Ibanez AMV100FMD Artstar Vintage Yellow Sunburst Low Gloss

General

Many guitarists feel there's a certain appeal to an old guitar that has its share of battle scars. However, if you want one of those vintage '50s guitars, it most likely won't come cheap. If you don't have a vast amount of money to spend, Ibanez has got you covered with the AMV100FMD Artstar Vintage. This hollow-body guitar in Yellow Sunburst Low Gloss has been artificially aged to make it seem like it's been around for a couple of decades, and seen it's fair share of (ab)use. Looks can be deceiving, though, as this guitar is essentially a young soul in an old body.

Vintage-inspired look and sound

As you might expect, this hollow-body guitar has a sound to match is vintage-inspired look, thanks to the two Super 58 humbuckers. You can further fine-tune that sound using a volume and tone knob for each individual pickup, while the 3-way pickup switch allows you to vary your sound even further. However, the Arstar also has a push/pull tone knob for the neck pickup, which engages the coil split functionality, changing the warm humbucker sound into a sharp single-coil squeal. As such, the AMV100FMD is a highly versatile instrument that's suitable for virtually any genre.

Love at first sight

Of course, the first thing that draws you to any given guitar is likely to be its look. This Ibanez's Yellow Sunburst Low Gloss body shows plenty of wear and tear, giving it an aged look that's only reinforced by the aged white bindings and the hardware that looks like it might start rusting away at any moment. (It won't, though!) Still, none of this has a detrimental effect on the guitar's excellent quality. It features a flamed maple body, and a set-in maple neck. The latter features a 22-fret ebony fretboard with classy acrylic and abalone block inlays for position markers. Furthermore, the Quick Change III wraparound tailpiece and the ART-1 Tune-o-matic bridge work together with the bone string nut to keep your strings in check. Finally, to make sure this hollow-body guitar can last for years to come, it comes with a deluxe guitar case!

• Differs from the ASV100FMD due to its coil split function and smaller body.