The model that I have has the wider nut. At the time that I bought it I had been playing just long enough to know that I was going to stick with it and had a sense of what I liked and wanted something quality. I could stumble through the chords of a few simple songs and that was about it. When I got the guitar I could tell something was different with the neck and then later figured out it was the wider nut. I think with me being relatively new to things I adjusted to it pretty quickly and find it a little easier to play some chords. I have fairly long fingers so it does not really bother me other than some huge necks that you find on some acoustic guitars. I also like to dabble with finger picking and find it a little easier to do with the wider nut. At the time that I bought mine they were more affordable and included a hard case. I was looking on Reverb the other day and did not see hardly any used and the new ones that are close to my model are $1,200 plus. I imagine the Covid effected them as well.Mossman wrote: ↑Mon Mar 01, 2021 10:56 pmUnfortunately, it's going to be longer than that... AMS now says they won't have them in stock until April 1st, so I have about 5 more weeks to wait, unless they pull an April Fool's prank on me and push it back even further when the 1st rolls around.
As with Yamaha, I've always regarded Ibanez highly as a brand for their consistent quality... I just haven't seen many (or any) Ibanez guitars or basses that really grabbed me until recently. In fact, I've pretty much ignored Ibanez for years, thinking they didn't really make anything I could get excited about, and I had almost forgotten about the Artcore line until I started looking for an alternative to the 335. But now, I'm more excited to get this Ibanez than I was for the Epiphone!Stoli wrote: ↑Sun Feb 28, 2021 7:11 pm Anyhow some variant of an Ibanez is what I would have likely bought had I not found the Eastman. I played several different models of them and they were all very playable, seemed to be set up pretty well, and looked pretty cool too. For the lower to mid range priced guitars I think Ibanez is hard to beat if they have something close to what you want. My brother in law has an Ibanez hollow jazz box style guitar and I love to play that thing thing. Is a very different guitar but very nice. He bought it for about $300 used with a hard case and a bunch of tuners, picks, a nice capo, and some other stuff in the accessory compartment of the case. Looked like it had hardly been played. After the Ibanez, one shop I visited had a Peavey 335 copy and that would have probably been my third choice.
My Eastman can have a little brighter sound to my ear probably due to mostly pickups and wood but I like the comfort of these guitars and like you said they work with almost any genre of music especially with amps, effects, etc. Hopefully, your Ibanez arrives in good order and hits the note so to speak.
Eastman makes some really nice guitars, and they're not as crazy expensive as you would think, considering they're kind of a boutique brand. The only thing that puts me off (or I imagine would put me off... I've never played one), is the wide nut width. I think every Eastman guitar I've seen has had a 1.75" nut, and my wrist doesn't even like basses that have a nut that wide (I have repetitive stress injury). I can't imagine what playing a guitar with a 1.75" nut would feel like. Maybe it wouldn't be as bad... I don't know.
Hopefully you get a pleasant April Fool's surprise and I look forward to seeing the pictures.
From what I recall the lowest Ibanez Artcore models were all pretty stunning to look at and got more bling as the price went up.