Ten Reasons Why You Should Not Buy an Ibanez Guitar

Or Your Guitar Will Strongly Weep

G.R., Yahoo! Contributor Network
Sep 1, 2006 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."

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.

Published by G.R.

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