@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 walking into the music store with buying a guitar in mind, owning a beginner Chinese strat, I wanted either a BC Rich or a Gibson, maybe a Jackson. The owner of the store looked at my hands playing them and asked if I felt comfortable playing those, I personally didn't know but he said it didn't look right, he then offered me an Ibanez RG model and the moment I put my hand on that neck it felt like picking the right wand (RG270DX). The guitar also looked great and was cheaper than anything I was looking at and I've been a regular customer for decades until they closed shop a couple of years ago. The Ibanez Wizard necks only grew more on me over time and just bought an Iron label RGRTB621-BKF a couple of days ago. Absolutely love it. I never compared different builds of the same model so it could be I didn't notice inconsistent necks and I've just been lucky?
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.
Great video! I bought one of these as a husk, then I modded it with a Chinese loaded pickguard, dirty fingers pickups, and Goto locking tuners😊 One thing that impressed me about it was how slim the neck was so I guess I got lucky on that part 😜. Later I will upgrade the pots and switches, for now it feels great!
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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 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
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!!!
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...
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 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.
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.
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 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 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
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 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.
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.
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!!!
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 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.
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 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 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 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 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 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.
I had to sand the fret edges and file down the saddle screws. The fretboard was also THIRSTY when it came in so i had to apply some lemon oil. Its an amazing instrument after all that.
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’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 😂
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.
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 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!
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 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...
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.
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 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!
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.
My first real guitar was an Ibanez that i ended up having for 3 years (my first guitar ever was a Harley Benton) and it did it's job very well. It was my first metal guitar that i spent countless hours on practicing with. Eventually i bought myself a Jackson JS22 Dinky because i wanted to play songs in drop B and i stopped playing on the Ibanez and ended up selling it. A year later or so i bought myself an Ibanez once again (the Ibanez GSA260) and it's one of my favorite guitars ever. I don't know what it is with Ibanez guitars but they are great and there are reasons for why big guitarists such as Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Herman Li and Paul Stanley play them. These days i much more prefer Jackson over Ibanez but they will always have a place in my heart no matter what
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
