This thing is a beauty. Both aesthetically and sound wise it's an incredible instrument and for under 600 dollars you won't be disappointed and wont' find a better full hollow body axe. I'm not usually a big fan of Ibanez solid bodies under a certain price, I think that their action is usually a little off for my taste, and that the tone could be improved. But something that Ibanez does absolutely right is build semi hollow and hollow body instruments that blow the competition out of the water. I purchased my guitar used from Musiciansfriend.com for $450 (new their closer to $600) including shipping, it arrived about a week later and out of the box it was incredible to play. (HUGE props to musicians friend, these guys do service right, it arrives in a timely manner and you get exactly what you paid for, I've never heard of any other site where the guitar arrives at your home ready to shred. Excellent excellent company, I was hesitant to buy online for a long time but was so pleased with my purchase from these guys that it's become a very viable option from now on)
The finish is the first thing you'll notice, mine is in what Ibanez calls a "Dark Violin Burst" it's black and brown in a burst pattern that you can see the wood through, it's got a solid spruce top and laminate flame maple back and sides. It's got a 20 fret rosewood fretboard on the Artcore Deluxe three piece Mahogany and Maple neck that's got mother of pearl inlays that are a great throwback to the flashy look of old Jazz Box's like you see the greats playing. My first thought was "Wow Wes Montgomery would've loved this thing" It has the same body shape as a Gibson ES-175 (Played by the likes of Steve Howe, guitarist of legendary prog rock band Yes) but the cutaway is slightly pointier, something that Ibanez is really good at, just take a look at the Xiphos. It's got gold hardware (pickup covers and tuner washers) with ivoroid tuners that surprisingly stay in tune incredibly well! It's got a floating rosewood bridge with solid wood tailpiece that has another inlay on it with gold edging. This thing just screams class. The finish is incredible on this thing, you really do have to see it in person to fully take it in. If I could change anything aesthetically about this guitar It'd be to throw a gold Bigsby vibrato bar on it.
The action on it is incredible, I lowered it a little bit and put on a pair of Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinky's, to get a heavier tone on the low end but be able to do bends easier on the low end. I play a lot of blues and country and this guitar is really well suited to that. It sounds excellent clean and if you have a clean enough amp you can get a really nice acoustic tone out of her. The bridge pickup is suprisingly hot, a gift from Ibanez to blues players I think, it's the Ibanez ACH2 and is good for heavy blues, classic rock, and even a little bit of modern rock, however like all full hollow body guitars, if you turn the gain up too much it feeds back, there's a reason they're called feedback monsters. The neck pickup is an amazing clean tone great for country, classic rock, and jazz, and to get that acoustic tone I talked about earlier. This is a good all around workhorse tone, but if you're looking for anything heavier at high volumes you may want to steer clear of this one, though you may want to steer clear of a hollow body electric in general, the full hollow body just isn't going to give you what you're looking for. The tone will get you almost as many compliments as the aesthetics on this guitar will but ultimately I'd give the aesthetics 5 stars and the tone closer to 4.5.
With a pickup swap this guitar would be perfect. The pickups Ibanez puts into these things aren't the highest quality, but at the price you can't really expect them to be. I'd suggest something like the Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates if you're looking to go more bluesy, because you'll get a hotter tone and still keep minimal feedback, but for a cleaner tone I'd go with the Seymour Duncan Jazz model. I love Seymour Duncan pickups I think they're going to give you the best tone for the price out of any pickup out there. Though for my style I always still have a solid body close at hand, this guitar is tonally amazing but it's not exactly tonally diverse, that being one of the biggest cons about this guitar. Another con is that this finish shows EVERYTHING, every finger print, every scratch, every ding. So if you're OCD I'd go for something in a different finish unless you want to spend a lot of time rubbing your guitar with a polishing rag. Another con is that it's made in China. This bothers a lot of people but I think that the factory this one came out of is doing it right.
I'd recommend this guitar to an intermediate to advanced player looking to expand their tonal pallet without dropping big money on a Gibson or Gretsch full hollow body guitar. I wouldn't recommend it to a beginner just because it's not something that a lot of beginners are going to be comfortable playing, it's going to feedback when they want to play fast and loud and it's not going to be exactly the tone they're looking for on some of the more popular music genres. I've played a lot of Gretsch electromatics that are about 100-200 dollars more expensive and these Ibanez' blow them out of the water. I'd definitely purchase another one of these babies if mine were ever stolen. I play mine every day and have for about a year and it just keeps sounding better, as it ages I think that this guitar will just get nicer and nicer (especially after I put new pickups in it.) Do yourself a favor and go out and play one, doctors orders. WARNING Side effects will probably include: Needing to purchase one of the bad boys for yourself!
