I've owned this guitar for about 18 months now, and I must say it is the best sounding, most comfortable, and easiest to play guitar I've ever owned! The active pickups of this guitar provide great versatility. I mostly play metal and hard rock, but I've been able to get some sweet, warm, "classic rock-ish" overdrive tones out of it as well. The bridge pickup provides the same amount of brightness you would expect from Ibanez, and the neck pickup can be very mellow and relaxing.

The setup on mine was perfect, but I also bought this from a store and they may have had a tech set it up there before I bought it. The action is low and smooth...it buzzes a fair amount because of the action on mine, but once you plug it in you can't hear it.

I have only noticed one thing wrong with this instrument: some very subtle stress cracks in the finish on the neck, which is why I gave a slightly lower quality rating. These aren't even cracks, more like little lines that are hardly noticeable at all. They haven't changed the playability of the instrument whatsoever.

I bought this guitar and sold my kh 202 and could not be happier with the outcome. This guitar has everything you would need for any kind of music you play. I play heavy metal and the distortion could not sound any better. The active pick ups in this guitar sound amazing. And when you flip the switch up on clean it sound exactly like my fender acoustic. There is no reason not to buy this guitar the price is so reasonable for a quality guitar like this. Even as a member of several band of different playing types i would always use this thing. Buy this and you wont be dissapointed if you have any question regarding this guitar you can find my myspace and send me a message and i will happily respond because if somebody would have done this for me i would have bought this faster than you could have imagined.

When I bought this guitar, I was looking for an upgrade to the Squier Strats that I own as well. When I started looking I went to my local music store and fell in love with one PRS guitar more than twice the price of this one. So I saved up enough money to buy that, and a few months later I went to go purchase the PRS. When I was there I kinda decided that I would just play a few guitars just because I could, after playing for a while my sister points out the ART 300 because i looked cool with the crocidile type finish. When I started playing a was taken a way by how amazing it sounded through a really expensive amp, so then i decided maybe it's just the amp that makes it sound so amazing. I then plugged the guitar into a really cheap amp, and it sound so warm and full and amazing through that amp as well. So I ended up buying a Less expensive guitar and got an even better guitar.

consider this guitar in two phases. when you first buy it, you like it, it is pretty, plays ok. then take it to your local music store guitar tech and get a setup. get the frets dressed and filed. get the intonation set. in short, get done what the factory can not/will not do. after all this, the guitar is FANTASTIC. another no-brainer at this price.

I generally play stratocasters .. After years of playing SG and Les Paul type guitar's. I play mostly Blues and Blues based rock .. As opposed to the heavier music i used to play .. I first came across the Ibanez ART 300 at guitar center as i have had thoughts of getting a LP styled guitar for ZZtop and a few of the other thicker tunes we do .. I have always been a fan of the Ibanez LP type guitars as far back as the lawsuit days .. I checked it out the ART 300 but didn't give it much thought because of the active pickups thinking they would be to hot for my music style .. I ended up trading a very nice but unused Ibanez AWD83 hollow body for the ART 300 .. I came home and hooked it up and was very impressed with the value and versatility of this guitar. I had no problems finding a Blues clean and overdriven sound. The active pickup are excellent and are not to hot as i feared. It can be pushed to be extremely hot. Buy turning down the gain and the guitars volume knob i get excellent blues tones with tremendous sustain .. The clean tones are very warm and full. Almost an acoustic type tone .. This will never be my #1 guitar because of my music style .. But without a doubt it will be one of the 3 guitars on stage with me and does an excellent job of giving me thicker tones that i need on some tunes .. The only thing i wish was different is that the black finish would stay even through out the whole guitar instead of going lighter in the middle which gives it a grey appearance .. But it is only noticeable up close and from the stage the alligator finish causes the guitar to sparkle ..

If you are looking for an excellent value on a Les Paul type guitar this is the guitar for you .. It beats the Epiphones and ESP hands down for tone and quality ..