Ridiculous: Ibanez Altstar ALT30

Well, at least it's not expensive.

I will first give credit to Ibanez for at least trying something different. But the Altstar in Purple Iris Burst gets a little too wacky.

Firstly, yes there are other colors that look a lot better than the purple thing above. Black, Brown Burst and Open Pore Natural to name a few...

...but the purple one is the wackiest of the bunch.

Purple on a guitar either totally works or totally doesn't. This one totally doesn't.

I'm sure the guitar is built well, but the combination of purple with brown at the bridge and jagged style inlay markers... yeah, this is going a bit too far with "alternative styling".

Ibanez is no stranger to wacky designs nor purple, and sometimes they get both done right. A great example of this is the Ibanez Paul Gilbert Signature FRM300PR in purple. Polarizing shape, to be sure, but the purple treatment is done very well there.

As for the purple Altstar, no. Doesn't work. But fortunately there are better color options to choose from.

Published 2022 Jan 11