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tjon901 « Not as good as a Prestige »
Published on 12/07/11 at 20:43The new Ibanez Premium line of guitars is a new line of guitars that is supposed to bridge the gap between normal Ibanez models and their prestige made in Japan models. These guitars look and have some of the features of the Prestige models but they are made in the same factories as the normal Ibanez guitars. These guitars have basswood bodies with maple tops. The top you see isnt the maple top as it is a quilted maple veneer on the maple top. Lots of companies do this for their lower end guitars when they want them to look fancy. I like the black quilt finish on this guitar. I am normally a flame fan but a decent quilt can look good even if it is just a veneer. This kind of reminds me of the PRS Charcoal Burst Quilt and Flame finishes. It has a 5 piece maple and walnut wizard neck. The fretboard is rosewood with jumbo frets and offset inlays. It has some designed by Dimarzio Ibanez pickups. They are slightly better than the normal no name Ibanez pickups they would usually give you but they are not as good as a set of real Dimarzios. It has the Edge Zero 2 tremolo which is decent.
UTILIZATION
The playability on this guitar isnt noticably better than a normal Ibanez RG. Fancy tops dont make your guitars play or sound any better, they just let you charge more. On Prestige models the fit and finish especially on the neck is very good and all the frets are perfectly polished and leveled. The fretwork on this model is okay but not much better than a normal model. The thin neck lets you shred up and down on it and there are deep cutaways so nothing gets in the way of your shredding. The Ibanez locking tremolos are pretty modern designs and are a little bit more comfortable than Original Floyd Roses.
SOUNDS
The stock pickups in this guitar are alright. You do not need to immediately throw them away like on most Ibanez guitars. Since this is a metal guitar the stock pickups are decently hot. You get a decent amount of output on these pickups. Ive played other stock Ibanez guitars and I had to double check the volume on my amp because it was like they literally had half the output of my regular guitars pickups. The pickups in this guitar arent that bad. If you are any serious player you will want to swap out these pickups for something more specialized to whatever type of music you play. Most likely a set of Dimarzios since this is an Ibanez but if you are into really heavy stuff a set of EMG's might treat you well.
OVERALL OPINION
This guitar certainly looks cool but if you want an actual Prestige model you are better off buying one used. This guitar is pretty much a normal RG with a pretty looking top. If you are fine with a normal RG and want something with a bit more flash then this guitar is for you. If you are looking for something that plays a lot better than you might want to skip this model and save up for a Prestige. This model is between a normal RG and a Prestige RG but it leans more towards the end of the normal RG. I think most people would rather have a very plain Prestige model than a fancy normal model. With a plain Prestige model you would still get all the playability even without the flash, instead of extra flash without any extra playability.
UTILIZATION
The playability on this guitar isnt noticably better than a normal Ibanez RG. Fancy tops dont make your guitars play or sound any better, they just let you charge more. On Prestige models the fit and finish especially on the neck is very good and all the frets are perfectly polished and leveled. The fretwork on this model is okay but not much better than a normal model. The thin neck lets you shred up and down on it and there are deep cutaways so nothing gets in the way of your shredding. The Ibanez locking tremolos are pretty modern designs and are a little bit more comfortable than Original Floyd Roses.
SOUNDS
The stock pickups in this guitar are alright. You do not need to immediately throw them away like on most Ibanez guitars. Since this is a metal guitar the stock pickups are decently hot. You get a decent amount of output on these pickups. Ive played other stock Ibanez guitars and I had to double check the volume on my amp because it was like they literally had half the output of my regular guitars pickups. The pickups in this guitar arent that bad. If you are any serious player you will want to swap out these pickups for something more specialized to whatever type of music you play. Most likely a set of Dimarzios since this is an Ibanez but if you are into really heavy stuff a set of EMG's might treat you well.
OVERALL OPINION
This guitar certainly looks cool but if you want an actual Prestige model you are better off buying one used. This guitar is pretty much a normal RG with a pretty looking top. If you are fine with a normal RG and want something with a bit more flash then this guitar is for you. If you are looking for something that plays a lot better than you might want to skip this model and save up for a Prestige. This model is between a normal RG and a Prestige RG but it leans more towards the end of the normal RG. I think most people would rather have a very plain Prestige model than a fancy normal model. With a plain Prestige model you would still get all the playability even without the flash, instead of extra flash without any extra playability.