ART 300 Review

This guitar is a must have for all intermediate to advanced guitar players. Priced resonably and you get what you pay for.

Features:	9.3
Sound:	9.3
Action:	9.3
Reliability:	9
Impression:	9.5
Overall rating:	9.3
Users rating:	8.5
Comments:	25

overall: 9

Featured review by: tryhonesty, on july 08, 2009

Price paid: C$ 799

Purchased from: Colosimo's Music

Features: This guitar is a must have for ALL intermediate to advanced guitar players. Priced resonably and you get what you pay for. This guitar is a rock and Metal Machine, With Neck and Bridge LoZ1 pickups. Speaking of the neck, there are 22 medium sized frets on a Mahogony neck and a Bound Rosewood Fretboard with Diamond inlay fres. The Body is also made out of Mahogony with a scalloped maple top. It comes with a Gibraltar III bridge which works very well with keeping the guitar in tune. You only have to tune up once or twice a week, and the guitar is probably only off by a few cents. The Guitar doesn't come with anything when you buy it, unfortunatly. // 9

Sound: This Guitar plays everything I play and more. I play mostly the newer Metallica and Most Gn'R older stuff. I am using this with a Boss MT-2 and a small Peavey practace amp, but it still sounds great. And these pickups are extremely silent. When I first brought this guitar home and plugged it in, I thought it didn't work it was so silent. The Pickups are active and they have a suprisingly passive sound to them, but it still carries the distenctive Active pickup Tone. // 10

Action, Fit & Finish: Just like most other Ibanez guitars, They are ready to use when you buy them, I didn't have to adjust anything, well, except tuning down to half step down becuase That's What I like. The guitar didn't have any problems with to much or not enough bonding. I don't recall any insidents with this guitar yet. The Finish on This guitar is Simply awesome. It looks like a lizard or a cameleon scheme. And it feels Great too. // 10

Reliability & Durability: I've only had to use it live once, for a gig of 2 songs, But it held up perfectly fine. No Problems happend. The strap pins are secure, however, I find that straps come off really easy, so I had to buy a strap Lock. The finish themes very thick and it should last a while. I've had this guitar for about 2 months and nothing has happend to the finish yet // 7

Impression: This Guitar is Perfect For me, I'm really enjoy playing it and I rarley have problems with anything. If you could get your hands on this guitar, I'd check it out. The Only thing I wish it had were Locking tuners, But your not gonna get locking tuners for only $800. My Favourite thing abotu this guitar is how well it stays in tune. I used a Strat before this and This is such a huge improvement. // 9

overall: 9.2

Reviewed by: rsatrinations, on november 18, 2009

Price paid: A$ 1095

Purchased from: Mall Music, Warringah Mall

Features: This guitar was made in either 2008-09 in China. Its 22 fret, medium jumbo frets, with a rosewood fretboard, and Diamond inlays, with a cool inlay on the 12 reminece of an eighties metal band. It is a scalloped maple top, and mahogany body. Do not judge the finish off internet pictures, it looks much better in the flesh. Its a single cutaway, sharper edging then the Les Paul, and looks all round better. It has Ibanez LoZ actives in both bridge and neck pickups, powered by AA batteries, which are almost silent. There are three controls as well as a three way pickup selector, one for each pickup, and one which doesn't seem to do anything. The only problem is the lack of accessories, its a fair price, and you dont even get a spare pick. // 9

Sound: I play mostly metal, with a bit of hard rock such as Seether. This guitar suits it perfectly, except for classic rock such as Led Zep, for which it excells, although that might be due to the strings more then anything else. I use an Ibanez TBX 30R, and it sounds brilliant. The low tones sound absolutely animal, and the mahogany body lets the sustain tear through every rhythm section. However, the guitar can change from Slipknot to Jimi Hendrix incredibly easily. The only problem with the guitar is the feedback with the bridge guitar. // 8

Action, Fit & Finish: The guitar was made perfectly in the factory, and I couldn't find a single problem with it bar one, and I really have to nit pick to to get it, the screws used to keep the cover on the back were not put in properly. The entire thing was put together almost perfectly, and the only adjustment I had to do was to tighten the tuning pegs. // 10

Reliability & Durability: This guitar is utterly indestructible, withing the first week of buying it, I knock dents in three doors, a wall, and blew out a light, all with the headstock. I can't find anything wrong with the finish on the headstock. The finish is so thick I don't think that anything short of a knife will go through it. The strap buttons are solid, and I would not bother going to a gig without it. // 10

Impression: This is probably one of the best metal guitars that can be bought for this price bracket, and I would hunt down anyone who stole it. If it was lost, I would replace it without a second thought. I have recommended it to many of my guitar playing friends, and the only thing I would replace about it would be the feedback problem. // 9

Reviewed by: unregistered, on july 23, 2009

Price paid: $ 400

Purchased from: Musicians Workshop

Features: My ART 300 was made in China, and I'm totally fine with that. It has 22 Jumbo frets, rosewood fretboard and a scalloped--ridged--top. It has Ibanez LoZ pickups that sound amazing clean and absolutley mean distorted, they are also totally capable of handling low distortion and overdrive. // 10

Sound: This guitar suits my music style perfectly, I play everything from Nirvana to Metallica and everything in between, including classic rock, metal, hard rock and blues. I am currently plugging this guitar through a Peavey Bandit 112 using a Little Big Muff Pi distortion pedal when the Lead channel on my amp just doesn't do it for me. This guitar can get very loud at low amp volumes, I usually never have to crank it past five, both at home, at practice and on small stages. The LoZ active pickups are humless, but I do have to say that they are more sensitive to other electronics around them, and that is a little scary. // 10

Action, Fit & Finish: This guitar came tuned from Musicians Workshop and the action was perfect for my playing, the only complaint I have is there is some fret buzz on the low E string, but I kind of like it that way. I find that the bridge on this guitar is slighty wonky when I am restringing this guitar, I always put the strings in between the actual string holders instead of in them. // 9

Reliability & Durability: This guitar is amazingly well built, I think I could, with no worries, take this guitar anywhere with me and play gigs with no backup, I think my Bandit 112 will go out before this thing even starts to age. As soon as I got this guitar I took it to my bandmates and we passed it around, all playing the snot out of it, and it didn't even miss a beat, it sounded amazing when all of us played it, and we all have different styles. // 10

Impression: My favorite thing about this guitar is the blending options that are open to you with the two volume knobs in the middle pickup selector position, I can tweek from this guitar exactly the tone I want, for distorted sounds and clean sounds, if you are buying this guitar for small gigs and home use, I recommend getting a Peavey Bandit 112 as the companion to this guitar, they are a perfect match. // 10

Reviewed by: unregistered, on july 28, 2009

Price paid: C$ 385

Purchased from: music city

Features: My Ibanez ART300 was made fairly recently in china, it has 22 medium frets and has a fat neck that you would expect from a Les Paul Copy, but this is far from just any old copy, it has 2 Ibanez loz active pickups that are just ruthless when paired with a zakk wylde distortion pedal. The finish seems thick and the top is just absolutely ridiculous looking, which is super cool. Unfourtunatly I had to bargain to get it down from $450, it was already on sale, but the guy wasn't even going to give me a bag, or anything, so I widdled him doen to $385. // 9

Sound: This guitar sounds great with just about anything I play, from zeppelin to Megadeth this guitar plays everything, in the neck you get your clapton, and your hendrix, and in the bridge you get Slayer, and Mettallica. I own a shitty Behringer practice amp, but I have played it on an Orange 30 watt, and the zakk wylde micro stack, and that sounded awesome, I plan to get one. This guitar has a deep, rich sound when in the neck, and a bright, colorful clean sound when in the bridge. // 9

Action, Fit & Finish: The action is okay. that's all that needs to be said, it's not a usual shredding monster like most Ibanez guitars, but it is more like what would be on a Fender. The guitar was intonated perfectly when I bought it already and everything seemed perfect, I was planning on setting it up when I got home, but I realized they did a better job than I could have done. The guitar has one fault. Which I caused... When I took it and went to my car, I hit it off the door, it now has a teeny tiny little whitish spot that someone would only notice if they knew I hit it of my car. Other than that the guitar is flawless. // 8

Reliability & Durability: Well, I only got it a while ago, but it seems sturdy and reliable, it stays in tune fine, and as long as you don't hurl it into and through your amp during a rocking solo that got a little too hardcore, it should be fine to play Live with, but obviously get strap locks, every guitar needs those. // 9

Impression: Well, it's not always the guitar's fault when you can't get the sound right, which is the case for me considering I have such a poor amp. But that will fix itself in a month when I get a new Marshall, I've been playing for 2 years and before this I had 2 really, I mean REALLY garbage Strat copies, worse so that the worst squire. I tried out a few other les paul style guitars before I saw this one, most of them were just names I never heard of like Stagg and hagsteam, but this guitar is great especially since it's a $600+ guitar and I got it for $385 this is an amazing guitar for the money and I would say get this guitar if you are looking for a first, or second guitar, even if you hate the scalloped maple top, get the ART200. // 10

Comments

[bambi89]

i hate the finish on them but they are good guitars for the money

[Jigsawwill]

i used to own one. great guitar for the money and the finish is beautiful. If your funds are low I highly recommend this guitar.

[griffo110]

i prefer the 320

[yaxow]

ibanez is ****ing sweet. i got one of my own from 1980 it's super rare too it'a an ibanez LR10

[courtkid1012]

If you're going to get this guitar, get the ART100. It doesn't look stupid, it's $300 instead of $400, and the only difference is that it has passive pickups instead of active.

[six-feet-under]

what's the paint job like? on the picture it looks like it's got some sort of relief or unevenness.

[JamieIsHere]

I'm not certain but I think it is an uneven finish on top.

[SeanX3187]

that paint job just looks like the painter screwed up.
i don't think that looks desirable.
and i agree with courtkid1012, get the art100. it's cheaper, less dumb looking, and the pickups are passive.
and from what i've noticed, ibanez's passive pickups aren't too different from their active ones.

[courtkid1012]

The paint job is kind of rugged. It has texture to it and this one is supposed to look like a snake or an alligator kind of.

[Turkeyburger]

Looks like shit

[WashburnPlayerX]

if you dont like the finish then buy the art 100, its almost the same thing but probly better. but this guitar is great, pair it up with a line 6 spider III all-tube amp set to the insane preset and it'll make your knees tremble... two thumbs up!

[irotinmyskin]

texture is awful!!!

[Jigsawwill]

if you haven't seen this guitar in person don't judge the finish, because that this is pretty.

[tryhonesty]

i have the version with the Black finish, and it looks great.

[SwampAshSpecial]

I love the 'scalloped' look personally, but don't you think the review was a little.. fanboy?

[Garlic Owl]

the version with the black finish looks the best imo. i got it for $295 and it has at least a $700 guitar sound quality. the neck is really comfortable for me and it's very versatile. i just wish it had a tremelo

[WhistleBug]

Wow, I could hand all of you a Gibson and you'd think it was crap.

[Lots O' FX]

Personally i like the wierd water looking paint job, but looks better in person though.

[Capt_Clarkson]

the finish is great, you have to see it in person before you start crying about it

[austinjames123]

ive played this guitar b4 and is a great guitar. but if u paid 700 4 it u got robbed b/c u can by them for 3 to 400 bucks off the ibanez website

[GunLeatherGuy]

austin...you need to read the review. Not glance at it as you blow your hit out n then comment.

Its a killer guitar.....worth 1/2 again what they are priced! Plays like an esp 650 that costs 700$...

Killer guitar....good cleans for active pups. Great for hard rock/metal.

Rock on.....

[J.Simpson]

What's the difference between the Ibanez ART 100/120 & the Ibanez ART 300/320, is it just the finish? I hear they have the same pick ups and such, so if it's just the finish, I'll probably save $50 and go for a Sunburst ART 120.

[rsatrinations]

no, the 300/320 have actives

[guitarfreak222]

WashburnPlayerX wrote:

if you dont like the finish then buy the art 100, its almost the same thing but probly better. but this guitar is great, pair it up with a line 6 spider III all-tube amp set to the insane preset and it'll make your knees tremble... two thumbs up!

You idiot. The ART100 is a cheaper, lower range guitar. This guitar is much better. I personally like the finish on the ART320 (which is where you should go if you don't like the finish on this).

[howangcturtle]

How come there're nobody reviewing the ART500 series? Looking into getting one