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King Loudness « Great superstrat »
Published on 08/31/11 at 10:05The Ibanez Prestige RG1570 BK is one of the most common superstrat type guitars seen today. It's basically an updated version of the famous RG570 from the nineties, but made in the Prestige factory with a few minor changes. It's got a basswood body, a maple neck with rosewood fretboard and 24 frets, the awesome Ibanez AANJ neck joint for killer upper fret access, Ibanez Edge tremolo, Ibanez tuners, an H-S-H pickup configuration, DiMarzio/IBZ pickups, and a control layout of volume, tone and 5 way selector switch. They're made in Japan, and come with a nice Prestige hardshell case as well.
UTILIZATION
The design of the RGs in general is really ergonomic and well thought out for being a shred guitar. The neck is one of their many Wizard models. I personally have grown to find the necks a bit too thin for my tastes, but many shred cats absolutely love them. The body is very light basswood and like most nice Ibanez RGs, it's contoured and sculpted to have great access all around. The neck features their AANJ neck heel, which is perfect for getting right up to the 24th fret. It is also a help that it has direct mounted pickups and a low profile tremolo for keeping things down and out of the way as not to be obtrusive to the picking hand.
Getting a good sound out of this guitar is pretty simple as it's basically designed to play shred/fusion type stuff and it does it fairly well. I'm not a huge fan of Ibanez's stock pickups, but even so the guitar does a decent job at sounding good overall.
SOUNDS
I've tried this guitar through various Peavey and Marshall amplifiers in my younger days and at the time I thought it sounded great. The stock pickups were never my thing (I always preferred proper DiMarzios or Seymour Duncans) but for the high gain lead stuff that I was playing and that the guitar was designed for, it's cool. The neck pickup has a great smooth character that works best for legato or sweep arpeggios. Complex chords also sound cool when used with a cleaner tone. The bridge pickup has a nice snarl to it that is the ticket for faster alternate picking stuff as well as rock rhythm tones. The split coil modes offer a nice spanky sound that is great for vintage type clean tones or some unique distortion flavours.
OVERALL OPINION
I think the Ibanez RG1570 BK is a great shredder's guitar that offers good playability, features and a reasonable set of tones for not a lot of money. They are about $1,100 new which is a killer deal considering the features and craftsmanship. It's not built to the level of a J Custom or a Suhr or something, but for the burgeoning shredder, it's a great choice.
UTILIZATION
The design of the RGs in general is really ergonomic and well thought out for being a shred guitar. The neck is one of their many Wizard models. I personally have grown to find the necks a bit too thin for my tastes, but many shred cats absolutely love them. The body is very light basswood and like most nice Ibanez RGs, it's contoured and sculpted to have great access all around. The neck features their AANJ neck heel, which is perfect for getting right up to the 24th fret. It is also a help that it has direct mounted pickups and a low profile tremolo for keeping things down and out of the way as not to be obtrusive to the picking hand.
Getting a good sound out of this guitar is pretty simple as it's basically designed to play shred/fusion type stuff and it does it fairly well. I'm not a huge fan of Ibanez's stock pickups, but even so the guitar does a decent job at sounding good overall.
SOUNDS
I've tried this guitar through various Peavey and Marshall amplifiers in my younger days and at the time I thought it sounded great. The stock pickups were never my thing (I always preferred proper DiMarzios or Seymour Duncans) but for the high gain lead stuff that I was playing and that the guitar was designed for, it's cool. The neck pickup has a great smooth character that works best for legato or sweep arpeggios. Complex chords also sound cool when used with a cleaner tone. The bridge pickup has a nice snarl to it that is the ticket for faster alternate picking stuff as well as rock rhythm tones. The split coil modes offer a nice spanky sound that is great for vintage type clean tones or some unique distortion flavours.
OVERALL OPINION
I think the Ibanez RG1570 BK is a great shredder's guitar that offers good playability, features and a reasonable set of tones for not a lot of money. They are about $1,100 new which is a killer deal considering the features and craftsmanship. It's not built to the level of a J Custom or a Suhr or something, but for the burgeoning shredder, it's a great choice.