Ten Reasons Why You Should Not Buy an Ibanez Guitar

10. Tone: Ibanez provides inexpensive guitars targeted specifically at beginners. It’s easy to see how they stay in business: novice guitar players aren’t committed enough to invest four to five hundred dollars in something that might not be a hobby for long. It’s a tough contention to dissuade people from. But, if guitar is something you’re serious about, the time will come when you will want and need a serious guitar. The flat tone coming from an Ibanez will become noticeable, and not in a good sort of way.

9. High action: High action alters the sound quality of a guitar and also makes it tougher to play-especially for beginners-since more pressure is needs to be applied to the strings. Find a guitar that feels smooth and flexible to play. Experiment with both standard acoustics and classic guitars. Find something that fits.

8. Price: Price is a key determinant in purchasing any product, but in a guitar, you want to focus more on what you’re looking from the instrument, then try to construct a price range. A cheap Ibanez is really not that cheap if you are going to outgrow it in a year or so. Look at pawn shops or musical exchange stores-www.craigslist.org also has an impressive selection of guitars.

7. Volume: The Ibanez I owned had major problems projecting. Sometimes that’s a good thing-like when your roommates are trying to sleep-but mostly you want a good volume issuing from your guitar. It lets you appreciate the sound better and helps you learn the small mistakes you may be making.

6. Neck: The neck of most Ibanez acoustic guitars is too heavy. It makes the guitar tough to play-especially when sliding or forming bar chords. The lopsidedness of weight creates a feeling of discomfort and you need to be comfortable when playing-why do you think they have green rooms? When you are weighing the options of purchasing a guitar, make sure to spend some time “feeling it out” for comfort. You’re going to be spending a lot of time fiddling around with it, make sure it’s not causing awkward movements.

5. The body: My Ibanez guitar has a really thick body-as in the actual measurement of wood-but doesn’t weigh a lot. This is the exact opposite of what you want. You want heavy, reverberating wood that will lend a nice sound to the acoustics.

4. Overall Sound: The quality of sound from an Ibanez just isn’t great. You can pin-point specific things, but generally speaking, things don’t sound real great-even for a cheap guitar (try playing a Yamaha sometime).

3. Materials: My Ibanez is made cheaply and quickly. Many of them are. Consequently, the materials used are not the best or even the second best. There’s a lot of plastic and non-wood materials. Ultimately, this makes the overall feel wrong and many parts begin wear down quickly and chip away. I have to replace strings (with particular regard to the G string) on a more than regular basis. It gets frustrating and, in the end, too expensive.

2. Fret board: For some reason, the fret board on Ibanez guitars seems wider than other ones-especially around the base of the neck. Also, my guitar seems to accumulate an uncanny amount of dirt and filth on and around the frets.

1. Craftsmanship: Overall, the Ibanez guitar is intended for mass production and targets novice guitar players unsure whether they want to invest in a good instrument. My advice is: decide quickly. Either buy a guitar worthy of being played or stop playing the guitar altogether.