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Hatsubai « Extremely thick sounding Ibanez »
Published on 06/27/11 at 11:49The AT300 is the epitome of that Andy Timmons sound. For those who don't know, Andy Timmons has been a fairly long time user of Ibanez guitars, and he has a few models out there. Out of all of them, this is probably the closest so his current sound. The guitar is based off of the SA body style and features a mahogany body, maple neck with a rosewood fretboard, 22 frets with jumbo frets, unique inlays, HSS configuration with DiMarzio pickups, Wilkinson tremolo, two volumes, one tone and a five way switch.
UTILIZATION
The guitar felt great. The fretwork on this was top notch, and the only Ibanez guitars out there with better fretwork are the J-Custom series. They were properly leveled, has a nice crown going on and were beveled nicely so they don't cut your hand while moving up and down the neck. The inlay work on this was pretty good, too. There were a few filler areas, but it wasn't bad overall. The nut was properly cut to make sure that the strings glide nicely when using the tremolo. The tremolo on this is the Wilkinson, and it felt very smooth. Very good trem. The guitar felt perfect in terms of weight. If I had to guess, I'd say it was around the 7 lb area. The AANJ made it super easy for soloing, too. The only real complaint I had was that the volume knob was real close to the bridge pickup.
SOUNDS
This guitar is the epitome of fat tone. The AT1 in the bridge is super fat sounding, and combined with the mahogany body, you get this super warm tone going on. To be honest, if you use the tone control on the bridge, it'll just muddy it out like crazy, it's that thick. It works awesome for those lead lines. The Cruisers in the neck and middle give this awesome vowely kind of P90 sound. They sound super authentic for being single coil sized humbuckers. DiMarzio did a great job with those. The clean tones on the Cruisers shimmer nicely, and the lead tones are simply to die for.
OVERALL OPINION
This is my favorite model out of the entire AT series. It's the fattest sounding, has the best features and doesn't require any pickup swap. If you're looking for one of these, check out eBay to get the best prices. As long as the frets aren't too worn, you should be good to go. You'll save tons of money, too.
UTILIZATION
The guitar felt great. The fretwork on this was top notch, and the only Ibanez guitars out there with better fretwork are the J-Custom series. They were properly leveled, has a nice crown going on and were beveled nicely so they don't cut your hand while moving up and down the neck. The inlay work on this was pretty good, too. There were a few filler areas, but it wasn't bad overall. The nut was properly cut to make sure that the strings glide nicely when using the tremolo. The tremolo on this is the Wilkinson, and it felt very smooth. Very good trem. The guitar felt perfect in terms of weight. If I had to guess, I'd say it was around the 7 lb area. The AANJ made it super easy for soloing, too. The only real complaint I had was that the volume knob was real close to the bridge pickup.
SOUNDS
This guitar is the epitome of fat tone. The AT1 in the bridge is super fat sounding, and combined with the mahogany body, you get this super warm tone going on. To be honest, if you use the tone control on the bridge, it'll just muddy it out like crazy, it's that thick. It works awesome for those lead lines. The Cruisers in the neck and middle give this awesome vowely kind of P90 sound. They sound super authentic for being single coil sized humbuckers. DiMarzio did a great job with those. The clean tones on the Cruisers shimmer nicely, and the lead tones are simply to die for.
OVERALL OPINION
This is my favorite model out of the entire AT series. It's the fattest sounding, has the best features and doesn't require any pickup swap. If you're looking for one of these, check out eBay to get the best prices. As long as the frets aren't too worn, you should be good to go. You'll save tons of money, too.