Hey Guys,
I just wanted to let everyone know that I just got a brand new Black Ibanez RG1570, and I LOVE IT! I haven’t owned a “shred-type” guitar since 1989 when I owned a Fusia Orange/Pink (Hey, it was the 80’s, remember… – LOL!) Ibanez RG550. Don’t get me wrong, there are things that I hate about the double-locking tremolo system, and I would never make it the ONLY guitar I own, because as a teacher and transcriber, I need to be able to readily manipulate and sometimes drastically alter my tunings on-the-spot. However, that’s what all my other guitars are for now! I know that Coop was just trashing on the Floyd Rose in his Music Man Petrucci Model JP6 review, but I must say, my Floyd-Licenced Ibanez Edge-Pro Bridge ROCKS! I’ve BEATEN on the whammy and the guitar stays incredibly in-tune. Trust me, I’d be the first to complain about it if it went out of tune, because I have ZERO-TOLERANCE for out-of-tune instruments!!! Without changing the subject here too much, I will defend Coop’s overall review of the Petrucci Music Man JP6, as I did just try one out before I got my RG1570, and the MM JP6 IS AWESOME as Coop said! However, I did NOT have the budget for a MM JP6. In fact, I could have bought three (3) Ibanez RG1570’s (I did get a SMOKING DEAL!) for the price of a single (1) MM JP6! Anyways, back to MY guitar! This guitar (for those who don’t know) is a made-in-Japan Team J-Craft model. The Prestige Wizard neck is FAST! It’s thin (front-to-back) but it’s fairly wide (nut-width) which gives my “borderline-sausage fingers” room to maneuver! The radius (pretty flat) allows for aggressive low-action set-ups, and I can use all the help I can get in the SPEED-department! (LOL!) Having the full 24-fret range is one of those things that you don’t generally NEED too often, but when you do, it’s nice! The pickups seem to match the rest of the guitar quite well. It has a pronounced upper midrange resonance, which I LOVE especially for lead-playing! I love how Ibanez does their pickup-positions 2 & 4, on their Hum-Single-Hum models (like the RG1570) whereby they coil-cut the outer humbuckers when blended with the middle single coil. Thus you can successfully get some of those “stratty” clean-tones which are great for funk-rhythm and even faux-acoustic! So all-in-all, this guitar ROCKS! It’s GREAT value. Oh yeah, I almost forgot! The included (OHSC) hardshell-case is REALLY NICE! It must be worth a hundred-bucks on it’s own!
I think if I had to choose the three (3) most PLEASANTLY surprising elements, they would be:
1. The tuning stability even AFTER aggressive whammy-action!
2. The comfort of the picking-hand’s anchoring/palm-muting position. The
Edge-Pro seems WAY more comfortable than the Floyd I remember on my
old RG550?!?
3. The quality & beauty of the included (OHSC) hardshell-case.
I’m really digging this guitar guys! I used to think that Ibanez guitars were for shredders who were not known for their tone (I was close-minded!) After enjoying Satriani’s tones for many years, and then after becoming an IG Premium Member and hearing some of the tones that Rick Graham was getting on his Ibanezes, I knew then that I had been wrong about Ibanez. Besides, tone has more to do with fingers and ears than it does pickups and wood!
So I have some serious woodshedding to do, but I’m going to try to have some videos to upload onto YouTube by the beginning of 2009. Perhaps you guys can give me your thoughts regarding my RG1570 AND my playing in general, once I upload.
Until then, cheers!
~Bill Meehan~
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