"Best guitar for the money."
Feature:
Unfortunatly this guitar may have a whammy-bar compatible tremolo but it does not come with a whammy-bar, so go to your nearest Ibanez dealer and get yourself one, it is worth the money. The thing I find neatest about this guitar is that no matter how much I abuse that whammy and the tremolo it never goes dramaticly out of tune! I went about 5 days with the factory strings not tuning it and it was barely off, so i spent 3 mins and tuned it up using the chromatic tuner built into the Peavey Vypyr Amp and away I went. The one complaint I do have about the tremolo is that it doesn't pull the note back as far as some of the higher priced Ibanez.
Quality:
The quality of this guitar is amazing, but I would recomend carrying a micro-fiber cloth around with it in the case to keep the smudges, fingerprints, and dust off that nice shiny mirror finish. When I got it the strings were very crappy, but until they break or you personally see that they need changing I have found no reason other than to keep the tuning better to change them. I believe this is a very dependable guitar, the tuners fit nice and snug, the volume and tone knobs are on very nicely and spin very easily, the neck is very well attached for a bolt-on, and I have had no trouble with the hardware what so ever.
Value:
This guitar is very much worth its price, I mean it is a intermediate level guitar for $250, its finish is amazing and I have failed to find anything wrong with it so far.
Desirability:
The first time I saw this guitar in the zZounds magizine(go figure) it caught my eye. But of course I am like "250 dollars, that is a lot of money"(I make $10 a week doing chores) but I saw that christmas was rolling around and made a deal with my parents that I would help pay for it. So I found the candy apple red version of this guitar at my local Ibanez dealer and flipped out, it was amazing so I took it back to their amp room plugged it in and played. Even the candy apple red version has the mirror finish on it, that is how I actually reconized it. The pick-ups also drew my attention, the fact that the Stratocaster and the SG had two humbuckers and then this beast has two humbuckers and a single coil with a 5-way pick-up switch I thought "OMG!" and went straight for it. Pretty much this is another one of Ibanez's amazing products with their amazing finishes and all, but the Black night is by far my favorite.
Sound:
This guitar contains some of the most amazing pick-ups for the price. I have played the 1200 dollar Stratocaster, the 1400 dollar version of the Gibson SG and this guitar is the only one of those three that can match the sound I want. The best part is because of the 5-way pick-up selector once I dial in my EQ on the amp will allow that sound to be produced in 5 different manners. The sound even without an amp is amazing, again using the Stratocaster and SG as an example this guitar produced a much better sound than either of those two.
Ease of Use:
I find it very easy to get great sound out of the GRG170DX, all you need to do is find yourself your favorite pick-setting, screw around with your amp's EQ a bit and you can get any sound from screeching death metal, all the way to a soft rock in a matter of seconds. There is a slight learning curve with this guitar because of the position of the pick-up selector, if you overstrum you might catch the switch a little moving it to the bottom humbucker, but after playing it for a few hours you should be just fine.
Support:
I can make no comment on support due to the fact for as long as I have owned the GRG170DX I have had no need for the customer support from Ibanez. Although I have heard that it is very good.
Overall:
I expect to be satisfied with this guitar for many years to come and do not expect to upgrade for a while.(being until my skills overrule this guitar) And when I do upgrade I plan to get the newest RG there is. So you have the GRG(little brother) and the RG(big brother). If my guitar was ever stolen I would first of all hunt down the person who did it and have them fined and put in jail. But depending on the amount of money I have, I would either 1: Get the same guitar ordered directly from Ibanez or 2: Get the RG above it. This guiatr has met my musical standards and beyond, especialy noticable when I dissed the Stratocaster and the Gibson SG up above and in store. Which the only good thing that Fender makes is strap locks, that is my opinion. Gibson I cannot get the sound I want out of the two humbuckers and the Stratocaster you cannot get the humbucking sound out of those single-coils.
Submitted: 1/11/2009
Style of Music: Metal-Techno
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