Best in class

This is my fourth semi-hollow body guitar, it's also the cheapest, and by no means the worst. At 719€ you get a beautiful and resonant spruce top (used a lot on acoustic guitars, violins, cellos, etc) on flamed maple back and sides (laminate I bet), a 3 piece nyatoh-maple-nyatoh neck with luxurious ebony fingerboard with amazingly finished medium-jumbo frets, the great super 58 AlNiCo humbuckers, bone nut, great binding including the f-holes (not an easy task to perform) and a high quality ABS hardcase, the MS100C, which alone costs 167€. This is by far the best value for money available out there.

I previously had the Ibanez JSM20 Scofield Signature that costed 999€, and this is basically the same guitar with better tonewoods, different headstock, and upgraded hardware that didn't tarnish after 1 month of use, yet it costs almost 300€ less. Also love Ibanez sure grip knobs.

I went to two stores to choose the best model, the first one had some finishing issues on the f-holes and binding, oil residue on the neck, and the bone nut was a bit cracked, but it had a perfect setup off the factory and played wonderfully, I immediately fell in love with it. The second one had flawless finish with almost imperceptible spruce top joint (these are two solid pieces glued together on top of the center maple block), but didn't have the same great setup off the bat, especially the high E string had some buzz on a couple of frets, but still I got the second because because I knew a proper setup would make this guitar play as good as the previous, while looking much better. The bridge was mounted in a wrong position and I had a slightly high 5th and 11th frets, so I took the guitar to my local luthier to have the frets aligned and setup with .11's, adjusted neck relief and intonation and WOW! What an amazing guitar!!

Playing acoustic I've got to say this is one of best semi-hollow I ever had, only rivaled by the 3300€ Gibson ES-335 Figured, the AS113 is really the only that had ZERO internal noises, it feels super solid while resonating wonderfully. The spruce top is a really nice choice as it is known to age pretty well with time, so in a couple of years this will be even better. The Super 58's I already knew, but compared to my previous JSM10 that were definitely unpotted these feel like they're been wax potted, as they don't pick up as much noise. Still, great sounding pickups with medium ouput and three-way switch to split the neck into single coil or have it wired in parallel. The single coil split sounds really really good, the parallel setting is a bit duller but eliminates hum noise. I prefer them to the the Calibrated T-Types on the ES-335. The neck pickup has 4 cable condutor while the bridge has the more classic single conductor, nice touch! It doesn't have treble bleed wiring, which I became a fan of with the PRS, maybe I will upgrade that later on. I love the quick-change stop bar as it makes restringing MUCH more convenient, and the new artstar bridge feels very good, easy to setup up and no buzzing.

As I didn't care for the ABS case (although it's a very high quality one featuring TSA locks) I immediately sold it for 90€ and for the same price bought the AMAZING Ibanez PowerPad Ultra Gig Bag, model ISHB724, which offers great impact protection with 25mm foam padding, fully rain proof, light, and I can carry on my back which is I find more convenient.

Final thoughts: American made guitars are indeed wonderful instruments, nitro-cellulose finish is magical, and an original Gibson ES-335 just has some special mojo which makes it very inspiring to play. But for almost 1/4 of the price Indonesia is really putting out some truly astounding guitars. So wether you're a student, gigging musician or hobbyist, you're really not missing out much on buying a Gibson besides mojo and style. If you want a slightly better instrument that costs 3x times as much, I would go for the Yamaha SA2000 or the Ibanez JSM100, and if money is really no issue and you really want that nitro mojo the Heritage H535 seems to me the best semi-hollow out there. Just don't compare it side by side to this Indonesian 719€ AS113, as you'll end up asking yourself what you could have done with the spare money.

On a final note, the PRS Hollowbody SE's have better quality consistency, but they are more expensive. To make this guitar a truly nice guitar you will have to take it to a Luthier.