Of the many guitars I own, this was the first guitar I have bought where I had not played it prior to purchase, but decided to chance it and order on-line. I was fairly confident based on Ibanez's quality reputation and The Man In The Jar’s own review which I found very helpful. I ordered and it arrived the following day. There is no case with this guitar so it came in it's original Ibanez box and packaging inside a second sturdier box. The guitar arrived in mint condition I was relieved to find.

First impressions are that this is a strikingly attractive instrument especially to any player who lust's after pricier Gibson models. As a guitar this is also an item of beauty. The Brown sunburst sets off the flamed maple top along with the chrome hardware and cream pickup surrounds. The cream edge trim outlines the double cutaway shape of this otherwise Les Paul like guitar.

An attraction of this guitar is that it is an original Ibanez design rather than a copy, though now made in Korea, the original AR300s were made in Japan. On that basis it’s a copy of one of their own!

The guitar is heavy. This accounts for the solid Mahogany body and neck. The neck is jointed to the body. The joint is almost non-existent as the neck runs seamlessly into the body. Essentially the quality and the wood/structure of this guitar has all the ingredients of a Gibson Les Paul and a better looking flame top than quite a lot of LPs I have seen lately.

Out of the box this guitar played very well. The strings were 10's and I prefer 9's but I left the original set on the guitar for a few days before changing them. Plugged into my PODxt and dialling in a tasty blues tone based around a JTM45/JTM100 and the tone was very Peter Green - Fleetwood Mac - that is vintage sounding. Pushing the pickups by digging in a little did reveal some limitations in their output. I adjusted the Treble pickup nearer to the strings and this compensated for this mainly although the tone became harsher as you would expect. The Twin pickup sound is really nice, rounded and airy. The neck pickup is lovely for Blues tones. Whatever you play this guitar through the pickups have a silky airy tone, though, with not a lot of weight in the bass end.  The fingerboard seems flatter than I am used to but I actually quite liked it and found it to be smooth and fast to play. The neck is a consistent slim thickness from the first fret up to 15^th.  The double cutaway makes it feel like the 12^th fret is nearer the half way point ! Access to the upper frets is so easy I found myself soloing B scales at the 17^th fret with ease. The frets were all smooth and nicely finished no sharp edges.

After a few days I changed the strings for a 9-42 set and adjusted the intonation to compensate. I also fiddled with the bridge height and lowered the action slightly without any choking or buzzes even when playing hard. It plays like a dream and the performance of the neck has remained intact, even through the hot summer, without any further adjustments. This stability is a good sign.

I think Ibanez have not disappointed with the fundamental elements of the guitar i.e. the construction, wood, finish etc but to keep the price down have cheapened up a few things. The disappointments are the Tuners and the headstock emblem which do spoil the overall feel and look of quality. The tuners have plastic keys which feel cheap and look wrong with the rest of the chrome hardware. The website pictures of the guitar looked like they may have been chrome. The emblem in the centre of the headstock seems to be a white transfer whereas, it looks like it might have been a pearl inlay in the pictures of the guitar. The tuners work perfectly ok and the guitar stays in tune even after 30 mins jamming to a backing track giving it some shred ! another good sign. Another cheap point may be the pickup selector switch. It is perfectly adequate but the toggle just seems slightly loose in it's housing and so let's the quality feel down.

Apart from the few points I mention I do not regret purchasing this guitar at all. I think considering the low price Ibanez have got all the important things right.

The AR300 does stand comparison with my Gibson Les Paul Standard. It plays a pretty close second though the sound is not as tonally ‘full bodied’, though the sustain is very good. The price is pretty damn marvellous !!!