Ibanez AEG10 Acoustic-Electric Guitar--A Lot Of Guitar For The Price
Written: Jun 06 '02
Product Rating:
Pros: Good guitar for the price, good electronics, excellent playability
Cons: Lacks heft, the acoustic sound is a little thin
The Bottom Line: This a a good guitar for the price. The electronics are good, and the playability is acceptable for most players. The acoustic sound is a little lacking.
sparkospunky's Full Review: Ibanez Aeg10 Acoustic Electric Guitar
I've been familar with Ibanez electric guitars for many years, and have always found them to be solid, well-constructed instruments that were affordable for most all beginning and intermediate. What always stood out most about Ibanez electric guitars was their lightening fast action--these instruments are built for speed and the factory setup on most of these guitars that I played was so low and fast that it almost felt like the guitar was almost squirming out of my hands. Recently, my local guitar store added Ibanez acoustic and acoustic-electric guitars to its' inventory, so I was pretty anxious to play some of these guitars to see how Ibanez stacked up in the acoustic guitar field.
The guitar that I've selected for review today is the Ibanez AEG10 acoustic-electric guitar. I spent about two hours sampling three different guitars, and I was very pleasantly surprised at what I learned about the Ibanez AEG10 acoustic-electric guitar.
Construction And Looks
The Ibanez AEG10 acoustic-electric guitar has a thin-line Grand Concert style body with a Venetian cutaway at the treble bout. Since this guitar is designed for both acoustic and electric applications, the Venetian cutaway is a bonus because it allows the player easy access to the highest frets on the fingerboard. The neck has a thin profile too--when I played this guitar, I was reminded of the action of the electric guitars manufactured by Ibanez, but I'll talk a little more about playability in a moment.
This guitar has mahogany back and sides and a spruce top. The neck is also made of mahogany, with a rosewood fingerboard and mother-of-pearl dot inlays. The die-cast tuners are relatively inexpensive, but seem to be solid and able to hold the strings in tune well. Available finishes are black and transparent sunburst red--I was able to see both styles and I find the black finish preferable--the transparent sunburst red finish actually looked a little cheesy, while the black finish looked a little more dignified.
Overall, this a pretty well built instrument. I can't really tell if the woods used in the top, back and side are laminate or not, but they're pretty thin all the same. The only negative that I find is that the guitar has a little less heft and presence than I prefer in my acoustic or acoustic-electric guitars.
Sound
The Ibanez AEG10 is a little deficient when used in a pure acoustic application. I think probably that the thin-line body, smaller sound chamber, and thin (if not laminate) woods give this guitar a lack of depth. It's really a little too trebly and it lacks the rich, full bass tones of more expensive models. Used in an electric application, the Ibanez AEG10 presents a whole different story. It's equipped with a Fishman Sonicore Pickup with an AEQ-SS Shape Shifter EQ. The "shape" feature is almost like the one that I have on my Taylor acoustic-electric guitar--it allows the player to get the maximum benefit from the bass, treble and middle controls, and it fights feedback pretty good too. I found that the electronics on this guitar enable the player to approach a true acoustic sound--the texture of the sound was rich and brilliant, and I could make the sound more full for rhythm playing or more lean and punchy for soloing. Ibanez made an excellent choice in outsourcing Fishman to produce the electronics for their acoustic-electric guitars.
Playability
The Ibanez AEG10 is a good player--like I said, the action reminds me of this company's electric guitars. For the soloist, this guitar is perfect--the action is lightening-fast and the Venetian cutaway allows easy access to the highest frets. Chording is easy, although some might prefer a little more width in the neck. Fingerpickers might want a little wider neck too, and the action might be a little too wiggly for the true fingerpicker to deal with.
My Recommendation
This guitar retails for around $280.00, which tells me that if you haggle hard enough, you can probably get it for about $250.00. I think that Ibanez has made a pretty good guitar for the money, and that this one will probably be a pretty good entry level or intermediate instrument. The electric sound is exceptional, and the Ibanez AEG10 will probably hold its' value better than a lot of other entry level or intermediate guitars when it comes time to trade up.
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