All user reviews for the Ibanez GAX70

Hi there ! I bought this Ibanez here in Mexico City , I saw this model in the webpage of Ibanez , i went to try it & this is what i really wanted , an affordable guitar with clean sound ,paying like 300 USD for it .

Its ligther than other Ibanez guitars , both humbuckers are great ! , the neck its thin enough even for begginers , I prefer to use this guitar for music that requires more soul , like blues or jazz.

I recomend not to try to use this model with a distorsion , the sound its not bad , but i would rather use other models for distorsion.

The one that I have is black , the finish is good , but you can see how the divisions of the layers that covers the hardwood are not totally correct ( looks kind of wavy , but its not warped ).Besides what i said before this guitar is totally amazing .

Good Guitar , affordable price for that quality of sound , better for use in clean sounds , delays or wah . I recomend this for the quality of clean notes.

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

I acquired this unit after I had been playing acoustic for about a year, and decided to go electric. I was looking for something decent that had an amazing sound, and I knew Ibanez was a trustworthy brand. I purchased it at Guitar Center for a sale price of 200 dollars.

This guitar has so many good things about it. First off, the neck is slim, which is good for smaller hands, like mine, it has a somewhat smaller scale, which I also like. In addition, it has two tone and two volume knobs and a smooth 3 way selector switch right by the knobs making pickup switching a breeze. It has two screaming humbuckers. These don't only give a mean, badass distortion sound, but they also provide one of the clearest clean sounds I've ever come upon. It's got a real nice finish, chrome hardware, the whole works. It's got a real nice bridge also. Finally, the weight is nice. It weighs only 2-3 pounds, I'd say, and it still has a very rugged construction.

The things I don't like about this unit are very minor. First off, the tuners aren't the greatest in the world. They don't keep my tunings right for very long. Next is the Input/Output jack. I like the placement of it, but it comes loose sometimes, but I can deal with that. The last thing I don't favor is the strap buttons. I'm glad I hold onto my strap just in case one of the ends comes off. It used to happen much more frequently, but as of late, it has happened very little. I guess it also depends on the quality of the strap.

This is built great. The neck is smooth, bolt on, and stays on no matter what. This solid-body electric is very rugged, despite it's low weight. Almost all of the hardware is in hard, the only thing that comes loose every once in a while is the input/output jack. The quality you recieve in this instrument is unsurpassable for the price I paid - 200 dollars.

The Ibanez GAX70 is a great guitar for a any type of music, for any level of experience. It can dish out some mean stuff, with two screaming humbuckers, while laying out some crystal clear clean sounds. The construction is sturdy and rugged. The quality is unsurpassable for the price you pay for it, and I would recommend it to anyone.

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

Guitar Center, ~$130. Was looking for an inexpensive electric but was pretty clueless. Some old guy pointed me towards it because it had better tuners and pickups than the Epiphone I was holding.

The style is very simple and I like that, doesn't get in the way. The sound is good and it's easy to hold and play. Feels very solid, makes you want to bang on it sometimes.

Not too much to say here. I don't mind where the jack is but I think a lot of people would if they are sitting down (I hold it a little differently - lick a classical guitar).

I sometimes wish I'd spent the extra $150-200 and gotten the nicer version of this guitar (one of the AX series) as I think it probably has better pickups. At the time this one sounded better... but what the hell did I know then?

Solid. Nothing has broken or fallen off so far (~1.5 years).

Good cheapy guitar.

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

I purchased this excellent instrument at Lentines Music in Ohio. The price was $199.95. www.lentines.com

I have this baby running through a Fender Deluxe and a Fender Princeton Chorus simultaneously. Before that, I was running it through a Marshall PCM50 and with either rig, this guitar sounds great!! The humbuckers sound incredible and being that this guitar has a maple neck, it has an excellent sound for blues and jazz! Not only is this an awesome guitar but the price is incredible!!!

The only problem I had with this guitar is the 1/4 inch jack kept coming loose, (nothing a socket wrench can't fix). I repaired that. I also had to resolder the pots but that isn't much of a big deal. The action on this guitar is great but it's even better when you have a tech setup the neck. The thing plays like a Les Paul now, if not better.

You can't go wrong with a maple neck. It gives the guitar a very nice tone for ripping up lead guitar for blues, rock, and jazz solos. The humbucker pickups that are installed on this guitar are great. Don't let anyone fool you, Gibson uses humbuckers in the big wig guitars as well. The bridge is solid and has easy adjustment knobs for the action. The body on this guitar is beautiful. Excellent stage look.

This is my first electric, I've been playing guitar for 3 years and I did allot of shopping around before I picked this baby up. I did allot of research as well. I got to try this out at the store first before I took it home, after all of my hunting for the perfect electric for that price, my search ended here! This guitar could of easily been sold for a grand or more. You can't go wrong with this guitar!!

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

I got this guitar from musiciansfriend.com for about 200$.

Well this was my first guitar and so far i absolutely love it! The shape is great and im always getting compliments on it, and the finish hasnt scratched yet and shows no sign of it in the future. (i constantly abuse it.) The humbuckers sound incredible and are perfect for punk and hard rock. The neck is great for playing chords and lead. It almost never goes out of tune. i play a couple of hours a day and only have to tune it if i want to change it.

When i first got it, it didnt stay in tune very well but after a month or two it wont go out of tune now. The neck is a little bit wide for my likeing but is still pretty much flawless.

Its really solidly constructed. The only problems i have had with it are the neck humbucker sinking in a little bit and the bridge tone control almost broke off but that was when my friend dropped it when he was sitting down. Other then that everythings been fine.

Obviously if you have more money and are more experienced this guitars probly not for you but its by far the BEST GUITAR in its price range and even above. It looks and sounds fantastic. Definately a great guitar for someone learning or on a budget. IT DOESNT GET MUCH BETTER THEN THIS!

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

I purchased this gutiar barely used for $175 off a friend of mine because i was looking for a good guitar to play a wide range of styles with.

I like the ease of use. It has a pretty fast neck, decent powersound stock pickups with pretty good, high output. The neck pickup gets a nice warm tome clean and is great for soloing, bridge pickup is good for pinch harmonics and a bright, full tone. I like the looks of the guitar too, mine is transparent red. I've never had any problems with the guitar so far, and I have had it for around a year or so. One of my favorite things about this guitar is that it has volume and tone knobs for both pickups, that way you can turn the volume all the way down on one pickup and switch to that one when the volume of your amp is at 10 to prevent any unwanted noise when you're not playing. The guitar also usually stays in tune pretty well.

I don't like the fact that this guitar is not equipped with a tremolo, and has a tune-o-matic bridge making it harder to install a tremolo. I also do not like the fact that it is only a 22-fret neck. I dont like both of those things because i like to play Joe Satriani style stuff with alot of highs and crazy sounds with the tremolo.

This guitar has good quality for a first or second guitar, not quite professional material, but a great guitar to learn on. The body and neck have a nice shape to them that allow easy access to all points on the fretboard, and easy playing on all strings.

Pretty good guitar for the price, could probably use a pickup change to get a little bit nicer sound out of it, but overall, the guitar is nice ans easy to play.

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

I got this guitar from Guitar Paradise, Richmond, Melbourne, Australia and i paid AUS$565 for it.

This guitar looks awesome, i got it in transparent red, but it also come in butterscotch, black and silver. The shape of the guitar is a cross between a PRS and a SG, which caught my eye when i first looked at it in the shop.
At the time i was looking at guitars, i was looking at the Epiphone SG and Les Paul, but then i saw the gax70. I tried all 3 and decided that although the SG and the GAX were in the same price range, the GAX had a far superiour sound and was comparitive to the Les Paul which was 3 times expensive. This guitar is excellent value for money, and doesn't look ugly like alot of Ibanez made guitars do.
And i've also heard people talking about it being top heavy, but i haven't had a problem with it.
The playability is alright, but it has adjustible action heights, so i will easily be able to fix the playability with an adjustment to the action. But straight out of the box, it's at an excellent height for a beginner who is just interested in playing chords and what not.

The only thing i don't like about it is that there isn't much of a difference between the 0 and the 10 on the tone dials.

The guitar is very solid, it's got an agathis body, I'm not sure what the neck is, but it can be found on the ibanez website, the neck is made in 2 parts, so is very srong and the fingerboard is rosewood. The lead screw comes loose like all guitars, but that's nothing a good tighten can't fix. But yes all in all very solid, but not too heavy like some of the vintage guitars.
The finish on it is very good also and there's no chance of that coming off.

Although it's not as good as say a gibson SG and the like, this guitar is extremely good value for the price tag, I would say the best in it's price range by far. I highly recomend this guitar.

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

$512AUD from Creative Sound Centre Grafton. Walked in and compared this guitar with S Series Ibanez, Squire Tele and Yamaha Pacifica. Chose this guitar because the neck felt just right for me; the fingerboard radius seemed more comfortable and versatile than either that of the Fender or Yamaha necks. Had more character and tone than the Squire, and looked and sound a better quality instrument. The S series Ibanez was a ligher, more comfortable guitar to hold, but also more expensive. And truth be told, I fell in love with this little butterscotch tanned, fat bottomed girl within a few minutes of introduction.

I liked the simple but elegant approach in the design of this guitar - a good quality finish and construction without the un-necessary, tacky cosmetics that are used on other similar style guitars of other brands. I think it is the reason that this is both a cheaper and better quality guitar than some others.

What I like most about this guitar is the neck. The neck scale(24.75), fingerboard radius(305mm) and neck thickness are excellent - I have never played a neck that felt so right until I picked up the GAX and the S series Ibanez models - good for rythym, bar chord playing etc. I am a learner guitarist and the neck also seems great while playing the scale patterns and riffs I am learning at the moment.

Tone and control nobs have a good range - the tone nobs actually do have a considerable effect on the sound, unlike my brothers Squier Strat. The pickups sounded a lot better than I expected for the price; perhaps it is a little hard to adjust to a clean sound, but the sound this guitar puts out through them is miles more satisfying to my ear than that of the Squire Strat and the Fat Tele I tried. It is not hard to get a nice soulful owww coming out of this creature. Also when you plug this into an amp and play, you'll will be suprised at the sustain it has; I would guess that the non-tremolo, set bridge contributes to this, and is perhaps why it takes you by suprise after playing cheap tremelo guitars.

The Bridge/stop tail piece looks neat, strong and undaunting to adjust and service.

Inspite of the awkwardness of holding this guitar while sitting down, and getting it balanced on the strap when standing, the guitar itself contours really nicely and sits reassuringly against the body, and I think it is actually a lot more ergonomic in that regard to a lot of other guitars; the chamfer on the body under where your right forearm rests makes it very comfortable in that area.



The major difficulty I have with this instrument is that it is a bit awkward to hold while sitting down. As for standing with it, I have read a lot about it being top heavy, but actually don't think this is correct. I think this impression is due to the centre of gravity being off centre due to the short body of this guitar and the subsequent location of the peg. It is actually a very ergonomic and comfortable guitar while standing once you get it to sit right.


I have only had this guitar for a few weeks now, but nothing has come loose on it yet. The construction seems solid and everything seems fitted together neatly. The only cosmetic flaws are perhaps some knots in the grain of the maple neck, but that is a very minor aesthetic thing that some people seem to think is important - if that is the only compromise for the rest of the quality and value of this guitar, then they have made the right decision. The trasparent gloss finish on the body of the guitar is durable and I cannot find any faults in the finish. The fish-eyed tone and volume nobs looks nice and actually work!

I hear a lot about how Ibanez guitars going out of tune and complaints about the tuners. The tuners on this guitar look and seem to work just fine. Between practise sessions this guitar only went out of tune a couple of times due to temperature change, but the only time it has gone out of tune while playing was after practising a lot of note bends - that was one string that went out of tune, not the whole guitar.



To me, this guitar is great value. All other brand SG and Les Paul style guitars that I researched in the $500 to $800AUD range were more expensive, had no better hardware, and didn't look as solid or as well finished.

In my mind, the Yamaha Pacifica, as a quality and good sounding instrument, was the only competition in its price range. The GAX70 won me over due to its personality, playablitiy and wonderful neck.

I have been very satisfied and motivated by this instrument as a learning guitarist. If you want a guitar with the same dimension neck as this, but want a lighter, easier to hold, or higher level instrument, I reconmend you check out the S-series by Ibanez.

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

I received this Guitar as a Christmas present from my wife. I beleive she paid around $200.00 for it at my local Music Mart. She knew nothing about instruments, she picked it out because of how great it looked (Transparent Red)Apparently she looked at more expensive models, but really liked the way the GAX70 looked.

I already had three Axes before I got the Ibanez. A HAMER USA made Double Cutaway, An Epiphone SLASH model Les Paul, and a Fender Japanese Made Strat. For the money you are not going to beat the GAX70!! It is built very well, and the weight is perfect for an all night gig. I love the color as well, it gets alot of compliments. I did install Grover Tuners and Chrome Humbucker Covers on the pickups, to dress it up just a tad.
I changed the tuners simply because I use it as a back up at Gigs sometimes, and didnt want to worry about it coming out of tune. It sounds almost as good as my Epiphone, it tends to have a little more feedback on higher volume levels. It says alot about this guitar that I put spent an extra $70.00 on the Tuners and Humbucker covers to improve its looks.

There is not much I dont like about this one, The main thing is the input Jack, it used to loosen up on me, until I used a little locktite on the nut. I also dont care for the Nut, its kind of cheap, but you need to expect that for a lower priced guitar. The Positives definately outweigh the negatives by a long shot.

Great Construction,
Neck is Bolt on, and ver fast, great guitar for someone with smaller hands/fingers
Not veryheavy for a Mahogany Guitar!!!!

The Bottom line is as I have stated previously.
In My opinion This Guitar cannot be beat for the money. I was never a Huge Ibanez Fan until I got this one. This guitar is fit for a beginner or established player.
I would buy this for someone else with no regrets, For a few extra dollars you can dress it up as I stated before, and really make it look like a Gibson SG. I play it as much as I do my other Axes, and That Says alot about it!!!!!

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

I bought it at Guitar City in Hollywood, CA (sounds glamorous - it?s not ? but the top guitarists have left their handprints in the concrete area outside and it turns out that my hands are identical to Joe Satriani?s. Is this a sign from God?). I am 49 and have decided to take up the electric guitar. Being an attorney (smart, well paid, very thorough) but also being incredibly cheap, I: (a) decided to spend as little as possible in case it turned out that my manual dexterity and/or patience weren?t up to the task of learning to play it; and (b) spent hours doing internet research. So far, so good; indeed, a no brainer - this guitar had rave reviews from everyone (not one of whom knew less than I did) and, like me, was virtually the cheapest around. Thus armed with (admittedly secondhand) knowledge, I went into three music stores, where I found that (possibly due to my affluent and suave appearance and English accent) the salespeople tried to sell me much more expensive stuff. However, to my ear, this one sounded really nice ? clearly superior to a really horrid Squier - and with fit and finish superior to some much more expensive ones. The humbucker pickups give it both a richer and broader range of sound than single coil. I was very impressed that such a machine is available at this price. I paid $199.

Let me count the ways. First, if you want to learn to play guitar properly then you need a clean tone because buzz and fuzz (which are easy to create) get very tiresome, very quickly. You can make VERY clean sounds out of this. Second, the action seems just right to me (but what the hell do I know). Third, construction and quality are excellent (see below).

Not much. The tone knobs seem more or less useless although there is some difference between zero and 10. Might have been better if the cord outlet were located on the front instead of on the edge/back.

Outstanding. Everything fits right and tight. There was a scratch on the back which I didn?t notice. Not Ibanez?s fault. I was particularly impressed: first, that it?s reassuringly solid. There is absolutely nothing (ok, except for the nut) which seems cheap about it. The weight seems to be in exactly the right spot on that vast continuum between this-reminds-me-of-that-plastic-guitar-I-had-when-I-was-five and the QE2?s anchor; second, by its silky smooth, easy turning gears; and third, by the beautiful finish (mine is black). Is this actually made of mahogany? Ah, screw the rain forests.

If you are a beginner, I really don?t think you can go wrong with this guitar. If you?re not, then you probably aren?t reading this.

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

I purchased this guitar last year for my Christmas present to me from Musician's Friend for $190.00

The guitar I recieved was ready to play right out of the box. It's seems to be pretty robust and stays in tuner pretty except for temperature changes.

The only thing that's failed is the plastic friction washer on a tuner but that's no big deal. I wish that the pick-ups had more of an adjustment range and that the Phillips screws were not made of a very mild steel.

The fit and function of this guitar is very good.

The folks at Musician's Friend packaged everything very well and constantly updated the information on the case that I had ordered (out of stock).

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

I bought the quitar at Seminole Music in Clearwater Florida. I traded in my worthless Aria Strat on it. Retail for the guitar is 189$ paid 110$ after my trade

Sweeeet! sounding good looking guitar. sounds best in Drop D. Great for punk, and just general rocking. Has a good crunchy tone. its got full switching independent humbuckers which makes lots of neat different tone combinations. I play it through a 30watt marshall and zoom box.

The cable plug is in a bad spot.

for the most part it is excellent quality. A few things are pretty cheap, like the upper nut is made of plastic. when i got the quitar the neck was warped. I took it to my local guitar guy fo a setup and it sounds great now.

For 190$ it is the best new guitar i have found. highly recomneded!!!

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