Uh, yeah. Harley Davidson certainly is a success story however leave us not forget they had just a little help from the government who was kind enough to slap a healthy tariff on any motorcycle imported into the US over 700cc which just happens to be H-D's bread and butter. Maybe we should call it a success story for the lobbying industry.

Damn Spencer you have some nice guitars. You, Rusty and everyone else that has an AM77 is fortunate. I am very happy with my beautiful "Dog Poo Brown" AM73. I feel fortunate to have a DPB otherwise I wouldn't have one at all, well a new one anyway. It's a fine guitar and in a few weeks my AM will have a blue buddy and Dottie will be on her way to Kansas City.

Does anyone else name their guitars or am I the only weirdo in this Forum that does?

In the spirit of keeping this thread on topic and friendly I deleted a few posts. Call it self censorship! Anyway Rusty I was upset with the flat back mainly because YOU fought so hard to get more finish options for the AM73. Bythe way did you get your Gibson?

As does Eastman.

There are some good choices other than a Gibson

Ok I'll get on-board this train. I'd like to have an Artcore/Artist collection of the following:

1 Dog Poo Brown AM73...since I already have one
1 AS93...as soon as the weather improves...don't want a nice guitar being shipped around in sub-freezing weather.
1 Transparent Cherry Burst AM103
1 Transparent Blue Burst AM93
1 AM200 AV...Don't think I have an arm and leg for this one. I wouldn't be able to play the other guitars in my collection.

And Just so I would have one Solid Body to hang out with Lester,

1 GAX70 White so I would have a decent good looking guitar to perform "Frankenstein" experiments on. And that would be Fronkensteen...just ask Gene Wilder

I checked this out...ouch!!!...Rusty has not really said much about her ES-339 except she prefers her one of only two AM77's shipped to the US.

There were very few issues with my AM73...one very minor finish blemish and just a little tweaking. I installed a Gotoh 510 Locking Bridge but that's it. I am perfectly satisfied with it.

When my AS93 arrives, I'll put set screws in the OEM bridge so it locks onto the posts. Maybe I'm over optimistic but I expect the same of my new AS as with my AM. Besides, my dealer will thoroughly inspect it before calling me to let me know it has arrived.

Rraguse,

Who is your dealer and where are they located? So can you count on them to send you a good guitar, and not just whatever unit shows up from the factory? Please send me a PM if necessary.

I am reluctant to mail order for this reason...I just don't have enough experience with Ibanez guitars to know what percentage of guitars are "keepers". If I knew of a shop that had some stock and was willing to screen the better guitars for me, I would have more confidence doing the mail order thing. My local Ibanez "dealers" don't have any stock...usually 1 or 2 wall-hangers that get handled quite a bit. They'll order one...but it's luck of the draw...and they want a committment to whatever they receive. I am most concerned about: how the neck takes to truss rod adjustments (I like the action relatively low...neck almost straight); the fretwork; and the tone...cosmetics are nice but secondary.

I got lucky last fall with my first Ibanez, an AS73-TCH wall-hanger at a local dealer. I was in the shop working with their techs for about an hour to adjust the neck and bridge so I could determine if the guitar was a "player" and not just of piece of wood with paint and frets. It was a player...and I bought it. There was an AM73 TBR there also...but that particular guitar didn't play as well as the AS73 I purchased...if it had, I would have purchased the AM73 as well. They said they had another AM73 at a different store that they could transfer locally...in spite of several requests and follow-up on my part, they failed to get it done...frustrating...I would really like a good AM73 and an AR-series guitar...

Appreciate any info on dealers...

Thanks
Regards

Let me expand a bit on this topic. When I was shopping for a semi-hollow guitar I went out and played several at local guitar shops. I tried both the AS-73 and the AM-73 as well as several other makes & models. (The ES-339 was not even out yet.) Overall the AM-73 seemed like the best choice, I liked the neck a lot although the frets are a little smaller than I like but overall it seemed like a very nice guitar. Fact is the neck profile on the AM is more like the Les Paul 60s neck than the "60/30" neck on the ES.

When I bought the guitar on evil Bay, my initial impression was very positive, the stock pickups sounded pretty decent, the fit & finish were fine and I enjoyed playing it. Now I had serious issues with mine so I made the decision to get rid of it since I just didn't enjoy playing it anymore. I still love the look & sound of a semi-hollow so I kept looking around. If Ibanez had seen fit to offer the AM in a couple of decent finishes I might've just bought another one but Gibson showed up with the ES-339 and since I already had a guitar with 57 Classic pickups which sound awesome IMO I had to check it out.

A Gibson "Custom Shop" guitar for under $2K is a bargain in most people's book and since it felt good and sounded great I got it. I don't regret it at all and the sounds I can get out of it make the AM sound anemic. Could I have bought another DPB or BPB AM, spent $$ upgrading it and still paid less than I did for the ES? Sure!! Would it ever have held it's value like my ES? Nope! Not in 2 lifetimes.

So, is the ES-339 a true "Custom Shop" guitar. I'd have to say no, it's a mass produced guitar just like most of the guitars in the world. Is it higher quality than the AM-73? Sure it is and I have no doubt it will be worth more in the long run than anything Ibanez (Samick) has ever pumped out of their factories in China. And those 57 Classics still ROCK!

Looks way nicer than Flat Black!

Either Ibanez's marketing department is major league stupid or incredibly sly depending on what they do with the AM series in the next year or two. Gibson has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that a significant market exists for the smaller semi-hollow. They've augmented the CS-336 with the ES-339 which has knocked it out of the park, added a flamed model and are now producing the ES-359. If Ibanez doesn't come out with a high quality AM Custom in the $750-$900 price range with a couple of color choices then their heads are denser than the wood they make their guitars out of. If OTOH they're just keeping the AM series alive and building demand with this flat black monstrosity while they develop the new custom then they're sharper than most people give them credit for.