I own several different types of guitars from washburn, esp ltd, Gibson Les Paul, Epiphone Les Paul custom, Epiphone Wilshire pro. You name it I've probably had my hands on it at one time or another. This guitar is an amazing deal for $300. It's not gonna be as nice as a high end ibanez or other brands but it plays and sounds great. Best part is if something did happen to it you are not out thousands of dollars. I am the type of guitar player who believes that a good guitar should not cost more that 300 to 500 bucks. This is it. my only complaint is they should have just put the wizard III neck on this beast.

Sound
Sound has a lot to do with wood type. Look at some cheap $100-150 dollar guitars and most of the time the wood type is bass wood. This axe is made from mahogany which gives the guitar a ton of sustain and lots of low end. The maple neck compliments the mahogany. Gotta love the rosewood fret board.

Features
cheap strings change them out asap. decent hardware. Double locking neck is a must. once you enjoy a night free of tuning every other song you won't look back. This also has the edge III tremelo. It is a dive bomb machine. I am used to the floyd rose trem so it was new to me. The first thing I noticed was how easy the trem moved. Almost no effort to get a huge dive bomb from this beast. by far the best floating trem system on the market. Tuning stability is awesome right out of… read more the box. My only complaint is Ibanez should have put the wizard III neck on it. The GRG neck isn't bad but it's not as thin as the wizard.

Ease of Use
I had no problems with mine. I pulled it out of the box, tuned it, plugged it in and cracked it up. Action was as low as it was gonna get. Neck was straight. selector switch is good as are knobs and input jack.

Quality
For the money the quality is great. nice paint job. good electronics and hardware, awesome trem system, low action. You could spend more money and get a nicer guitar. I take mine out to local pubs for gigs, trust me a road worth guitar is hard to find. Last thing I do is take a $2000 guitar down to the pub where it can get wear from gigging all the time.

Value
great guitar. It's worth the money if you want a guitar to travel around and gig with. It plays great and sounds great without the a great big price tag. This guitar is proof you can have both.

Manufacturer Support
no experience

The Wow Factor
the appeal is in the sound and the playability of the guitar. No fancy paint jobs but very effective guitar. I would give this a 5 on a scale out of 1 to 10.

Musical Background:
20+ years experience. active musician

Musical Style:
everything under the sun read less