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ejendres « You could do much better »
Published on 10/13/11 at 13:35Its a Korean made Ibanez. It has all the typical RG appointments; 24 jumbo frets, double locking trem, single volume, single tone, and a 5 way blade switch.
It comes loaded with Ibanez V series humbuckers, V7s I believe, as well as a single coil in the middle position.
It actually has a bound neck, which is a cool cosmetic feature you don't see on a lot of guitars in this price range
The bridge is an Ibanez Edge III trem. Basically a Floyd Rose knockoff, not a bad bridge at all. But its made of cheap metal, which means over time the knife edges wear and the trem gets less accurate. So after a year its borderline worthless.
The neck is a Wizard II, which is a great feeling neck. Killer for shredding.
UTILIZATION
The upper fret access is great, like on all RGs. The shape is nice and balanced, like all RGs.
SOUNDS
This guitar is obviously geared towards metal players. That said, they picked really crappy humbuckers for metal. These Ibanez V series pickups are among some of the worst pickups I've ever used. They need to be replaced for the guitar to sound good. Period.
The single coil is surprisingly nice sounding and has a cool clean tone.
OVERALL OPINION
This guitar is decent for the price. It has a really nice neck, but the electronics are crap, and the hardware is will be crap after a year of regular use.
With upgraded pickups it can a great sounding guitar, otherwise not so much.
I never actually owned this guitar, but my friend did. And I do all his tech work. I am not kidding when I say that this guitar needed more setups and more maintenance that any other guitar I've had experience with.
So to sum up, yes, its an RG, and RGs are very ergonomically guitars that play great when they're setup right. It even comes with a wizard II neck, and they're awesome. That said, the amount of maintenance require to make this guitar play and sound good makes it not worth it. I realize this is a low end guitar, but in my experience your $400 would be much better spend on an LTD. And if you're heart set on an RG, buy used. Because your $400 will actually get you a good instrument that way.
It comes loaded with Ibanez V series humbuckers, V7s I believe, as well as a single coil in the middle position.
It actually has a bound neck, which is a cool cosmetic feature you don't see on a lot of guitars in this price range
The bridge is an Ibanez Edge III trem. Basically a Floyd Rose knockoff, not a bad bridge at all. But its made of cheap metal, which means over time the knife edges wear and the trem gets less accurate. So after a year its borderline worthless.
The neck is a Wizard II, which is a great feeling neck. Killer for shredding.
UTILIZATION
The upper fret access is great, like on all RGs. The shape is nice and balanced, like all RGs.
SOUNDS
This guitar is obviously geared towards metal players. That said, they picked really crappy humbuckers for metal. These Ibanez V series pickups are among some of the worst pickups I've ever used. They need to be replaced for the guitar to sound good. Period.
The single coil is surprisingly nice sounding and has a cool clean tone.
OVERALL OPINION
This guitar is decent for the price. It has a really nice neck, but the electronics are crap, and the hardware is will be crap after a year of regular use.
With upgraded pickups it can a great sounding guitar, otherwise not so much.
I never actually owned this guitar, but my friend did. And I do all his tech work. I am not kidding when I say that this guitar needed more setups and more maintenance that any other guitar I've had experience with.
So to sum up, yes, its an RG, and RGs are very ergonomically guitars that play great when they're setup right. It even comes with a wizard II neck, and they're awesome. That said, the amount of maintenance require to make this guitar play and sound good makes it not worth it. I realize this is a low end guitar, but in my experience your $400 would be much better spend on an LTD. And if you're heart set on an RG, buy used. Because your $400 will actually get you a good instrument that way.