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Hatsubai « The non-maple fretboard *550 »
Published on 09/06/11 at 13:54Ibanez has long since had a tradition of having the *550 models having a maple fretboard. For the 2550, however, they decided to use rosewood for whatever reason. Why they did that, I'll never know. The guitar features a basswood body, a maple neck with a rosewood fretboard, 24 extra jumbo frets, dot inlays, an Ibanez floyd rose, HSH configuration, one volume, one tone and a five way switch.
UTILIZATION
The guitar has some awesome fretwork on it. For those that have never played a Prestige model, you'll be in for a treat. You normally don't find this kind of fretwork on most guitars out there. The ends are fairly round, and there are no issues with low frets on these. The guitar didn't have any issues regarding a sloppy neck joint, so no problems there. The biggest issue was that it was a bit heavy, but it wasn't too big of a deal as I've had heavier basswood guitars in my hands before. The Edge Pro on this is cool, although it's not as good as the previous generations.
SOUNDS
The guitar had a Crunch Lab in the bridge, a Chopper in the middle and a LiquiFire in the neck. The Crunch Lab works great for that super fat and clear sounding rhythm tone. It can do both leads and rhythms without any issues at all, and I find this pickup seems to work great in nearly any wood you throw at it. The Chopper was cool, but I didn't like the way it combined with the neck and middle positions. It was kinda like the odd man out pickup or something. The neck was just absolute smooth lead heaven, and it delivered some absolutely amazing clean tones.
OVERALL OPINION
The guitar is great, but I couldn't help but wish it had a maple fretboard. I think it looks very good, but it's not that much different from all the other *570s out there. The thing that made out the *550 stand out was the fact that (most) had the maple fretboard, and that's why I always chose those models over the rosewood models. At least they fixed it with the latest models.
UTILIZATION
The guitar has some awesome fretwork on it. For those that have never played a Prestige model, you'll be in for a treat. You normally don't find this kind of fretwork on most guitars out there. The ends are fairly round, and there are no issues with low frets on these. The guitar didn't have any issues regarding a sloppy neck joint, so no problems there. The biggest issue was that it was a bit heavy, but it wasn't too big of a deal as I've had heavier basswood guitars in my hands before. The Edge Pro on this is cool, although it's not as good as the previous generations.
SOUNDS
The guitar had a Crunch Lab in the bridge, a Chopper in the middle and a LiquiFire in the neck. The Crunch Lab works great for that super fat and clear sounding rhythm tone. It can do both leads and rhythms without any issues at all, and I find this pickup seems to work great in nearly any wood you throw at it. The Chopper was cool, but I didn't like the way it combined with the neck and middle positions. It was kinda like the odd man out pickup or something. The neck was just absolute smooth lead heaven, and it delivered some absolutely amazing clean tones.
OVERALL OPINION
The guitar is great, but I couldn't help but wish it had a maple fretboard. I think it looks very good, but it's not that much different from all the other *570s out there. The thing that made out the *550 stand out was the fact that (most) had the maple fretboard, and that's why I always chose those models over the rosewood models. At least they fixed it with the latest models.