turbomama

hello.
one more thing...(ya right!) there are used vox vt50 amps on guitarcenter for $299 and used vox vt100 for $400. any thoughts there?
thanks so much!!!

GuitarBizarre

The RGA32 should last for a long time to come, its a great step up guitar.

Worth noting by the way, margins have tightened with the recession and whatnot, but you can almost ALWAYS get a discount at a music shop by haggling a bit. My acoustic guitar should have been £370. Before I even expressed absolute interest in it, the salesman I was speaking to had told me that because business was so slow (due to the recession), he'd do me a deal on the guitar. Theres usually at LEAST 10% you can get from them, if you're in the right shop. If you're buying two things at once, that goes up to more like 15!


As for used amps - I wouldn't worry too much, since they're practically indestructible apart from the jack sockets, but I would definitely say not to buy sight unseen if you can help it.

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turbomama

hi again!
my son was asked today to play guitar in school's advanced jazz band. he's so excited!his instructor recommended a hollow body. i think i read nice things about the ibanez art320. is it a semi-hollow body? would it work for jazz band and his personal favorite...rock? do you recommend it or something else? thanks so much for any advice.
p.s. i bought him the vox vt50 amp for xmas. happy holidays!

GuitarBizarre

Semi hollow bodies are great and will work for rock, but if that isn't his main passion, I'd get him one of the ones you mentioned before since they'll be better suited. I love semi hollow bodied guitars, but you can play perfectly good jazz on a solid body guitar as long as your amp settings are good. I wouldn't compromise on what your son wants to play in favour of what a jazz band teacher wants him to play.

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mr dave

that's great news!

a hollow body generally does provide a smoother tone for jazzier sounds, a semi would work in the meantime as well. the art320 is not a semi-hollow though, just a single cutaway. the Artcore series is semi- and hollow though.

personally i'd go for the AM73B from the Artcores, but one of the AF or AG series would likely be more appropriate for Jazz class hehe.

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i am the universe

bandteacher1

Aren't kids so adorable? (I have three sons)

I'm going to agree with Dave, in that he sounds like he knows what he's talking about.

If you aren't really sure about the quality of an used instrument, talk to the salesperson. Then talk to friends of yours who play instruments. Talk to anybody you possibly can, because when you buy used instruments, you never really know what you're getting into. On the other hand, it could be a very good instrument, just a little banged up. But if you can, a new shiny instrument always looks good under a Christmas tree.


Side topic: I was at a pon shop once, and the man had a chared, tarnished french horn in there. He gave it to me for 5$, a steal. I cleaned and polished the instrument, cleaned it out, and returned it to it's natural glory. The instrument was made in 1901, well worth 500$. That's what I was talking about, the pearl in the coal, if you will.

Anyways, best of wishes!

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Dr. Lea Moudlian
Director of Music
Clear View Regional High School
Home of the Firebird Marching Band
cvrhsmusic@yahoo.com

bandteacher1

Hollow bodies and semi-hollow bodies are wonderful instruments, and provide terrific sound quality, and should work fine for Rock as well as Jazz. However, if it would only be used for the Jazz Ensemble, I would recomend getting one of the ones mention earlier. Speaking as a parent and a band teacher, I wouldn't comprimise your son's wishes over what a band teacher wants. Granted, I see where the band teacher is coming from, because of the rich Jazz sound, but I'd rather purchase a guitar for my son that he'd use everyday, not just on days he's playing with the Jazz Ensemble. My guess would be that his band teacher doesn't have kids, so the teacher can't see your point of veiw.

Hope that helps!

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Dr. Lea Moudlian
Director of Music
Clear View Regional High School
Home of the Firebird Marching Band
cvrhsmusic@yahoo.com

mr dave

as if anyone wouldn't rock the hell out on this every freaking day?



maybe not for metal but for straight up hard rock hells yes hahaha

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FadedMyxomatosis

The Epiphone Dot is a great guitar too. Ibanez, from my experience, has never made nice guitars. I'm 13 as well, I've played for awhile too. I have the same music tastes as your son. I use an Epiphone SG.

The thing about Epiphone is that, they are a sub company of Gibson, and I know you've heard Gibson come out of your sons mouth many times before!

Buy Epiphone Dot Electric Guitar | Semi-Hollow and Hollow Body Electric Guitars | Musician's Friend




Epiphone guitars come stock with excellent pickups. The neck pickups on that guitar will give such an excellent bluesy tone, he will be pleased. I also hear that Epiphone has much better customer support than Ibanez.

Oh, and the Dot has a pickguard, so if your son is doing some hardcore playing his pick won't scratch the body up and ruin the finish.

Well I wish you luck, I know he'll enoy any guitar except for this one.

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Last.fm

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GuitarBizarre

I've been playing for over a decade, and I have this to say.

If Ibanez didn't make nice guitars, I wouldn't own 3 of them and rate them so highly. My RG, my S2170FW and my S7320 are all perfectly fine guitars.

As for being a sub company of gibson, that means nothing, they use different woods, different pickups, different finishes (Poly, as opposed to nitro lacquer), different hardware and most importantly they're made in a completely different factory in a completely different country, go through different quality control, and not only that but they're shipped differently, made in far greater bulk and mor of the contruction is done by CNC. Also, they're not set up by a PLEK machine like current gibson models are. They are NOT Gibsons in any way shape or form. Whether or not they're good guitars is open for debate, personally, I find them to be middling at best and terrible at worst, at least up until you're spending hefty amounts on one.

But one thing you should NEVER assume, is that being related to a bigger company is a badge of quality. There are official, fender licensed stratocasters and stratocaster copies made in america, mexico, korea, indonesia AND japan for instance, or at least all of those countrys HAVE made official strats at one point or another. The japanese Squiers for example are quite collectible, since they were good guitars and they're quite rare. However none of those Squier strats are in ANY way the same as the mexican or american ones.

Secondly, the epiphone pickups are misleading and not that great either. They're labelled as 'Gibson USA' on most models, and to be blunt, thats nothing more than a name. Those pickups are neither made by nor designed to the same standards as real gibson pickups. They're not even made in the same place. At the very least at least the Dim/Ibz pickups that come on a lot of Ibanez guitars are made in the same factory by the same peopl who make the more high end Dimarzio pickup ranges.

As for 'you hear' that the customer support is better than ibanez, thats not something I'd trust without a few sources. Ibanez customer support is generaly handled only by the distributor anyway, since hoshino gakki are a japanese company and therefore american distribution is in a much better position to handle customer support queries. The distributor will vary depending on area, and frankly, you shouldn't ever have to deal with them in the first place, seeing as most retail laws state your warranty contract is with the retailer, not the manufacturer or distributor.

As for the pickguard, I have guitars with and guitars without. A scratched up pickguard looks just as bad as a scratched up finish, in fact, I'd say it looks worse seeing as a scratched up finish has some cool value, whereas a piece of plastic with gouges all over it just looks ugly.

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