My Re-Found Love of Ibanez's

[Endrik]

Re: My Re-Found Love of Ibanez\'s

you have some "special" models, newer regular RG necks are very thin

[Endrik]

Re: My Re-Found Love of Ibanez\'s

btw. John, how old is your Beach model?

[siggy14]

Re: My Re-Found Love of Ibanez\'s

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There are tons of people who hate Ibanez necks, including me. They are so thin that I can't have a good strong grip, and because of the thinness the tone loss is HUGE for my ears.

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OK understand, i have owned many jacksons, many Gibsons and still currently own many gibsons. With that being said i will give you my findings. Using a Bogner Uber, and a bogner XTC here are my findings.

When you are using such high gain and such high output pickups sustain/Tone loss is hard to hear. I will tell you right now in my Ibanez i have a X2N and it has as much chunck, as much warmth and sustain as my 1968 Les Paul Reissue. Now remember i am a gibson man so dont go thinking i am bashing gibson. Alot of tone also comes into how you EQ your amp, i can pretty much make a Alder Guitar sound like a mahogany guitar just be adjusting the EQ, yeah it will never be exactly the same, but hell you grab identical guitars and they wont sound exactly the same.

Now if you were playing Jazz or blues or any low gain music and using weeker pickups i could see where wood and neck size would come into play, but for high gain metal/rock and the amount of distortion used it is hard to tell the difference anymore between woods, between neck thru, set neck and bolt etc.... Believe it or not one of my best sounding guitars for metal was a old Fender Squier made out of plywood with a super distortion in it, that guitar would scream.

I use to buy into the hype of it has to be a neck thru or it has to be mahagony for best sustain, and yeah in a very low gain setting with low output pickups this is true. But since i am a Rock/Metal player using a high output pickup, i get just as much sustain from my Ibanez as i do my Les Paul. Now on a side note, if i am playing low gain stuff i am not gonna grab my ibanez, I would defintly grab my les paul, my Ibanez is set up as a hard rock/metal machine and that is what i use it for.

Looking back, some of my favorite players used bolt on necks and i loved there tone. These players include Jake E. Lee, Lynch and the guys from Queensryche (most of there ESP's where bolt ons).

On a side note, I think if i put a X2N into my les paul it would over kill it and make it way to mushy. I reall like the 57's in that guitar.

[zeegler]

Re: My Re-Found Love of Ibanez\'s

This is very similar to the one I'm looking for, except the headstock was black, not orange, and the back of the neck was not painted. Other than that, it's pretty much the same, except the knobs were black instead of orange. Does that make it an RG750?

http://cgi.ebay.com/IBANEZ-guitar-rg-550...1QQcmdZViewItem

[Endrik]

Re: My Re-Found Love of Ibanez\'s

Siggy, I understand your point, but I personally play a lot with the volume and tone controll and switch between the pickups, use a lot of different gain levels etc. So the dynamics wich the fat neck and body gives me is essential.

And another point, my left hand holds the neck very strongly, I sequeeze it really hard, I press the strings down with maximum pressure, my thumb is always over the neck, on the fretboard, just like the old blues players have. And my playing style consists of very wide bends and vibratos wich I do all the time. It is very uncomfortable to do that with thin neck, I can't have a strong firm grip with it, I really need to feel a huge chunk of wood in my arm.

[zeegler]

Re: My Re-Found Love of Ibanez\'s

I found it. It was indeed a RG750FA. http://www.ibanezregister.com/images...0/RG750-88.jpg

I gotta get me one of these.

[siggy14]

Re: My Re-Found Love of Ibanez\'s

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Siggy, I understand your point, but I personally play a lot with the volume and tone controll and switch between the pickups, use a lot of different gain levels etc. So the dynamics wich the fat neck and body gives me is essential.

And another point, my left hand holds the neck very strongly, I sequeeze it really hard, I press the strings down with maximum pressure, my thumb is always over the neck, on the fretboard, just like the old blues players have. And my playing style consists of very wide bends and vibratos wich I do all the time. It is very uncomfortable to do that with thin neck, I can't have a strong firm grip with it, I really need to feel a huge chunk of wood in my arm.

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I understand your points, i to also roll back the gain alot, but with such a high gain amp it really doesnt make a difference, get about the same effect of using a low output pickup with a low gain amp.

However because of how you grip the board i can understand more. I do alot of bends and vibrato's too when playing, but since i have small hands the neck fits just right. I actually find with too big of a neck i struggle alot. I guess it comes down to each there own, i really wish i had longer fingers, but hell the girls dont seem to mind my fat stubby ones LOL

[jgcable]

Re: My Re-Found Love of Ibanez\'s

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btw. John, how old is your Beach model?

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1991

[pro-fusion]

Re: My Re-Found Love of Ibanez\'s

Not all of the RG-bodied Ibanezes have the very-thin Wizard necks. The JEMS, for example, have a somewhat thicker profile, and a lot of the Prestige models have the Ultra neck, which is much more Jackson-like.

[DonP]

Re: My Re-Found Love of Ibanez\'s

I just never got into Ibanez. Nothing wrong with their axes, I had a friend who got a yellow Gambale way back and he loved it. My Fusions are basswood bodied as well. It's just that Ibanez to me wasn't "Heavy Metal". I never got into virtuoso players like Satch and Vai. You just don't see heavy metal player playing Jems and such (at least the players I have seen). LOL! James or Mustaine playing a Jem! I'm sure there will be a flood of post after this saying "so-and-so plays an Ibanez and he's heavy metal" LOL!

I really don't know what my hang-up is with these. Les Paul's aren't really a heavy metal axe are they? But I love playing metal on them.

I guess it's if I look at a choice between Jackson and Ibanez, I tend to gravitate to the Jackson camp. To me, they ae very similar axes (comparing MIJ Jacksons to Ibanez) and I just go with the more "Heavy Metal" axe LOL!

I totally agree with you on the weak pickups are for strong LP or neck thru guitars, and high outputs are better for weaker guitars. The 496R/500T is often a love/hate battle in my LP Classic, but they won out of the 57 Classics that got sold. I just couldn't stomach the loss of sustain, and I have three other PAF style loaded LP's - overkill. The weak t-tops in my 1977 are a perfect example of how a long sustaining powerful axe works great with low output pickups. The weak magnets end up giving you even more sustain.

On the other hand, I have a 1990 Jackson Fusion that sustains incredibly long with a J50B (C?). You know the song Operation Mindcrime, how it starts? This axe can hold those notes perfectly. It's my Queensryche axe - it nails all of their stuff. I heard they used low output pickups, so it makes sense. The power chords sound creamy and rich with lot's of textures.

End of my blabing.

[siggy14]

Re: My Re-Found Love of Ibanez\'s

See i kinda agree with you don, ibanez was defintly the shredders guitar, but glam metal shredding that is, where heavy metal like maiden and anthrax and metallica where jackson and ESP's. I guess you can consider that speed metal. I pretty much put groups into two catagories,

Glam metal-Motley, warrent, cinderella etc...
Metal-Priest, maiden, metallica etc.....

But for some reasons the glam metal people loved ibanez's or any flashy guitar back then. Since i was more of a glam metal fan it would give a good insight to why i preferred Ibanez's over jacksons back then. Now i just appreciate both guitars for different reasons.

[siggy14]

Re: My Re-Found Love of Ibanez\'s

PS don, i like using my gibsons for metal too, but that is if i am doing rythem or solo's with very little vibrato, but of course now that i set up my ibanez right it will be my metal guitar, and it helps with the back....

Also, as i get older i have noticed that back in the 80's most rythem players used pauls, and most leads where of course some kind of super strat.

[shredmonster]

Re: My Re-Found Love of Ibanez\'s

I am more of a soloist not a rhythm guy. I try to get various tones out of a note using various picking attacks and left hand techniques.

I tend to agree with the guys on the thin necks - which many if not most of the Ibanez shred guitars have. Yeah some of them are thicker but not like a Jackson PC1 for example.

Hands tend to cramp and tone and sustain suffer on a thin neck. Yeah you can turn the gain up or EQ differently however - it depends how you play...there is the kicker.

Richie Blackmore use to say that Gibsons were too easy to play and switched to Fender because he had to fight with it to get tone... ie he had to develop his technique and ability to get tone from his fingers.

I am of the camp that the better players get tone with technique not equipment. You turn down the gain when you do this - no compression or noise gate etc... Just pure amp with just enough gain not too much and some reverb. This increases your dynamics and you get cleaner more distinguishable notes and note separation and better tone. When you crank the gain you lose dynamics becuase you get too much compression and or clipping and tone suffers. Everything starts becoming "blurry." It's easier to play - you don't have to be as accurate or as good of a player. Some of you will probably vehemently disagree that but that is the truth.

So yeah you can crank that gain and make every guitar sound similar and use the effects. But to get really great tone ala EVH or Michael Schenker etc... you have to learn and develop technique and let the natural sound of your guitar come through not effects. Thats when guitar construction and wood makes a difference.

[Endrik]

Re: My Re-Found Love of Ibanez\'s

hmm, glam/hair metal shredders used Charvels or Jackson mostly.

[DonP]

Re: My Re-Found Love of Ibanez\'s

Todd,

I like all of those bands you mentioned. I recently picked up Cinderella' Night Songs - great CD!

I found a very good article in a 1980's GFTPM magazine talking to Cinderella's front man. He was talking about how he was stocking up on vintage LP's back then! LOL! he probably retired nicely.

I think I agree with you too. For stuff where I need to do a lot of vibrato, super jumbo frets is where it's at. I wouldn't be telling the truth if I didn't admit to having thoughts of super jumbos being put on my LP Custom.

LP for rhythm? Totally agree. My historic is so tight and punchy, it's my go-to axe for doing Megadeth stuff. I wonder if Mustaine ever played an LP? Proabably not "evil looking" enough LOL!