Ibanez Gio GRG170DX

I broke up with my ex-girlfriend of 12 years about 3 years ago, she refused to allow me to have a guitar in the house. A couple of months ago after I had to close down my factory for economic reasons, I bought this guitar and a Marshall MG15CFR.

The type of music I would play on the guitar would be some metal, hard rock and obviously clean sounds for pop music or plain rhythm guitar.

My older brother gave me an Ibanez Iceman model a long time ago, so I have an affinity for Ibanez models. I liked the feel, the weight of the guitar, the narrow neck, etc. The initial problems I was having on the guitar was if I was holding a C-chord (open), my ring finger might slightly touch the D string with my middle finger on the E position after getting over that learning curve (and yes I occasionally still have the problem of fingers muting string on open chords).

The clean sound I feel has no personality, the neck position front pickups kind of distorts if too loud, and the neck & middle pickup configuration will be slightly brighter but still kind of dull. The middle position is brightly dull if that makes sense, whereas the middle/bridge p/u configuration is the best of the bunch, and using the bridge pickup in clean mode also can distort a little but not as much as the neck p/u.

As for the crunch/distortion, I find the bridge to be the best or perhaps I've been indoctrinated into believing that's the best for distortion as I was growing up but I digress. I noticed the louder I have the amp the better the crunch is, especially the bridge pickup so I'm assuming it translates to other amps, also considering upgrading pickups to DiMarzios or Seymour Duncans...

Overall having not played the guitar for over 10 years and getting back into it, I'm happy with the purchase and highly recommend for beginners.

I've been Playing Guitar for 11 years, I have 1 Acoustic that I learn't to play, and now I'm on my 3rd electric which is the Ibanez.
I've had a Tanglewood Strat. (Cherry Red with White Pick Guard) and a B.C. Rich Bronze Warlock. I'm looking to get another Warlock in the future.

I'm into the Metal Generations, Heavy/Death/Power/Black etc.

I Jam at my mates house he plays Drums and has a Custom Drum Kit, so there is a possibility of a future Metal Band in the pipeline.

I wanted another Electric Guitar that was within my price range, and I looked at one of the lowest priced Ibanez Range, which was the Gio Series.

The Guitar was around £179 which was a good price especially for one of the biggest guitar brands.

I like the fast Playibility with the wizard neck, the Shark teeth inlays, the White Binding round the Neck and it's Bridge, Centre and Neck Pickups have a good Powerful and Clean Tone.














The 'Fat Bridge' (Trem Bridge) is sometimes a pain because when I tune from low to high, I have to repeat the tuning over again because the Strings are being pulled back with the Bridge tension and they de-tune straight away.

Construction is good, the weight factor isn't to bad, though sometimes after playing standing up after while it can become heavy.

The Neck is quick and has a good playibility to it. The Paint finish is to a good quality (I have the Jewel Blue Model).

I also like the way the fingerboard is finished, the Shark teeth inlays instead of the default Dot inlays, the Shark teeth give it a better look.

Great Guitar for the price and for an Ibanez, it's better than the other two Electric's I had.

It's definitly for the Pro and Beginner.

For the type of Music I play it would've been better with a Fixed Bridge, but I still like it and it was money well spent.

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

I bought this guitar from a local store "Dennis Todd's" at the price of £150, (Amazing!).

I love the neck of this guitar! It is perfect Very thin, and fast. Extremely comfortable and smooth. Also, the look of the guitar isn't too bad either. Construction is very solid and expensive feeling, especially considering the low price.

Nothing.

Perfect construction. Very solid and expensive feeling. Ibanez treat these lower end models exacly the same as the more expensive ones. No faults or flaws in the paintwork, and all set up perfectly.

Great guitar for the price; I haven't found one so comfortable in this price range. The sound is pretty amazing too considering the low price. Definately a good guitar for anyone on a budget.

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

This guitar is a mid level version of the some of the famed Ibanez RG shredders that were very popular in the late eighties and early nineties. It takes that general vibe and provides it in a very simple and affordable package that is well within the reach of any player. True to the specs of the RGs, it features a basswood body, a thin maple neck with a rosewood fretboard, 24 frets, sharktooth inlays, sealed chrome tuners, a non locking Ibanez designed two point tremolo system and an H-S-H pickup configuration (Ibanez Powersound pickups) mated with a set of volume and tone controls plus a 5 way switch for some Stratty single coil tones. They're made overseas in places like India, Indonesia or China depending on the year and factory.

UTILIZATION

This guitar is fairly light and ergonomic. The Ibanez RGs were always known for light weight and this guitar is no exception. It weighs only about 6 or 7 pounds and sits on the body well. Though it doesn't feel nearly as refined as many of the high end Ibanez guitars that I've owned or played, for being a $300 guitar it's not really something I concern myself with. It features great upper fret access as all Ibanez 24 fret guitars do... really excellent. The tremolo unit isn't great at holding tune, but it's also a cheaply manufactured non-locking unit... it can't be expected to hold up that much.

Getting a good tone out of this guitar is not difficult... it is set up just like a modern superstrat (HSH) and it really goes from clean sounds to distorted sounds without much of a hitch. Definitely a solid guitar for many different sounds.

SOUNDS

I've tried this guitar through a few different rigs and I can conclude that it's a decent sounding guitar but still not at the level of many nicer ones. The Ibanez Powersound pickups do a decent job at providing a variety of sounds overall. The humbuckers have a good bass response, with a quiet midrange and a reasonable treble response (though it can be a bit jarring at times). For clean sounds I prefer using positions 2 and 4 on the selector switch because they're closer facsimiles of a nice Fender sound. The tone of the humbuckers works well enough for clean but it is a bit generic/flat sounding without a whole lot of sparkle. The overdrive sounds work when gain is applied but they don't have the greatest articulation for faster rhythms or lead work. However most players using this would be beginners who are just learning their style anyway so that's not really a huge issue.

OVERALL OPINION

All in all I think this Ibanez GRG170DX isn't a bad little guitar for a beginner to get to know the Ibanez feel. It's well crafted and looks good. The Jewel Blue finish is a real stunner and harkens back to the days of the eighties when guys like Paul Gilbert had similar guitars. The hardware really isn't great on this guitar but for the price I wasn't expecting a whole lot of quality. They're not the most consistent guitar so I recommend that if you can, try a bunch of these to find one, because some are good, some are not.