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heads on fire « Very good guitar, not so great pickups. »
Published on 03/02/12 at 07:17This guitar was made in Japan between the years of 1999-2000. The body is Basswood, neck is maple with a bubinga stripe, 24 jumbo frets, rosewood fingerboard. The body has the all-access neck joint. Pickups are humbuckers, Ibanez V7 and V8 seven-string models. Hard-tail bridge with individual movable saddles. Black hardware, and the controls are a 5 way switch, volume, and tone.
UTILIZATION
This is a great-playing axe from Ibanez. One of my first exposures to the seven-string guitar was on this model, and I'm glad it was, because the neck is fantastic on this. The flatness of the neck and the shallowness of depth helps the hand get to the bottom string very easily. The neck joint helps the hand get all the way up to the 24th fret with no discomfort at all. Craftsmanship overall is great, too.
SOUNDS
Here is where the guitar suffers. The pickups on this are just decent, but not that good. Clarity is a bit muddled, and the output is rather weak. This all is ok if your amp sound is always at 11 on the gain knob, but I like to play clean tones just as much, so this wasn't terribly inspiring. I also owned the RG7621 guitar before I tried a friend's RG7421, and that really is the only big difference - the 7621 pickups are fantastic, and the 7421 pickups are middle-of-the-road jobbers. I'd swap out for sure.
OVERALL OPINION
Pickups aside, this is still a nice instrument. A pickup trade would be in order, but that's the only downside on this guitar. They did make this guitar in some other colors that the 7621 didn't have, such as this grey nickel and the nice magenta Vampire Kiss - those are the more desirable ones, since seemingly everybody has a black Ibanez or two kicking around! They didn't make too many of these, so snag one up if you find it!
UTILIZATION
This is a great-playing axe from Ibanez. One of my first exposures to the seven-string guitar was on this model, and I'm glad it was, because the neck is fantastic on this. The flatness of the neck and the shallowness of depth helps the hand get to the bottom string very easily. The neck joint helps the hand get all the way up to the 24th fret with no discomfort at all. Craftsmanship overall is great, too.
SOUNDS
Here is where the guitar suffers. The pickups on this are just decent, but not that good. Clarity is a bit muddled, and the output is rather weak. This all is ok if your amp sound is always at 11 on the gain knob, but I like to play clean tones just as much, so this wasn't terribly inspiring. I also owned the RG7621 guitar before I tried a friend's RG7421, and that really is the only big difference - the 7621 pickups are fantastic, and the 7421 pickups are middle-of-the-road jobbers. I'd swap out for sure.
OVERALL OPINION
Pickups aside, this is still a nice instrument. A pickup trade would be in order, but that's the only downside on this guitar. They did make this guitar in some other colors that the 7621 didn't have, such as this grey nickel and the nice magenta Vampire Kiss - those are the more desirable ones, since seemingly everybody has a black Ibanez or two kicking around! They didn't make too many of these, so snag one up if you find it!