Ibanez JCRG5

This is another one of the rare J-Custom guitars that came through my shop. The guitar is very similar to some of the other models out there. The main difference is that this has gold hardware, although that later became something of a standard for awhile. The guitar features a mahogany body with a figured maple top, a maple neck with an ebony fretboard, a tree of life vine inlay, 24 jumbo frets, Lo Pro Edge tremolo, HSH configuration, one volume, one tone and a five way switch.

UTILIZATION

These guitars have the best fretwork out there. In fact, I can't really recall seeing guitars out there that have fretwork as good as this. The only guitars out there that come close are the Suhr/Anderson/Tyler guitars, but they don't have the ball fret ends that these guitars do. I was able to get some super sick action on this without any issues. The figuring on the top was super cool, and I like the way the binding was made via masking off the body on that area. It's a very common technique that creates some elegant binding without much effort. The bridge on this is one of the best brides, too. You can flutter like crazy and do all kinds of dive bombs without any issues.

SOUNDS

This guitar had the famous DiMarzio Tone Zone / Blue Velvet / Air Norton combo that's found on almost every J-Custom out there. The Tone Zone in the bridge is super fat, and it has tons of mids. This is great for those searing harmonics and super thick low end rhythm tones. The Blue Velvet in the middle has been one of the most famous DiMarzio middle pickups to ever be released. It's very clean and clear, and it works great for those 2 and 4 positions. The Air Norton in the neck is my favorite neck pickup as it's super smooth, fat and clear sounding. Pulling off super fast legato licks with this is no problem at all.

OVERALL OPINION

This is old school J-Custom quality, and you can tell right away. Everything about this just shows you how much time and care was given to this guitar. These guitars are pricey, but they're worth every penny. They're all super resonant, sound amazing and play even better. If you find one of these, I recommend you buy it immediately.