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Ibanez RGA42

Name: RGA42
Brand: Ibanez
SKU: 87298
Rating: 4.3 (6 reviews)

STC-Shaped Guitar from Ibanez belonging to the RGA Standard series

6 reviews

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Reviews 6 6

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4.3/5

(6 reviews)

33 %

(2 reviews)

67 %

(4 reviews)

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Value For Money : Excellent

iamqman

Rock and Roll

Published on 01/31/12 at 08:58

Ibanez is really known in my opinion primarily for their great overdrive distortion pedals called the tube screamers. They also are quite known for their very inexpensive and budget friendly guitars as well. This is one of those guitars that really gives a budgeted musician the chance to play a good shredding metal guitar and a very low price. These guitars I would feel and a great sound for anything hard rock and metal oriented. These guitars almost always feature humbucker pickups and some sort of troubles. But the most important thing I think with these guitars are their fantastic feeling necks.

UTILIZATION

The tone on these guitars isn't really the highlight of the instrument. You don't really have a whole lot of soul or tone involved. However if you need a good shredding guitar and you need one at a very low price of this is a great instrument to own.

SOUNDS

I really like the sound of these guitars with a good overdrive pedal in front of the Marshall amplifier or even a Mesa boogie amplifier. Pretty much anything in a high gain setting up fantastic with the Ibanez guitars. Neck profile is very comfortable and it's extremely fast so playing up and down the frets can be quite comfortable and easy. When you put a good clean setting on an amp than you will really have a hard time giving you that nice sparkle or clean sound. It won't give you a clean sound like you would get out of a Fender telecaster or a fender Stratocaster but anything was a good overdrive is the sound fantastic with this good.

OVERALL OPINION

These guitars can be had pretty much anywhere you find musical instruments. These guitars are very easy to find because they are low in price and so many retailers will carry the Ibanez product line. If you need something that's going to be somewhat budget friendly but really it can give you a great feeling sound this is the way to go.

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heads on fire

Metal warriors, rejoice!

Published on 12/28/11 at 11:02

SPECS
Neck Material: 3pc Maple
Neck Type: WIzard III
Body: Mahogany body/ Flamed Maple top
Frets: Jumbo frets
Fingerboard: Bound Rosewood
Inlay: Pearl dot inlay
Bridge: Gibraltar Standard bridge
NeckPU: LZ3-N
BridgePU: LZ3-B
HW Color: CK
Finishes: TGB, BBB, TRB

NECK DIMENSIONS

Scale/Length 648mm/25.5"
a: Width at Nut 43mm
b: Width Last Fret 58mm
c: Thickness 1st Fret 19mm
d: Thickness 12th Fret 21mm
Radius 400mm
PICKUPS
Bridge Pickup
Name: LZ3-B
Model No: LZ3-B
Construction: Humbucking
Magnet: Ceramic
Description: Active pickup. High-output fat sound, yet tweaked to produce a balanced clean sound.

Neck Pickup
Name: LZ3-N
Model No: LZ3-N
Construction: Humbucking
Magnet: Ceramic
Description: Active pickup. High-output fat sound, yet tweaked to produce a balanced clean sound.

Active mid-cut EQ switch
Gibraltar Standard bridge for increased stability and sustain

UTILIZATION

Nice axe! This guitar has a great playability for this price range, and the balance is quite nice. The active EQ switch is an interesting feature, though I'd prefer to have a traditional tone pot on there as well. Also, the Gibraltar bridge has a great feel to it - no sharp edges to dissuade you from palm muting! Fretwork could have stood up to some more detailed filing, but it was decent.

SOUNDS

This RGA sounds very nice plugged in. The EQ circuit, when activated gives the guitar a neat "scooped" tone, boosting the lows and highs while cutting the mids. This makes a nice, palm-muted metal rhythm tone very easy to achieve, and for solos, one can kick the circuit back off to boost the mids. This is very cool stuff here!

OVERALL OPINION

Metal warriors, rejoice! While it is good enough to be used in many styles, this guitar is a fantastic rhythm or lead guitar for metal. The styling is distinctive enough to stand out, classy enough to be remembered, and functional enough to keep players happy. Recommended.

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Hatsubai

Hard tail version of the RGA

Published on 08/18/11 at 14:06

This is the second in the series of three RGAs that Ibanez decided to release to help bring new life into the RGA line up. The main difference is that this has a hard tail bridge and binding. The guitar has a mahogany arch top body, a maple neck with a rosewood fretboard, 24 jumbo frets, binding, dot inlays, a hard tail bridge, two active humbuckers, one volume, one special shaping knob and a three way switch.

UTILIZATION

This is the hard tail model, and it actually has another feature that the previous one I reviewed didn't have -- binding. The binding adds a nice touch of elegance to this, but it also kinda reminds me of some of the cheaper models that Ibanez released at one point in time. Ironic, I know. The frets are pretty good on this, and the nut is nicely cut. No real major issues to report. The finish could have been a touch better around the electronics cavity, but it's a minor complaint. I'm actually not a huge fan of the hard tail bridge since I'm a long time floyd user, but it's a solid bridge.

SOUNDS

The pickups in this are the new active electronics that Ibanez has employed in these guitars. They're pretty cool, but I tend to prefer EMGs to these. The bridge is nice and powerful. You can get some good bite going on, especially with an adjustment of the active EQ knob that's on this. However, it's easy to make it sound thin if you're not careful. The neck is a bit bright for my liking, but a quick turn of the active EQ knob tends to help calm that down. That's actually my biggest complaint. I hate tone knobs, and constantly having to fiddle with that is a real pain.

OVERALL OPINION

The guitar is very solid, and if you're looking for the next RGA121, this is probably the closest you'll get. It's got a few flaws for my own personal tastes, but I assume most people would rate this guitar fairly highly. It was resonant, had a perfect weight and sounded pretty decent overall.

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rookieshredmeister

Published on 12/11/09 at 04:31

Probs not made in the US with it not being a prestige but who cares. not me! Great guitar for those that like to bend and trem without the faff of a Floyd Rose. 24 jumbo frets and cutaway body allow easy access to high notes. Two Ibanez active pickups contend well with their EMG equivalents. I have invested in and 81 and an 85 but i guess I'm just vein.

UTILIZATION

Lightweight and thin profile make it extremely playable. high frets are easily reachable. the machineheads are tight and stay in tune despite it not being double locking. It's easy to get a good sound out of this guitar. the neck is however a little wide in my opinion but maybe i just have to get used to this as my old guitar had a very thin neck.

SOUNDS

I use a vox vt30. a very versatile modeling amp and this guitar can take advantage of all the sounds. This guitar is a metal machine. i use it mainly for hardcore in my band. it also is great for clean sounds. the active pick ups lower the noise level and provide high output.

OVERALL OPINION

Purchased this guitar not long ago. Actually did a part exchange for an old prestige I never played. Even having to pay and extra 50 quid for a lower spec guitar, i wasn't disappointed. Perfect precision and quality of sound. Great value all round. compared it to a Jackson and an ESP LTD for around the same price and the Ibanez one hands down!

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Read the 6 user reviews on the Ibanez RGA42