Reviewed by:
UG Team, on august 07, 2003
0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 457.5
Purchased from: Music Supplies, Lincoln
Features: Made in 1991, in japan. 24 fret maple neck, possibly from the wizard series, but I'm not sure. Candy apple finish, looks great considering its age. One volume and one tone pot, and a 3 way selector to go between the bridge humbucker and the neck stacked single coil (both Ibanez own brand passive pickups). Body is basswood and neck is maple, as is fretboard. Superstrat body style, generous cutaways allow easy access to all 24 frets. Has a double locking liscensed floyd rose trem, which keep sit all in tune for ages so I don't have to use the quality gotoh tuners a lot. Mine came with an Ibanez hardcase. Sounds quite simple, but I'm not into tonnes of controls, just more to go wrong in my opinion! // 8
Sound: I play mostly rock and metal, and this suits what I play perfectly. I don't solo very often, but when I do it's really easy on this (much easier than the SG copy i traded in for it), and both p'ups suit my rhythm style well. I play this through a Boss MD-2 and HM-2, and a Peavey Chorus Classic 130 watt lead amp. Apart from a few little noises from the loose trem arm, it's quiet when not being played, and I always use the volume and tone on 10. The humbucker is a rich powerful tone and can even handle clean tones really well. The stacked single coil has such a thick deep sound to it, perfect for clean to distorted back to clean songs (think "Fade to black" by Metallica). // 10
Action, Fit & Finish: Beautiful action, couldn't fault it even if I wanted to! Quite low, but makes it so much easier and enjoyable to play than the SG i had. I don't know how well it was set up from the factory as I didn't get it brand new, but its setup really well now. The candy apple finish is beautiful, and apart from a few minor dents and scratches (you cant expect perfection from a 12 year old guitar that's been used regularly) it looks great! The reverse headstock is also finished in candy apple. // 10
Reliability & Durability: Haven't had it very long and havent gigged it yet, but everything is of high quality and well put together so im not expecting it to fall apart any time soon! The tuners, pickups and bridge are all pretty solid and could quite easily handle live playing. I use strap locks (not the permanent replacements, just the plastic clips that go over the strap on the buttons), and they give me that little bit of extra confidence that it wont fall off, but the strap buttons are pretty decent, could maybe do with being a little longer. Since I've got this guitar I barely ever use my Squier Strat, as it's of far less quality, and that lack of quality is now noticable. Because of that, I don't actually have a backup guitar that I consider gig worthy, so I have no choice but to not use a backup guitar, but im careful, not too showy and I can depend on this to last. // 10
Impression: I've been playing nearly 2 years, and this is my main guitar. Of course there are loads that I want to buy but I don't feel the need right now as this is still pretty new to me. I sorta wonder if Kev realised what he was selling me, as I feel like I've ripped him off, lol. I'd been looking for a new guitar to trade the SG in for for a few months, and I was going to buy an ESP LTD M50, which is a nice guitar, but not a patch on this! Originally I deliberatly opted for sting-through body guitars as I was a bit sceptical about the floyd rose, but I'm glad I got one with a double locker now as it opens up many more options to me, and im not constanstly tuning it in all the time. Just one question, I don't know if it's supposed to be there, but mine has a small plastic clip on the back of the headstock, and its not for the locking nut allen key or the trem bar, so I'm confused as to what it is for! lol, maybe a cigarette or something! // 10
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