Ibanez AE160-VMS

​When the AE160 arrived, the initial setup was terrible. The action was far too low, causing massive fret buzz that made the guitar completely unplayable straight out of the box. After raising the saddle with the included shims and tweaking the truss rod, playability improved dramatically. This poor setup might just be a one-off issue with my specific unit, but for a beginner, receiving a guitar like this could be very intimidating.
​The built-in electronics were also disappointing on my model. While the tuner works great and tuning stability is rock-solid, the pickup system barely picks up the B string and completely misses the high E string (though this could potentially be an isolated defect with my piezo pickup). Additionally, the A.I.R. port feels more like marketing fluff than a useful feature.
​Acoustically, it has a beautiful finish and sounds quite good once properly adjusted. It leans slightly thin in tone, likely due to the cutaway and lightweight construction. I highly recommend pairing it with 80/20 bronze strings, as they bring out the bright top end and breathe life into the somewhat lacking low end (phosphor bronze sounded far too dull to my ears).