Ibanez GAX30 [2004-2017]

The Ibanez GAX30 is an SG-style guitar with the lower body of a Les Paul. It punches well above its price range and can rival the standard Epiphone or Squier Classic Vibe models in terms of quality. Construction and finishing are great all round with a great neck, good pickups and nice ergonomics. It’s the perfect beginner to intermediate guitar, as you can easily upgrade the pickups later on and get a nice-sounding, mid-priced instrument. It’s easy to recommend for most styles of music like blues, rock or jazz. A cool modification can be changing the pickguard and pickups so it resembles Joan Jett’s double-cut Gibson Melody Maker.

My second ever electric guitar. I bought it due to the cool colours, solid build quality, comfortable neck, and classic rock vibes. It's reminiscent of a Gibson SG or Melody Maker DC. It was purchased brand new with a basic gigbag and accessories. The neck is very easy to play with a satin finish. Otherwise you get basic volume and tone controls, no coil splitting at this price level. It's a relatively light guitar when compared to a Les Paul, and plays easily. There is some level of neck dive, not horrible though.

Suited my blues and classic rock style fine, the sound was fat and full, but could be played clean without issue. Played it through a Fender FM15. I didn't use any effects with it and just cranked up the gain a little when playing AC/DC, Hendrix, etc. It's not a noisy guitar. You can get a wide variety of sounds, although I wouldn't play Metal or anything too heavy, go for a Jackson or ESP in that case. You could get away with really heavy stuff but I've found that EMG-equipped guitars handle that best.

The guitar was well set up by the shop. I did need to adjust the truss rod several times over the years, but nothing dramatic. Wiring and finish were all fine, good quality there and no complaints. Same with the frets, nothing to flag. All in all a solid instrument that looks and feels more expensive that it is. There were no flaws upon purchase. The pickups needed a little raising that's all. I was very impressed by the out of the box nature of its playability. Well done Ibanez! This is how it should be.

I would use this as a second live guitar, or rehearsals and home practice. Reason being the sound quality could be better but it's unbeatable at this price point. Durability is fine. It's dependable and looks quite cool. I had fun using it and it never let me down. It lasted me around 5-6 years before I eventually sold it for a Les Paul which suited my playing style better. It's a great feeling and sounding guitar, I would easily recommend it to anyone looking for an alternative to Epiphone or Squier.

I've been playing for a few years now. I've mostly focused on my acoustic, but just started playing more on my Ibanez. I listen to just about everything. As far as my electric, I have been playing more metal, like Sepultura and System of a Down.

I bought my guitar from a local music store in Utah called Best in Music (at least I think it's local...)

I wanted a starter guitar just to start practicing. I was trying to decide between a Silvertone and this Ibanez. Both were around the same price, but I chose this because the Silvertone was an off shoot and this is actually made by Ibanez, so you know you're getting the same quality.

I can't remember how much I paid for it. I believe it was around $150. I bought a starter pack with it the store provides which included a basic amp (which I've replaced with a Roland Cube 15 since), strings, gig bag, etc...

I haven't played many electrics so I don't have much to compare it to.

I love the finish. I own the transparent red and it looks great. Ibanez definitely had quality in mind here. The neck is smooth and it's really eazy to play. The sound is better than I would have expected. The clean sound through my Roland Cube 15 is great, and it gets pretty crunchy when you flip the distortion up, especially on the "Metal Stack" setting on the Roland.

I wish you could control the mid levels because some of the overdrives and lighter distortions get pretty unbalanced. I don't know if it's me, but the neck seems a bit heavy too heavy for the body. Sometimes it feels like you're holding it up more than actually playing it.

Sometimes the tuners can be a bit tricky. They aren't as tight as my acoustic by any means.

As I said before, I bought the Ibanez because I knew it was manufactured by Ibanez instead of being some knock of brand. The quality is definitely there in both the sound, look and feel of the guitar.

The tone and volume knobs sometimes give off a little static when you move them, but nothing too bad.

I think I've pretty much covered it. If you're interested in buying a good starter guitar at a great price without sacrificing quality, this would be it.

If something were to happen to it, I would probably replace it with a GAX70, or something a little higher, but that's only because I've played it enough to know what I'd like to have in a new guitar.

As far as new and beginning players, I would recommend it over any other comparably priced brand or model out there.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I've ben playing since last christmas, mainly into Rock and Blues music, but I drift into Jazz Fusion, Metal and Funk. I play anything I think sounds good.

I bought the guitar in Musician Inc. in Dublin for the small sum of €209. It was my first guitar so i didn't wand to splash out too much, butwhen I played this I just fell in love with it.

This really is incredibly good value for a guitar. It is madefrom basswood, which gives areasonably good sound. The neckof the guitar is what attracted me to it the must, it s quite simply a thing of beauty. It isunpainted and unpolished and has a lovely sanded wood feel. Your hand just slidesup and down it so easily and it feels so good.

It only has single tone and volume controls and the black dinish isn't really specatular, if i could buy again, I would get it in transparent red

Overall, it is a very solid guitar, I haven't had any problems with things coming loose at all and that with quite a bit of play. It comes with 2 humbucker pickups, which unlike some other guitars at this price range, they each have their only distinctive sound, one being quite chunky and the other i suppose more "stratty"

In all, this is a great practise guitar and perfect for any beginner. It is very cheap, but like all Ibanez guitars, it is quality.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Bought online from Musical Instrument Warehouse in the UK. Paid £89.99, which may have been a sale price.

Good sound, nice to play. The finish is fantastic. Before I received the guitar I was worried about the appearance because I'd only ever seen it on the Internet and those pictures (including on the Ibanez site)looked Photoshopped or something. Well, the colour of mine is transparent red, so you can see the wood grain. It is a gorgeous deep shiny red not the boring bright matt red you see in the pictures. I would imagine that the black and jewel blue versions are also impressive.

If I have to find something to fault I would say that the tuning pegs look a bit cheap.

Seems nicely made and good quality, certainly for the money.

I'd have no hesitation in recommending this guitar to people. If you want a guitar for performing live I think you should play one of these and decide whether it's good enough for you or not.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com