Ibanez RG1570

I've been playing for about 3 years now. I'm mostly in to progressive rock and blues.

This was one of a handfull of Ibanez's at the store. They had two of these, mirage red and blue, mine is blue. Cost was about 1000$ or so.

The Edge trem on this thing is absolutely amazing, rarely goes out of tune etc, even after some real crazy trem work. The Wizard II neck feels just right, not too thin or anything.

The stock pickups were somewhat dull from the start. So after 1/2 year after purchase I replaced the whole set with Duncans - CC, APS-2, APH-1. That made a world of difference. Now this instrument really sings. I also re-did the wiring, so that now it is possible to split either one of the humbuckers alone. Also the rings for the trem arm need replacing quite often.

It's a quality instrument. Absolutely no paint or fretting flaws, everythings is top of the notch.

All in all the price went 1/3 higher from the original purchase, including the upgrades to make it great instead of just good. I'd say this is a intermediate/pro level instrument. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but it is a nice guitar.

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

I bought this guitar at Sam Ash for $550. I've had a Fender Strat for a while because it was my first guitar and I held on to it for a while, but it was horrible for playing metal riffs so I had to upgrade.

First of all the looks are amazing. I have the guitar in silver and with the black pickups and dark fretboard it looks absolutely amazing. It truly is a beautiful guitar and the fact that it is primarily a hard rock/metal guitar makes it even better. Once you get everything about the guitar set to your liking,(there are alot of customizations you can make along the lines of bridge positioning, pickup height, etc.) it feels great in your hands. For fast palm muting and straight metal riffage I recommend raising the left side of the bridge, so the low E string doesn't rattle, and lowering the right side, for fast soloing. It comes with the Ibanez Wizard neck which is so thin you might not feel it when you're playing, which is good. Also the stock pickups are good for metal tones.(I have mine hooked up to a Boss Metal Zone and it sounds great.)

When I took it out of the box I wasn't aware that you could tweak everything about the guitar using allen wrenches, so when I played it for the first time the low E string had a horible rattle and I got really pissed, wondering how a metal guitar could have a bad low E string. But after reading the manual, I realized that I could raise the bridge, so problem solved. The bridge is also really sensitive to palming so if you are a beginner to metal style playing, take it easy on the bridge and don't push too hard with your palm or your root notes will raise in pitch and sound really bad (I think this can also be tweaked but I haven't tried it yet.) Other than that its a smooth ride.

The quality is incredible. It feels like a professional guitar and just holding it made me want to be a better guitarist. The customization options, while seeming complicated at first, really give you the chance to set up the axe the way you like, which is great for a more experienced guitarist. Great sound as well.

The bottom line is this: if you are a more experienced guitarist and are looking for a great metal axe (and have $550 laying around) go for this right away. The looks, customization and sound are all you'll need to shred for years. If you are a beginner, but still looking for a good metal guitar, go for a cheaper ibanez model, like the rg370.

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

This is the upgraded model from the famous RG570. To be honest, it's not that much different from the RG570 except for a few minor things. The most notable would be that this is made in the new Prestige factory. The guitar features a basswood body, a maple neck with a rosewood fretboard, 24 jumbo frets with dot inlays, an Edge Pro tremolo, two humbuckers, one volume, one tone and a five way switch.

UTILIZATION

The fretwork on this is superb, and it's the main selling point of these newer guitars. The frets on these, while not quite as good as the Prestige, offer some semi-rounded fret ends that other guitar manufacturers don't seem to do. I was able to get some super low action on this. The necks on these aren't quite as thin as the original Wizard necks, but they're stil very slim. The bridge on this is the brand new (at the time) Edge Pro tremolo, and it works great. It doesn't have the locking studs, and it's a little stiffer than the original Edge or LoPro Edge, but it's still a very high quality bridge that can take tons of abuse and remain stable.

SOUNDS

These still have the same old bland IBZ pickups that are installed in all of standard production line Ibanez guitars. They're not that great, and I recommend you replace them with real DiMarzios. The bridge pickups in these are a bit thick sounding, and that's great for basswood, but it's not that clear or dynamic. I find that regular production DiMarzios sound a lot better in these than these IBZ pickups do. The neck pickup I always found to be a touch bright in these, and turning the tone knob down doesn't really seem to solve the issue. The guitar has a five way switch that gives you lots of different sounds which is real cool, and I wish more guitars would feature these extended controls as they're easy to implement.

OVERALL OPINION

The guitars are very high quality, and I actually prefer these over the RG570 models. You can get these super cheap, and I find the fretwork to be a lot more consistent than on the previous models. If you're going to keep these, one thing I'd recommend would be replacing the pickups with some real ones. Also, if you can spend the extra 40 bucks, you can get some locking studs in these to make the trem as good as the old ones.

The RG1570 is the successor to the very famous and successful RG570. It features a basswood body, maple neck and rosewood fretboard. The guitar is equipped with the (then) new Edge Pro floyd, a five way blade switch, volume knob and tone knob. The guitar is a Prestige guitar, so the neck is a five piece neck and ~1mm thicker than the original Wizard.

UTILIZATION

The formula for the RG hasn't changed since the 80s, and it doesn't have to. Everything is pretty much standard affair when comparing this to other RGs. It's built like a rock, but this time, it has the new Prestige neck. The Prestige fretwork is absolutely glorious. You an achieve sick action, and the fret ends felt nicely beveled so you don't snag your hand going up and down the neck. The all access neck joint gives you easy access to the higher frets, and the lower horn rarely gets in your way when doing solo riffs.

SOUNDS

Some people hate basswood, but I love it for lead tones. The stock pickups are weak, but I quickly replaced them with an Air Norton and Steve's Special. I then replaced the switch with a 3 way and completely disconnected the middle pickup as I wasn't using it. The guitar was pretty much set up exactly like John Petrucci's Ibanez models were. The Air Norton gives one of the best lead tones ever, and the Steve's Special sounded tight, clear and articulate. DiMarzios really jive well with basswood guitars.

OVERALL OPINION

Overall, I recommend checking out either the 570 or the 1570. All of these are great guitars that are more geared towards the shred guitarist. Anybody looking for a higher performance guitar owes it to him or herself to at least try one of these guitars and see why they're so popular.