This is the 7 stringed prestige RG. It has 24 frets and a bolt-on neck, basswood body, passive pickups 1 volume knob, 1 tone knob and a 5-way selector, Edge Pro 7 with locking tunes.
Featured review by:
unregistered, on november 11, 2005 8 of 10 people found this review helpful
Price paid: 1008
Purchased from: Dirk Witte Amsterdam
Features: This is the 7 stringed prestige RG (Japan made). It has 24 frets and a bolt-on neck. It has basswood body. Silver finish. Passive pickups (can change them to actives of course) and you have 1 volume knob, one tone knob and a 5-way selector. It has a Edge Pro 7 with locking tunes (never goes out of tune while using the whammy bar).
For 14 years, the RG has reigned supreme as the king of heavy rock guitars - despite the constant revolutions in music that deposed less powerful pretenders to the throne. Why? Because when you want pcikups that cut through the room, the RG rules. When you need a neck that's thin, flat and fast, the RG rules. When you desire a lightweight body with sexy, comfortable contours and cutaways, the RG rules. But when it's time to play, you rule.
Sound: I play mainly progressive metal on this. Trough my Behringer V-Amp 2.0. The standard pickups are a bit muddy, and not really powerfull. So I can definatly recommend to change them. I can play any style I want on this guitar, it sounds good with any amount of gain. // 10
Action, Fit & Finish: Ibanez is famous because of it's fast action and uber fast necks. And this one isn't different with that. It's great. I love it. // 10
Reliability & Durability: The hardware will go on for a couple of years (10 or so) and everything is solid. I use it for gigs as well. // 9
Impression: I play progressive metal on it and it fits really well. But, only get a 7 string if you already have a good 6 stringed guitar, you sometimes feel like to play on a 6 string, but you simply can't, because you only own a 7 string. So get a 6 string first, then get this monster. // 10
Reviewed by:
Titus777, on august 14, 2006 2 of 2 people found this review helpful
Price paid: 0
Purchased from: Bentley Music Malaysia
Features: Ibanez RG Prestige 7 string model. Made In Japan. 24 frets and a bolt-on neck. Solid Basswood body. Mine is a blue with a slight touch of green on it. Standard Passive Pickups with 1-Volume 1-Tone selector. Edge Pro 7 with locking tuners. Comes with a very nice Ibanez Prestige Team J Craft hardcase (fits perfectly and can only fit the guitar). // 10
Sound: I play Progressive Metal, Neo-Classical with this guitar (Rusty Cooley, John Petrucci, and the likes). Running this Guitar through my Boss GT-6 to my Marshall AVT-150. The guitar is great but the pickups are questionable. Plan to change the pickups to EMG's or DiMarzio's depending on how fast I can save for it. it's muddy and not as powerfull as I expect it to be. But the stock pickups are bearable and won't dissapoint. A change is definate if you're a person Who values tone and power. Not much difference between the Neck and Bridge Pickup. Neck pickup goes muddy when gain is up and the low B-string is played a lot. Bridge pickup lacks the bite and has no power to it's sound. Clean sounds are ok and nothing to shout about. // 5
Action, Fit & Finish: I had a techincian to do minor tweeks to it. It came with 3 springs at the back and added another one. 5 springs make the trem too hard to play with. 4 was just nice to keep it in better tune and stability. Had some intontion check and changed the action as it was slightly higher then usuall. Neck feels great but Ibanez didn't do a great job to the minor details. I can see extra wood used at the headstock. The paint around my pikcup has a very small blotch. Not really noticeable. All in all still a good job. I'm just picky when it comes to these things. // 7
Reliability & Durability: Definately will if you can stand the weight as it is slightly heavier then a normal guitar. Still haven't prepared enough for a real gig yet with this guitar so I cannot comment on it yet. Strap buttons are solid. I would use it on a gig without a backup. Finish looks as if it can last forever if properly taken care of. // 9
Impression: I play nearly everything and this guitar fits it well. With the right pickups this guitar can definately play anything if you know how to. I own an Ibanez S cutomized by me and a Fender Highway 1 also customized by me and the RG7 is different. This guitar gives you the extra string and that really opens up possibilities to your playing. The 7 stringer can play what a 6 stringer can and more. If it was stolen or lost (which I will make damn sure it won't) I'll definately get it back. I Compared it with the Hamer 7 string and still went for this because of the neck. The neck is truly important as it makes the transaction from 6 to 7 a lot easier. Wish it had better pickups. After playing a 7 string, when you return to a 6, the 6 will feel like a toy and feel much moer easier to play (for me). It would take some time to get used to it but when you do, it'll rock hard. // 9
Reviewed by:
chrisbeevor, on june 20, 2007 1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Price paid: 699
Purchased from: music123.com
Features: The 2006 Ibanez RG1527, in an exclusive (and cheaper ;D) gloss black, courtesy of music123.com. Being an Ibanez Prestige, it was made by the notorious Team J Craft (In Japan), once more proving themselves to be workmanship wonders.
The 1527 features 24 jumbo frets, on a 7 string scale with a rosewood board (Pearl dot inlays) and a 5 piece Wizard prestige 7 maple neck for those super flying fingers we all dream of!
The body is solid basswood with a bolt on construction neck.
The finish as mentioned before is a gloss black, making a change from the Royal Blue that this guitar is usually supplied in.
The body is the infamous RG shape, and for those Who somehow are yet to discover the RG, it's basically a typical superstrat.
The bridge is an Edge Pro 7, a licensed Floyd Rose manufactured by Ibanez which is seemingly becoming their most used model on their top guitars, the Edge Pro 7 recently making an appearance on the Universe (Steve Vai's 7 signature) and it's six string counterpart on the Jem.
The electronics are stock Ibanez pickups, but let's face it, they aren't gonna stay!
The controls you get on this guitar are one volume, one tone, and a 5 way Switch (which has all sorts of controls over the tone considering it's only HH configuration)
The tuners are gotoh but are rendered irrelevant a lot of the time due to the locking nut system.
As far as accessories go, Ibanez don't fail to provide you with all you need to get this baby roaring! One Prestige hardcase, more tools for the floyd rose than you can shake a stick at, spare barings for the Edge pro arm and with a manual so big it that makes you wonder if Ibanez have anything to do with deforestisation!
*gasps* A lot to take in right? Now, for the rating on this, I was split for. The guitar is perfect in specification, but lacks a few features that I think could have given it some real edge being:
Dimarzio pickups (Or possibly another brand with equally good tone)
And a HSH configuration
But I suppose Ibanez are just trying to distinguish the Universe a little right? ;]
Anyway, I've given this a 9 but I suppose an 8.5 may have been more just. // 9
Sound: Now as I stated earlier, the stock pickups weren't gonna stay long, however I played with them enough (whilst waiting a few weeks for my to spanky new Dimarzios to arrive) to give you an idea of what they were like.
And that basically is, average. They weren't bad, at all. On the whole, they were tolerable, possibly quite satisfactory pickups. But then Who wants something that's JUST satisfactory? Not me! I wanted to achieve Vai's biting tone, and Petrucci's low end riffs, and feel that real seven string power, but also people to back the gain off, and play some jazz.
So I got me a Blaze Custom for the bridge and an Air Norton for the neck, and those babies brought the guitar to life! I run through an all valve Laney amp, using pretty bog Standard effects pedals, an MXR ZW44 overdrive being the main Drive behind my gain. Clean it has a nice melow jazz tone on the neck, one of the switches settings being able to split the coils and make it even cleaner with a slight, dare I say it, telecasterish sound?! But yeah, clean it is more impressive than you would assume, seeing as this guitar was clearly intended for super low metal riffs. The Blaze Custom on gain has a very high output, distinctive, perfect metal lead tone, and definitely with a few setting tweaks, gets you that Vai lead tone, along with the Dream Theater sort of rhythms, and also being able to achieve a Nevermore sort of tone (Well Chris Broderick used one!) Again, the Air Norton on gain can help you to achieve that Passion and Warfare "For the Love of God" tone alongside Petruccis leads.
I've used this guitar for a lot of A level performances, having to play songs as Sweet Child O' Mine, Jazz pieces (Fly Me to the Moon) and progressive instrumentals such as Building the Church or Glasgow Kiss
These pickups for me turned the guitar into a beauty, and helped me achieve the tone I wanted, but the electronics have to be changed in my opinion, to get the best out of this guitar.
Now, as the sound I presume mainly comes from my modification, with it, I would give it a 9.5, based on the fact that it didn't have a single coil.
Without it, It would probably achieve about a 7, but the guitar has the potential sound amazing, it's the electronics that didn't, So I will give it an 8. // 8
Action, Fit & Finish: The set up was perfect to be honest, the action can keep going down and down! I thought my RG2550 was out of the box satisfaction until I got this. It is truly heaven to play.
The pickups needed to go up a little, but what's the deal? It's just a few turns of a screwdriver
Now finish is where I have a few problems with this guitar, but BARE in mind, I had an exclusive finish, not the typical one and I think it is solely a problem with the gloss black. There is a noticable line in the finish which is visible when reflections appear on the guitar. It's not a major problem, but I'm not sure if it should be there. And also... actually, I'll come back to this in durability....
The neck is perfect as per usual of Ibanez, and is finished and matched well, but there are no flaws otherwise in the guitars construction, so I think the score shouldn't be reflected on appearance, as I am being veeery fussy. // 9
Reliability & Durability: This guitar does withstand Live playing except one thing:
The gloss black, chips like a bitch. I'm not fussy and perfect about my guitars, but I've never seen a guitar chip like that. It's definitely nothing deeper than paint, and having done research I found out it is an issue with gloss black (Explaining why Ibanez typically operate in metallic only these days). But again, what is paint?
The hardware I know will last, it's the same as on my other Ibanez and that has done me proud. Having said that, a red piece of plastic broke quite randomly out of the back of the tremolo. Having taken the back off, I found out this is what holds the ball ends in place in the bridge. Although the functionability of the tremolo was not affected, I'm still curious what caused it.
The strap buttons I standardly replaced to strap locks due to paranoia of dropping this beauty, but the original ones were perfectly fine, and I'm sure would have lasted.
I would never gig without a backup when using a guitar with a Floyd Rose. If a string breaks, tbh, you're screwed, but I trust this guitar and I love it, even though there have been some minor issues. // 8
Impression: Now I'm a guitarist of 3 years now, taking my grade 8 theory and playing, being primarily self taught until the last year or two, studying under two teachers (one being the guitar professor at most English universities of music). As I study music and play in large ensembles of all sorts, a guitar has to be able to cover every corner for me, from death metal to jazz, and this is another guitar that does it. I have a large selection of gear to run it through, but I pair it up most frequently with the ZW44 and the Laney LC15 or 30 to get the basis of my tone. I have no regrets about buying this product, I don't think I could have entered the seven string market in a better way, and in specs, this is very similar to the more expensive Universe, once the electronics are changed.
There is nothing I hate about this guitar, apart from the fact that it's one more string to change ;] I just love the feeling of an Ibanez in your hands, it feels so natural, and the Low B definitely adds a new dimension to my playing.
The product I compared it to was my RG2550, as it is basically the reason I chose to get another Ibanez, but this time I wanted a 7. And it shows that Ibanez are consistent in their quality. Furthermore, on written spec, I compared it to an Ibanez Universe and a Musicman Petrucci 7, as they were basically what I wanted from 7 strings and with a few tweaks, this guitar definitely matched those. But as I said, I wish it had a single coil, then I think it would be unstoppable!
But yeah, bar a few minor hitches, out of the box this gets a 9... with a few mods, 10 or more definitely. // 9
Reviewed by:
Raziel2p, on march 27, 2008 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: 0
Purchased from:
Features: Ibanez Prestige RG-1527 Royal Blue, 2005 model. Made by the J-Custom team in Japan. 24 jumbo frets, Wizard III 5-piece maple/wenge neck, basswood superstrat body, Edge Pro floating bridge, double-locking tremolo system. Stock Ibanez pickups, V7-7 and V8-7 with coil tap and split, 5-way pickup selector, tone and volume knobs. Gotoh non-locking tuners. Usually comes with an Ibanez Prestige case, mine included a manual, some allen wrenches and the tremolo bar. Nothing missing. Came with a set of 09-52 D'Addario (I think) strings. // 10
Sound: Played through a Keeley Electronics modded Ibanez Tubescreamer TS9-DX - a great overdrive pedal, in my opinion, into a Vox AD100VT. Certainly not the best amp on the market, but I managed to get the sounds I wanted out of it. I play metal, and usually go for a death-metal sound similar to Entombed or Carcass, but play a variety of genres. The pickups had no problems doing distortion, but they were extremely muddy. It took a lot of tweaking before finding a setup where I had decent distortion without the notes getting lost in the mud. This was only a problem when playing metal, if I didn't go for a distorted sound, the pickups did fine. I'm especially fond of the coil-split, which sounded very acoustic, but people Who buy 7-strings are usually focused on the heavier genres, so the pickups won't do it. A pickup change will solve this, though, and I suspect Ibanez has just put on these cheap stock pickups so that people can choose the pickups themselves. The potential in this guitar is great, and you can make it sound extremely good with a pair of good humbuckers in it. I don't feel the stock pickups ought to ruin the score of this guitar, but leaving the choice of pickups up to the consumer isn't very friendly on those Who doesn't have experience with pickups beforehand. I'm giving this a 9, but the only reason it doesn't get a 10 is because there's not one pickup that's objectively the best fit for this guitar. // 9
Action, Fit & Finish: The guitar was, as always is the case, rather poorly set up. The bridge was tilting, the guitar was completely out of tune etc. Nothing new here. Once adjusted, you can get quite a low action without much fret buzz. It's a dream to play, when well adjusted. The neck is thin, but I like that, and it's very comfortable for me to play. The only thing I can say is annoying about playing the guitar is that sometimes the tremolo springs start vibrating and make a buzzing noise, but I assume that happens to every floating bridge tremolo now and then. I just strech the springs a bit and it's usually gone. // 9
Reliability & Durability: I've had this guitar for about a year, and it's been through a lot. I've managed to drop it on the floor, and I've put the bridge back into the routing so poorly that it actually just slipped into place when I was playing, making a really unpleasant sound, but it's survived it all without as much as a scratch, and it still plays perfectly. The strap buttons are extra wide, so I haven't needed any straplocks, which I suppose has to be a good thing. The finish is just as pretty as when it was new. I've never had a string snap on me, so I would without a doubt use this guitar without a backup. // 10
Impression: I've played the guitar for over 4 years now, although only seriously for about a year and a half. For metal, this guitar is going to sound noisy, messy and muddy with the stock pickups, but you'll have a lot of choices, buying the specific pickups you're after. The wood of this guitar is of top quality, and it's got a lot of potential, I've witnessed other guitars of the same model using different pickups, and they all sound great in their own way, which is the main reason I've never gotten around to picking a set to buy myself. If there's anything bad to say about this guitar, it's that the Edge Pro tremolo seems a little stiff compared to other Ibanez tremolo systems, but I hardly ever use it, so it doesn't bother me. I might've bought a fixed bridge version of this if it was accessible to me, but it only means I've got to spend more time tuning the guitar, which is just good experience, anyways. This guitar is the main reason I've improved so much the last year, because it's so fun and easy to play. The feel of the neck is superb, and the 7th string adds so much fun without preventing you from playing songs made for the Standard 6 strings. I'm sure that once I put in some better pickups, it'll last several more years and keep on being an inspiration for me to improve and continiue to play the guitar. // 9
aidandude
: im so getting this POSTED: 07/22/2006 - 05:10 am / quote|
EZLN libertad
: i own it, great guitar, i love it to bits, the only thing that drives me nuts is the floating bridge, takes so damn long to tune it when i replace strings POSTED: 09/01/2006 - 12:42 pm / quote|
cheames
: im stuck between one of these and a maverick...bugger...it'll probably be this though....
emokiller17
: is it worth paying that little bit more than the RG1570 (6 string) just so you can get an extra string? POSTED: 10/24/2006 - 05:11 pm / quote|
Mahoru
: Yes, sure it is! ^^ I've used this one and it's the best 7 string guitar I've ever played! POSTED: 11/14/2006 - 01:23 pm / quote|
trollhäck
: is it a very fat neck on this axe? POSTED: 11/22/2006 - 10:35 am / quote|
Mahoru
: Absolutely not. It's almost like a Wizard neck. It's 19 mm (1st fret) - 21 mm (12th fret), and a lil' bit wider than a six string, of course. It's the fastest 7 string ever. POSTED: 01/21/2007 - 06:15 am / quote|
MetalheadA7X
: Yeah i am buying one of these bad boys this month I'm well pleased because i tried one in a guitar shop and fell in love with it, but the universe is amazing too. Shame about the price. POSTED: 03/25/2007 - 05:49 am / quote|
Bygde
: I've tried this guitar at a clinic, and everything is awesome except the pickups. As someone stated earlier, they are muddy! If I would buy this axe, I would order a new bridge pickup (don't use neck very much) at the same time. It just hasn't got that bite from the bridge pickup that I demand! Apart from that, 11/10! POSTED: 12/16/2007 - 04:56 pm / quote|
peaveyT-27limit
: i wonder if any company has made a heavy metal 7string les paul POSTED: 03/27/2008 - 08:32 pm / quote|
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I'm well pleased because i tried one in a guitar shop and fell in love with it, but the universe is amazing too. Shame about the price.