Ibanez AR200FM - Honey Sunburst

Ibanez AR200FM-HS

The Ibanez AR200FM is based on the very popular and sought after Artist series, which is similar in look to the Les Paul double cutaway model. It has a mahogany body with a very attractive flame maple top, a three piece maple neck which is set into the body (fret markers are mother of pearl dot inlays), an ACH2-S pickup in the bridge and an ACH1-S in the neck. It uses the ART1 bridge with the Quik Change III tailpiece.

Out of the box, the guitar is very impressive, a very nice consistent finish, set up was very good and there was no fret buzz from any of the medium frets. Standard strings are 10\'s and they stay in tune pretty good. The neck is quite chunky but comfortable, similar to a 50\'s Les Paul neck and upper fret access is very good thanks to the double cutaway design and the neck heel being blended into the body.

On a strap the guitar has a tendancy to neck dive a little (not as bad as some SG\'s though). I moved the horn strap button to the back of the neck heel, similar to the position on an SG, which helped this and it sits much more comfortable now. This may just be down to personal preference.

The pickups are a little dissapointing. They both have a very harsh sound to them. Getting a warm jazzy sound from the neck pickup I found very difficult. Even with the pickup lowered right down and the pole pieces levelled to the bobbins there was still a shrill overtone. Rolling off the tone control and using a bit of chorus helps but this tends to mute the high strings as oppose to warming them up. I don\'t doubt it would benefit from maybe a Seymour Duncan Jazz in the neck. The bridge isn\'t too bad but still a bit shrill for my liking. You can get some decent rock tones and it even sounds ok through a Boss MT-2 for the heavier tones. Clean, it is almost jangly but not as twangy as a single coil, you certainly couldn\'t accuse it of being muddy sounding. There\'s also plenty of sustain to play with.

Overall I am very pleased with this guitar, for the price. I give it a 7 simply because of the pickups, which I\'ll probably change and the balance without having to move a strap button.