This is my first Ibanez. Wow, am I ever impressed. I have zero hesitation recommending this to any guitarist.Other than value there is nothing truly outstanding about this guitar but, absolutely everything about it is really good and came that way right out of the box. While not as good as some of my other guitars, the sound is quite good both clean and with super high gain. I do find that the sound falls apart a bit in the middle territory of "fuzz" or "crunch" but swapping pickups is easy and relatively cheap if want to go that route in the future. Construction is really good. Every part of this guitar feels sturdy. This guitar feels like it was made to hold up to abuse on the road.Maybe I got lucky but right out of the box every single fret was spot on level, polished, and well rounded. The nut was cut perfectly. The only setup needed was a slight truss rod adjustment, lower the action even further (it was already pretty low) and set intonation. I bought another guitar costing $200 more at the same time as this one. It was unplayable out of the box and took me about three hours to do a proper setup on that. In under 20 minutes, this went from a very nice playing guitar to being perfect. I have personally only seen seen this level of polish out of the box from Schecter. This is a unique playing experience due to the flat, wide, and thin neck. It takes some getting used to but it's so much fun to play. At this price there is no reason to not own this guitar. Even if you don't… read more like the looks, this thing is just too good and too fun to pass on. Just close your eyes and enjoy playing a really good guitar for a super low price.

Sound
Overall I would describe the sound as good. This guitar has a thick well balanced sound. The pickups sound amazing under super high gain or when playing clean. The sound seems to lack a bit of definition in the middle gain territories though. With only mild overdrive, the sound seems a bit like a tonal soup. The strings seem to blend together resulting in a somewhat lifeless sound.

Features
I love the feel of each component of this guitar. The input jack feels like it will last a lifetime. The pots have zero play or scratchy feel to them. The tuners feel high quality and totally trustworthy.

Ease of Use
The playability was fantastic out of the box. Very little setup was required to make this guitar perfect. The flat, wide neck requires a bit of a learning curve but that isn't a bad thing at all. This neck is a pleasure to play on.

Quality
Every part of this guitar feels rock solid. I suspect this guitar could spend years on the road with never needing to replace anything but the strings.

Value
This guitar offers outstanding value at it's current price. The price is what lured me into buying this guitar that doesn't really fit my style. Now that I have experienced the value of Ibanez, I will surely buy more.

Manufacturer Support
N/A

The Wow Factor
The price and unique playing experience were what drew me to buying this guitar. It won't be my daily driver but at this price it's easy to justify buying it just to have something so different from the rest of my collection.

Musical Background:
25 years playing guitar

Musical Style:
Primarily rock, blues, and metal. read less