Marc Morfei
Friend of Leo's
I want to sing the praises of this guitar I picked up used over the summer, the Ibanez AM153. This is an ES339-sized semi-hollow. It's great. Before getting into it, here's a quick code for Ibanez model names. The "AM" prefix refers to the smaller ES339-size guitars, and "AS" for the ES-335 size. The number suffix refers to quality, the higher the number the better the guitar. The ones you usually see in the store (ie, Guitar Center) are the lower-tier "Artcore models." These would be the AM53, AM73, and AM93. The AM93 seems to be most common. It's pretty good, about on par with the Epiphone ES-339 that people generally like very much as a great bang-for-your-buck guitar.
The AM153 is part of the higher-tier "Artstar" line. It is a dramatic step up, in my opinion. I'm surprised you rarely see these in stores, because they are really great. Honestly I thought it was better than the Gibson ES-339. And at $999, the Ibanez is a great value. Fit and finish is great, including binding and very nice rounded fret ends. Super 58 pickups are great. The neck PU splits with a toggle. Ash body, ebony fretboard, bone nut. Neck is 3-piece Nyotah/Maple, which is probably the one area where they saved cost on this guitar. All I will say is the neck and overall guitar feels, plays, and sounds great. It has a rich and full sound unplugged (some people don't care about that, but I think the way it sounds acoustically definitely translates to what you hear amplified). Both pickups sounds great, no mud in the neck (which you sometimes get in Gibson-scale guitars). Very, very versatile, and the huge range of sounds you can get. Even sounds good with gain. The comfort, quality, and overall playability of this guitar is very high.
There are not a ton of options out there for ES-339 size semis. The Epiphone model gets mentioned a lot. Trust me, this Ibanez is far superior. Oh, and it comes with a hardshell case! Especially when you consider the case, the $999 price is a great value. If you ever have a chance to check one out, I would encourage that.
The AM153 is part of the higher-tier "Artstar" line. It is a dramatic step up, in my opinion. I'm surprised you rarely see these in stores, because they are really great. Honestly I thought it was better than the Gibson ES-339. And at $999, the Ibanez is a great value. Fit and finish is great, including binding and very nice rounded fret ends. Super 58 pickups are great. The neck PU splits with a toggle. Ash body, ebony fretboard, bone nut. Neck is 3-piece Nyotah/Maple, which is probably the one area where they saved cost on this guitar. All I will say is the neck and overall guitar feels, plays, and sounds great. It has a rich and full sound unplugged (some people don't care about that, but I think the way it sounds acoustically definitely translates to what you hear amplified). Both pickups sounds great, no mud in the neck (which you sometimes get in Gibson-scale guitars). Very, very versatile, and the huge range of sounds you can get. Even sounds good with gain. The comfort, quality, and overall playability of this guitar is very high.
There are not a ton of options out there for ES-339 size semis. The Epiphone model gets mentioned a lot. Trust me, this Ibanez is far superior. Oh, and it comes with a hardshell case! Especially when you consider the case, the $999 price is a great value. If you ever have a chance to check one out, I would encourage that.
