RG420FB Review

It has a very thin 3 piece of maple neck with 24 jumbo fret rosewood fretboard with a bubinga top and a mahogany body.

Features:	10
Sound:	9
Action:	8
Reliability:	8
Impression:	9
Overall rating:	7.9
Reviewer rating:	8.8
Users rating:	6.9
Votes:	50

overall: 8.8

Reviewed by: SOADbeast, on march 10, 2010

Price paid: $ 434

Purchased from: Guitar Center

Features: I believe it was made in 2008 in Indonesia. It has a very thin 3 piece of maple neck with 24 jumbo fret rosewood fretboard with a bubinga top and a mahogany body. It has an Edge III locking tremolo with awesome pickups (INF1/INF2). A 5-way selector Switch and some regular Ibanez tuning posts. Super accessible 24th fret. // 10

Sound: I mainly play metal and rock, and this guitar kicks ass. I am currently using a cheap Spider III 15 watt amp (sucks). It has a really nice chunky tone for rhythms and sharp tones for leads. This hardly ever gives feedback/noise and has some super pristine cleans. // 9

Action, Fit & Finish: Since I got this guitar through UPS, I had some adjustments to make. I'm tired of people saying that this guitar doesn't stay in tune because it DOES if you read the manual and set up the tremolo just right. I had to tune my guitar for the first time in three weeks since the last adjustments were made. Sure it's a pain in the ass to set up, but once you do, you'll be happy. // 8

Reliability & Durability: This guitar can stand live gigs and the hardware seems really sturdy and reliable. If I were to play a live gig, I would probably want to have a back-up guitar which would most likely be a string through or a tune-o-matic bridge just because there is no hassle with those kinds of bridges. // 8

Impression: This guitar is surely a metal/rock guitar! I have been playing guitar for about 4 years. If this guitar was stolen, I would probably buy it again because it is the best bang for the buck. I just love the sound, the playability and the look of this guitar, it is just plain sexy. // 9

Comments

[BGmetal]

Beautiful guitar!

[EpiExplorer]

It is actually very pretty. Red Leicester IbaCheez.

[ProgFolk12]

A 9 for sound with a line 6 spider. Ok then...

[celticstorm84]

ProgFolk12 wrote:

A 9 for sound with a line 6 spider. Ok then...

all personally subjective...

[EpiExplorer]

celticstorm84 wrote:

ProgFolk12 wrote:

A 9 for sound with a line 6 spider. Ok then...

all personally subjective...

Unofficial Rules of the reviews on UG: Anything played through a spider amp of any kind never gets a 9 or 10.

[celticstorm84]

EpiExplorer wrote:

celticstorm84 wrote:

ProgFolk12 wrote:

A 9 for sound with a line 6 spider. Ok then...

all personally subjective...

Unofficial Rules of the reviews on UG: Anything played through a spider amp of any kind never gets a 9 or 10.

"Unofficial" Rules...that's nice. Can't say anything never gets a 9 or 10 played through a Line 6...this did. Uh oh.... o_O

[Bassmastajazzyj]

Line 6 is actually a quality line of amps idk why people constantly bitch about them.

Nice lookin guitar though

[EpiExplorer]

^ Its not bitching, its just determining the boundaries. Line 6 Spider are generally the amps for beginners/people who practice at home. They're not really designed for quality tones. Thats why most people on here view high rated sound sections that include the words 'Line 6' and 'Spider' as untrustworthy.

[Eskil Rask]

A Line 6 amp may sound good .. But it kills the guitar's tone. You can't hear the difference between a Squier Tele and a Gibson Les Paul Standard when you use the "Metal" channel. Trust me .. I've tried.

[xicetraex]

Not a fan of Ibanez.

[crazywatermelon]

I wanted to buy this guitar I really like the nice glassy tone but i didnt care for the action
I am still debating if i should buy this guitar or an RG350ye

[koalabacon]

Bassmastajazzyj wrote:

Line 6 is actually a quality line of amps idk why people constantly bitch about them.

Nice lookin guitar though

maybe you dont understand that they are digital amps.

my friend has a line 6 spider. i have three guitar, all of which sound different on my amp. but when played through the line 6, surprise! they all sound the same.

Youre being fooled into thinking its good.

[ZA58]

I like the wood finish but the reveiw lacks detail

[nairanvac]

Eskil Rask wrote:

A Line 6 amp may sound good .. But it kills the guitar's tone. You can't hear the difference between a Squier Tele and a Gibson Les Paul Standard when you use the "Metal" channel. Trust me .. I've tried.

Some would call that a feature. Those amps are generally aimed toward beginners who don't want to or can't spend a bunch of money on tone. They probably don't anticipate that their customers will be using really nice guitars, so they concentrate on getting a decent sound out of a relatively cheap guitar. If the one sound that you CAN get out of it is decent, why complain about it?

[abbydaddy]

Ya there could be more details in the review but I was already pretty much sold on Ibanez for a middle price range guitar. (4-500 is middle for me) I have an Ibanez acoustic that just refuses to go out of tune and has taken a pretty good beating in airline overhead compartments, and crowded back seats in cars.

[Megadeaf]

nairanvac wrote:

Eskil Rask wrote:

A Line 6 amp may sound good .. But it kills the guitar's tone. You can't hear the difference between a Squier Tele and a Gibson Les Paul Standard when you use the "Metal" channel. Trust me .. I've tried.

Some would call that a feature. Those amps are generally aimed toward beginners who don't want to or can't spend a bunch of money on tone. They probably don't anticipate that their customers will be using really nice guitars, so they concentrate on getting a decent sound out of a relatively cheap guitar. If the one sound that you CAN get out of it is decent, why complain about it?

What about their tube amps? Those aren't aimed for beginners.

[psyguitarist]

No, they aren't just by their price range..however if you red the reviews they are made in conjunction with Bogner and they have tubes but are considered valve amps. which is I am not mistake are a combination of solid state(Digital) and Tube (Analog). I couldn't tell you how they sound..

[deathmetaldemon]

just add some EMG pickups and you'll be burning!!

[leeboy032686]

thats a pretty dirty lookin guitar, very cool. if i had a few hundred extra dollars id contemplate this for an upgrade.

[Jsteele1408]

psyguitarist wrote:

No, they aren't just by their price range..however if you red the reviews they are made in conjunction with Bogner and they have tubes but are considered valve amps. which is I am not mistake are a combination of solid state(Digital) and Tube (Analog). I couldn't tell you how they sound..

I can: Awesome. I've got the HD100. The pre-amp is digital, but the poweramp is Tube. If you only tool around with the stock amp models, you're not gonna get anything too great, but it's when you fiddle with the settings yourself that you find some amazing tones. I've got a massive metal tone dialed in right now with a real tight bottom end.

It's not that Line 6 is a bad company, it's just that people automatically think "Solid State" when they hear "Line 6." But this HD100 is probably the best amp I could have gotten for the price.

[JoePerry4life]

The spiders are bad, good for practice amps for beginners but for live and as a real amp for tone eites not good.

THe spider valves are decent,but they cost too much for what they souhd like imo. THe hd147 is nice and the flextones and vettas are nice.

[LordChrix]

ibanez are for virtuosos, virtuosos sucks

[HALOMUFFIN]

I've had problems with the Edge III bridge, I just wound up hard-tailing it.

[The^Unforgiven]

Edge III isn't as bad as many seem to think, but they do seem to wear down pretty quickly, which will cause the tuning to go unstable more easily. Probably a problem with any tremolo, though.

[TGantz]

I just got the RG420CM for christmas, and I have a Quick question. you guys are saying how the Line 6 amps don't let a guitar's true tone shine. Well, I have a peavey vypyr (30 Watt), which is also a digital amp, if i'm correct. I just wanted to know if Vypyrs are the same way as the spiders, in which you dont get the best sound?

Also, I was planning on upgrading to a Carvin 3 halfstack. Can you guys give/ or show me where a good review is? I heard they were extremely versatile, which is one thing I'm looking for in an amp.

[Jsteele1408]

TGantz wrote:

I just got the RG420CM for christmas, and I have a Quick question. you guys are saying how the Line 6 amps don't let a guitar's true tone shine. Well, I have a peavey vypyr (30 Watt), which is also a digital amp, if i'm correct. I just wanted to know if Vypyrs are the same way as the spiders, in which you dont get the best sound?

Yeah the same can be said for pretty much any solid-state (digital) amp. They don't really have that more natural/organic tone you'll get from tube amps.

[XtremesWolf]

Bassmastajazzyj wrote:

Line 6 is actually a quality line of amps idk why people constantly bitch about them.

Nice lookin guitar though

Well i got 1 spider 3 -15 watts and i think it sucks, its my first amp, a gift , got it for 1 month and already want to change it

[BigHeadClan]

Got this bad boy 6 months ago using Peavy - Vypyr 120 tube amp overkill for someone who started playing a year ago but sounds amazing. Got them both same time best 1300 bucks I ever spent.

[Bert_the_Bear]

psyguitarist wrote:
however if you red the reviews they are made in conjunction with Bogner and they have tubes but are considered valve amps. which is I am not mistake are a combination of solid state(Digital) and Tube (Analog).

As an electronics engineering student, I feel forced to reply to this.
Valves and tubes are the same thing. A Valve amp is a Tube amp. Period.
Solid State indicates the use of transistors, not necessarily a digital system. Transistors are less noisy than tubes, more efficient, less complicated to put in a design and a lot less expensive. They do sound terrible when distorted, something that people like to do with their tube amps.

'Digital' doesn't have to be bad. The tone loss 'because it's digital' can be minimal, no more than the tone loss in a recording.
but of course, that costs money.

[MaggaraMarine]

Have you seen the rg420 with brick color? It's so cool and I think I could buy it because it costs 500 euros but it's on 50% sale so it only costs 250 euros!

[bmikev]

A valve is what they call tubes in jolly olde England.

psyguitarist wrote:

No, they aren't just by their price range..however if you red the reviews they are made in conjunction with Bogner and they have tubes but are considered valve amps. which is I am not mistake are a combination of solid state(Digital) and Tube (Analog). I couldn't tell you how they sound..

[bmikev]

Solid State means it uses transistors set up in analog. in other words the output is an analogous to the input only louder and depending on your settings distorted.

While digital uses transistors they are configured differently so that the transistors work as logic gates. The input is converted into ones and zeros and the logic gates make the sound that you set up then it is converted again back to analog before sending to the power section.

basic electronics.. something every guitar player should learn.

Jsteele1408 wrote:

...Yeah the same can be said for pretty much any solid-state (digital) amp...