Ibanez wood fraud

[WDeeGee]

I bought this Ibanez SR300E online, second hand, the box was dented and the styrofoam inside squashed when it arrived, apparently someone dropped it hard and a chunk of coating had chipped off (I'm surprised to see how thick it is).

These were made with agathis bodies, but for a few years they used mahogany (current run uses nyatoh). I checked the serial number, she is from the year 2017, and so supposed to have a mahogany body, according to Ibanez's catalogues.

But as far as I know, mahogany is a reddish kind of wood. This is a pale wood, dyed green.

People over at the woodworking subreddit don't seem to think that's mahogany either.

This is a bummer, I bought it because their 2017 catalogue said it was mahogany. Could have gotten a different model with a good tonewood for a few dozen euros more.

Anyone else heard similar stories from Ibanez?

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Ibanez wood fraud

Please define "good tonewood," or even "tonewood," for that matter, as they relate to electric guitars. Please point us to any research on this topic that provides solid answers as to how the selection of wood species in general can be used to reliably/predictably control the tonal properties of a single electric guitar. If you can, you win the Internet for 1,000 years.

Go ahead and be annoyed by specs not being as claimed...but please don't bring wives tales about the subjective and nearly impossible to test superiority or inferiority of various "tonewoods" into it. It makes you look foolish.

I can't even tell the color of the wood that well from your photo. It's not even in focus.

 

[WDeeGee]

Re: Ibanez wood fraud

Well I hate to say it but I once bought 2 identical Michael kelly guitars, same model, same pups, same wood, same finish, and they couldn't have sounded more differently.
One was really midrangey and the other the darkest sounding guitar I ever heard.

And it had translucent finish so they seemd indeed to be using the same kinds of wood (magogany with a maple cap).

You might have a point there, in a sense, but then again, mahogany will never sound like maple and vice versa.

The bass doesn't sound bad, but then I don't like to be conned either.

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: Ibanez wood fraud

Mahogany doesn’t have grain lines. That looks like poplar.

This is mahogany

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[WDeeGee]

Re: Ibanez wood fraud

PS: Please let's all stay on topic: Ibanez lying about their specs.

Please cease the tonewood debate here.

 

[WDeeGee]

Re: Ibanez wood fraud

Mahogany doesn’t have grain lines. That looks like poplar.

Could it be aghatis?

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: Ibanez wood fraud

Could be. I haven’t used it myself.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Chris Pile]

Re: Ibanez wood fraud

I know of several Asian makers who claim mahogany, but use agathis or paulownia.

This goes back to my argument about using the Latin name for the wood.
Of course - it's hard to stop people (and companies) from outright lies.

 

[StoRMiE]

Re: Ibanez wood fraud

Agathis. Sometimes there's leftover bodies at different factories from previous model years, you don't just throw things away that are already made.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Ibanez wood fraud

My guess is that it was some recycling of cut wood going on in that factory. Probably common for inexpensive, thick opaque finished guitars.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Ibanez wood fraud

How does it sound?

 

[WDeeGee]

Re: Ibanez wood fraud

It sounds pretty good. A bit midrangey, and sustain could be better. But it's very versatile, with the coild split function and EQ. Super comfy neck, just great.

 

[Aceman]

Re: Ibanez wood fraud

You are butthurt about an Ibanez 300 level model. Your head is wooden.

If no one told you, you would happily be playing your "Mahogany" Ibanez and be happy as a clam. It's a Chinese guitar or a Korean. Either way much like low end Epiphones, I have always said they would chop up and press the cafeteria tables and make a guitar of that if they were low on a production run.

And even if they didn't, even pieces of Mahogany can vary wildly. Ask an Les Paul owner. Sometimes you get an "All Mahogany" for realz guitar, and some are bright, others dark as night.

Stop acting like you bought a Ferrari and they used Pleather for the seats. That butthurt is reserved for Gibson player. You know - they guys who payed multiple thousands of dollars for a guitar that they LOVED and then found out it was short tenon and weight relieved. Whatever.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: Ibanez wood fraud

yeah if it sounds good.......

a used SR300 probably less than $200

now with shipping damage

Play it
be happy

I play my 300 way more than the much nicer 500

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Ibanez wood fraud

It sounds pretty good. A bit midrangey, and sustain could be better. But it's very versatile, with the coild split function and EQ. Super comfy neck, just great.

You bought a guitar, if it plays and sounds fine - cool. You're ahead of the game. What exactly were you expecting from mahogany? "A bit midrangey" sounds like a pretty fair description of what many people expect from mahogany actually.




(FWIW - the brightest guitar I own has a mahogany body. With musical instruments the type of wood doesn't matter anywhere near as much as the individual piece of wood you get . . . and there's a lot of variation.)

 

[ErikH]

Re: Ibanez wood fraud

(FWIW - the brightest guitar I own has a mahogany body. With musical instruments the type of wood doesn't matter anywhere near as much as the individual piece of wood you get . . . and there's a lot of variation.)

Agreed 100%. My Les Paul is actually a little brighter than my Warmoth (alder body, maple/maple neck) Strat. The Super Distortion is the perfect pickup for that Les Paul.

That bass could be Luan, also known as Asian Mahogany. The green could be a dye/sealant in the wood and not the natural color. Either way, if it sounds good, rock on.

 

[Chris Pile]

Re: Ibanez wood fraud

That bass could be Luan, also known as Asian Mahogany.

Luaun - Philippine Mahogany.
Had to correct you.

I have built with it, but it's not as strong as true mahogany. It splinters easily, breaks more easily, and frankly - it smells funny when I sand it. That said, there are millions of Asian guitars built out of the stuff. Unfortunately, most was plywood.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Ibanez wood fraud

"Mahogany," stated like that, can be any one of many, many different species of trees, and they don't all have identical properties, or even the same genus – not to mention that many woods are informally called mahogany in common parlance. It's a rather generic and loosely applied term these days.

"Honduran mahogany" is the only widely commercially used lumber these days that is actually from the genus Swietenia – the classic guitar wood. Nobody would bother to specifically source it these days without boasting about the "Honduran" part in their specs.

Notice that some time in the aughts, Gibson stopped specifying "Honduran" when referring to mahogany in their standard production line guitars (Historics might have kept using it; I don't know).

A guitar maker can specify "mahogany," and without being fraudulent, probably give you a wood anywhere from heavy to lightweight, dark to light colored, heavily figured to totally plain. Why do you think they are so vague in the first place? It's to give themselves lots of leeway with sourcing their materials.

 

[ErikH]

Re: Ibanez wood fraud

Luaun - Philippine Mahogany.
Had to correct you.

I have built with it, but it's not as strong as true mahogany. It splinters easily, breaks more easily, and frankly - it smells funny when I sand it. That said, there are millions of Asian guitars built out of the stuff. Unfortunately, most was plywood.

Thank you. I had a Epi Les Paul Standard that was made from it that sounded really good. It was a solid guitar. No complaints.

 

[Chris Pile]

Re: Ibanez wood fraud

Notice that some time in the aughts, Gibson stopped specifying "Honduran" when referring to mahogany in their standard production line guitars

That's because Gibson now sources what is referred to as African Mahogany, but is actually Khaya. Epiphone uses a lot of Sapele, sometimes referred to as Striped Mahogany.

And, though a lot of people don't know it - there are some domestic mahogany trees in the Southern United States. Honduras is the most treasured. I have some that's almost 30 years old waiting for the right person to pony up. It's big enough to make a one piece LP.