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Ibanez Artcore AFS 75T

 

Ibanez Artcore AFS 75T reviewed by The Man in the Jar 

You know when you visit Amsterdam and you walk down the back streets and see those girls sitting in the windows with the red tinge to the lighting and you think to yourself "One day I'm gonna.........." This guitar is what it would feel like.

 

Features of the Ibanez Artcore AFS 75T

Tuners - Sealed unbranded chrome mini-tuners. Smooth and accurate.

Headstock - Black-faced with white binding. The Artcore logo has a retro "Acme" kind of appeal.

Nut - Aged white plastic with a traditional profile, tidy and accurately cut.

Neck - This is a superbly slim, set neck with the same translucent red finish as the body. The grain of the maple shows through really nicely. Full marks here. 

Fretboard - Dark Rosewood with classic slab inlays. This feels like the heartland of Gibson County.

Frets - Small profile frets combine with the excellent neck to give a truly exceptional playing experience.

Action - Nice and low straight from the box.

Body - Large, medium-slim hollow maple body with two f-holes. The upper bout joins the neck at the 14th fret, the lower bout joins at the 16th fret. Both front and back have a nice shallow carved profile. Classy black and white bindings complete the luxurious feeling. 

Bridge - It is here that the Artcore starts to solve some of the perennial problems sometimes associated with this kind of set-up. A fully adjustable floating bridge sits on what, for an acoustic guitar, would be called the bridge, but here must be called a saddle. This saddle is made of ebony and creates a fat footprint for maximum energy transmission to the soundboard. I'm not sure that the saddle is glued so take care when restringing for the first time.
The bridge itself has neat little individual roller saddles designed to return to correct tuning when the vibrato is used. The vibrato is of a vintage Bigsby styling with the strings wrapping over and affixing to the roller supported by the Artcore's enormous tailpiece. The roller is rotated by moving the very chunky vibrato arm that sits on its own heavy duty spring. The whole thing works famously. Beware when the guitar is de-strung - the whole tailpiece is hinged at the bottom of the body. 
In position for use the vibrato arm does obscure the controls somewhat. But when not needed the arm can be swung back to lay over the tailpiece (it goes here when the guitar is cased as well).    

Pickups - Two medium output humbuckers.

Controls - Volume and tone for each pickup and a three way pickup selector.

Pickguard - Black pickguard of the raised, floating type which works just like that on a Les Paul. But you might be tempted to take it off to expose some more of that lovely maple top.

Strap-buttons - Large and safe. One button is situated at the bottom on the tailpiece and the other is behind the heel of the neck.

Output Jack - This is set in the lower edge of the body without a plate

Finish - Pristine and beautiful, a totally classy looking guitar. 

 

Sound of the Ibanez Artcore AFS 75T

The secret to the sound of this guitar lies in the medium output of the pickups. It's perfectly suited to restrained jazz and blues tones but still has enough power to growl when it's needed. I found myself staying with clean valve sounds and I really began to enjoy simply playing this guitar as well as I could. In short, anything you can do with a Gibson 335 can be achieved on this instrument. It's that good.

 

Overall Impressions of the Ibanez Artcore AFS 75T

There are some guitars that speak to you on every level from the moment you slap eyes on them. For me the Artcore is one of them. The looks, design, finish, sound and feel of this instrument make it a joy to hold and use. If you don't have a "jazz" guitar in your armoury then this is a must buy. It's gorgeous.  

Buy the Ibanez Artcore AFS 75T

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