― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 15:10 (seventeen years ago) link
― John Justen, the archetypal shit head generation (johnjusten), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 15:51 (seventeen years ago) link
Nabisco OTM! And congrats on the new semi-hollow! Pix!
― rogermexico (rogermexico), Thursday, 1 June 2006 01:45 (seventeen years ago) link
Only problem now is that it can be too warm and full for the little practice amp I record with (25-watt) -- even with the bass tone turned all the way down, that low-end can wind up overwhelming things. Chords lose clarity and get boomy; distortion stews everything together into mud. Switching to bridge pickup helps, obviously, but then there are twang issues to deal with.
This seems like much less of a problem with a decent-sized amp, turned up to a decent level, but I keep wondering about the versatility thing. Think it's worth buying a good equalizer pedal, to strip out the muddier frequencies? Or should I be (gasp) rethinking the hollow-body altogether?
― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 02:21 (seventeen years ago) link
― Earl Nash (earlnash), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 02:34 (seventeen years ago) link
― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 14 June 2006 14:33 (seventeen years ago) link
Note to Nabisco - I removed the pick guard form my Gibson over 30 years ago, and have had no problem with pick scratches. The Ibanez Artcore strings are fairly high off the body, so you'd have to really be windmilling like Pete Townshend to hit the finish during normal picking.
Another thought about the Artcore necks - the frets on the AM-73 (small body) are larger than the frets on the AS-73 The AM-73 neck is better if you like to bend notes.
The only weaknes of the Artcore guitars is the pickups. They are medium output ceramic magnet humbuckers, and tend to sound a bit sharp. I replaced my pickups with Gibsons, and the iprovement was noticeable - a more bell-like sound.
The Ibanez Artcore guitars are all very good guitars period - excellent Japanese design and Chinese workmanship. The low prices are a bonus I particularly recommend the AM-73 as an axe that covers all the bases. No mattter what type of music you love, this guitar will make you want to play more of it.
― Stephen Gillies, Saturday, 8 July 2006 03:55 (seventeen years ago) link
does anyone know if these are still as surprisingly good as they were back in 2006? (i'm looking at you, jjj.)
also, while i'm tentatively on the hunt - i figure what i'm looking for is something that will cover my gottschingy/balearic and jazzy leanings as well as my more noisy/droney leanings, i don't particularly know what i'm doing (and perhaps the hollow body could cause problems as the volume and desire for controlled feedback increases?) so does anyone have any other thoughts and suggestions in a similar price range?
― ohmigud (Merdeyeux), Wednesday, 15 May 2013 20:13 (ten years ago) link
I got an AG86 last month. It plays pretty good. It sounds ok. It *looks* fantastic. If I was more serious about getting a good tone I think I'd swap out the pickups. I don't think I'd use it for noisy stuff though, the feedback can be piercing and uncontrollable.
― 29 facepalms, Friday, 17 May 2013 09:40 (ten years ago) link
I never thought much of these. I'm surprised/intrigued by the love here.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Friday, 17 May 2013 18:11 (ten years ago) link
love my AG86 to death, and miss it dearly as it gathers dust in a texas closet.
― steening in your HOOSless carriage (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Friday, 17 May 2013 18:27 (ten years ago) link
i still stock about 8-10 of them at the shop. hard to beat at that price point imo.
― AMERICA IS ABOUT RIESLING (jjjusten), Friday, 17 May 2013 20:48 (ten years ago) link
When I was last looking for an inexpensive semi-hollow (to do extended/prepared stuff with as well as resonant clean fingerpicking and to run through electronics) 7 years ago or so, I ended up choosing a Hamer Echotone (which is something like a dead ES-335?). I'm really fussy about minimizing uncontrolled feedback + I didn't find the Artcore's tone very satisfying. The couple people that I've spoken to about the Artcore since then felt the same way. It has been a long time, though, so I'm interested in what you like about it, jjj. (My electric guitar life is complete now that I have a real ES-335 that I'll be paying off for three more years.)
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Sunday, 19 May 2013 00:52 (ten years ago) link
It was secondhand and admittedly, I was really looking for a secondary instrument I could scrape strings with etc at that point. Still wasn't that happy with the Artcores though.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Sunday, 19 May 2013 01:03 (ten years ago) link
My other cheaper semi-hollow is a second-hand Hondo 945 Deluxe. I know Hondo doesn't really have a great rep but I was always pretty happy with that one!
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Sunday, 19 May 2013 01:05 (ten years ago) link
I'm enjoying my AS-73 very much, it sounds quite implausibly nice for a £200 purchase. The volume and tone knobs are perhaps a bit insensitive (there seems to be a bit of a leap between levels of volume and tone at points) but besides that I could ask for nothing more.
― Waluigi Nono (Merdeyeux), Tuesday, 10 September 2013 18:01 (ten years ago) link
picked up an as-93 a couple of weeks ago - really enjoying how it plays and sounds. lovely flamed maple top, back and sides, too.
sadly i'm still a shitty guitar player
― the illicit unit slid tantalizingly across the waxed tile (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 30 October 2015 15:51 (eight years ago) link