Ibanez PA300E 3-Way Pickup System Demos

[SpruceTop]

So, I tweaked the truss rod yesterday and this guitar is now a whole 'nuther smoke! It now has deeper bass and clarity and shakes all over when played hard but it's still well-balanced from bass through mid-range through treble. I recorded these song snippets with the original factory-installed D'Addario medium-gauge strings and the guitar has a bit of what I term "that string-ping/sitar thing" going on with the 3rd and 4th strings. The guitar's pickup system has three components: an A11 magnetic pickup, a UST, and a K&K-like, three-sensor, contact system on the underside of the top. I recorded these demos with all three Volume Controls dialed to their Middle Volume positions. Otherwise, the demos were recorded DIRECT TO COMPUTER, with FLAT EQ, NO EFFECTS, and NO MICROPHONES IN OR NEAR THE SIGNAL CHAIN. This guitar and its pickup system sounds really nice through my VOX AGA150 acoustic amp from 5 feet away, and better than the DIRECT TO COMPUTER demos would indicate it would sound in the real world. Being an old guy with less than ideal hand condition in both hands, if you had this guitar your demos would be much-better sounding than mine but maybe you can get an idea from my demos of what this $999 USD guitar with excellent gig bag may do for you. Your Comments Are Welcome!

The first demo is a flat-picked, vocal-backing, noodling-around version of Dan Fogelberg's "Part Of The Plan" in standard tuning:



The second demo is a fingerpicked version of a vocal-backing segment from Bob's "Girl From The North Country" in standard tuning:



My original review of the Ibanez PA300E from June 11, 2022:

Okay, so what am I doing buying a Japanese company, Hoshino/Ibanez's, Chinese-made guitar with its laminated Pau Ferro back and sides and a 3-way pickup system? Well, it has a solid German Spruce top that looks pretty nice, and the guitar actually sounds good when played acoustically. More about its plugged-in sound later in the Acoustic Amplification section along with demos. To answer my question, I also recently bought an Ibanez AAD300CE, another solid spruce-topped, laminated back and sides ax that sounded acoustically decent and sounded great plugged in. This prompted me to purchase the Ibanez PA 300E. Both these guitars are under $1000 USD.

So, how does the Ibanez PA300E rate with me? Well it's a "modern-style" jumbo-style guitar that measures 17 inches across its lower bout, is 4 7/8 inches deep, has medium-gauge strings, and a 1.771-inch wide fingerboard at the nut, Frankly, for me being a thumb-fretter with medium-size hands it's a nightmare for thumb fretting but a joy when doing the great barre thing. If you have large hands, you would love this neck! The fingerboard is quite uniform in its front-to-back of the neck thickness all the way up the neck--think "modern-build-guitar."

The Ibanez PA300E also comes with a nice gig bag. If you can get over the Made In China, laminated back-and-sides aspect of this guitar it could well be a nice live-performance, first-choice ax, or backup for your more costly acoustic. Hey, for a low-cost, Made In China, laminated back-and-sides guitar, I'm really digging this beast!

Thanks, For Looking In And Your Comments, Are Welcome! Ibanez PA300E Website Information

Ibanez AAD300CE and Ibanez PA300E

[mondoslug]

Hey thanks for taking the time & doing this, sounds good - that's an interesting guitar with all those pickup choices!