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Hatsubai « Ibanez Radius guitar »
Published on 05/10/11 at 20:06The Ibanez 540R was part of the Radius series that Ibanez used to have way back when. The guitar is actually probably a predecessor to the Ibanez S series guitars. The one I played featured a basswood body, maple neck with rosewood fretboard, 22 jumbo frets, an Edge bridge, small dot inlays, HSS configuration, one volume, one tone and a five way blade switch.
UTILIZATION
The guitar is actually basically a predecessor to the Ibanez S series. The body shape is nice and round, thin yet resonant. It's very comfortable to play, and it's awesome for live usage due to it not being so heavy. The neck on this is actually thicker than the Wizard neck. I think it's an Ultra neck, but I'm not entirely sure. The fretwork was also very nice. The Edge bridge is one of my favorite bridges, so I immediately fell in love with that. The one thing I wish this guitar had was 24 frets, but that's actually a gripe I had with the S series for the longest time. Ibanez only recently corrected that.
SOUNDS
The pickups in the stock model suck. I threw them out and replaced them with some nice DiMarzios. The guitar really came alive then. Basswood works great for lead tones, and I find the guitars work nicely for fusion/progressive music too. The HSS configuration leads to some very versatile tones from that awesome "quack" sound to blistering heavy metal chugging.
OVERALL OPINION
These guitars are very cool, and given that they're a bit more rare than the S series, it's a cool conversation piece. That said, I'd probably rather just buy a MIJ S series guitar instead of this. That's entirely due to my preference, though. The S series have thinner necks, and I really enjoy the Wizard neck, hence why I'd want that model instead. Either way, you won't be disappointed if you pick one up. Just be sure to swap the pickups.
UTILIZATION
The guitar is actually basically a predecessor to the Ibanez S series. The body shape is nice and round, thin yet resonant. It's very comfortable to play, and it's awesome for live usage due to it not being so heavy. The neck on this is actually thicker than the Wizard neck. I think it's an Ultra neck, but I'm not entirely sure. The fretwork was also very nice. The Edge bridge is one of my favorite bridges, so I immediately fell in love with that. The one thing I wish this guitar had was 24 frets, but that's actually a gripe I had with the S series for the longest time. Ibanez only recently corrected that.
SOUNDS
The pickups in the stock model suck. I threw them out and replaced them with some nice DiMarzios. The guitar really came alive then. Basswood works great for lead tones, and I find the guitars work nicely for fusion/progressive music too. The HSS configuration leads to some very versatile tones from that awesome "quack" sound to blistering heavy metal chugging.
OVERALL OPINION
These guitars are very cool, and given that they're a bit more rare than the S series, it's a cool conversation piece. That said, I'd probably rather just buy a MIJ S series guitar instead of this. That's entirely due to my preference, though. The S series have thinner necks, and I really enjoy the Wizard neck, hence why I'd want that model instead. Either way, you won't be disappointed if you pick one up. Just be sure to swap the pickups.