Hatsubai « Oldschool looks »
Published on 09/25/11 at 10:39Ibanez is finally starting to listen to their customer base. In the past, they were always known for having showy guitars that really stood out on stage. These insane colors would gather all kinds of looks in the 80s. Following the whole grunge scene, that flashy stuff died out, but die hard fans of Ibanez still wanted their extreme colors. Ibanez is slowly bringing them back. The guitar features a basswood body, a maple neck with a rosewood fretboard, 24 extra jumbo frets, ghost shark fin inlays, an Edge Zero tremolo, HSH configuration, one volume, one tone and a five way switch.
UTILIZATION
The paint on this is great. It's very vivid, and the yellow pickups and knobs on this really help make it pop out more than normal. The guitar has some great fretwork on it, and that's to be expected as it's a Prestige guitar. The ends are nicely rounded, and the frets were leveled perfectly. I was able to get some really nice action with this guitar. The heel on this is great, too. It's almost as if there's no heel at all. The inlay work was top notch, too. The bridge is kind of the weak point. It's not quite as good as the older bridges, but once you remove the whole ZPS system or whatever, it starts to perform quite nicely, actually. I still recommend replacing the studs with proper Lo Pro Edge studs.
SOUNDS
The guitar has a DiMarzio Tone Zone in the bridge, a True Velvet in the middle and an Air Norton in the neck. The Tone Zone in the bridge works great for those super high gain riffs, and it's thick enough to where it can really add some depth to these basswood guitars. Basswood tends to be very mid heavy and lacks some girth to it that some other woods can have. It's great for leads, but it kinda lacks for rhythms at times. The True Velvet was awesome for cleans and funk tones. The Air Norton was absolute solo heaven in this guitar. I really recommend this pickup combination for anybody that owns an RG.
OVERALL OPINION
The guitars are very solid, and they're starting to look better and better as time goes on. Ibanez is getting to be more consistent than ever before, and these new guitars are really showing the world what they're capable of doing. I would easily recommend this to somebody if you're looking for a versatile shred guitar that can do more than just the whole weedly weedly lines.
UTILIZATION
The paint on this is great. It's very vivid, and the yellow pickups and knobs on this really help make it pop out more than normal. The guitar has some great fretwork on it, and that's to be expected as it's a Prestige guitar. The ends are nicely rounded, and the frets were leveled perfectly. I was able to get some really nice action with this guitar. The heel on this is great, too. It's almost as if there's no heel at all. The inlay work was top notch, too. The bridge is kind of the weak point. It's not quite as good as the older bridges, but once you remove the whole ZPS system or whatever, it starts to perform quite nicely, actually. I still recommend replacing the studs with proper Lo Pro Edge studs.
SOUNDS
The guitar has a DiMarzio Tone Zone in the bridge, a True Velvet in the middle and an Air Norton in the neck. The Tone Zone in the bridge works great for those super high gain riffs, and it's thick enough to where it can really add some depth to these basswood guitars. Basswood tends to be very mid heavy and lacks some girth to it that some other woods can have. It's great for leads, but it kinda lacks for rhythms at times. The True Velvet was awesome for cleans and funk tones. The Air Norton was absolute solo heaven in this guitar. I really recommend this pickup combination for anybody that owns an RG.
OVERALL OPINION
The guitars are very solid, and they're starting to look better and better as time goes on. Ibanez is getting to be more consistent than ever before, and these new guitars are really showing the world what they're capable of doing. I would easily recommend this to somebody if you're looking for a versatile shred guitar that can do more than just the whole weedly weedly lines.