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View Full Version : Ibanez ART 300 - review



Spudman
February 3rd, 2011, 02:46 PM
I have had 2 Ibanez ART 300 guitars, the same two pictured below, for a couple of years now. I haven't played them out of the house much until recently. Lately I've been playing them a lot and I'm pretty impressed. Let me tell you why.

This guitar, as you can see by the photos, has a beveled/contoured top. It's a fairly thick maple cap that is molded that way. This makes it different from many of the newer ART maple top guitars that are only using a thin veneer maple cap. The body is thinner than a Les Paul and has a tummy bevel. The neck and body are mahogany. The electronics are active humbucking, IBZ LZ pickups, that run on 2 AA batteries, and sound quite good. Two volume and one tone control allow for a lot of control and blending options.

It's quite a bit lighter than a traditional Les Paul type single cut guitar and more comfortable thanks to the tummy bevel.

I have to confess that over the years that I've owned them I was becoming disappointed with the sound and was considering selling them. I started doing some investigating as to where the height should be set on those active LZ pickups. I couldn't find anything about height settings, but what I did find was a lot of references to replacing the batteries around every 4 months. Hmmmm, I haven't replaced the batteries in years. Could that make a difference? MOST DEFINITELY!

The guitars are an absolute blast to play anyway, but after the battery change all the clarity is back and dynamics are much better. The guitars have a shorter 22 fret, 24.75 inch scale length, and the neck width at the nut is 43mm and 57mm at the last fret. Both the necks on mine are very round and thick like a vintage LP, not like the thin shredder necks most people associate with Ibanez. It's very easy to fly when playing this guitar, and thanks to the active electronics the notes come out very clearly with great separation. The tone when rolled completely down turns each pickup voice into a sweet singing almost flute like sound with still plenty of clarity and high end, not muddy a bit.

Another feature that makes these nice to play is the Gibraltar bridge. There isn't a sharp spot anywhere to be found so resting your hand is not only pleasant, it's extremely comfortable.

The guitar is covering a lot of ground for me. The clean voice is very full and bright, and slightly overdriven it growls. With even more gain, what they were designed for, not only are they quiet with no hum or buzz, they flat out scream. Plenty of harmonics and nice even full sounding chords. Want sustain? There is ample amounts of that as well.

All in all, just a well done guitar. Do I have anything to fault it for? Just one thing, it is slightly neck heavy similar to an SG. Other than that? Nothing. The guitars were set up great, they stay in tune, sound great and play fantastically. Why should any of this interest you? If you want one you can find them used pretty cheaply, especially compared to the new releases, which to my ear don't sound quite the same. That might be attributable to the different thickness in maple tops.

http://www.anthonysmusic.com.au/images/ibanez_art300.gif

sunvalleylaw
February 3rd, 2011, 04:17 PM
Nice review! I really liked the sound and feel of one of those (I think I played your black one) when I tried it at your house back when it was new.

Spudman
February 3rd, 2011, 05:17 PM
Nice review! I really liked the sound and feel of one of those (I think I played your black one) when I tried it at your house back when it was new.

You mean when the batteries were new?:D

Duffy
February 4th, 2011, 06:30 PM
I have the Amber and Brown one of these, the one on the right. It is a great guitar.

I like the way that the top is similar to an alligator hide. When I checked into how they make the textured top I found that it is a solid maple cap that has the relief pressed onto it when the wood is wet, rather than having it textured by machining or carving the top. The textured top looks really cool IMHO.

Another thing I learned from a tech near me is that if you have one of these guitars you need to be careful when changing the double A batteries. This is one of the few guitars that uses double A battteries rather than the usual 9 volt.

He says that by far the most repairs he does on these guitars has to do with the damage done to the pickup system when people accidentally put one of the double A batteries in backwards. According to him, this is something that you should pay attention to when changing batteries, because one mistake can wind up costing you a lot of money.

Hope this piece of information is useful to those of you that have one of these guitars. I know I was glad to find out about it and I now always pay attention when changing batteries in it.

It is a very nice playing and sounding guitar though, and I personally like the sound of the active humbuckers better than I like the sound of the typical EMG 60/81 equipped active humbucker guitars I've played.

Needless to say, I really like my ART300 and I still see some of them for sale on some of the websites.

I live in a very rural area and you virtually never see any of these on Craigslist. Plus these guys around here charge either close to retail or more than retail for anything decent that they advertise. It's ridiculous how much they ask.

One of these could easily make an excellent inexpensive LP style guitar for someone looking for something like this. They look way better in person than in the pictures too. I used to think the tops looked like crinkled plastic based on the pictures I saw, but when I eventually saw one in person I was really impressed with the "caiman" hide-like finish.

marnold
March 1st, 2011, 08:48 AM
I just got a Guitar Center flier. They have the ART300 for $250. It's in-store only, but here's the link on the site:
http://www.guitarcenter.com/Ibanez-ART300-Artist-Electric-Guitar-104794391-i1389678.gc

Spudman
March 1st, 2011, 09:55 AM
I just got a Guitar Center flier. They have the ART300 for $250. It's in-store only, but here's the link on the site:
http://www.guitarcenter.com/Ibanez-ART300-Artist-Electric-Guitar-104794391-i1389678.gc


That's a no-brainer. $250 is an awesome price for a new one.