Ibanez Exotic Wood - African Zebra Wood

Today's blog is on the Ibanez EW20ZW. This guitar is (once again) a personal favorite of mine. It is the first acoustic electric I purcahsed, and for the budget, this guitar is the tops. Ibanez offers a great price for an affordable budget and I would reccomend their product to anyone. The Exotic Wood (EW in the model code) is Ibanez's series of acoustic electrics that are constructed, as the name implies, of vairous exotic woods. The ZW on this particular guitar stands for Zebra Wood, as the guitar's top, back, and sides are constructed of African Zebra Wood.

The woods used in this series of guitars are not all necessarily tone woods. This means that the sound does not resonate quite as well as it would with some other woods. To compensate for that, Ibanez build this series as a custome jumbo size. The body is not quite as drastic as a jumbo style body, but it is larger than a standard dreadnaught body. This gives these guitars a 'big' sound that really does great when playing full, open chords. The lows are very prominent, the highs stand out, but the mids get a little bit lost in the whole big sound. That being said, this guitar has a very good blended sound.

Along with a great acoustic sound, this guitar has built-in pick-ups with a preamp. The SRT-C preamp with a built-in tuner, paired with the B-Band UST pickup used in this guitar blend together like to make the guitar sound even better plugged in than acoustic. The preamp give you full control of highs, mids, lows, and has a feedback cut-out in the case of difficult acoustics in a room. The electronics also feauture a 1/4" input, as well as an XLR input, so that there is not need for a direct box.

While there is much, much more I could say about this guitar, I will keep this blog fairly short. One last thing about the Exotic Wood series, and the zebra wood guitars in particular, is that they are one of a kind. Because the grain patterns of these exotic woods are so distinct, you will never find two EW guitars that look the same, and each one with have its own unsurpassed beauty.

Renato Bellucci

Rather than discussing a particular guitar on this post, I will review a luthier and his custom guitars. This  discussion is slightly different than other posts, as they revolve around classical guitars. Renato Bellucci is a luthier who constructs classical guitars (though he will do steel string guitars if requested) from exotic woods and uses many different and innovative construction techniques. While I could go on all day and night about these guitars and how absolutley beautiful they are, I will try to keep it brief

First of all, these guitars stand out because of their sheer beauty. Bellucci has built guitars using curly sinker redwood, brazillian rosewood, alpine spruce, snakewood, zebrawood, african blackwood, and many many more. All of these woods have different features, sounds, and looks. It takes a truely skilled luthier to have the knowledge to work with all of these different woods. Most of these exotic wood guitars are custom-made, or featured models that are not stocked. Because all of these guitars have different woods, even guitars with the same build have very unique sounds.

Along with the wide variety of matierals for the guitar, Bellucci uses many different construction techniques. Though there are some stock guitars, a large majority of his builds are custom. You have the option for a regular cutaway, indented cutaway, ventian cutaway, f-holes in the top, sound holes in the cutaway, sound holes in the sides, double-top construction, quad top construction, and many many more options. All inlays are done to the specific guitar and done according to exactly what you order. Without writing a multiple page review on his construction I will put it simply: Renato Bellucci is a master luthier.

Gibson ES-335

I always like to say that the Gibson ES-335 was made perfect by Gibson and perfected by BB King. Most any blues musician or anyone who appreciates the blues will know exactly who BB King is, and will probably know of his pride and joy (not pun intended for you SRV listeners), Lucille. King plays a very smooth blues that sometimes borderlines jazz, and this guitar just emphasizes his existing talent for this music.

This guitar is one of my personal favorites, and if I had the budget for it, I would buy multiples of this guitar. The ES-335 was Gibson's first semi-hollow body, and they got it right on the first try. The original body features a maple body, mahogony neck, and a rosewood fingerboard. As with most semi-hollow bodies the guitar features the violin f-holes in the top. The maple body combined with the size of the ES-335 and the overall build by Gibson gives this guitar clear, concise notes, and smooths out the overall sound. The "lucille" version of the guitar differs from the original in that it does not have f-foles in the top, and a maple neck instead of a mahgony neck. The lucille model has much more sustain through the maple neck and an overall smoother, ballsier sound because of closing off the f-holes.

This guitar sounds beyond exquisite when using clean effects, as with most jazz and blues that this guitar is used for. For this kind of music, the smooth sound that comes from the ES-335 is ideal, however, it is not the only use this guitar has. The ES-335 also sounds great for the heavier distorted Stevie Ray Vaughn style of blues. It plays like a charm, but you have to be carefully not to over power with overtones as with most maple semi-hollow bodies. If you are sending too much signal to the amp, which can be easy to do with a guitar with this much tone, it will send an unclear and very sloppy sound.

The Gibson ES-335 is one of my personal favorite guitars. It plays great, sounds great, and fits perfectly into the blues and jazz world of guitars.

Gibson Les Paul

While it may be a little cliche, every review page should have a review on the classic Gibson Les Paul. This body design has really struck a nerve with the guitar industry and a very large percentage of today's body designs were inspired or modeled after this traditional design.

The Les Paul was first introduced in 1952 though it did not have anywhere near the success it has now, and Gibson actually discontinued th model in 1960. In 1966 Eric Clapton recorded a few songs using one of the older Les Paul models and sparked an interest in the model again. Gibson re-released this design in 1968, which is the most sought after and designed after Les Paul model to date.

There are many different models of the Les Paul that feature slight changes in various parts. The Standard, Studio, Traditional, Classic, and Custom are the most popular models, and while they chage slightly from model to model I will review the features that are the same throughout the different models.

To begin this guitar had a wondefully intelligent design to it. It has a sold mahogony body with a 1/4" maple top. This body, tied in with the mahogony neck that on all Les Pauls, gives the guitar massive sustain, prominent lows, and yet it somehow has a punchy, but smooth and hollow sound in the mids and highs given by the maple top. Most models feature a rosewood fretboard and a traditional D-neck. The electronics really bring out the sounds that this guitar was designed to make. While the pick-ups change grom guitar to guitar, all models feature humbuckers. This gives the guitar a fat sound that really picks up the sounds of this guitar very well.

While I must say that I enjoy hearing other people play this guitar (I love the sound), I also must include that I do not enjoy playing them. I have small hands (laugh if you want) and the fat D neck on most of the Les Paul models doesn't fit my hand well. Without getting into the higher end models, or higher end effects pedals, LPs may give a choppy, flat sound. If you have the equipment for it, and you can afford some of the better models, this guitar is one of the best you can buy, which would explain why there are hundreds on well-known guitarists who play this model, and 22 that currently have a signature model.

Ibanez AM73B Semi-Hollow Body

Today I decided to blog about a guitar that fits a little more into most budgets. The Ibanez AM73B is a great guitar, especially for its price. It features a shallow semi-hollow body with maple top, back, and sides. It is slightly smaller than a standard semi-hollow body, but don't let that fool you, Ibanez did a great job getting a big sound out of this smaller guitar. The ACH bridge and neck pick-ups paired with the maple body gives this guitar a very tonal sound with screaming highs and punchy mids. The smaller body does leave a little to desired on the lower end, and forces you to adjust the EQ on your amp to get a truly full sound. As with most Ibanez guitars, the neck is shallow and wide, which allows for quickly moving up and down the neck, and makes power chords much more comfortable. There is not much distinction between the neck and the bridge pick-up, and I usually just leave it switched to the neck pick-up which provides great tones and more overtones than you could ever imagine.

Taylor K24ce - Koa

For my first blog, I thought I would begin by talking about one of my personal favorites, the Taylor K24ce. This guitar features Taylor's original Grand Auditorium bodystyle. The top, back, and sides are Hawaiian Koa. As with all Taylors they use only the most figured and perfectly selected cuts of wood to build their guitars. As with most Taylors, this guitar features a tropical mahogony neck with an ebony fretboard to give rich, pronounced mids and highs, and a beautiful sustain. The 'ce' in the item code is an indication of using Taylor's acoustic-electric systems. This particular guitar uses Taylor's ES electronics to give a very dynamic, controlable sound that really captures this guitar's true acoustic sound. On top of an exquisite Taylor design and build, there is no compare to georgous finish on this guitar. I would definitley recommend this guitar to anybody with the budget to buy it.