@TaylorDanley I believe the differences in neck is because Ibanez actually has several different factories as well as several neck profiles. I have 2 that are the same model but different years. One has a wizard 2 neck, the other a wizard 3.
In the world of top youtubers being cancelled, and a app filled with horrible things. at least we can go to this channel and know the dude running it is chill asf
late 90s/early 2000's was def the era of "Ibanez/BC Rich are the ONLY metal guitars. Les Paul? Strat? Jackson? What are your doing here grandpa? Playing gLaAaAAaAaaaAaM? BLEGH!"
@@Divine_Serpent_Geh You would think with how metal has gained so much popularity since that time period there would be more eccentric metal looking guitar shapes. Nah, super strats and the occasional baritone tele.
@Tzalmavet it's simple. People want quality guitars. They shop for guitars using their hands and ears not their eyes. Boomers are bad at that. They shop with their eyes, meaning they pay for a name or look. Millennial don't do that.n
So spot on about Ibanez pickups from like 15 years ago. Bought a 7 string guitar and the pickups just had no punch at all, even at higher volume it was "quiet" in a way...
I had a Korg GA-20 for the longest time, super solid tuner for the $20 it cost me at the time. Especially when I'm first getting started and had no idea how to tune by ear, it was nice to just get tuning done and get to playing.
It's my main guitar, got it off a gamer for $200 (AUD) like he said it's great for mods. I swapped the pickguard for a single humbucker one, put a DiMarzio d-Activator with a volume pot, Gotoh tuners, Tusq nut and brass black saddles. it looks sick and sounds awesome. i like the neck too but I'm no shredder. The body wood is very soft and dents pretty easy, the guitar is light in weight too, i think Ibanez released this year a tremolo bridge version of it. I prefer the hard tail.
Nice! I've modded mine similarly as well. Went with hot Irongear pickups at first but then went all EMG X on it just for fun and since I really like the neck
I think with the budget guitars they use a thicker neck profile for stability because the wood is of lessser quality and not seasoned like some of the more expensive wood.
@@homergump3 oh haha, amazing! That was the closest thing I could find to the one I used to own. It took, no joke, hours before I was like “I’m wasting a bunch of time for this one 2 second reference” lol
Great point about the cheap tremolos on cheap guitars. My first electric guitar as a teenager in the early 2000s had a non locking tremolo on it and it would always go out of tune, so i went off any type of tremolos for over a decade because i thought they all just went out of tune. I didnt really have the internet and was self taught, so didnt have the education to understand how good quality locking tremolos worked etc.
Or how about the spring noise? It's like if you are a beginner trying to follow along to some shred lesson, and you keep hearing this weird noise, but then assume it's just your playing that sucks.. that can be frustrating!
@@TaylorDanley For sure, keep it simple while learning the basics aye. My sons 11 years old and been learning guitar for a year now, and i got him a hardtail Ibanez RG Gio and he loves it.
I bought one at the war beginning at 2022, now she’s my favourite! Stunning playability and feeling! Even better than my prs se custom fr! I love it absolutely!❤
When I got back into metal after detouring into Elliott Smith folk pop I bought an Ibanez Gio very similar to this. The necks on these feel so good. Even after I got decent LTDs and an Epiphone, plus a Mex Tele, the Ibanez Gio Neck just felt like thin hard butter. Yummy. I put a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge (I'm getting some noise tho, never was a good electronition lightning wizard) but , when it works, it sounds really good for less than 200$. Your tone is pretty chunky. I prefer a little less bass/ low mids, but hey!? I'd buy another one. Maybe this one as a project guitar. Minus the pickups. See above. I'll take it in for that. 😂. Good review. But the neck on mine is gorgotitious.
3 years ago that exact model was my first guitar, it was good enough for me and it did the job of getting me hooked and ready to spend a bit more. After half a year of playing that guitar I bought an Ibanez RG421HPFM-BRG which is a phenomenal guitar for the price in my opinion. Now I own 7 guitars; still those 2 Ibanez, 2 Schecter and 3 LTD's. The Schecters and the LTD's are all a lot more pricey than my RG421, but I just had my local luthier put Gotoh locking tuners and stainless steel frets on the RG and I still come back to it a lot, which has to mean something considering the fact that I spent 650 Euros on it when I first got it, and my hardtail LTD M1000 was 1500 Euros. Same style of guitar, more than double the price and I love both of them. Well, the LTD feels a bit better and I play it more often, but that's reflected in the price anyway
I would love to see a pickup shootout using that guitar as a platform! Maybe Seymour/Dimarzio/EMG/GFS? I don't know, just a suggestion. I know those kind of video's can get costly, but would be cool to see.
Oooh, got one of these as a mod project and it's amazing: Switched to active EMG X pickups, ditched the tone knob and put the volume knob lower, new saddles, graph tech nut, Gotoh locking tuners, rounded the fretboard edges, filed a few sharp frets, sanded and sprayed the entire neck (and headstock edges) matte black (which holds up surprisingly well to this day) and now it looks all... Ibanez Iron Label. if you squint a lot. The amaranth fretboard goes way darker if you give it some oil too.
I have a local build, with a slim shreddy neck, guess what, 1 or 2 piece of mapple can't handle an overbend (other strings go lower a fewer cents), especially when you pull that low E open string while trying to bend on 15th fret on B string, to reach that high e note, the low E would go down a few cents. Hence the Wizard neck uses better truss rod and 4-5 pieces of different neck for strength and consistency, and it does not come cheap. Can't do that for GIO price range. Hence the thicker neck profile despite it's GRG (Gio line up for RG series). GRG is a good to go, after electronic upgrades and pickup swap though, IMO.
My first guitar was a 1988 Strat. My brother died one year before I was born, so he left me this gift, a "welcome" like he wrote :) It's hard to come close to this marvelous guitar, but these cheap ones are getting better and better everyday. With some adjustments and top strings, you have a really nice piece of equipment!
Ibanez RG-120 was my first guitar and had it until it just stopped working. Probably lasted 8 years or so? Started getting cut-outs in the signal, then it just stopped working. That guitar, some cheap overdrive "metal" pedal that looked very metal, and a $200 CRATE amp with two 10's........just ungodly heavy. I loved it. I miss it. It hid so many of my mistakes.
I have this guitar for 1,5 year, and I have to say it's pretty good. Doesn't get out of tune easily, the neck feels good and for that money it sounds great
I have the same guitar, it plays great and I liked the fretjob in my example. I've set locking tuners and emg 57/66 in drop b and 12-60 strings. I'm satisfied
Got a 1984 Ibanez Roadstar ii in 1986?Best guitar ever. It’s lived Inside, outside, upstairs, downstairs in the Midwest. Never warped and stays in tune to this day. True friggin road dog!!!
My first guitar was an Ibanez Roadstar II (RG230) with three blade-type single coil pickups, gloss black neck and sparkly green body (pickups were set into the body not into a strat type pickguard - which made it that much more awesome to me). It was metal as hell, and super comfy as a starter guitar. Been hunting down another, and love using their necks for custom builds.
I recently bought this as my second ever guitar (my first is a cheap Donner strat clone), and it's absolutely amazing. I put some heavier strings on it and tuned it down to Drop C and it just works. Looks sick af, plays great, and most importantly inspires me to practice more
I bought this guitar in April of this year and am completely satisfied with it. It is the second budget Ibanez I have bought. (like a brand new guitar) The first one was the 1990 Ibanez 440HH and cost ~$750 new. I still play it after 34 years, 😮 but wanted a guitar with reverse headstock and without Floyd Rose to be able to quickly change to drop D e.g.
I own one Ibanez currently, the RGMTM2. Yes, the Mick Thompson signature model. It's everything I wanted back in 2007, and today. That cheap one kind of echoes the MTM2 a bit, if it didn't have the pick guard. The MTM2 has a reverse headstock, no inlay, huge frets, slim AF neck, 5 way switching, single volume knob, a fixed Edge Tremolo, locking nut, and came tuned to B#. Seventeen years later, fuk where did the time go, the guitar has aged wonderfully. The white blinding is now a creme color. It's basically built like a tank, and chugs harder than a locomotive. Though with the five way switching, it can do twangy like a Tele, on one of the out of phase settings. In summary, it was worth every penny.
I already have a 7-string cheap Ibanez (GRG7221QA-TKS) and this vid played itself while I was eating, and I stayed untill the end, good content bro. Oh and my Ibanez has sliiim neck for a 7-string especially, feels like a 6.
I like Ibanez, late 80s model basically a gsa60 but the horns were a bit more pointy, was my first guitar. My dad has the guitar now and it still is played. The scotch guard green scorning pad takes off the gloss finish on the neck very very nicely.
A mod platform is exactly the right place for a lot of the lower end Ibanez guitars. I picked up a RG470AHM for about $350, threw in a Gotoh 1996t trem and gotoh locking tuners and it plays great! Also a lot of the low end stuff will have burs on the frets and such, so a little cleanup should be expected
When i was a kid, i really wanted a jem. With the handle cut out and the super busy fret board. Jackson, though, because dave mustain Im a fan of hh with a 5 way. Get coil spits at 2 and 4
I have the Ibanez S670Qm and love the lightweight of the body but I'm not a fan of the middle pickup because that's where I strum so I lowered it quite a bit.
I bought one of those S520ex guitars like you showed. It’s in my closet. I bought it with my first paycheck at guitar center. It was around 350 with my discount.
The GRX20 (in Black) was my first guitar that I bought on my own for my 15th birthday. No more Hondo LP copy borrowed from an uncle, no, this was MINE! I loved it until it wasn't cool to love things anymore ( as a teenager that didnt take long). In the many different moves ( 11 schools in 6 years) it was broken and i got tired of dragging it around... id do anything to have it back...
Fantastic guitar! I bought one to bring along work trips and this instrument is worth every dollar. Plays beautifully after a set up, amazing what you get nowdays compared to 15 years ago.
6:34 "Most beginners are probably not going to plug in and, eh, wanna dive bomb" maybe not dive bomb, but for me the whammy bar seems like the ultimate beginner attractor. With little to no skill, you can make cool noises!
I got the red and black version of this guitar about 2 months ago and I love it!!. It has a rough spot on the neck but I'm gonna take care of that. I fully intend to replace the pickups and put in locking tuners, but it really plays and sounds great, especially for the price!!! It's the perfect mod guitar.
Most important reason to go for hardtail guitar for something that is metal: a beginner will bounce back and forth between E-standard and Drop-Ds... and trem is a PiTA in that case.
I still have my cheap RG from the late 90's. It was the first guitar I was able to purchase with my high school job money, and it still plays great to this day. I think the pick ups are surprisingly good stock, and I have no clue what they are 😂
I actually have their cheap 7 string the GRG7221 and it's freaking amazing, I've used it in a few of my videos. Love that guitar, only thing I would upgrade are the tunners. They are not bad but don't have the best feeling.
I own an 1985 Ibanez XV-500. Awesome guitar, it has a wammy on it, that only lets it dive bomb. It has 2 humbuckers, a pìck switch, and only a volume knob. Mid 80s metal guitar. Rare though, they only made just over 700 of them.
I mostly play Mustangs now, but my first guitar was an Ibanez GIO GRGR131EX. I wasn't even into the idea of playing metal or anything and didn't even use it to play metal -- it was just a really cool guitar and affordable, so I got it. It's probably why I still prefer reverse headstocks. It looked cool and it sounded cool, and I still keep it around despite getting far better guitars over the years.
I got the red and black ibanez you happen to show when showing the amazon screen shot. its good and its the guitar that got me back into guitar when i got back into it. im not an ibanez fan tho, more into jackson.
I bought a GR 330 a few months ago (pretty much same guitar w/flat black finish and reversed headstock, except it has the double-locking trem, and maybe upgraded on the pickups?). Love it. Great metal guitar for under $400.
@@Cuckoorex i have the same guitar, got it bc of the tremolo, used the tremolo, and its absolute garbage, i put 10s cause im stupid and now when i bend too much the string slips out the saddle
Same! At the tail end of the 90s, i was obsessed w KoRn so i saved up a couple hundred bucks and went the Ibanez route too. 2p years later i got back into the hobby and went the 131 DX route as well. Such bang for your buck. I dare say Ibanez has a sweet share of the market for entry level metal head customers
Proud owner of a Japanese Ibanez rg7620 vampire kiss, very similar to the one Wes Borland was playing at the beginning of the video.. it's old, been rode hard, but still is the most comfortable playing experience out of any guitar I've ever owned!!! Picked it up for $500, wouldn't sell it for a million!!!
i have this very guitar and i fucking LOVE it. it is hard to beat for the price and i do plan on upgrading the PUPs at some point, though they dont sound bad AT ALL
I recently bought a GIO 7-string RG style guitar and honestly, it's fine. Some sharp frets and I needed to raise the action to get the first fret to not sound dead, but it's still a decent playing guitar. What surprised me is that the neck isn't Wizard-y at all, much beefier than I'm used to with Ibanez necks... I've got a MUCH nicer old RG 7-string, and this neck is closer to the AX7221 baseball bat I've got as well. Still, nice guitar. Sounds fantastic, plays fine!
My Ibanez Gio sounds pretty awesome... with heavier gauge strings especially. Worst problem with a $176 is : wont stay tuned... and the truss rod is iffy... like... it just spins when you get so far the left to straighten the neck. 🤷♂ 🤷♂ not a bad guitar otherwise.
@@x--LeethaL--x that sucks. I didn’t have any issues with this one, but it certainly would benefit from a better nut and tuners. When you say heavier gauge strings it makes me wonder how much weight you put on the neck? Typically when I gauge up for lower tunings I try to use strings with the same tension, and rarely have to adjust the truss rod because of it
This has massively helped me understand my next move. I have 1996 RX70 and paid about $350 AUD back in the day. It sounds almost exactly like what you're playing in this video. I'm more into deathcore these days than my Cannibal Corpse, Deicide, Malevolent Creation from the 90s. I feel like it's time to upgrade because I just had the old girl come back from being cleaned up after not being played for 20yrs and she doesn't have the bite I want and your video explained why. Thank you!
I bought an Ibanez SA260FM for 85GBP on eBay from a local chap. An absolute steal. Seeing videos like this makes me think I should look for another Ibanez...
I have an ibanez GRX20Z BKN. the guitar that is $179, when i got it, it needed some fretwork and it has issues with the jack every once in awhile but other than that, it feels great to play.. Ibanez seems to care about their instruments!
Love Ibanez RG with reverse headstocks! I have RGR652 Prestige and damn its the best guitar I own. I need to find RGR with one humbucker and edge tremolo. There was one like this and now its my dream 😎 And talking about necks profiles. On Ibanez website you can check every model neck thickness. Checked necks on 7 Ibanez guitars, and they were about 90% correnct with info on the website. More expensive Ibanez, more chance to have 1:1 neck profile haha
I’m a beginner and my first guitar is an Ibanez that looks kinda like this and it was about $350. I laughed when you said “unless you’re a Dimebag fan or something” because my first pedal was a digitech whammy because of him 😂
ibanez are decent guitars. I have a standard. i regretted not buying it when I bought my fender strat, so I bought one later on. it does sound nice. and do I have to mention it is easy to shred? awesome review
I love Ibanez guitars (old Fujigen RGs and Prestige) but they generally have pretty subpar stock pickups. Here's it's even more obvious, there's always this "fuzz" type of quality to their pickups as if they're always blended with the neck pickup and the tone knob rolled of a little. Any cheap Ibanez needs a to have the bridge pickup replace for something better imo.
i have a grx40. literally the cheapest. but its great. wizard thin neck with a narrower than normal nut. i bought a spare neck and it was like 50% thicker.
Still have my OG made in Japan Wizard neck IBZ RG570 with the pink fuzzy interior hardshell case Got it from a pawn shop in Sarasota FL in the 90’s $120. I still play on it in 2024 …and an IBZ UV777 I got at Thoroughbred Music $900 in the mid-ish 2,000’s
@@DavidAllenMD yeah I saw that one too, very cool. I feel like I’m over compensating because up until maybe 10 years ago, reverse headstocks were a rarity
@@TaylorDanley yeah man i still have the stock neck pickup in there and i have the invader neck to put it in it but i NEVER play clean lol . its a great guitar tho the stock pickups are just thin. but the all black goes hard
I fucking love Ibanez, got an Ibanez RG220B when I was like 15 in 1999, upgraded the pickups to Seymour Duncan JB and Jazz pickups and blocked the trem. It was my gigging guitar til I quit playing live at 21. Still love that guitar, also got 6 more RGs and a JEM Jr. now.
Awesome review, Taylor 😎🤘🏻🎸 I’ve always liked Ibanez rg guitars and this guitar looks awesome. Especially that blue Ibanez rg guitar from earlier in the clip. It looks really nice. I have 2 Ibanez grg 7-string guitars both in different blue finishes and they’re one of my most treasured guitars.
Thanks to D'Addario for sponsoring, check them out here! sweetwater.sjv.io/DKPj4j
Or since you live in usa why not do a review of the cheapest 8 string guitar on amazon?
@TaylorDanley I believe the differences in neck is because Ibanez actually has several different factories as well as several neck profiles. I have 2 that are the same model but different years. One has a wizard 2 neck, the other a wizard 3.
In the world of top youtubers being cancelled, and a app filled with horrible things. at least we can go to this channel and know the dude running it is chill asf
@@blackout1893 I don’t have, and never will run lotteries aimed at children. Scouts honor 🙋♂️
@@TaylorDanley LMFAO
@@TaylorDanley Just for that i joined your patreon, golden response
@@blackout1893 thanks champ, glad to have you! 💪
@@TaylorDanleywhat does this mean? Lol
I don’t really listen to much Metal, but i always find myself watching Metal channels because they just make some of the best content out there!
Hello from the metalheads
i think it's due to the fact that most metalhead have that chill asf energy about them
I think because they enjoy their music. Whiny music has whiny emo screamo alternative unchill.
late 90s/early 2000's was def the era of "Ibanez/BC Rich are the ONLY metal guitars. Les Paul? Strat? Jackson? What are your doing here grandpa? Playing gLaAaAAaAaaaAaM? BLEGH!"
@@riffsnoleads this is true!
Big ups to BC Rich. That aesthetic is mostly dead these days, and that’s why I love them so much now. The super strat train has gotten boring for me.
Ltd has been around since forever too, but I generally agree with what you're saying
@@Divine_Serpent_Geh You would think with how metal has gained so much popularity since that time period there would be more eccentric metal looking guitar shapes. Nah, super strats and the occasional baritone tele.
@Tzalmavet it's simple. People want quality guitars. They shop for guitars using their hands and ears not their eyes. Boomers are bad at that. They shop with their eyes, meaning they pay for a name or look. Millennial don't do that.n
So spot on about Ibanez pickups from like 15 years ago. Bought a 7 string guitar and the pickups just had no punch at all, even at higher volume it was "quiet" in a way...
Nothing wrong with upgrading pickups, Ibanez makes solid, quality guitars.
That old school Korg tuner is what’s up.
It still works!
Still have one like this. And its good as hell 😎
I had a Korg GA-20 for the longest time, super solid tuner for the $20 it cost me at the time. Especially when I'm first getting started and had no idea how to tune by ear, it was nice to just get tuning done and get to playing.
It's my main guitar, got it off a gamer for $200 (AUD) like he said it's great for mods. I swapped the pickguard for a single humbucker one, put a DiMarzio d-Activator with a volume pot, Gotoh tuners, Tusq nut and brass black saddles. it looks sick and sounds awesome. i like the neck too but I'm no shredder. The body wood is very soft and dents pretty easy, the guitar is light in weight too, i think Ibanez released this year a tremolo bridge version of it. I prefer the hard tail.
Nice! I've modded mine similarly as well. Went with hot Irongear pickups at first but then went all EMG X on it just for fun and since I really like the neck
sounds very evh
@@KennyJosephNiven yeah except for the tremolo bridge, to be honest I could do without the volume pot as well, it's always turned to 11! 🤘
I think with the budget guitars they use a thicker neck profile for stability because the wood is of lessser quality and not seasoned like some of the more expensive wood.
That makes a whole lot of sense. It also might be made in a factory pumping out several different brands generic necks
no it takes more sanding to get them thinner
@@KennyJosephNiven they are CNC cut , there is no sanding except for finish work.
Dude, I OWN that green Ibanez RG570 you showed in the beginning. Nice!
Like, that's my photo from my live listing!
@@homergump3 oh haha, amazing! That was the closest thing I could find to the one I used to own. It took, no joke, hours before I was like “I’m wasting a bunch of time for this one 2 second reference” lol
Great point about the cheap tremolos on cheap guitars. My first electric guitar as a teenager in the early 2000s had a non locking tremolo on it and it would always go out of tune, so i went off any type of tremolos for over a decade because i thought they all just went out of tune. I didnt really have the internet and was self taught, so didnt have the education to understand how good quality locking tremolos worked etc.
Or how about the spring noise? It's like if you are a beginner trying to follow along to some shred lesson, and you keep hearing this weird noise, but then assume it's just your playing that sucks.. that can be frustrating!
@@TaylorDanley For sure, keep it simple while learning the basics aye. My sons 11 years old and been learning guitar for a year now, and i got him a hardtail Ibanez RG Gio and he loves it.
I had a $300 GIO bass and it was crunchy as f**k. I loved it.
i love the rise of purpleheart in the modern guitarmaking, such a unique wood
I bought one at the war beginning at 2022, now she’s my favourite! Stunning playability and feeling! Even better than my prs se custom fr! I love it absolutely!❤
I had to sand the fret edges and file down the saddle screws. Its an amazing instrument after all that.
I've had this guitar for about 3 years and even though I have gotten more expensive guitars I still use it very regularly :)
Can't go wrong with Ibanez
Nope, I own 6 RG's 🤘😁...........and a ESP LTD Jeff Hanneman signature series.
@@pistonheddYeah, I have 7 RGs and a JEM Jr. Great guitars!
I personally have an RG470 and had a GRG as my first one. Y'all making great choices
GIO is a crap guitar, I've had 2 and both sucked, wouldn't stay in tune, sounded tinny.
My first guitar was a 86' Ibanez Roadstar series II. Oh I miss it.
Mine was an 84’ Roadstar ll and I still have it 40 years later! That friggin thing has been thru hell and has never warped and stays in tune.
i just bought the ibanez grx20 bkn 3 days ago and i can proudly say that the quality of that guitar is fascinating
When I got back into metal after detouring into Elliott Smith folk pop I bought an Ibanez Gio very similar to this. The necks on these feel so good. Even after I got decent LTDs and an Epiphone, plus a Mex Tele, the Ibanez Gio Neck just felt like thin hard butter. Yummy. I put a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge (I'm getting some noise tho, never was a good electronition lightning wizard) but , when it works, it sounds really good for less than 200$. Your tone is pretty chunky. I prefer a little less bass/ low mids, but hey!?
I'd buy another one. Maybe this one as a project guitar. Minus the pickups. See above. I'll take it in for that. 😂.
Good review. But the neck on mine is gorgotitious.
Tried one at my local GC. If it had jumbo frets it would be a killer deal.
3 years ago that exact model was my first guitar, it was good enough for me and it did the job of getting me hooked and ready to spend a bit more.
After half a year of playing that guitar I bought an Ibanez RG421HPFM-BRG which is a phenomenal guitar for the price in my opinion.
Now I own 7 guitars; still those 2 Ibanez, 2 Schecter and 3 LTD's. The Schecters and the LTD's are all a lot more pricey than my RG421, but I just had my local luthier put Gotoh locking tuners and stainless steel frets on the RG and I still come back to it a lot, which has to mean something considering the fact that I spent 650 Euros on it when I first got it, and my hardtail LTD M1000 was 1500 Euros. Same style of guitar, more than double the price and I love both of them. Well, the LTD feels a bit better and I play it more often, but that's reflected in the price anyway
I would love to see a pickup shootout using that guitar as a platform! Maybe Seymour/Dimarzio/EMG/GFS? I don't know, just a suggestion. I know those kind of video's can get costly, but would be cool to see.
Oooh, got one of these as a mod project and it's amazing: Switched to active EMG X pickups, ditched the tone knob and put the volume knob lower, new saddles, graph tech nut, Gotoh locking tuners, rounded the fretboard edges, filed a few sharp frets, sanded and sprayed the entire neck (and headstock edges) matte black (which holds up surprisingly well to this day) and now it looks all... Ibanez Iron Label. if you squint a lot. The amaranth fretboard goes way darker if you give it some oil too.
I have a local build, with a slim shreddy neck, guess what, 1 or 2 piece of mapple can't handle an overbend (other strings go lower a fewer cents), especially when you pull that low E open string while trying to bend on 15th fret on B string, to reach that high e note, the low E would go down a few cents. Hence the Wizard neck uses better truss rod and 4-5 pieces of different neck for strength and consistency, and it does not come cheap. Can't do that for GIO price range. Hence the thicker neck profile despite it's GRG (Gio line up for RG series). GRG is a good to go, after electronic upgrades and pickup swap though, IMO.
FWIW, I have the Daddario XPND small board, and it's great. So flexible and fits in various gear cases for gigs.
My first guitar was a 1988 Strat. My brother died one year before I was born, so he left me this gift, a "welcome" like he wrote :) It's hard to come close to this marvelous guitar, but these cheap ones are getting better and better everyday. With some adjustments and top strings, you have a really nice piece of equipment!
The Strat tremolo hate 😂 absolutely feel your pain man, and I'd def love that one or the red and black model!
Ibanez RG-120 was my first guitar and had it until it just stopped working. Probably lasted 8 years or so? Started getting cut-outs in the signal, then it just stopped working. That guitar, some cheap overdrive "metal" pedal that looked very metal, and a $200 CRATE amp with two 10's........just ungodly heavy. I loved it. I miss it. It hid so many of my mistakes.
I have this guitar for 1,5 year, and I have to say it's pretty good. Doesn't get out of tune easily, the neck feels good and for that money it sounds great
I have the same guitar, it plays great and I liked the fretjob in my example. I've set locking tuners and emg 57/66 in drop b and 12-60 strings. I'm satisfied
Got a 1984 Ibanez Roadstar ii in 1986?Best guitar ever. It’s lived Inside, outside, upstairs, downstairs in the Midwest. Never warped and stays in tune to this day. True friggin road dog!!!
Yep bought that one as well. The one with the red, I have the original 90s version.
I literally just got this same guitar used last week for $150 and it outplays some of my older expensive guitars lol. No complaints for the price
I’ve had this guitar for about 6 months or so. Replaced the nut with a graphtec through some 12-64’s on it and tuned it to drop a. Thing can rip
I was just looking at this guitar earlier!! couldnt have posted this at a better time!!
My first guitar was an Ibanez Roadstar II (RG230) with three blade-type single coil pickups, gloss black neck and sparkly green body (pickups were set into the body not into a strat type pickguard - which made it that much more awesome to me). It was metal as hell, and super comfy as a starter guitar. Been hunting down another, and love using their necks for custom builds.
I recently bought this as my second ever guitar (my first is a cheap Donner strat clone), and it's absolutely amazing. I put some heavier strings on it and tuned it down to Drop C and it just works. Looks sick af, plays great, and most importantly inspires me to practice more
Love these videos so much. Please do that other Ibanez too, would love to see it
Had that same guitar. Threw a good pickup in and adjusted the kneck a bit. Then it play pretty good!
Yeah the more time I spend with it, the more I'm like "I really should have paid closer attention to the pickups and my critique". They aren't great.
@@TaylorDanley yo what pickups do u recommend putting on it
I bought this guitar in April of this year and am completely satisfied with it. It is the second budget Ibanez I have bought. (like a brand new guitar) The first one was the 1990 Ibanez 440HH and cost ~$750 new. I still play it after 34 years, 😮 but wanted a guitar with reverse headstock and without Floyd Rose to be able to quickly change to drop D e.g.
I have a 7 string Gio series with the same 5 way configuration, I believe the 2 and 4 positions are coil splits.
I own one Ibanez currently, the RGMTM2. Yes, the Mick Thompson signature model. It's everything I wanted back in 2007, and today. That cheap one kind of echoes the MTM2 a bit, if it didn't have the pick guard. The MTM2 has a reverse headstock, no inlay, huge frets, slim AF neck, 5 way switching, single volume knob, a fixed Edge Tremolo, locking nut, and came tuned to B#.
Seventeen years later, fuk where did the time go, the guitar has aged wonderfully. The white blinding is now a creme color. It's basically built like a tank, and chugs harder than a locomotive. Though with the five way switching, it can do twangy like a Tele, on one of the out of phase settings. In summary, it was worth every penny.
11:51
The most beautiful short song intro (PAL)
I picked up a new Ibanez RG GiO 7 string back in January and it's super fun to play.
I've a GRG7221
I already have a 7-string cheap Ibanez (GRG7221QA-TKS) and this vid played itself while I was eating, and I stayed untill the end, good content bro. Oh and my Ibanez has sliiim neck for a 7-string especially, feels like a 6.
I bought one for the lulz and it's literally my favorite electric I own. Just put some locking tuners on it and it golden!
i have the black/red GIO and it is a really good entry metal guitar for the buck!
I like Ibanez, late 80s model basically a gsa60 but the horns were a bit more pointy, was my first guitar. My dad has the guitar now and it still is played. The scotch guard green scorning pad takes off the gloss finish on the neck very very nicely.
A mod platform is exactly the right place for a lot of the lower end Ibanez guitars. I picked up a RG470AHM for about $350, threw in a Gotoh 1996t trem and gotoh locking tuners and it plays great! Also a lot of the low end stuff will have burs on the frets and such, so a little cleanup should be expected
I love getting cheap guitars and making minor upgrades to bring it to the next level - thanks for the video dude!
When i was a kid, i really wanted a jem. With the handle cut out and the super busy fret board.
Jackson, though, because dave mustain
Im a fan of hh with a 5 way. Get coil spits at 2 and 4
I have the Ibanez S670Qm and love the lightweight of the body but I'm not a fan of the middle pickup because that's where I strum so I lowered it quite a bit.
I bought one of those S520ex guitars like you showed. It’s in my closet. I bought it with my first paycheck at guitar center. It was around 350 with my discount.
The GRX20 (in Black) was my first guitar that I bought on my own for my 15th birthday. No more Hondo LP copy borrowed from an uncle, no, this was MINE! I loved it until it wasn't cool to love things anymore ( as a teenager that didnt take long). In the many different moves ( 11 schools in 6 years) it was broken and i got tired of dragging it around... id do anything to have it back...
New sub here and I saw the Krank amp in the background and now I’m a sub for life
@@Joshua083 it’s one of my faves for sure!
Your first Ibanez was mostly a repainted one that someone stuck a Kahler on. Ibanez never used those trems.
My first ibanez was gax70 I loved it about to find another one and put dimebuckers or emg 81 86 in it
I've had mine since it was released and it sounds awesome through my peavey JSX just the way it is.
I've got that mini-universe reverb pedal. I got it from Temu, and it's awesome!
Fantastic guitar! I bought one to bring along work trips and this instrument is worth every dollar. Plays beautifully after a set up, amazing what you get nowdays compared to 15 years ago.
6:34 "Most beginners are probably not going to plug in and, eh, wanna dive bomb" maybe not dive bomb, but for me the whammy bar seems like the ultimate beginner attractor. With little to no skill, you can make cool noises!
I got the red and black version of this guitar about 2 months ago and I love it!!. It has a rough spot on the neck but I'm gonna take care of that. I fully intend to replace the pickups and put in locking tuners, but it really plays and sounds great, especially for the price!!! It's the perfect mod guitar.
I love that r&b one do they only come with a trem though? That mostly white and red is nice too
@@off6848 No, only a hardtail.
I bought a silver burst Ibanez geo used for $140 and it plays awesomely
Digging the black sharkfins
Most important reason to go for hardtail guitar for something that is metal: a beginner will bounce back and forth between E-standard and Drop-Ds... and trem is a PiTA in that case.
I still have my cheap RG from the late 90's. It was the first guitar I was able to purchase with my high school job money, and it still plays great to this day. I think the pick ups are surprisingly good stock, and I have no clue what they are 😂
I actually have their cheap 7 string the GRG7221 and it's freaking amazing, I've used it in a few of my videos. Love that guitar, only thing I would upgrade are the tunners. They are not bad but don't have the best feeling.
I own an 1985 Ibanez XV-500. Awesome guitar, it has a wammy on it, that only lets it dive bomb. It has 2 humbuckers, a pìck switch, and only a volume knob. Mid 80s metal guitar. Rare though, they only made just over 700 of them.
Is this a beginner friendly guitar?
Do you have a suggestion for a affordable guitar, like this one, but with a super thin neck?
Thank you
I mostly play Mustangs now, but my first guitar was an Ibanez GIO GRGR131EX. I wasn't even into the idea of playing metal or anything and didn't even use it to play metal -- it was just a really cool guitar and affordable, so I got it. It's probably why I still prefer reverse headstocks. It looked cool and it sounded cool, and I still keep it around despite getting far better guitars over the years.
I started with Ibanez still got my 7 string RG but I came up at same time every guitar magazine had Ibanez in it
I got the red and black ibanez you happen to show when showing the amazon screen shot. its good and its the guitar that got me back into guitar when i got back into it. im not an ibanez fan tho, more into jackson.
I had a real old gio with a floating trem, that thing was awesome
I bought a GR 330 a few months ago (pretty much same guitar w/flat black finish and reversed headstock, except it has the double-locking trem, and maybe upgraded on the pickups?). Love it. Great metal guitar for under $400.
@@Cuckoorex i have the same guitar, got it bc of the tremolo, used the tremolo, and its absolute garbage, i put 10s cause im stupid and now when i bend too much the string slips out the saddle
@@brhvoicu ah, I never use the trem much, maybe that's why I'm having a better experience.
For the price that’s great. I wish my first guitar was as good as that lol . Sounded good through the plug in
Same! At the tail end of the 90s, i was obsessed w KoRn so i saved up a couple hundred bucks and went the Ibanez route too. 2p years later i got back into the hobby and went the 131 DX route as well. Such bang for your buck. I dare say Ibanez has a sweet share of the market for entry level metal head customers
They have an affordable version with a Floyd type trem too!!!
Proud owner of a Japanese Ibanez rg7620 vampire kiss, very similar to the one Wes Borland was playing at the beginning of the video.. it's old, been rode hard, but still is the most comfortable playing experience out of any guitar I've ever owned!!! Picked it up for $500, wouldn't sell it for a million!!!
i own a ibanez grg7. its a nice guitar. its the 7 string version of the one you used.
I just love the look of that guitar. Don’t care if it’s a Gio. It just looks brutal. That’s enough for me really.
i have this very guitar and i fucking LOVE it. it is hard to beat for the price and i do plan on upgrading the PUPs at some point, though they dont sound bad AT ALL
I recently bought a GIO 7-string RG style guitar and honestly, it's fine. Some sharp frets and I needed to raise the action to get the first fret to not sound dead, but it's still a decent playing guitar. What surprised me is that the neck isn't Wizard-y at all, much beefier than I'm used to with Ibanez necks... I've got a MUCH nicer old RG 7-string, and this neck is closer to the AX7221 baseball bat I've got as well.
Still, nice guitar. Sounds fantastic, plays fine!
I love mine. Have it tuned to Drop C.
My Ibanez Gio sounds pretty awesome... with heavier gauge strings especially. Worst problem with a $176 is : wont stay tuned... and the truss rod is iffy... like... it just spins when you get so far the left to straighten the neck. 🤷♂ 🤷♂ not a bad guitar otherwise.
@@x--LeethaL--x that sucks. I didn’t have any issues with this one, but it certainly would benefit from a better nut and tuners. When you say heavier gauge strings it makes me wonder how much weight you put on the neck? Typically when I gauge up for lower tunings I try to use strings with the same tension, and rarely have to adjust the truss rod because of it
This has massively helped me understand my next move. I have 1996 RX70 and paid about $350 AUD back in the day. It sounds almost exactly like what you're playing in this video. I'm more into deathcore these days than my Cannibal Corpse, Deicide, Malevolent Creation from the 90s. I feel like it's time to upgrade because I just had the old girl come back from being cleaned up after not being played for 20yrs and she doesn't have the bite I want and your video explained why. Thank you!
I bought an Ibanez SA260FM for 85GBP on eBay from a local chap. An absolute steal. Seeing videos like this makes me think I should look for another Ibanez...
I have an ibanez GRX20Z BKN. the guitar that is $179, when i got it, it needed some fretwork and it has issues with the jack every once in awhile but other than that, it feels great to play.. Ibanez seems to care about their instruments!
Why doesn't anyone adjust pickups before immediately swapping them?
because swapping is more fun! :D
Love Ibanez RG with reverse headstocks! I have RGR652 Prestige and damn its the best guitar I own. I need to find RGR with one humbucker and edge tremolo. There was one like this and now its my dream 😎
And talking about necks profiles. On Ibanez website you can check every model neck thickness. Checked necks on 7 Ibanez guitars, and they were about 90% correnct with info on the website. More expensive Ibanez, more chance to have 1:1 neck profile haha
I’m a beginner and my first guitar is an Ibanez that looks kinda like this and it was about $350. I laughed when you said “unless you’re a Dimebag fan or something” because my first pedal was a digitech whammy because of him 😂
ibanez are decent guitars. I have a standard. i regretted not buying it when I bought my fender strat, so I bought one later on. it does sound nice. and do I have to mention it is easy to shred? awesome review
I'm a metal head, hard rock head. classic rock head, classical, country and bluegrass head. I like anything that has some catchy music too it.
I love Ibanez guitars (old Fujigen RGs and Prestige) but they generally have pretty subpar stock pickups. Here's it's even more obvious, there's always this "fuzz" type of quality to their pickups as if they're always blended with the neck pickup and the tone knob rolled of a little. Any cheap Ibanez needs a to have the bridge pickup replace for something better imo.
i have a grx40. literally the cheapest. but its great. wizard thin neck with a narrower than normal nut. i bought a spare neck and it was like 50% thicker.
The first guitar I bought myself after a few years of hand me downs was an Ibanez GIO HH fixed bridge. I think this was 1996.
Still have my RG550 that I bought new in 1987. Love it to death.
Still have my OG made in Japan Wizard neck IBZ RG570 with the pink fuzzy interior hardshell case
Got it from a pawn shop in Sarasota FL in the 90’s $120.
I still play on it in 2024
…and an IBZ UV777 I got at Thoroughbred Music $900 in the mid-ish 2,000’s
i have the one wth the red pick guard and red shark tooth inlays and i out invaders on it it plays like BUTTER not reverse headstock tho
@@DavidAllenMD yeah I saw that one too, very cool. I feel like I’m over compensating because up until maybe 10 years ago, reverse headstocks were a rarity
@@TaylorDanley yeah man i still have the stock neck pickup in there and i have the invader neck to put it in it but i NEVER play clean lol . its a great guitar tho the stock pickups are just thin. but the all black goes hard
I fucking love Ibanez, got an Ibanez RG220B when I was like 15 in 1999, upgraded the pickups to Seymour Duncan JB and Jazz pickups and blocked the trem. It was my gigging guitar til I quit playing live at 21. Still love that guitar, also got 6 more RGs and a JEM Jr. now.
Awesome review, Taylor 😎🤘🏻🎸 I’ve always liked Ibanez rg guitars and this guitar looks awesome. Especially that blue Ibanez rg guitar from earlier in the clip. It looks really nice. I have 2 Ibanez grg 7-string guitars both in different blue finishes and they’re one of my most treasured guitars.
my current/first guitar is a ibanez and it is great