Feature:
Comes with all of the requisite allen wrenches for adjustments of the trem and also a nice owners manual. No case, but what guitar under a grand includes a case these days. Ibanez makes a case specific for this guitar but no one seems to stock them :(
Quality:
My guitar had the pickup selector switch mounted backwards when I got it. Also, a big glob of polyurethane accumulated on the lower wing. Not the best QC but hey! I can live with it.
Value:
Let's see...neck thru, floating trem, USA Dimarzio p/u's, chameleon paint, shark inlays. Sounds great and looks awesome. All for around $700? Yeah...it's a great value
Desirability:
Very agressive looking guitar! It just screams metal! It's also the first guitar that has the new DiMarzio DeActivator pickups. The neck thru body ensures easy access to all 24 frets. A very unique guitar that suits my style perfectly
Sound:
Awesome tone! And not just metal tones either. Nice blues and classic rock tones as well. But let's face it...show up at my local blues jam with this guitar...probably not. Sounds better than my Schecter with the Duncan Blackouts, and that guitar I always thought was unbeatable. The DeActivators are just richer sounding and I hate to use that hackneyed phrase "more organic", but in this case it's true.
Ease of Use:
First off, if this is your first guitar with a Floyd Rose style trem, do some homework on how to tune these things. It does require a bit of work and patience, especially when changing to another tuning or string gauge. But once everything's set you're good forever. The secret is to get the spring tension equal to the string tension. That's why they're called "floating" trems. That's also why you can't just drop the tuning...you need to readjust the spring tension to compensate for the loss of tension on the strings. I solved that problem by just buying a second one and keeping it in Drop D for when I need it.
The neck on this guitar is awesome! Now I can't go back and play any of my other guitars as they feel like I'm holding a baseball bat in my hands after playing this.
Support:
Contacted Ibanez via email and they responded within 24 hours. They also have a helpful forum on their website
Overall:
I've owned this guitar for a while now and it's done what no other guitar has ever been able to seem to do...it's cured my gear lust! Oh yeah, I'm still probably going to continue to look at other guitars and I have. But I always seem to find my way back to this one. The neck, the sound, the look, the feel, the "vibe"...they're all happening for me with this guitar.
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