Ibanez Artcore Expressionist AM93ME Semi-Hollow Review

Incredibly Beautiful Guitar

My AM93ME is the most beautiful of my current guitars and the several other guitars that I have owned over my 50+ year history of playing guitars. The finish on the AM93ME is flawless. The frets are well polished and needed no work. Intonation was excellent as I find is the case with Ibanez guitars. I have an Ibanez 12 string semi-hollow which was similarly setup by the factory.… read more I love the slim Ibanez necks compared to Gibson necks. And it is all about my comfort. The sound of this guitar is wonderful for the classic rock, blues and folk music that I enjoy playing. It is modeled after an ES-339 and I will say this. Go to Gibson and try to get an ES-339 with Macassar Ebony top, sides and back whether laminated or not that looks and sounds as good as the Ibanez. You are talking some BIG dinero to get something like that from Gibson Custom Shop. You would be talking at LEAST $6K. And you would have no guarantee that the Gibson sound was better than the Ibanez sound. I sold my Gibson guitars because they didn't do much for me and I didn't like to have them get beat up. I used to have a Gibson B25W which got beat to hell in college. I do have an Epi EJ-200SCE and an Epi Les Paul Modern Caribbean Fade which are basically Gibsons on the cheap. I can't see any reason to pay several times more money for the genuine Gibson versions. Last Epi I bought, I took some of the savings from not buying a Gibson and got a nice Schecter with Sustainiac. I still had cash left over. Bottom line... The name on the headstock not why I buy guitars. For comfort, feel, playability, looks and tone you won't find a better guitar than these Artcore Expressionist Ibanez guitars. They deliver in all areas and at terrific prices.

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Buy from Sweetwater, Do Not Buy Ibanez

Overall, I still love this guitar and am happy with Sweetwater, who has had this guitar longer than I have waiting 6 months for a replacement from Ibanez who I have come to hate. The guitar arrived broken, with cracking around the 1/4" input jack. Although I have no complaint with Sweetwater who have provided excellent service, I have grown to hate Ibanez. I own 4 Ibanez guitars… read more and there have been serious problems with all of them and a complete absence of customer service. I have owned many Ibanez guitars over the years because they are good copies of the prohibitively expensive Classic Gibson guitar designs they plagiarize. Ibanez no longer manufactures the quality instrument they once were which could be corrected with competent quality control. I bought a 12 string, that the bridge was ripping off the face and the second one they replaced it with has the same problem, but I glued it, hopefully preventing the problem from getting worse. I bought a George Benson Ibanez from Sweetwater and the neck pickup was constantly cutting out, as well as the input jack falling into the guitar because they used the wrong sized nut. recently another Ibanez guitar I own inexplicably failed. While the guitar is long since out of warranty, so the idiots at Ibanez have claimed they couldn't provide me a wiring diagram with the circuitry for on board tuner and effects While I will remain a loyal customer of Sweetwater, I am done with Ibanez.

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I love this guitar!

I just received my Ibanez AM93ME. This is one of the more beautiful guitars I have ever handled. It has a wonderful jazz tone. When it came, it had a slightly dirty tone due to the pick-ups being very powerful. I lowered the pick-ups and the tone smoothed out to the warm jazz tone I always go for. The guitar plays like butter if butter could play. The neck is not too thick and… read more not too flat. There is only one flaw on this guitar. one of the small rubber rings on the volume pot on the back pick-up is loose. I am looking for some way to fasten it for a more permanent situation. Overall, this is the best bang for the buck.

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Great Guitar

I owned the Ibanez Artcore AS73 - Tobacco Brown then known as the Ibanez Artist for 7 years and sold it because I needed money. This is essentially the same guitar, maybe a little better looking. I bought this guitar as a gift for my brother and after playing, decided I loved it so much, I bought one for myself. Although the color is not a beautiful red… read more as in the picture, more ochre and I don't think it is solid ebony, but an ebony veneer laminated to mahogany and the gold plating on the hardware will wear off from use, it is still a great guitar and I love playing it and would buy it again. I removed the pickguard because it is ugly and because neither my pick or fingers ever even touch the body, so it is pointless and obstructed the beautiful grain. Although I do alot of work on guitars, modifying and upgrading, the only work I will do on this oneis change the plastic nut with brass, possible change the knobs and possibly change the pots with more robust. The clean tones are excellent and sounds great with any combination of pedals.

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Excellent quality at under 1000.00

To keep this simple I just bought this instrument from sweet water and my Representative of many years Alan Carter has always been a great help in getting me the right instrument and this is my 4th Ibanez guitar and only because I believe you don't have to spend thousands of dollars to get a really good instrument which this particular model is. The playability, the fret work,… read more the super 58 pickups , The fit and finish and the overall feel of this instrument is just excellent at this price point . I know buying an instrument over the Internet without playing it 1st is always a risk but it's never a risk with Sweetwater. My Opinion is if you're looking for a semi hollow body guitar that is even more comfortable to hold and play then a standard semi hollow body because of its smaller body then this is your guitar. It will cover most any type of song you wanna play short of Maybe metal.

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