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Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

I was in the market for a guitar that I could just keep in Drop D tuning, I stumbled across the Ibanez GRG121SP. So shot in the dark ordered it, upon receiving this guitar the finish is something I never seen before, blue metal chameleon looks like really unique which I like. As far as feel etc really really nice for a Ibanez Gio RG. No Sharp frets holds tuning and intonates great! I did not have to set up the guitar when received it was already perfect for my style of music. Can play anything from clean to full out melt your face metal! chugs and pinch harmonics are really beefy. I don’t have a desire to change pickups as of yet time will only tell. Grab one if you can really nice quality.Really shocked on this one with Ibanez and the Gio line far vast improvement from the gio I first started with when I started to first play.

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Verified Purchaser zZounds has verified that this reviewer purchased this specific product from us.

Ibanez did some fine work with this model. The finish is beautifully done and the quality of the hardware is surprisingly good for a $299 guitar. The roasted maple neck is not as dark as the pictures indicate so I was a little bummed over that. Still a really great neck! It’s much thicker than you’d expect from an Ibanez but it’s still quite comfortable and plays fast.The guitar didn’t need much setup but I was initially unhappy with the Quantum pickups. They sounded muddy and i really couldn’t get crisp mids and highs out of it. I significantly lowered the neck pickup and slightly lowered the bridge. I also opened the bobbins on the bridge pickup to match the 16” radius. That made a HUGE difference in the sound. Now she’s singing with bite and clarity along with much more sustain. I was looking to swap the pickups but now I’m pretty pleased with the stock rig.In closing, if you’re thinking about buying this guitar, stop thinking and buy it! Nobody does it better than zZounds when it comes to purchasing great gear and instruments!

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Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

This is the 2nd Ibanez GRG121SP GIO I have purchased (First one for myself (Chameleon) and the 2nd one (Black Night) as a birthday present for a friend. He played mine during a visit and fell in LOVE with it). BOTH guitars arrived PERFECTLY SET UP OUT OF THE BOX! Action and intonation was spot-on and the truss rod did not even require any adjustment. Just had to change out the strings to our preferred brand/gauge (we put D'Addario EXL120 9's on it). This guitar is beyond comfortable to play, responsive, and has great sound/tone with sustain you would not believe! IBANEZ IS ON THEIR GAME with this one! I wish more manufacturers would follow their lead with guitars in this price point range. WAY TO GO IBANEZ!

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Verified Purchaser zZounds has verified that this reviewer purchased this specific product from us.

Awesome feeling neck, good bridge and decent pickups. The finish is amazing I’m person and it plays like really well. I’ve never played a guitar in this price range that plays this well. The only weak point would be the pickups , the bridge sounds decent , the neck pickup leaves a lot to be desired . If you looking for a mod platform or just started out , you could easily swap the pickups and this would be a great guitar for years .

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Verified Purchaser zZounds has verified that this reviewer purchased this specific product from us.

I bought one of these and when it arrived, the fit and finish was great. It's really impossible to describe the finish color and has to be seen in person. The neck felt great, no bad fret ends. The tuners are budget, but were smooth and held tune. The nut is plastic, but was cut well and had no trouble. There wasn't a cosmetic flaw anywhere I could detect. I plugged it in to test the sounds and that's where the snag happened. On clean or overdriven channels, there was a high shriek coming through the amp. I'd bought another Ibanez the same day and it arrived in perfect working order. I returned the faulty one and am awaiting the replacement to arrive and will do a follow up review when I get it. I will say the new output jack that Ibanez is using is iffy. A lot of plastic and is one molded unit that's an odd size, so if the jack fails, it will require a direct replacement from Ibanez or will require drilling out the hole and drilling mounting holes for a standard jack plate. That is the only real weakness it has that would make maintenance difficult for someone uncomfortable with doing some work with power tools. The other Ibanez has the same jack and it will be interesting to see how it holds up. I will say zZounds was prompt to issue a return but I'd also contacted Ibanez to see if my local Ibanez dealer could just repair it. Their answer was that I would have to pay to ship it to them and they would repair and pay to ship it back to me. I would have thought that a brand new guitar with an electrical issue could be repaired by a local dealer for no cost under warranty. That was not the case, so I will hit them a bit hard on manufacturer support. Ease of use and wow factor to me are 5 star as the finish is remarkable and the roasted neck felt great, hard to believe at this price point.

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Verified Purchaser zZounds has verified that this reviewer purchased this specific product from us.

I just got the second one of these after the first one I received had an issue with high shrieking noise through the amp. This replacement suffers from the same issue. It felt great, finish was great, neck felt great, but it shrieked when plugged in. It was loud enough that it was difficult to hear any music played. I really wanted this one to be good, but with the issue, it becomes unusable. Another Ibanez, a lower priced Gio, works perfectly. It seems that this model needs attention from Ibanez. I would say it sounds like unpotted pickups though I've never had them feedback so loudly as these. I also hope Ibanez makes an output jack upgrade available as this one is a nonstandard size, making upgrading more difficult. I will be more critical with my star reviews as this is the second one with the same issue. Anything positive is from a construction standpoint. The body and neck are great.

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