NGD - Ibanez RG hardtail

Megii

This arrived today - won't say it's perfect, but for the money I paid (£419) I'm happy, and I can make it very nice with a little effort. The front is a very thin clear matt/satin - you can see and feel the grain in the wood, which I do like. However there are rough little specs on the finish that you can also feel - they kind of flick off with a fingernail. Anyhow I'll probably smooth it with some fine wire wood and buff it up a little. In general it feels a bit like the guitar was finished in a hurry - there's nothing awful, and I can fix it up nice, but if I'd paid the MSRP of £619 I'd be a bit pissed off to be honest. Looks better than it feels at the moment basically.

It's a very light weight guitar - the body wood is Nyatoh, which looks a lot like mahogany but is obviously way lighter. The fret board is Macassar ebony - it's very dark but not quite black, and with a bit of figuring visible if you look closely - pretty nice. Wizard III neck is slim, but not outrageously so - I find it very comfortable, I also like the look and feel of the baked maple. Upper fret access really is excellent, way better than a strat, which is one thing I was after. The black sprayed logo on the headstock is a bit heavy looking IMO, but I can live with that.

Have yet to try it plugged in, but it has the nice Dimarzio Air Norton and Tone Zone pickup combination - the pickups are set pretty close to the strings, so I'll probably want to lower them a bit. The action is set a bit high, and the guitar will almost certainly will benefit from a fret level and dress, which I can do. Not sure what gauge strings are on it, but I'll put some decent 10s on there. Maybe could do with better pots and selector switch... So a bit of work to do in general, but I think it will be a keeper.

ThePrettyDamned

Beautiful guitar. I'd imagine if the finish was buffed etc it would add to the cost - having a satin sprayed on and left looks nice but can leave some specs. Might be nice if they wire wooled at the factory...

Gorgeous guitar though. Hngd! 

not_the_dj

Nice that. Enjoy. 

Megii

ThePrettyDamned said:

Beautiful guitar. I'd imagine if the finish was buffed etc it would add to the cost - having a satin sprayed on and left looks nice but can leave some specs. Might be nice if they wire wooled at the factory...

Gorgeous guitar though. Hngd! 

not_the_dj said:

Nice that. Enjoy. 

Cheers chaps! Just been playing it again - I do basically really like the guitar, and it is a lot of guitar for the money really. I guess they have to cut a few corners where they can to be able to churn these things out and be able to sell them to us at the the price they do. So I've bought a small guitar project in a way, but essentially a hell of a nice guitar for not a lot of money.

guitarmangler

I love the fixed bridge ibanez’s, good score. I personally have my beady eye on the catchily named RG421HPAM. 

skullfunkerry

Very nice! I've got the RGRT421, it's a silly amount of guitar for the money, tbh.

Happy new guitar day

Megii

guitarmangler said:

I love the fixed bridge ibanez’s, good score. I personally have my beady eye on the catchily named RG421HPAM. 

skullfunkerry said:

Very nice! I've got the RGRT421, it's a silly amount of guitar for the money, tbh.

Happy new guitar day

Cheers both of you! Forgot to say, but mine is the RGEW521FM-NTF - you know it's not a good name when have to google it...  

grungebob

That’s very nice. And exactly the type of thing I’d be buying if I wanted a new heavier guitar. I like the exotic woods version of this guitar also. 

Megii

grungebob said:

That’s very nice. And exactly the type of thing I’d be buying if I wanted a new heavier guitar. I like the exotic woods version of this guitar also. 

Cheers @grungebob - I did look at those exotic wood versions too, the zebrawood one in particular I liked. Went for this one because of price mainly, and I do like a bit flame maple. I'm not into metal styles at all lol, so I'm hoping I can use this guitar for other things. A friend has a nice Musicman Axis with the same Dimarzio pickup combination, and that is actually a pretty versatile guitar.

Already have the guitar in bits now , it's getting a fret job and a tidy up. Not sure I want to tackle the electronics yet, but probably will when I've had a think.

lysander

Lovely guitar ! You must have bought it from guitar guitar ? I’ve been tempted by that price too, great deal.
 I have the zebrawood version as per my avatar, and even though it needed a bit of work just like yours, it’s one of my favourite guitars ever,
it feels like the perfect working tool so to speak: very comfortable, versatile and practical.
I love the light weight. 
Enjoy !

lysander

Oh and FWIW mine definitely didn’t need a fret dress, I was able to setup the action nice and low with no excessive buzz, but it did need a good fret polish, which takes a bit of elbow grease but is dead easy. 

duotone

I like the look of that, especially the neck & cream colour pickups.

Happy NGD!

LPManic

Very nice. What do you play on it?

Megii

lysander said:

Lovely guitar ! You must have bought it from guitar guitar ? I’ve been tempted by that price too, great deal.
 I have the zebrawood version as per my avatar, and even though it needed a bit of work just like yours, it’s one of my favourite guitars ever,
it feels like the perfect working tool so to speak: very comfortable, versatile and practical.
I love the light weight. 
Enjoy !

Yes indeed Guitarguitar - I liked a few of the RG521 variations, but it was the price on this one that made the choice for me really. It's still in bits at the mo lol - have now fixed the finish, and am upgrading the wiring with CTS pots - the stock ones aren't brilliant and they used a linear pot for the volume, which I hate. Also a bit of work getting the pickups to adjust lower. But agreed - basically a fantastic working tool, can't go wrong.

lysander said:

Oh and FWIW mine definitely didn’t need a fret dress, I was able to setup the action nice and low with no excessive buzz, but it did need a good fret polish, which takes a bit of elbow grease but is dead easy. 

Have to admit the frets do look pretty well done, just by eye. I'll give them a closer inspection before long anyhow - it would be fantastic if they don't need work, but no probs if they do anyhow.

duotone said:

I like the look of that, especially the neck & cream colour pickups.

Happy NGD!

Cheers! I'm most happy with the look also - I think I might have picked a different finish if it hadn't been for the low price on this one, but now I've got it, it's growing on me. I know it's only a veneer, but the flame maple is very striking.

LPManic said:

Very nice. What do you play on it?

I guess jazz mainly, as that is my main thing, but also in a band that does blues, funk and pop stuff. Just from the brief time I've played the guitar (before taking it to bits lol) it actually seemed excellent for funk chord stuff. And (in a very modest way) I do hope to get into some of the current technical modern rock/instrumental guitar styles, al la Guthrie, Tom Quayle etc.

stratcat

I had one of these delivered yesterday. It's a great deal for the price and I'm really made up with it.
I've just put new strings on and set it up and I'll play it a bit before I tweak/upgrade it to my taste.

Mine was made in 2018 which is, according to the Ibanez Wiki, a  mahogany body, yay! My neck is not as dark too. 
The only thing I don't like is the knobs, they seem too smooth to me, not easy to grip. They'll get replaced when I get around to upgrading the pots etc. The frets are really scratchy too but they'll get a polish at some point in the near future, I can live with them for now.
I'll look forward to seeing how yours is after your work on it.

Megii

stratcat said:

I had one of these delivered yesterday. It's a great deal for the price and I'm really made up with it.
I've just put new strings on and set it up and I'll play it a bit before I tweak/upgrade it to my taste.

Mine was made in 2018 which is, according to the Ibanez Wiki, a  mahogany body, yay! My neck is not as dark too. 
The only thing I don't like is the knobs, they seem too smooth to me, not easy to grip. They'll get replaced when I get around to upgrading the pots etc. The frets are really scratchy too but they'll get a polish at some point in the near future, I can live with them for now.
I'll look forward to seeing how yours is after your work on it.

Cheers @stratcat - I think mines a 2019. Mahogany is very cool to have though,  congrats on the new guitar and nice one there.

I've just finished re-wiiring mine - I kept the existing 5-way, but replaced the pots with 500K CTS log/audio taper and fitted a "treble bleed" to the volume - things I normally do to get guitars how I like them. On the RG it is not a job for the faint-hearted though - fine wires from the Dimarzios and the stock Ibanez switch is a delicate thing too.

Had a look at the frets - I've seen worse, but decided I would do a fret level in the end - am now finishing that job today, then I can get a set of 10-46 on there, set up and should be good.

stratcat

Megii said:On the RG it is not a job for the faint-hearted though - fine wires from the Dimarzios and the stock Ibanez switch is a delicate thing too.

I put a crunch lab and liquifire pickups and some pots in an RG about ten years ago. Yes, much harder than an Fender or Gibson guitar that's for sure!
I'm thinking new pots, treble bleed (just like you) but I may go to a three way. I'll see if I get into the other positions on the switch first. I've put a set of 9's on mine, tweaked the truss rod and lowered the action. I'd forgotten how easy to play RGs are. Ha ha.
Happy NGD to both of us!

hollywoodrox

Happy NGD it’s beautiful

Megii

stratcat said:

Megii said:On the RG it is not a job for the faint-hearted though - fine wires from the Dimarzios and the stock Ibanez switch is a delicate thing too.

I put a crunch lab and liquifire pickups and some pots in an RG about ten years ago. Yes, much harder than an Fender or Gibson guitar that's for sure!
I'm thinking new pots, treble bleed (just like you) but I may go to a three way. I'll see if I get into the other positions on the switch first. I've put a set of 9's on mine, tweaked the truss rod and lowered the action. I'd forgotten how easy to play RGs are. Ha ha.
Happy NGD to both of us!

Thanks, indeed happy NGD to us!

I really wanted to keep the Ibanez 5-way wiring, so kept the custom switch - made a diagram before the re-wire, but if I'd known what a ball ache the job would be I might have thought twice. The stock switch just has little spots on a pcb to solder on to, although I believe there's a version you can buy with metal tags. And those fine wires from 4-connector humbuckers break so easily at the connection - the wiring has to be done/supported in a way that doesn't put any strain on the joints. Got there in the end though. First time I've had an RG, but yes, wonderfully easy to play, I love the guitar, and versatile also - much more than just a rock/metal speed machine.

hollywoodrox said:

Happy NGD it’s beautiful

Cheers, much appreciated!

LordOxygen

That looks great. 
I'm looking for a guitar of similar ilk myself, good buy for the price if you can fettle it into shap yourself.
Congrats and hngd

Megii

LordOxygen said:

That looks great. 
I'm looking for a guitar of similar ilk myself, good buy for the price if you can fettle it into shap yourself.
Congrats and hngd

Thank you! I do think it's an excellent buy. I would say, just based on the guitar I received, that frets, finish and wiring could be better - and all three are easily improved if you have a little skill. That said, it's a perfectly use-able guitar as supplied - if it was a Prestige or Japanese custom model, I'd expect better, but for the price it's great.