Ibanez AX120 - best cheap SG alternative?

This guitar is an absolute steal. You get a lot of guitar here for a very little price.

Above is the Ibanez AX120, available in red, blue and a few other colors.

This guitar is shockingly dirt cheap but it totally has the goods where it counts. It's just a basic-but-good electric with two humbuckers, 3-way toggle, two volume controls, two tone controls. There is no coil split nor coil tapping here, but that's just fine. Pickups are of the ceramic magnet variety.

Body is poplar, fretboard is - and this is interesting - treated New Zealand pine.

Scale length is 628mm (24.7 inch), and fretboard radius 305mm (12 inch).

I really dig the look of this guitar. The body is weighted proper with the front strap button AT THE HORN so there is no neck dive. The body edging looks great. The bound neck looks great. The block fretboard inlays look cool.

The only flaw I can find is that the headstock design is a little on the boring side, and that's it. And for my personal tone tastes, I'd probably switch out the pickups and pots for something brighter, similar to my Squier Thinline.

But heck, even as-is... wow. You get so much for so little here. Good job, Ibanez.

Published 2018 Apr 25