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Ibanez ART120 [2008-2011]
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mattdll mattdll
Published on 10/18/08 at 10:05
Best value: Excellent
Guitar made in China, mahogany body with a maple table painted mahogany neck glued down and is home to 22 frets Rosewood medium. The hardware consists of a block-rope bridge and a specific Ibanez, both are pretty solid and inspires confidence. The mechanical oil bath and keep the agreement correctly, the guitar is not equipped with a vibrato.
In terms of electronics, there are two active humbuckers Ibanez LoZ walking 3V driven two volumes and a tone and a 3-way switch.

That's the bottom line of the features of this guitar, when it comes to my mind, I find the violin really great for the money: a set neck with a good shape, a fairly substantial body mahogany, flawless frets ( does not exceed one and a production "low cost" it should be noted), active electronics, a bridge that does not attack the palm when playing (this is rounded) and lifts that hold the road. An excellent progressive.
Come on, I do have some spots to reveal: the knobs are really ugly and I have a couple of small chips of varnish on the neck binding.

I put 9 for small paint chips, it's a shame on a new guitar.

UTILIZATION

Once on the shoulder or knee, one quickly realizes the weight of the beast, mahogany is dense! The grip is good, nice handle without a "highway" as the guns Wizard II of the brand, it slides very well with the bilayer paint / varnish. Access to acute is really not great (as easy as on a Les Paul ^ ^) but through training, you become agile.

The game promises a vacuum excellent sustain and tone a certain warmth inherent in mahogany.

The game is very nice stand apart from the weight that can interfere with some suffering from chronic back pain or shoulder.

I put 8 for weight and access "limited" to the treble (the model 520 has a chamfer which greatly facilitates the task).

SOUNDS

I play mostly Rock / metal (my influences are mainly Trivium, Metallica, Bullet For My Valentine, Children Of Bodom) and I have a Peavey XXL head with a 4x12 cabinet "Yamaha mounted Celestion Vintage 30. No effect plug'n'play!

I relied heavily on the active electronics to send me a lot of potatoes and the violin to enrich the sound, especially on the set neck and mahogany. I got a good sound quickly, my amp is already more or less settled. In the end, that's what I feel:
Clair: the sound is clean, warm but beware of crunches if you attack too much. However, the bridge pickup is a little too "nasal" while sending the neck pickup too low and does not show enough roundness and personality.
Disto-: it's more a playground, the neck pickup is dynamic and powerful but we feel a lack in some frequencies and it is small "CSWS" when playing in Drop-D (neither a curling rope or a fret of it on another part of the guitar). The neck pickup is pretty nice solo but it lacks the round again.

So I made a change of microphones to push this guitar to its full capacity. I put Seymour Duncan Blackouts and there, it changes your life, more problems "CSWS", a wealth of bridge pickup with a huge potato plain as distortion, the neck pickup is still missing a bit of roundness my taste but the gap is almost closed from the mount before.

Originally, I did not put more than 7 because the microphone is really limiting the potential of the violin TO USE THAT I MADE, which means that for a game a little quieter it is extremely efficient.
For my installation with Blackouts, 9 or 10 I will.

OVERALL OPINION

That month and a half I have three weeks and I changed the pickups, I'm really happy for about € 500 I have a guitar equivalent or better than a LTD EC-500 (I say more in the sense that I really like the blackouts and the EC-500 is mounted EMG I find a little less rich). So as a customized home, it was an excellent price / quality ratio with a sleek look and class (I have white with black binding).
Remember: a violin really good for this price (I just put a small reserve on the quality of the table that is not directly visible as painted), active electronics that allows to change (no need to get high for a accommodate the battery if it goes on EMG, etc.) and that proves fun to use.

I put 9 for the overall because I'm really happy now that has changed the pickups, only small fragments mentioned above and the pickups are a little behind but they and the base of the guitar allow good progress .