features:
SA160 BL

SA neck (Sangria, Rosewood fingerboard)
3pc. Maple Neck Material, bolted
Mahogany Body (small, the whole thing weighs close to nothing)
22 Medium frets
SAT30 bridge
H-S-S: all stock pickups
dot inlays
chrome hardware

Theres nothing out of the ordinary here. What I like about the trem system is its easy and reliable. Its not as easy to put the strings out of tune as with some floating bridges. The SA line was new in 2005 along with the SZ, based on the S series.

The SA neck is miraculous. It is the single best thing about this guitar. Its rediculously thin and makes technical playing rediculously easy.

My two problems with the guitar: 24 frets would have been ideal. And playing a guitar that uses .9s (.9-.42) is not something that I find especially useful. The smaller gauge means less output, less sustain and they dont last as long.

I'll play anything - blues, rock, harder rock, metal (black, melodic death), neo-classical stylings, and especially 'guitar rock', such as Vai. So really a huge range.

The playability will mean most people interperet this guitar as a dream shredder for the masses
amps used - crate, marshall amps, ranging from 15w to 100w.
effects - dunlop jimi hendrix wah wah, zoom 505II, various boss distortion pedals that I borrowed and didnt return.
slightly noisy on all settings.
non descript sound. not rich by any means, not bright either. versatile tho.


details:
When I picked up this guitar it was my first 'serious' or 'semi serious' instrument. My previous guitar was made by Y*m*ha and was firewood. It was absolutely unuseable after 2 years. Going to music school in the next year however Im looking for something much more serious than this.

I instantly liked the feel and especially the playability of it.

The sound is non-descript. The mahogany body doesnt give as much lower end punch as you might hope. Theres plenty of mids (which I dont care for), but the overall sound is 'rounded' and 'stale'. The redeeming aspect of it is its versatility, especially playing through a clean amp.

So i'll give it a 2 for sound: versatile instrument but lighter string gauge and stock pickups dont give much bite. Overly rounded, stale sound with no life to it. From a tone point of view not for any sort of expressive playing or rock playing where you need hotter leads, unless you arent afraid to use some sort of digital modelling. I almost always used the zoom, because it vastly improved the sound.

factory set action is probably the lowest I've seen, which is great for fast and fluid playing.

Intonation however needed some tweaking. Not to mention, the saddles were skew --/\-\ (???), and bizzarre to adjust. I did need to adjust the spring tension in the back. These types of adjustments are incredibly straitforward with Ibanez instruments, as you probably know.

The neck was well bolted ;).... haha. the finish was good. If you choose to use the little notch to place your picks when your on a stage or in a jam session, expect to get many, many scratches on that one area (between the fretboard and pickup is the notch). frankly that doesnt bother me, but some people see a scratch or burr and get squeemish.

Other hardware - the switch, nobs, machine heads, are great.

overall I'd say 7.
were this not an Ibanez and easy to adjust certain things about it, the score here would be much lower.

I used the guitar at a few small shows, no problems there. I wouldnt dream of using it at a big show. Reliabilty decent, overall.
The hardware will last. But its of a better quality than the sound of the instruement.
The finish is starting to wear off in some parts. Thats to be expected, given this isnt a high-end instruemtn and how much I play guitar. (yngvie jr)

Again, im looking for a new instrument. I suspect this one would last another 4-5 years before I lament its passing. Decent reliability, but 3 for durability.

If you were selling this, you probably wouldn't want to give a lifetime warranty :)

I have not dealt with customer service. What I hear however is its best to contact dealers about any problems or questions.

If this were stolen or lost I wouldnt worry too much about it. As I stated Im looking for another instrument. It would speed that process up a bit.

The best thing about it is the feel and playability.
The worst is the sound.

Overall I'd reccommend this as a decent entry level guitar. Its reasonably reliable. But once you reach a certain level you would definitely want to move on to something else... What I do strongly reccommend is you look at the higher end SA guitars, with fitted necks and such like.

I have thought about putting dimarzios in there but theres no point putting top pickups in a bottom end guitar, is there?
When I bought it, it was priced cheaper than the Ibanez models that are 'officially' entry level, for some reason.

The one I have is a 2002 model (not too sure). Black and same as everybody else.

Amazing harmonics on the bridge pup when distorted-similar to my SG Special. The neck pup sounds ok. Reminiscent to my Am Standard Strat neck pup with a more pronounced mid range. But I will replace the neck pup eventually because the staggered pole pieces have overly accentuated the A,D,G and B strings and there's a noticeable drop in output when plucking high string E. I rarely use the middle pup so I will leave that alone. You can get a huge variety of sounds from these babies as is-ranging from hard rock sg to twangy strat.

My only gripe is when it comes to adjusting the neck and mid pup heights. They only go so far and the adjustment is different from nearly every other guitar. That said, you get pretty limited adjustment from these and have a pretty "set" sound.

Excellent set up and finish out of the box. Again, neck and mid pups have limited adjustment capabilities. The selection switch seems a little loose and is a tad noisy when switching.

The tremolo gives me no problems (not like my old RG).

As for the neck, read: IBANEZ HAS THE BEST NECKS IN THE BUSINESS!!!

Great for this price range.

NA

Playing 10 years on and off. Have a bunch of other guitars in the $1000 price range Gibson specials and Am Standard Strat, Epi Elite LP Custom (excellent guitar).

Love the price, playability, finish and the excellent neck! I also love that since this isn't so expensive I can hot rod it as much as I want and it'll kick serious ass. Judging from the incredible sound unplugged, I think this will really sing with better pups.

Not too happy about the neck and mid pick ups sound and adjustment limitations. Need something with a more balanced tone.

Chose this because of the look. I had an old RG which I sold and I've moved from metal to more rock and blues and when I chanced on this guitar I had to have it. It's basically a more mellow, mature RG to me.

Wish this came with a hardtail since I hate tremolos.

Conclusion:

This can be "every man's guitar." It can suit a huge variety of music and styles. This is a guitar you grow with. As is, its amazing for the price. Pretty awesome, actually.

Everything standard, read the above reviews. Tuners need to be replaced after a couple years of heavy playing though, keep that in mind. Other than that very nice for a intermediate range guitar.

When i bought this guitar, i loved the sound. After improving my skills over the years though, i've come to realize that the stock pickups flat out suck. They have no power. On clean, the sound is VERY quiet. Feeding it through a distortion pedal helps. I'm replacing the pickups with some EMGs this week though, because i love everything else about the guitar.

Okay on the whole. Action needs adjusting after a little while but that's standard. The mahogany on the neck seems to have developed some white stripes, which is really weird.

Tuners getting a little weak, but otherwise great!

So, i got ripped off by L&M when i bought this, however i hold no grudges as it was probably my own fault for doing no research. I love everything about the guitar except for the pickups, which I'm changing to EMGs this weekend. Seriously, a great intermediate guitar for the price. Besides it's so much cheaper to buy a guitar like this when you're learning and then put in some asskicking pickups when you get better. The EMGs are running me a solid $280 though, so beware.

This is standard Korean made 80's shredder style axe with an HSS pickup configuration, 5-way switching and Wilkinson style tremolo system. The body is royal blue and made of mahogany. Decent looking sealed tuners and a nice fast neck. I personally like the HSS pickup configuration because it is so veristile. I was looking for a backup axe for gigs. My main axe in a 1992 American Floyd Rose Classic Stratocaster with the same HSS configuration that I have giged with and used for 13 years and it was starting to get a little rough around the edges. I figured that a cheap Korean guitar would be cheap but maybe a decent backup and I thouht the mahagony body was a good enough starting point and that anything else I could fix later..ie: pickups, tuners etcs.

Priority #1 for me is tuning stability. Nothing will stop the phone from ringing quicker that an out-of-tune sounding guitar. I can take bad sounding pickups because if you roll off the tone and volume a little, that will usually make an even terrible sounding axe usable. This axe can barely make it through a scale without drifting out of tune. The combination of cheap sealed tuners, floating bridge and a poorly cut nut make this thing unusable on a gig. The pickups are terrible. The neck pickup is hard and brittle. The pickup can barely be lowered because of the way it is mounted in the guitar. All 3 pickups are highly microphonic. I had guessed this would be the case before I got it so after I confirmed what I suspected would be the case, I put on a set of Sperzels and locked the floating bridge down since I don't need the tremolo. I also put a Dimarzio HS-2 in the neck. That cleared up my main complaints about the guitar. It now stays in tune fairly well except the nut still causes problems even with "guitar grease" in the slots. The HS-2 made a huge difference. It now sounds warm, dark and fat in the neck position which I use a lot. The stock humbucker is usable with the tone rolled off and the volume backed down a little. Since 50% of my opinion of a guitar's features is based on tuning stability I have to give it a five. Since I think they are justified in putting cheap pickups in a cheap guitar I can't really deduct for that and it does have the HSS configuration which is all I can really ask for.

I play comtemporary jazz/funk in a band so I need to get that ( or try to get that) Larry Carlton, Mike Stern kind of sound as well as a decent funk sound and a good sustaining lead sound to cop horn solos. Since I also like to play Van Halen and other rock stuff on the side, I like the basic 80's strat style with a HSS pickup config. I play through a trademark 60 which is a great amp for playing in clubs, again very versitile. I also use some delay, reverb, chorus and a Boss SD-1 for pushing the clean channel of my amp. I save the "Marshall" channel for rock jams. This guitar is brittle and noisy. Every tiny sound you make is amplified. The stock pickups are very trebely and thin. Other than the feel of this guitar, there is not much I like about it and I ended up buying a Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster w/ HSS. My old Strat is now my backup up. The new Strat sounds beautiful. It is perfect. The SA160 is now a lab guitar. Any set-up changes I'm thinking about, I do to the SA160 first as practice so I don't mess up my Strats. I've actually gotten excellent results with this approach.

This thing has an amazing unplugged tone. The set-up was actually pretty good. The neck is probaby one of the easiest and most comfortable necks I have ever played. The picks were way too high and could not be adjusted down because they were attached to a tall piece of plastic that was part of the pickup itself. This caused the axe to sound rank and microphonic. The nut was cut terribly. I could see the jagged edges in both the front and back of the nut. The body and neck on this thing are great. The neck was beautifully done and the action was super low with little or no buzz. The body was light and super comfortable. As I said, unplugged, this guitar sounds and feels great.

This guitar is unfit for any kind of professional work except mayby a grunge kind of thing where the tuning is not important and everything is cranked up so nuance is not a factor either. Not only would I not gig with this guitar, I wouldn't use it as a backup. That being said, oddly enough it seems built rather well. If the thing sounded good and stayed in tune, I would probably gig with it because it is solid enough.

Have not dealt with them.

I've been playing 23 years or so. I've owned Les Pauls, Flying Vs, Strats, Kramers, Charvels. I now own 2 HSS Strats, and an American Fat Tele. I bought this online based on the mahagony body and some of the reviews in the forum. I just needed a backup and over estimated my ability make a cheap guitar usable and under estimated the cost to do so. I've already put about $110 dollars into this guitar with the tuners and pickup and it's a little better but now it's now a $339 dollar guitar instead of a $229 guitar which is what i purchased it for. There are probably a lot better options available for $340.

If this were lost or stolen, i wouldn't notice until I waned to make an adjustment to one of my Strats and would look to test on this axe first.

bought this brand new last year april as a practice guitar. i use a RG550 for clubs n gigs. It is koeran made and black with 22 fret rosewood neck. s-s-h configuration with a 5 way selector and one volume n one tone pot. basically i de-did the most of the guitar as i loved the neck and body but was not too confident with the electronics n parts. i installed planet waves locking tuners. changed the 5 way selector to ernie ball. Got a guitar luther to remove the existing tremolo bridge n installed a fender two fulcrum bridge which included graptech saddles n nuts. the neck has a dimarzio chopper, mid is a virtual vintage dimarzio and recently changed the bridge from a dimarzio paf pro to dimarzio breed. i give a 6 for the original electronics n parts but now a 10 with my modified guitar.

the guitar blows with all this new parts. i laid to rest my rg 550 (which has a sd 59 at neck, sd single staggered mid and sd jb at bridge). this guitar kicks ass now. strings seldom break with graptech and i can play blues to metal with the dimarzios. basically i play in clubs so music ranges from top40s to rock to r n b n dance and this guitar can do it all. the neck n the weight of the body really impressed me. basically this guitar goes thru my boss me-33 and a volume pedal and the clubs' end accordingly.

i got my guitar tech to re-do the action n intonation although the th original was pretty ok. the guitar looks expensive and was surprised of the price , maybe due to it was korean made.

i only have one guitar for gigging as it is pretty inconvenient for me to bring along two guitars. i trust this guitar completely and gig it withour back-up. even the strap-buttons were changed to dunlops just for precaution sake although the original ones were pretty good.

no comment never dealt with em. have used rg550s, JS1000 and a few more ibanezs and never had a problem with reliablity.

been playing abt 11 yrs and owns an rg 550 (former main guitar ) and a yamaha pacifica 112m for practice at home now. if it was stolen i would most probably buy it again but the re-mod cost me abt the same price as the guitar. as mentioned i re-did it coz i was impressed by the neck n body. this was the only model that has a neck pretty similar to my former js1000.