Ibanez Artcore line

[skorb]

anyone have one of these? which kind and how do you like it?

I've been thinking about a hollow body or semi-hollow, and these look nice, although I know their hardware and electronics probably are second-rate. the woods and construction looks nice though.

thanks in advance! [img]/images/graemlins/toast.gif[/img]

[data187]

Re: Ibanez Artcore line

i've played several and thought they were pretty nice.
i would check the insides before buying since some of them had pretty sloppy workmanship.
depending on your money situation, a used epi joe pass is nicer imo.

[Riscchip]

Re: Ibanez Artcore line

I have the AF85. It's a true hollowbody with a great, very smooth warm type of sound. Suprisingly nice for overdriven tones, but I bought it mainly to learn some jazz. Great guitar, great neck, even the stock pickups are decent, and the fit and finish are great. Highly recommend one.

[skorb]

Re: Ibanez Artcore line

[ QUOTE ]
I have the AF85. It's a true hollowbody with a great, very smooth warm type of sound. Suprisingly nice for overdriven tones, but I bought it mainly to learn some jazz. Great guitar, great neck, even the stock pickups are decent, and the fit and finish are great. Highly recommend one.

[/ QUOTE ]
thanks for the feedback bro!

how did you deal with the floating bridge? did you leave it unattached or have someone glue it down in a properly intonated position?

I have heard that this is one of the oddities of these guitars, and people suggest gluing them down so you don't lose intonation every string change (when the bridge will just fall off the body, since it's not attached).

this is the one that has my eye.

[skorb]

Re: Ibanez Artcore line

[ QUOTE ]

depending on your money situation, a used epi joe pass is nicer imo.

[/ QUOTE ]
thanks, you're probably right, but I'm one of those that just can't stomach buying an epiphone, just something I can't get past.

[TheSteveMan]

Re: Ibanez Artcore line

I was in the same spot.. looking for a reasonably priced archtop to play around with, and I was really thinking about one of the Artcores (I even got down to Guitar Center and played a couple, and tried out a Gretsch Electromatic which I hated...)
The Artcore was nice, but I ended up taking a leap of faith on a mid 90s Korean Epi Emperor for 325 on the 'bay.. it's no fancy boutique jazz box, but it sure is a pretty nice axe for 300 and change. I think the Artcore would be pretty good to play with too, but I don't know much about how well they hold up in the long run.

I feel the same thing as you-- the Epiphone name has this bad vibe to me, but this axe was just so beautiful, I had to go for it. I've only had it a few days, but so far so good. It doesn't sound that great through my amp, but my amp is not really a good clean/jazz type amp, and the pickups may not be that great. Still sounds pretty good to me unplugged.

By the way if you don't want the bridge to move around too much when you restring, try restringing one at a time. And somebody on the harmony central forum gave this little technique for fixing intonation--
Detune all the middle strings but leave the two E strings tuned up. Fix intonation for these two and the rest should fall into place when you tune back up.
Another option is to install a tune-o-matic bridge. Stew Mac has some for archtop guitars.

Good luck with your search, I hope you find something that works out well [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]