Ibanez Artcore. Got me thinking.

Go for it. I have an Ibanez Mikro bass and love it. I think I paid $179.99 for it and it's an awesome little bass.

I've played around with a few in guitar stores. It will not fool you into believing it is a ES-335.

However, it is about 60 or 70 percent of an ES-335 for a fraction of the price.

Ibanez is almost like Yamaha in that regard (Yamaha just does so many more instruments, in every category) - if they make it, it is probably fairly decent. If you see folks rave about an Ibanez product or line (like their Artcore series), it probably isn't BS.

The only question is consistency from guitar to guitar and you might need to work a bit to get it set up the way you want. You will also, almost immediately want to upgrade the electronics once you get used to playing it (my generic experience with Ibanez products, not specific to Artcore).

I think I would look at some different Telly Thinline models. You can get one in about any configuration that you could possibly want, or you can build exactly what you want for less than a thousand bucks. You can even get a JA 90 thinline with a set neck and a pair of P-90s.

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Go for a Les Paul Tribute ($1300) if you don't want to drop that kind of money on a traditional Les Paul.

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Nah. I am good.

I’ve mentioned my Agile on here before. The previous owner put Slash Seymour Duncan’s on it. So it is already a better LP than I ever hoped to own. I got to play a custom shop Gibson once. That blew my Agile away. Nothing else has. They’ve been better but never blown away.

About 5 years ago I wanted a cheap semi hollow and played quite a few things under $750 or so. Epiphones, Artcores, Gretsch, etc.

I ultimately pulled the trigger on a $400 Ebay Agile 820 that had Gibson 57's installed. It plays noticeably better than all the above, and the 57's absolutely rip.

Agile 820

I have an Ibanez AS93FM artcore, love it