Ibanez S61AL Axion Label Electric Guitar Black Mirage Gradation Low Gloss

This particular Ibanez is a great addition to your guitar collection. I bought it to replace an epiphone les paul from 2002. Massive improvement. This guitar has extremely clear tones thanks to the fluence pickups. It weighs around 6lbs in total. The neck is solidly constructed and the body is just the right size. I haven't experienced any "neck drop" with this thing either so it seems fairly balanced. It works great for everything from clear tones, jazz, to metal. The fretwork is decent and the locking tuners are perfect. My only (very minor) complaint is the nut. The OEM nut sucks so I bought a new graph tusq one. I was able to snag this guitar at a guitar center for around $850 on sale brand new. I think this one is honestly a lot nicer looking than their "newer" ones in that odd green and purple. This guitar is NOT really silver, it is more of beige transition to grey/green color. The matte finish looks great in person. If you can snag one of these while there are still some lingering you won't be disappointed.

Everything about this guitar is amazing!

Brand new , my GC didn't give me the strap locks but eh whatever, plays and sounds amazing Some minor fret crudeness but really other than that get this baby

Excellent playing guitar. Love the neck, has a more chunkier feel than most Ibanez. Kind of a flatter strat neck. Fishman modern fluence pickups sound absolutely amazing. If you're in the market for clean tones look elsewhere. Frets were great and the guitar was setup perfectly right out of the box. My only gripe is the finish around the pickup cavities was crudely finished and the volume knob feels a little cheap. I'd like to replace it with a chrome knob In the future.

I am overwhelmed with how great this guitar is. It is light weight and well balanced. The speed with which I can change chords is amazing. The sound is cleaner and more pronounced then all the others. The Fishman pickups are now my favorite.

First the good: Ibanez packs a ton of value and features into a reasonable price. You get exotic woods for the neck and fretboard, luminescent inlays, locking tuners, strap-locks, the Gibraltar Standard II bridge is fantastic, extremely comfortable and offers a lot of adjustability, but best of all is the electronics. The Fishman Fluence pickups are incredible. You have to just try them. My review won't do it justice. Now, the not so good: The frets were rather rough and unpolished to the point where you can hear and feel them when string bending. The fret ends while not sharp were still a bit rough in a few spots. The flame maple top (likely a veneer, nothing wrong with that) on mine is rather subtle. The pictures make it look a lot more dramatic. Doing a bit of research I found that other people who bought the same guitar either got an amazing top or a subtle one like mine. The finish is also inconsistent as well. Stock photos and some people have a very even graduation while mine is very dark from bottom to middle then immediately gets very light. In conclusion I think this is a very good guitar but the Indonesian Ibanez factory is not quite there yet when it comes to quality control. It really feels that the $1000+ price tag comes from all the added features and hardware rather than the craftsmanship. I decided to buy the guitar because I liked the tone and playability and the added features are a good value. I am a little disappointed that a guitar costing more than $1000 dollars could have the flaws I pointed out. After I addressed the frets the guitar is now perfect in terms of playability. I would recommend this guitar but you MUST see it and play it in person first to make sure it is free of any deal breaking flaws.