Guitar YouTuber plays beginner Ibanez model under $300 at sold-out arena show 

Musician and YouTuber Bernth Brodträger – yes, the guy who creates, and destroys, wacky guitars – has shared his experience of playing a sold-out arena show with an entry level Ibanez model, which costs just $299.

As shared in a new vlog on his channel, Bernth didn’t actually get to soundcheck with the guitar due to travel delays and had no choice but to try it out with the audience present.

• READ MORE: A Brief History of Ibanez guitars

The show took place at Salzburgarena in Austria, where Bernth played as part of a pop act. “The audience will mostly consist of innocent radio listeners, they probably don’t know that I put together some crazy metal guitar solos with tonnes of shredding, tapping, sweep picking and more combined with an absolutely crazy fire and special FX show,” he says in the vlog.

Ibanez itself sent the guitar to Bernth, which is a S-style HSS Ibanez AZES, designed with professional musician Tomo Fujita back in 2021. It has a poplar body, maple neck, jatoba fretboard, and is fitted with Ibanez Essential pickups.

Bernth’s partner Nata, who was travelling to the venue in Salzburg from Vienna, was due to deliver the guitar to him there, but her train was delayed meaning it missed out on its all-important soundcheck.

When she finally arrived with the guitar as the support act were doing their soundcheck, Berth replaced its strings (Elixir 10-46 Optiwebs, to be exact) and also switched over the standard strap locks to security locks.

You can watch Bernth take to the stage for the show from the six-minute mark, with the beginner guitar later coming in at 7:19.

In honour of this mini experiment, Bernth has released a new song called Calm, which he says captures the “calm before the storm” feeling at the show, which you can listen to below:

Find out more about Bernth via his official website. You can also take a closer look at the model and check out more guitars via Ibanez.