NAMM 2010 Ibanez news part three: acoustic guitars
| Posted in Music Technology
The Ibanez AEG10NE classical acoustic guitar leads this third part of our coverage of Ibanez at NAMM 2010, which takes place in California later this week. The black classical acoustic is the latest addition to Ibanez’s AEG series of affordably priced acoustic and electro-acoustic six strings.
Featuring a Mahogany neck, back and sides with a spruce top, the AEG10NE is based on the traditional AEG body shape and boasts an onboard Ibanez SST preamp with a tuner. Its fingerboard and bridge are both Rosewood while a Fishman Sonicore pickup and gold tuners complete its design.
Striking less of a classical note is the natural finish AEL10E electro-acoustic, with Maple back and sides, a Spruce top, a Mahogany neck and a Rosewood fingerboard with pearloid inlays. Electronics onboard the guitar include an SRTn preamp with tuner and a B-Band UST pickup, while the tuners are chrome. Both the AEL10E and AEG10NE include Abalone rosettes, adding a joint flourish to the contrasting designs.
Stepping up slightly from the AEL10E is the AEL20E in Transparent Black Sunburst, with Maple back and sides, a Sycamore top and a Mahogany neck. Sharing many of the characteristics of its cousin, the six string adds gold tuners to the design alongside the Rosewood fingerboard with pearl dot inlays, the SRTn preamp and B-Band UST pickup. Again, an Abalone rosette completes the guitar.
Elsewhere, the AW35R is the latest dreadnought addition to the Ibanez catalogue with a natural, classic design set to belie its affordable placing in the range. The electro-acoustic includes a Rosewood back and sides, a solid Cedar top, a Mahogany neck and a Rosewood fretboard with wooden dot inlays. The gold tuning mechanism also features brown pearl buttons to add to the earthy design ethos behind the guitar – a nice touch in our opinion.
The V72ECE is a cutaway dreadnought with a Mahogany back, sides and neck, a Spruce top and a Rosewood fretboard and bridge. Finished in Transparent Blue Sunburst and featuring chrome tuners, the guitar carries an Ibanez AEQ200T two-band preamp and an under-saddle pickup. A left-handed model, the V7LECE is also available in a natural finish.
Perhaps one of the most talked about acoustics in the new Ibanez range will be the EW35ABE, with the unusual combination of Olive, Ash and Burl creating a strikingly natural top, back and sides. The guitar – based on the Ibanez EW shape – also boasts Maple binding, a Mahogany neck, a Rosewood fretboard, pearloid deposits and an Abalone rosette. Carried onboard is an SRTn preamp including a tuner. Meanwhile, the EW35CPE takes the same design buts swaps the Olive, Ash and Burl combination for Camphor.
Ibanez’s Ambience series has been extended with the A300E, boasting a cutaway, a Mahogany neck, arched quilted Maple back and sides and a quilted Maple top. The model is being released in Transparent Black Cherry Sunburst and Vintage Violin and is designed to offer “luthier level looks and sound at affordable prices”. We’ll tip our hats to the fact that the two models certainly look pretty enough, and the specifications are impressive, with a Fishman Sonicore pickup working alongside a Presys Blend preamp with a built in mic, notch filter and tuner. The saddle is an Ivorex II while the guitar offers both balanced 1/4″ and XLR outputs. D’Addario EXP strings are included as well.
Other Ibanez acoustic models set to appear at NAMM include the entry-level V105S solid top in a natural finish, the AES10E electro-acoustic in Amber and Transparent Blue Sunburst, and the AW300 natural finish dreadnought. But finally, and striking a very different tone, comes a semi-acoustic designed for the Rockabilly in your life. The Ivory-finished 22-fret AS73 boasts a Maple body and top, a one-piece Mahogany set-in neck, a Rosewood fingerboard and pearl dot inlays. It doesn’t just look good either – the guitar includes three-way rocker controls, an ART-1 bridge with a Quik Change III tailpiece, and an ACH1 pickup on its neck coupled with an ACH2 pickup on its bridge.
About Barney Jameson
A contributor, editor and in some cases creator of more music and pro audio magazines than he cares to remember, Barney Jameson is a veteran of writing about gear, and a pretty keen singer songwriter to boot.
Having started his musical education reading old copies of the Melody Maker while riding the tube to University in the mid-nineties, Barney once sang in a band called Sugarstone, troubling record company chequebooks not quite enough to make it a career option. Instead, he achieved his goal of starting a music magazine of his own when he founded Playmusic in the early noughties. Later on, having exploited VIP access to as many festivals as possible, he wrote about the pro audio industry throughout Europe and the Middle East, travelling to far-flung destinations such as Dubai, Doha and Muscat (nice mountains).
As the latest addition to the DV247 team, Barney has big plans. But when he’s not plotting online domination of the musical instrument world, he keeps himself busy writing songs on a battered old acoustic guitar and playing them to audiences in his home town.
Tags: classical guitar, electro acoustic, Ibanez acoustic guitars