Guitars ... Reproductions from original manufacture.

My guess is that they'll compare well objectively, but us guitar folk are superstitious. That said, I suspect we'll mostly bow down to great spirit Mojo.

A lot of the stuff coming from China today is astonishingly good.

If you've never played an Eastman acoustic or electric, you should try one. Amazing guitars, and made the old-fashioned way--actual carved tops, etc.

Many modern "name" guitars (Ibanez, Gretsch, Epiphone, Squier, etc.) coming out of China are amazing too.

My experience has been that Ibanez is good value at whatever price-point you buy. You pays more, you gets better.

If you want something of relatively equal quality, I think you'll be just fine, even better with the new one. If you want to have an exact duplicate of the original because the original had some sort of special whatever that you want to revisit, then it depends on how much effort R&D put in. Heck, Strats and Les Pauls have more people working on duplicating vintage stuff than any other guitar, and those still struggle to get it right. An added difficulty is that Ibanez has never had *A* factory. Everything they do has always been contract work, so how much documentation they have lying around, who knows. All that said, the reproductions they've done of the older RG models are some of the best locking-trem guitars I've ever played, so they don't seem to be phoning it in on this. Maybe keep a potential pickup swap in the back of your head, because sometimes Ibanez pickups are truly awful, and make Epiphone pickups sound like boutique upgrades... but not always.

One thing I'm noticing is a far better bridge on the new one. Those old ones are pretty clunky, though I suppose important if you want to recreate the original perfectly.

Fwiw there are Super ‘58s in my AM83L. I like them and have no desire to change them.

That’s about a $600 Ibanez, as well.

I agree with Leftee; the '58 pickups sound fine. And they might sound even better by replacing the stock pots and caps for something high end.

You can't replace or replicate old wood... and I'd suspect that the older guitar had/has higher quality wood to begin with, now it's aged 40-50 years, so there's that.

But it will still be a great, well playing guitar that shouldn't *need* any mods. I'll second that Eastman makes great stuff (I recently bought one of their double humbucker jazz guitars), as does Ibanez (I have one of their small hollow body "339" style models, to which I've added a lefty Bigsby; plays great, albeit heavier now!).

P.S. If they made a lefty version of the one you're looking at, I'd be all over it. I bet Eric/Leftee would be, too!

Drop the plastic on the counter, soldier!

I do find it interesting that on the blurb for the HM Strat Fender highlights the fact it’s made in the same factory in Japan as the originals. They also copied most of the specs (including the peculiar scale length), but went with a Floyd Rose instead of the Kahler of the originals, which I’d argue is an improvement.

Got that right! From what I've read, my Epi LP Custom Pro is made from the same components as the comparable Gibson except it was assembled in China. It's a tone monster and a keeper. They call the pups Probuckers instead of Burstbucker Pros, but who cares?

Well folks, I finally got it.

Guitar is "like new". Came with Ibanez hard shell case also "like new".

Purchasing new the guitar runs $600.00 and the case about $125.00.

I paid $400.00 for both.

DSC_3067 by Larry Madsen, on Flickr

This guitar had been on Craigslist a few months ago for $500.00 and I was too deep into my engine rebuild and all to think seriously about buying it. the listing ended and I hoped it would come up again. Yesterday I saw it and it was listed at $450.00. Today I text the guy and asked, "If I show up with $400.00 could I buy the AR325?"

Affirmative response came pretty quickly.

I've not plugged it in yet, but he told me he had set it up himself and all I can say (with what little noodling I have done on it) he is quite good with his work. As we talked I discovered he too builds Warmoth projects and in fact had just sold a Warmoth Strat he had built.

DSC_3071 by Larry Madsen, on Flickr

Negative on heavy. 👍🏻

The body is actually somewhat thin. Off the top of my head here I’d say it’s one of the lighter guitars I have.

I like the neck profile, it’s on the thinner side.

The coil splitting capability does add a lot to the tonal options.

Plays very nicely … I think it has already found it’s way into my favorites.

I looked in my bin of stuff and found a pair of gold Schallar strap lock buttons to go with all the rest of the gold trim.

I’m very happy with this one and what a stroke of luck finding one so nice.

Congrats! It looks really nice, and you got a great deal on it.