Overall Rating: I've been playing guitar for 17 years and I also have a solid-body BC Rich Exclusive. For the money this guitar is great. I've owned American-made Gibsons and Fenders... and this guitar easily competes with them. I've always wanted a ...
Overall Rating: I've been playing guitar for 17 years and I also have a solid-body BC Rich Exclusive. For the money this guitar is great. I've owned American-made Gibsons and Fenders... and this guitar easily competes with them. I've always wanted a semi-hollow.... I love the sounds Trey Anastasio of Phish and other guitarists get with their semi-hollows. The tone is different and better, in my opinion, than tones from solid body electric guitars. Semi-hollow guitars are rock'n'roll's best kept secret. Ibanez has really done well with the Artcore line of guitars by making them with good quality at a good price. Ibanez should make a 7-string version of the AM73T... it would be really cool to have a low-B string (plus tremolo) and use it for progressive hard rock music... NOT the NuMetal crap.
Features: This guitar is a 2003 model made in China featuring 22 Frets, double cutaway, semi-hollow, 2 medium output humbuckers, Bigsby-style tremolo, Rosewood fingerboard and maple neck. My AM73T is blue. Unfortunately, this guitar did not come with a gig bag or case.
Sound Quality: This guitar sounds much better than I anticipated. For $333, this guitar is a steal and competes with guitars costing twice or even three times as much. I play modern and classic hard rock on this guitar and it handles high gain well, even in my band's small rehearsal space where I stand close to my amp. The sound seems brighter than other sem-hollows and archtops that I've played in the past... which, in my opinion, is a good thing. The guitar sounds good dry or with effects. The neck pickup is very warm and perfect for clean jazz, clean rock chords and picking plus fat rock high-gain leads... while the bridge pickup is versatile enough for many different genres with clean, lo gain or high gain sounds. This guitar can do jazz, rock, blues and even country that doesn't require a lot of "twang". I've played metal (Old Metallica/Megadeth) on it and it sounded fine.
Reliability/Durability: This guitar will easily withstand many gigs and rehearsals. I couldn't believe how nice and well-made the tremolo was on this $300 guitar. Be sure to use vaseline on the nut. HAHA! Seriously... add liberal amounts of vaseline in the nut grooves and this will allow the strings to move smoothly when the tremolo is used and it will stay in tune.
Customer Support: Ibanez is good, but kind of hard to get in contact with. I've owned several Ibanez guitars in the past and on one occasion, had to get a replacement part. I received the part one week after contacting them.
Purchased From: American Musical Supply
Price: $333.00 USD
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