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The friday before last I went around to do some preliminary guitar shopping, and didn't actually think I was going to come back with a guitar in hand just yet..
First I went to the ESP shop and tried some neck thru Edwards soloist-style stuff and a couple of Vs, and one of the lower end Killer guitars. The Killer unfortunately didn't play very well, and came with a pretty crappy trem for the price point, so I passed that one up immediately. The Edwards stuff was OK but didn't blow me away. The Vs were really not comfortable for me so I definitely wasn't going to get one of those.
So I moved on to another shop that had Ibanez stuff. I was interested in the 2450M, which is apparently a limited production thing (according to Ikebe, where I first discovered its existence) and may or may not be Japan-only.
I figured I'd try out the 2550 (almost the same guitar but with a rosewood board) and see how it played. It felt a LOT better to me than anything else I had tried, so I asked about the maple board one, which I had read was coming out in June. The guy who grabbed the guitar for me to try didn't know anything about it but asked this other guy, who said "actually I think we were supposed to get one in today..." and indeed they had!
It was fresh off the truck, all sealed up in its box and hardshell case (yeah it came with a hard case, sweet!). So I asked to play it for a few minutes, and snatched it up.
So without further ado, here's what you all want to see: pics!
Sorry for the relative lack of quality... taken with my cell phone because I didn't bring a standalone camera with me to JP, and meant to borrow a camera from somebody but haven't seen him around much lately....
Sharp looking guitar, easy player, and the neck is super smooth. The Ibanez website says it has a matte finish but it feels pretty close to unfinished, which I know a lot of people like. I prefer a little bit of gloss to it, but this is really nice.
The trem is cool too-- a sort of cross between the edge and Z-trems. Even though the trem is floating and can move both ways, you can bend strings without sending the others out of pitch, and even switch to drop D tuning!
I can't say much about the pups because I don't really have anything proper to play through.. but I guess they're not bad.
First I went to the ESP shop and tried some neck thru Edwards soloist-style stuff and a couple of Vs, and one of the lower end Killer guitars. The Killer unfortunately didn't play very well, and came with a pretty crappy trem for the price point, so I passed that one up immediately. The Edwards stuff was OK but didn't blow me away. The Vs were really not comfortable for me so I definitely wasn't going to get one of those.
So I moved on to another shop that had Ibanez stuff. I was interested in the 2450M, which is apparently a limited production thing (according to Ikebe, where I first discovered its existence) and may or may not be Japan-only.
I figured I'd try out the 2550 (almost the same guitar but with a rosewood board) and see how it played. It felt a LOT better to me than anything else I had tried, so I asked about the maple board one, which I had read was coming out in June. The guy who grabbed the guitar for me to try didn't know anything about it but asked this other guy, who said "actually I think we were supposed to get one in today..." and indeed they had!
It was fresh off the truck, all sealed up in its box and hardshell case (yeah it came with a hard case, sweet!). So I asked to play it for a few minutes, and snatched it up.
So without further ado, here's what you all want to see: pics!
Sorry for the relative lack of quality... taken with my cell phone because I didn't bring a standalone camera with me to JP, and meant to borrow a camera from somebody but haven't seen him around much lately....
Sharp looking guitar, easy player, and the neck is super smooth. The Ibanez website says it has a matte finish but it feels pretty close to unfinished, which I know a lot of people like. I prefer a little bit of gloss to it, but this is really nice.
The trem is cool too-- a sort of cross between the edge and Z-trems. Even though the trem is floating and can move both ways, you can bend strings without sending the others out of pitch, and even switch to drop D tuning!
I can't say much about the pups because I don't really have anything proper to play through.. but I guess they're not bad.
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