Has anyone seen the new Ibanez AMH90 yet?

[yiscarlsocool]

I got a black AMH90 a few weeks ago. It plays very well, although the neck dive could be an issue if you don't have a wide strap. I got it to be my "howard roberts" black guitar thing, ie i'm gonna mod it. It played so nice that I wasn't going to change anything, but after playing it a bit, I'm back to making changes.

I don't think the pickups are all that great. they aren't bad, but they don't sound like I want. I played my friend's guitar that has a Lollar CC and it was outstanding, but I have too many Barney licks . I'm looking to put in humbucker p90s. I'll swap out the harness and get rid of the spilt switch (I don't think it sounded different enough to use anyway)

Any opinions on the Lollar Novel 90 or the Bare Knuckle Manhattan? Any other that are better? I would really like a staple p90 that fits in a humbucker space. My teacher had a super 400 with those and I loved playing it.

Since i'm doing that, I'll get a new tail piece and tuners and that will be the end of that overly fake gold stuff. I'll post pics when i get started.

[ReneB]

I came across this thread after purchasing the amh90 and experiencing the mentioned action issue.

I bought mine at a local store and noticed the high action, low bridge in the store. They lowered it as far as it would go, and adjusted the thrusrod. This got the action to reasonable heights. Measuring 2.2 mm on the low and 1.7 mm on the high E. According to the Ibanez manual it the low E should between 2 and 2.2 and the high E between 1.5 and 1.7.

But it frustrated me that I couldn't go any lower. I sent Ibanez an email asking if this is normal, a defect or just by design. They responded but not answering the question. They just referred me to the local dealer for 'after service'. The dealer said they could try filing the bridge saddles.

But I found a better way to lower the bridge. I have an old Epiphone which has studs without the turning things on it. This allowed much more room for the bridge to drop. I have installed these now and have brought the action down to about 1.7 for the low E and 1.5 for the high E. Couldn't take the high E down anymore because of a dead fret near the top. Will have to attend to that first. But it's pretty awesome now.

You can really shred on it if you want. Although the pickups are very low output, you'll need a lot of gain. It's a great guitar for just having on your lap and playing acoustically.

When playing jazz the pickups really shine. The sound is very full and balanced. Took it to band practice, and it cut through the mix pretty well too, considering I play in a rock band.

Conclusion, soundwise it's a very nice instrument, very honest and versitile. The build quality is okay, the action issue is a bit troubling, but I'm guessing it's just by design. Once you do get it set up correctly, it's excellent.

Is it worth the money? Yes and no. I would rather have spent a bit more for better quality and better setup.

[blackcat]

I came across this thread after purchasing the amh90 and experiencing the mentioned action issue.

I bought mine at a local store and noticed the high action, low bridge in the store. They lowered it as far as it would go, and adjusted the thrusrod. This got the action to reasonable heights. Measuring 2.2 mm on the low and 1.7 mm on the high E. According to the Ibanez manual it the low E should between 2 and 2.2 and the high E between 1.5 and 1.7.

But it frustrated me that I couldn't go any lower. I sent Ibanez an email asking if this is normal, a defect or just by design. They responded but not answering the question. They just referred me to the local dealer for 'after service'. The dealer said they could try filing the bridge saddles.

But I found a better way to lower the bridge. I have an old Epiphone which has studs without the turning things on it. This allowed much more room for the bridge to drop. I have installed these now and have brought the action down to about 1.7 for the low E and 1.5 for the high E. Couldn't take the high E down anymore because of a dead fret near the top. Will have to attend to that first. But it's pretty awesome now.

You can really shred on it if you want. Although the pickups are very low output, you'll need a lot of gain. It's a great guitar for just having on your lap and playing acoustically.

When playing jazz the pickups really shine. The sound is very full and balanced. Took it to band practice, and it cut through the mix pretty well too, considering I play in a rock band.

Conclusion, soundwise it's a very nice instrument, very honest and versitile. The build quality is okay, the action issue is a bit troubling, but I'm guessing it's just by design. Once you do get it set up correctly, it's excellent.

Is it worth the money? Yes and no. I would rather have spent a bit more for better quality and better setup.

Re-action/neck set issue. I am beginning to think that it is deliberate (cynical) policy as with the majority of low end flattops. Sticking the neck in high is way faster than accurately checking the angle and going for a mid-point. Nice.

[ReneB]

Yep I definitely think so. I admit to obsessively searching for close ups of bridges on the amh90 and other ibanez models, and from what I've seen they're all very low. I guess it might be inherent to type of guitar too? Until now I've only ever played solid bodies.

[sosa]

Don't know if this counts as ressurecting dead threads (am new here)

But just in case anyone else finds this thread via google or whatever, I'm a new AMH-90 owner and found exactly the same issue as some have listed above. The neck is simply set at the wrong angle from the factory, it's too shallow, the strings are okay on the first few frets and ridiculously high past the 12th.

Since I can't return it (long story) I tried the suggestion others on here have had. The bridge this thing comes with is a mile tall, so I got some M8 to M4 posts and put in a much shorter Schaller GTM Nashville TOM bridge instead. And like magic, with the bridge on the deck, the strings are flat against the fretboard all the way along, even at tension. I've now handed it over to get set up and the guitar tech said that with the usual setup adjustment everything should be fine, lower bridge compensates for the off neck angle and pickups can be lowered a little.

The other issue is the frets are a little sharp. Not finger cutting, but not the butter-smooth one would expect.This is because the wood contracts when these things leave Indonesia and the fret wire protrudes out the side a tiny bit.

So to bring the (new, lol) guitar up to spec it'll be the price of the bridge ($100 but I already had this lying around from an old project, and a $30 gotoh would do just as well), $30 for two M8 to M4 bridge posts (why are they so expensive) $40 for the fret dressing, and $80 for the setup incl. cutting bridge saddle notches.

Anyway I thought I'd just dump this information out there in case anyone else gets a AMH-90 with a poorly set neck, because this seems to be a recurring problem. A new bridge will apparently fix the issue but what will fix it even faster is not buying one if it has the problem.

Annoying that Ibanez have shitty QC (the fret ends i get, but the neck angle thing is just really bad imo that was a mistake in the factory they didn't catch that has affected a whole batch of these guitars), but assuming the bridge fixes the problem I can easily love this guitar. It is beautiful and it sounds genuinely great.