Selling: Ibanez AF105 (SOLD)

Good Sunday morning, folks. Another one on the goodbye list: Ibanez AF105. Hard case included as seen here. Colour has turned into this tea-like hue over extended storage. Seldom played, so 95% fret life for your playing pleasure.

Just showing the colour difference which is more apparent at this part of the instrument.

• Ibanez AF105 full hollow body, hard case included
• Colour has darkened over extended storage
• 95% fret life, seldom played
• No reservations / trades
• Query / confirmation: subversion.sg@gmail.com
• Self-collect: CCK / Yew Tee mrt station
• Price: $550 (final)

Guitar SOLD 28/11/2021 ✌️

Hello Hollow

Hello weekend- nothing like a weekend morning, sipping coffee, slowly. Because I can.

Hello June. The mid-year is here. It's that time of the year when I feel more accomplished because there are actually 6 months to look back to- occurrences, ups, downs, could-have-beens, should-have-beens.

Hello hollow. Played this morning- my Ibanez AF-105. I always have this urge to hear non-solid body tones so the AF-105 was there for a different kind of shred. Those Super 58 humbuckers are something.

Re-string: Ibanez AF105

Was considering a 24.75" scaled guitar to play today, out came my Ibanez AF105. Played for quite a while & the strings felt very dead when it's time to stop. Gave it a re-string: D'Addario .0095 set. I always love how Ibanez's Super 58 humbuckers react with drive/ lots of distortion.

Kinder pick

If you have bought the Kinder Joy chocolate snack (for yourselves *admit it!* or your kids), it comes with a plastic spoon for you to scoop the edible bits out of the half-shell.

This spoon doubles as a great guitar pick for us strummers. You can hold it either way & make use of the different picking edges to play your favourite chords. Not so applicable for precise (solo) picking...

Nickel

I do not own an acoustic guitar so for some unplugged tones, I have my Ibanez AF105 to address my needs.

Everything's great with this guitar less the humbuckers it's equipped with- no, not the tone but the fact that it's nickel plated. Nickel will oxidize/ fade over time (as depicted above) to give you that wonderful vintage look but you can't restore the shine with the common metal polishing fluid/ cream. This relic effect will be accelerated if it comes into contact with chemicals commonly found in industrial glue.

You'd be wondering why your nickel plated hardware fades off rather quickly when all you do is keep your beloved instrument in its hard case- that's because it comes into close contact with your case's inner lining & 'digs' into the furry material, leaking the glue that binds it to the shell. That's why...

Bridging differences

The tone tinkering continues- taking cues from the PRS philosophy (keep the guitar's hardwares light & it will sing better), I gave the default tune-o-matic type bridge a rest...

Its replacement is a traditional, jazz-favoured wooden bridge & the difference was marked. With the previous metal bridge, the tone was still immaculate but there was a lack in midrange fullness. The wooden bridge refined the lower midrange, adding more definition while increasing some bottom end thump. There's a certain crisp when played clean, in driven mode, the AF105 does metal-type riffing much better & solos are more upfront through the amp.

The unplugged evening

This evening's noodlings was on my Ibanez AF105, I was still facing the TV. Knowing there's gonna be hum if I amplify the guitar, I dediced to go unplugged.

Playing unplugged really keeps one's techniques in check; any sloppy fretting/ picking & it sounds bad, especially if one shreds.

So while Sponge Bob & I traded licks, we witnessed the Singapore soccer team being trounced by Uzbekistan 7-3...

The singlecut week

It had been a singlecut week; my Ibanez AF & LP BFG are the only guitars I played.

The AF has some wonderful deep tones, very intriguing for metal type riffing. That's the last thing you'd expect from this kind of guitar, yes?

The BFG was played excessively for review purposes & because I was testing the GOTOH tuners (Magnum Locks) just installed.

Ibanez: AF105

One of my favourite Ibanez in my collection is a hollowbody; the AF105. I don't own any acoustic guitars because they are difficult to play namely due to the action & body depth which induce lots of mistakes on my part. Ibanez has a brilliant line of hollow/ semi-hollow guitars in the Artcore series which got me hooked when I first tried them some time back. The AF105 here is a representative from their Custom range (Custom by name, not by make).

Since there are times when I yearn to hear a simple acoustic tone, the AF105 was my answer to owning an acoustic guitar. It's not really one but it renewed my intention of not owning any acoustics on the ground of playability as mentioned above. The AF105 is a joy to play because the neck's profile has more inclinations towards the electric guitar rather than the average acoustic. The resplendent unplugged tones made me play this guitar unamplified most of the time. I do plug it in sometimes but into my bass amp (surprise!!) which would yield a fusion of unique bottom end accentuation & the crystalline acoustics.

However, the real gem in this guitar is the under-rated pair of Ibanez Super 58 humbuckers which are equally superb clean & overdriven. In fact, one of the most commanding distorted tones from the lower frequencies, comes from this guitar.

Owning the AF105 has renewed my belief in the following matters:

• You need not be a jazz elietist to own an instrument conceived for the genre
• Guitars made in China aren't the pariahs they were portrayed to be, in fact, this Chinese AF105 would put some western craftsmanship to shame