Ibanez has regularly produced exception instruments that are a fantastic value.

Sound
The maple top & single floating pickup give this instrument a really nice voice with subtle, bright overtones, particularly on fully voiced chords. A nice acoustic flavor and initial note attack. I'm playing this instrument directly into a mix board with a good direct box and light amount of high quality reverb and it sounds very good. Overall it's less mid-rangey then my Gretch Double Anniversary or many archtops I've played using the more typical spruce top.

Features
The guitar included a particularly nice hardshell case. One minor issue for my playing style is that I occasionally bump the volume control with my picking hand, but I'm learning to move torwards the fretboard to avoid that. Some players might want to consider replacing the knobs with a lower profile type, although to my eyes the stock knobs are quite attractive.

Quality
Fit and finish on the unit I recieved are excellent. My wife, a piano player, took one look at this guitar and annouced that it was her's and that we needed to buy a replacement for me. Enough said! I've used this as my excuse to order my 3rd Ibanez, a George Benson model GB10, which I'm anxiuosly awaiting. BTW, my first Ibanez is a 1983 Artist semi-hollowbody, tabacco sunburst, which to this day remains my favorite general purpose recording electric.

Value… read more
Compares favorably with instruments (that I own) valued at more than 4 times it's price. Is it a high-end, handbuilt, archtop? No, those start at over $4500.00. Is it worth it current retail? Absolutey!

Manufacturer Support
Truth is, I don't know, in 22 years I've never needed to contact Ibanez with a problem.

The Wow Factor
See above. My wife has become a guitar student, and stolen it away from me, because she fell in love with the look and sound of this guitar. You can bet I'll sneak it away from her on a regular basis.

Musical Background:
AV Project studio owner -Soundscores for Technical marketing presentations

Musical Style:
Jazz, blues, developing classical read less