Ibanez RG2550ZL

My musical tastes and playing style have always revolved around 1980's Hard Rock/Heavy Metal. I play a lot of fast lead guitar, think Satch/Vai/Gilbert/Van Halen etc. Basically I needed a good guitar - a decent, quality guitar that had that Hard Rock/HM sound and had a good neck for fast playing. I had always loved the Yamaha RGX series guitars, but was yearning for something... "more". Enter the Ibanez...

Having tried an Ibanez RG in a local music shop a few years back, I knew this was my ideal guitar; "the one". The looks. The way it played. The sound.
I eventually got round to looking for one. I decided upon the Prestige model RG2550. I paid £640 for it at GuitarGuitar in Edinburgh in December 2005.

Er... erm... well... everything!!! It looks great, the shape is very comfortable and the guitar is light. The wizard neck feels absolutely delightful to play, very fast and with big frets. The Dimarzio/IBZ pick-ups sound fantastic, especially through my stock Marshall Valvestate (I run the guitar straight to the amp, no effects). The pick-ups are so powerful they can add a bit of drive to a clean channel on your amp. And backing of the mids with the bridge humbucker selected gives "that" oh-so-80's sound. Lovely. Plus, due to the Edge-Pro vibrato (basically a Floyd Rose), I rarely have to tune it - and that's saying something, because I SHRED. It also comes with a durable hard case, and an instruction manual, something that is all to often absent in guitars. You even get an allen key set and a small pouch to store it all in. Yep, this is one DECENT guitar! The guitar is also very well made, you can feel the quality of the woods and finish when you pick it up.

One small niggle - for some reason, the tone control was faulty and didn't work - something that didn't really bother me anyway since I never use it, but a niggle nonetheless. It was simple to sort out.

The guitar is very well made. Ibanez guitars are all well made, but you can really tell that this is a "Prestige" model. The hardware seems very robust, and - shock horror - the volume knobs aren't loose!

Quite simple really. This is one heck of a guitar. I have tried various Fender Strats, Gibson Les Pauls, even Jacksons (which I love too!) but nothing comes close to the quality of my Ibanez. If you have a spare 700 quid and want a quality rock guitar, this is it. People can have their PRSs, custom shop Fenders and limited-edition Gibsons or whatever. I am now a fully-fledged Ibanez devotee. I'm joining the Ibanez Register right away!

The bottom line is: if you are looking at buying an Ibanez RG2550 Prestige, and read this review, then go ahead and buy the guitar. You have my word on it. I hope this review has helped.

Shred on!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com