Ibanez AR420-VLS

I've only had it for a couple of days, but I must say it's a well crafted guitar. Fit and finish is flawless, action was great out of the box, very much like my other guitars are set up. The intonation and pickup height needed a little attention, but after that's done it's an excellent instrument, I actually prefer it over a few of my Gibson Les Pauls, it's that good. The Super 58 pickups must be mentioned, after adjusting the pickup height and the pole screws they sounds awesome. Fat and creamy with lots of sustain and pinch harmonics. The only thing that I don't care for much is the plastic nut, which feel a bit cheap. I might change it to a bone one later on, but for now it'll do. All in all a great axe which I would gladly recommend.

Quality beats price

Two days ago I received an Ibanez AR 420 VLS guitar. I am familiar with the guitars of this company, because I own an Ibanez AM 93 semi-acoustic guitar with similar pickups.
The guitar met my expectations. Although made in China, its quality is better than my 2019 Gibson LP Standard at € 2,700 made in the USA.
The look is amazing. I tried hard to find at least some flaws and this is all I found:
1.The neck is heavier than the body - when playing while standing, the neck outweighs, which creates a little discomfort. When playing while sitting, there is no problem.
2. The three-position switch is close to the neck pickup and when playing actively I sometimes hit it with my right hand;
3. The potentiometers knobs are not at the same height from the guitar body. The gap is 1 to 5 mm.
4. Everything that is painted in gold color (bridge, pickups, tuners) has a different shade of color saturation.
But all these disadvantages are minor, given the price of the guitar.
Now about the obvious advantages of this guitar:
1. Very high quality of manufacturing;
2. Convenient neck with easy access to the topmost frets;
3. Decent sound.
Before buying this guitar, I didn’t know what a parallel humbucker would sound like and expected a completely new sound from it. However, I feel it is the same tone as the middle Tri-Sound switch when single coil is on, but with less treble.
While purchasing this model of guitar, I haven’t found a suitable case for it. The body of the guitar is 1.5 cm wider than a regular Gibson LP, so it is difficult to fit into a Gibson case, and it takes a little effort to close the lid.
There is only one negative moment in this whole story. The guitar was packed in two cardboard boxes. Upon receipt at the post office, the outer box was torn, and the inner box was badly dented, as a result of which the plastic handle of the three-position switch was broken. It would be nice for Thomann to pack more securely when sending parcels outside the EU.
Summarizing everything, I would like to say that I am very pleased with the purchase and recommend this guitar model.

THE BAD:

Contrary to other reviews on here I found this guitar to have far too high an action out of the box, and upon lowering the bridge to where I like my action I can see why it was raised so high. The D and G string buzz to an unacceptable degree and on certain frets cut out completely when the action is where it should be (not too low either mind you I know its not a shred guitar). The frets needed more leveling in the factory and it just didn't happen. I will have to take this to my local tech to get it set up properly.

The "made in china" and serial number decal on the back of the head-stock was very chipped off upon arrival which I just find funny tbh. Its made of some very brittle material that I dont think will last longer than a few weeks of normal handling.

One other thing to keep in mind before buying this is the extreme top heaviness of this guitar. With a nylon strap it just swings head down as soon as you let go... Not good. Had to sew weights into a guitar strap in order to balance it out.

There was also signs on the fret-board that this guitar had been played a good bit before shipping and not cleaned after. (This had better not be a B-Stock sold for full price thomann)

There is also very noticeable runs in the finish on the very last fret on the fretboard.

Update: The tone control knob became very loose and I saw why after inspection. The pot control tabs had been crimped together too much, and as soon as I attempted to widen the gap to make it a snugger fit one of the tabs snapped off immediately. Now I'm left with 3 knobs and one horrible broken pot top. Thanks Ibanez. Back to my guitar tech for more work & more money out of pocket :(

THE GOOD:

This guitar is built quite well aside from the aforementioned problems, fret ends are perfect, binding is perfect, finish is almost flawless on the body. Mine is a two piece body, with the join about 3/4 the way down the bottom.

The sound is very nice and the options with the trisound switches give you a great variety of tones.

Upper neck access is great.

It's also very, very pretty.

In summation it's a good guitar for the money but the lowness in price is reflected in the poor setup and quality of materials.

I strongly recommend this Ibanez for several reasons. First of all its quality is what you would expect from an instrument much more expensive than it is. I have had several Gibsons ranging from Les Pauls to SGs, and indeed others too. This AR420-VLS played really well straight out of the box as they say and, although its power and presence were as strong as many of my Les Pauls and SGs, the setup of this guitar seemed much better too and wow, what a relief to have a guitar which was much lighter than its competitors from other manufacturers. Well done Ibanez, you seem to be holding to your quality of old.