I was browsing the music shop and felt a few guitars, when I picked this up, I just fell in love with it. It just feels so good and it's so easy to play. I bought it then and there. When I got it home I checked for reviews to see what other people think about it and was very pleased to see your review and all the good comments. You get a warm fuzzy feeling to pick this guitar up to play.
How is the weight on this model? I bought an s series for its light weight but after playing strats for so long I’m not a huge fan of how the s series sits on me. Looking for something a bit lighter than an American strat.
thanks for the review, just ordered one after playing a cheap fender strat for years, wanted a humbucking guitar to play distorted loud rock, but im glad to hear that it sounds good clean as well!
Thank you for your review Mr John Baker. Well done! You shred better than most of the wannabes pretending in the local bars hereabouts. I am going to take your advice and get me one of these axes!
That bridge reminds me of a telecaster sounds great , iv just switched to ibanez from fender and dont like the floyd trem so this is perfect for me thanks alot 👍🏻
Yeah, I'm not a trem guy myself... I can just about cope with a simple synchronised trem but Floyd trems are a pain to set! And yeah the number of different sounds the RG can kick out with the 5-way switching and some subtle control on the tone knob is almost unreal.
@@PixieMinie don't get me wrong, I would love a 3k custom shop tele. Beautiful guitars, so good, so good. But you can get a guitar that plays 90% of the way there for a fraction of the price. I just wish I had unlimited money... :'(
this is pretty much the same as the one I purchased Ibanez RGA42FM-BLF Blue Lagoon Burst Flat, that is the one thing I also notice versatility they not just metal guitar
I've got the same guitar, but I swapped the Quantum pickups for Invaders. You would think it would be a total metal beast after that, but now it just sounds like a fusion dream machine. Especially hooked up to a tube amp, this guitar sounds like a katana blade lopping a head off.
I grabbed one used at GC. It plays a lot faster than my Epi LP special ii or Kramer offset V. I can gallop pick/chug on this thing. A new levellllll... Of confidence.... and powwwwwerrrrrr
I’m late to the comment party but I have a RG6003FM, it’s a GC exclusive. Same exact guitar as the 421 except I have a flame maple too and all black hardware. Great instrument all around.
Thank you for great review! I was searching for something to upgrade my Squier Affinity, something that has 24 frets and is an Ibanez :) and your review helped me a lot! At first I was searching for a guitars with a whammy bar, as I often (try to) play Van Halen stuff, but those RG421s are looking so nice and are relatively cheap, so I will just try to learn songs without whammy bar :). I just can't decide between colors of those 421s (mahagony, blue moon or yours strawberry) - they are all beautiful. Do you still have this guitar? Do you think it's a good improvement to squier affinity?
I do still have it - it’s got crazy heavy gauge strings on and is tuned to drop-C and still sounds and plays great. It would be a great follow-on or companion to a Squire Affinity!
also what’s the difference between the ibanez rg421 and the ibanez s421, are the essentially the same thing? how are they different? i have an s421 so i’m just curious bc i don’t know much ab the technical side of guitar
The biggest difference is the body shape and thickness. The S421 is very thin, has a rounded profile and has rounded horns. The RG has a flat top, is thicker (although not too thick) and has pointier horns. Depending on the exact variant, the pickups and other hardware may be better in the RG (especially in newer versions), but I think they did start off as pretty much the same setup.
I just ordered mine and have to wait for Ibanez to ship them out. Worldwide due by end of next month. edit: Do you reckon the tuners should be replaced or are they not all that bad for stock?
Worth the wait in my opinion - was noodling on mine earlier for the first time in while and I'd almost forgotten just how fluid it plays and good it sounds on the neck pickup! The tuners are ok for stock... I've got mine in C-standard at the moment with NYXL heavy gauge on and I picked it up after not using it for 3 weeks and only the low C needed a slight tuning, everything else was still spot on...
Great review! I am looking to get my first guitar, and I am torn between this and the RGA42, have you tried it and can you give a suggestion to witch one I should get?
I've not had the chance to play the RGA42, but if memory serves the main difference is a set-neck (or is it thru-neck) on the RGA42 vs the bolt-on of the 421. They're both super fast "Wizard" necks. The pickups and hardware are the same for both I believe and I can vouch that the RG421 is still going strong, and I'm still finding the pickups to be good for everything I throw at it as I get better!
@@smaariseth You are absolutely correct! I'm getting it mixed up with a slightly different model that has the neck-thru (RGRT621)... Either way, RG421 or RGA42 are both fantastic shred machines, and if they've got the Quantum pickups with 5-way switching they can do every other style pretty well too.
Hey man nice and honest vid. I have a question if possible, what's the difference between the rg421 and the rgrt421? The rg421 it's like 40€ cheaper but i don't know what's the difference. Thank you for the bid btw!
The rgrt421 has a neck-thru construction (and a reversed headstock I think) whereas the rg421 is a bolt-on neck (contoured heel). The neck profile, hardware and pickups are the same on both models I believe.
I think it just comes down to the neck joint... In terms of playability they'll both be the same as far as I can tell. Do you want a neck-thru for slightly better transmission of vibrations from neck to body or do you like the idea of a bolt-on (with a carved neck joint anyway).
Mine’s the bolt-on and still plays and sounds great. I’ve got it in drop-C and play funk and jazz on it. Yep, pointy headstock, drop tuning, 12-54s and I use it for pretty much anything other than metal most of the time 🤣
Just tried it - it's not perfect in the classical position, but the body cut sits on the leg quite well and feels comfortable enough with a good position for fretting on the neck. I don't sit in that style though so I wouldn't want to comment definitively on it!
Pretty much! It can go strat like with the neck humbucker in parallel or the 2 inner coils selected, or full on metal with either bucker or both buckers selected 😀.
In what sense? In terms of fit and finish, the higher end models are definitely a bit better but it's not bad by any means. The higher end fixed bridge models have a higher mass bridge but the one on this works fine and the higher models have locking tuners which this doesn't. The higher end models do have much nicer pickups - the quantum ones in this model are okay for general use, but skilled metal players will want tighter pups and depending on what you like playing YMMV (the neck pup is surprisingly good for jazzier styles actually) In terms of controls, it's got a 5-way selector that goes neck-series, neck-parallel, both-humbucker, both-split, bridge and you've got a tone and volume - I believe the more "metal" oriented models lose the tone control and have a 3-way switch and a coil-split switch. Does that answer the question?
Hello Jon, can you please tell me did you check the tone knob on this guitar, i just bought this one and when i am moving the knob of tone i cant see any difference ? please can you help me advice me on this
Yeah - if you turn the tone all the way down it should (and does on mine) cut out the high frequencies leaving a "muddy" sort of sound. It will depend on how you have your amp set though - if you have that muddy to start with, you may not notice too much difference, but if you like trebly amps you really should!
@@JonBakerMusic I am using Komplete native instrument with guitar rig 5 and have check sound but when i change the tone knob turn down or up it does not make any difference i feel like this is useless knob?
You may need to check the wiring on your guitar then, as it definitely should do something. It really does change the tone, but it will depend on the amp (or amp sim) setting and how much miss and highs you have on the amp sim. I would check that there's not a loose wire on the tone potentiometer in the control cavity of your guitar though in case your tone pot has become disconnected...
Different beasts really - the CV Squiers are great guitars, but have a classic feel and neck profile with 3 single coils whereas the RG is a really fast, thin/flat neck dual humbucker rock machine (although particularly good at blues and even jazz too actually!). Both are really good and it just depends how they feel in your hand as to which is the right one for you.
There are no hard and fast rules for this really... Typically metal might tend towards bridge settings, and a more jazzy player may use the neck pickup more. The bridge pickup tends to have bite and a brighter sound, with the neck pickup being a warmer rounded sound - particularly noticeable on this guitar. The split pickup mode works pretty well for a funk tone (it's kind of similar to the "in-between" positions on a Stratocaster, which are the standard for funk/disco etc.). The parallel setting things out the sound and acts a little like a single coil, but not exactly the same sound. Having both pickups engaged is a full, powerful sound that might be good for a strong rhythm part or similar... Really, despite what "conventional wisdom" might say about pickup settings for particular genres/types of playing - it's all personal preference and players will use what sounds best to them. The RG has plenty of variation in it's pickup sounds so use what sounds good to you 🙂
Yes - if you're in the UK you can get it from Gear4Music, and I'm sure other retailers probably do it. There's a black version of the one I've got (for around the same price) and a black version of the "High-performance" version that has upgraded pickups (and possibly upgrade hardware - not sure...) that is more expensive.
Depends on whether you want a tremolo system or not. The 420EG has a trem and V7/ V8 pickups whereas the 421 has a fixed bridge and quantum pickups. Both have a similar type of neck and will play similarly although I haven't personally played the 420EG so that's mostly a guess!
Nope... It's really weird but if you play the first 3 chords of Smoke on the Water the guitar spontaneously explodes... 🤣. On a slightly more serious note, the pups in it love a bit of crunch so it could probably do a mean rendition of Smoke if you really wanted to! (Or any of the classic rock era) 🙂
It's just that everyone learns to play it early on (as it's really quite easy), so it's often played by beginners trying out guitars in shops who perhaps haven't learnt to tune the guitar very well yet or are still learning not to press too hard on the strings so pull the tuning a bit off and then it can sound a bit bad. Along with Stairway to Heaven and Wonderwall it's one the songs everyone seems to play in shops. If you're a beginner and visiting a shop, don't worry - the memes about not being able to play particular songs in shops (like Stairway to Heaven) are just that, memes - no decent shop is going to tell you to stop playing something if you're testing out a potential purchase 🙂. Congrats on starting to play the guitar, enjoy the journey!
Seems pretty good overall... It's got individual saddles so they can be adjusted to get ideal intonation. Of all the guitars I've had in the last few years, this is the one I've kept so that's a testament to how nicely it plays 🙂
I’m not a beginner (I have many years playing), but I don’t have a very good guitar because the prices of “prestige” guitars... :( Do u thing that this could be well to play, for example, Dream Theater’s songs?
It'd work for some things like Dream Theater and other prog metal stuff, but it's a fixed bridge rather than a trem system, which you might want for some of that stuff (Petrucci's EBMM Majesty models have trems so I would assume he uses one!). The RG421 is a very good all round basic model, and if you found you weren't so fond of the stock pickups you could replace them to your taste. If you need a trem, Ibanez do several other RG and S models around the same price as the RG421 that have double-locking tremolo systems. And yes "prestige" guitars get very expensive (but are amazing feeling to play)!
It's only a standard 25.5" six string, so drop A is probably pushing it... There's a similarly priced 7-string Ibanez RG though (I forget the number) that would definitely be happy in drop A 😀. You could probably do drop C# on this with 52 or 56 gauge though without too much trouble and it would sound brutal on the bridge pickup!
My jackson and ibanez is drop A but i have invader pickups amd seymour dunca makes good stuff for that range u can drop it just pickups have to be for the low range yes
I'll have to put it on some scales to find out the actual number, but lightweight - much lighter than my Harley Benton ST-62 or the Yamaha RS420 I used to have!
I've had a chance to put it on my (probably not very accurate) scales. It came in at somewhere around the 3kg mark. That's for the mahogany-bodied RG421-BBS version. I understand the current 2020 models have a Meranti body - I don't know if this will be a much different weight, but I'd guess it'd be similar as they won't want to make it too heavy.
It has a superb clean tone and does crunch nicely. It does a reasonable job with high gain up to 80s hard rock and metal but if you're really into modern metal genres you might hit the limit of the stock pups and need aftermarket ones 🙂
Certainly is for the price - handles most things you throw at it with relative ease... Just worth checking that you like the very slim neck and are happy with pointy headstocks before buying!
believe me headstock is much better than my jackson dinky that has a hockey headstock at least with ibanez the strings pass straight through the nut without needing crazy adjustments
