Ibanez RG3520Z

The Ibanez RG3520Z is basically a standard production version of the limited production RG20071. It features a mahogany body with a flame maple top, maple neck with rosewood fretboard, 24 jumbo frets, Edge Zero tremolo, two humbuckers, one volume, one tone, a three way switch, binding, small dot inlays and a little stripe of abalone to set things off.

UTILIZATION

The RG3520Z is a great guitar, and it's put together quite nicely. The neck is thin, so it works out great for shred. It also has a fairly flat radius, so you can lower the action and bend to the moon without worrying about fretting out. The Edge Zero trem is a pretty good trem. I don't like it quite as much as the older versions, but it's still very stable. I recommend taking out the ZPS system to make it feel a bit better. The fretwork on the guitar is top notch thanks to the Prestige factory, too.

SOUNDS

This guitar works out awesomely for heavy metal thanks to its mahogany body with the flame maple top. It just sounds absolutely crushing. I recommend replacing the pickups, however. The stock ones are fairly weak sounding. Once you put in some nicer pickups, the guitar really comes to life. Mahogany + maple + rosewood just seems to be one of those perfect combos for high gain heavy metal guitars.

OVERALL OPINION

You don't see many mahogany Ibanez guitars for whatever reason. Thankfully, Ibanez seems to be adding more and more to their standard production collection. This is a great guitar for those looking for a mahogany bodied Ibanez guitar. It also doesn't cost as much as the J-Customs, yet it sounds very similar to them. Considering that, it's actually priced quite nicely. Once you replace the pickups on this thing, it becomes a real keeper. The only thing somewhat iffy would probably be whether or not you like that abalone stripe. It's a bit tacky, after all...