Ibanez AW54CE - Open Pore Natural

I've only had it for a day, but very happy with my purchase. Some people have complained about the action but it's perfect and feels like it's been professionally set up. I can only speak for my guitar. The strings took about a day to break in. They were a little too bright and kind of buzzy at first. Today they are fine and sound great. The tuner works great. Very convenient. I haven't tried out the electronic pickup yet, I don't have an amp. The sound is different than spruce. More balanced. Spruce has less midrange. That's what it sounds like to me. It's different singing to it. Not worse, just different. If I was just a strummer, I'm not sure I would like it, but I pick and strum and it sounds beautiful. Like the satin finish. I just felt like this was the guitar for me when I saw it and read the reviews and it is.

Uff! Very nice guitar and sound for the price.

Nice guitar especially if starting out or just need a beater guitar around. The Mahogany has such a nice warm sound. Great price too. Only concern was the tag it came with stating there is potential for causing cancer. I thought it was the second hand smoke from playing smokey bars, not the guitar! There’s actually a tag on there because of California proposition 96 requiring listing all harmful chemicals it “may” be made with. I think there is very low risk of getting cancer from playing this guitar so long as you don’t eat it or smoke it!! Enjoy this guitar, plays well, holds its tune and looks great!

Really nice guitar; exactly what you'd expect from Ibanez. The soft wood makes it sound really bright & loud. It's easily twice as loud (with no amp) as my similarly priced Takamine. My only complaint is that the wood is VERY soft & delicate. I lightly *bonked* my guitar on an end table & it put a nasty dent in the side, almost made a hole. Also, mine came with a set of D'Addario strings that are pretty much identical to Elixirs, & they're still bright & shiny & sound great 10 months later.

This guitar is very playable and sounds nice. The action and intonation were very good right out of the box. I did not change a thing. I have owned this guitar a few months now and I am happy with the purchase. I took a chance and bought a guitar without playing it. Got lucky.

I have had this guitar for 5 months. I was pleased with the action, the tone, and the looks. I was prepared to give it a 4-5 star rating, but about a month ago, it developed an annoying buzz whenever I plucked the D string. At first I thought it was coming from the body of the guitar, but finally I realized it was coming from the tuning key, which was apparently a little loose. I have tried to tighten it, but it hasn't helped. It seems to be coming from within the tuning mechanism. Then a couple of weeks ago, the tuning key to my high E string fell off. I had to Super Glue it back on, but it is not as tight as it should be. And yesterday the tuning key to my G string fell off. It seems that the makers of the guitar went cheap on the tuning pegs and keys, of all things. I'm wondering what's going to fall apart or give me problems next. I was really enjoying this guitar, but now I'm regretting buying it. It seems to be more cheaply made than I thought.

If you -- yes, you reading this -- are teetering on the edge, unsure as to whether this is the right guitar to pick, anxious about having to commit to a several hundred dollar decision that you can't easily take back -- this is your sign that you've found the right guitar. You can relax and rest easy knowing that this is *the one*. I've tried several times to get into guitar throughout my life. Previously, it was with cheap pieces of shit, frankly, as I was a middle school/high school/college student unwilling to spend more than the minimum possible amount. I always bounced off of my attempts. I couldn't get into it. There was just so much friction every time I tried. So many little annoyances piling up that made it just inconvenient enough that I would never pick up my guitar and would always turn to piano instead. But this guitar? It makes all that friction melt away. The tone is beautiful. The neck and the strings are just right for a beginner -- without any calluses or any practice at all, I could immediately tell chords were easier than on those old cheap guitars I'd previously used. If I want to play it DI into my audio interface, or into an amp, I have that option as well. It's everything I need out of a guitar, it's comfortable and easy to play, and it makes me realize (as I've increasingly come to realize) that music is so much easier when you have a little extra money to throw around. Sure, you can go with the cheapest options you can find, and with enough dedication you can make those work. But let's be honest: Most of us don't have that dedication. It's so much extra effort in a world that already requires all of our effort at each turn. All of this self-indulgent waxing is to say: This was the guitar for me. I think it can be the guitar for you, too, if you're willing to take the risk on it. Believe me, it's worth it -- I feel so much happier with the progress I've made in the last few weeks than I've ever been with my attempts to learn guitar. Some of that, sure, is thanks to a general improvement in my own musicianship as well a love for Sufjan Stevens and a desire to play as much of his music as possible, but a significant amount of that comes down to this guitar.

I really love this guitar. It plays beautifully and looks even more beautiful. Sadly, though, I need to give it a 1 star rating until my issue is resolved. I tried to remove the "Solid Top" sticker from the pickguard and firstly, it was super hard to remove and really messy. I can deal with that; nothing a little goo-gone can't fix, but the real issue it that from the messy process of removing the sticker it ruined the plastic beneath it (see pic attached to this review)! There's apparently a thin layer of plastic over the whole pickguard and removing the sticker also peeled away parts of the plastic; the guitar does not look nice anymore; so disappointing. What a silly flaw for a $350 product! I left feedback for the seller and requested a pre-paid label to ship it back and have them send me a replacement without the sticker on it to avoid the issue in the future. I'll happily change my rating of both the seller and the guitar up to 5 stars once it is resolved. Will update here once I hear back from them. UPDATE: I worked with Adorama and they send me a packing label to send the guitar back in original packaging. They were VERY helpful and even gave me a slight discount for my troubles when I repurchased the same guitar. The new one is great - no issue with the sticker. Although, I did see a different commenter say you can just take off that thin plastic layer under the sticker so I went ahead and did that now as well. Maybe I could've done that on the original and avoided this headache? Maybe :) Still love the guitar (I even think the first one I got sounded a bit better than the new one... regrets... lol).