I bought this a few months ago and I’ve not been disappointed. I had a 550 back in the late 80’s and was kicking myself for having missed out on the reissues. I am a die-hard maple neck guy and disappointed Ibanez had no maple neck and fretboard models. When I saw this I looked at it as my new 550 and I was going to buy it.

To be honest for the amount of money this thing costs I really shouldn’t complain about anything. It is a very good value. I gave it a 4 on features due to the pickups and a 4.5 over all due to the pickups. I didn’t feel a 5 would be right over-all not having perfect scores in all the other fields.

The good : Wonderful neck. Very fast, very comfortable and extremely easy fretting. In my mind it doesn’t feel quite as good as my 550 did. It may be similar dimensions but it feels like it needs buffed or polished a bit longer. It feels just a tad dirty and /or slightly grainy. It is a very minor beef though and I’m being picky to mention it. I’m sure after it has worn a bit and soaked up the oils from my hand it will be even better.

The tremolo is awesome. Very flat to the body and recessed a hair. It still has plenty of room to pull the note sharp also. Not having to cut the ball ends off of your strings is nice. Also you don’t have to tighten the string holders to the point of pinching the string flat like on the old ones. It came setup perfectly for 9’s and I normally use 10’s and had restrung with 10’s. It didn’t take long at all to adjust for the change in tension. I ended up going back to 9’s though. This guitar is a rice burner and 9’s IMHO seem to be the most comfortable on it even though all my other axes have 10’s.

The bad: The pickups blow. Ok maybe I’m over stating that. They are lacking though. The bridge pickup is very muddy. Yes it is designed for distortion but some chord voicings just don’t sound good at all. Lead lines are fine. There is a big volume drop off on the single coil also. The neck pickup is the most solid of the three and sounds much better than the bridge pickup. It isn’t like the guitar is unusable with these pickups though. For a 1K guitar I really shouldn’t expect more and it does have good value over all. Still though if there were anything I would change ( and I will eventually ) it would be the pickups.

All in all it is a very good value and probably one of the best guitars you can buy for 1K. I would recommend it to anybody looking for this style of guitar.

This is a great guitar. Plays great sounds great. I am thinking about putting these type pick ups in my JS100 and my JS1000. Super punchy and (good)distortion for days. I suppose you could play nu metal/grunge or that other garbage you people call music with this but for what I need it is perfect. It did need a set up the action was off but an easy fix. I run this through a Peavey Classic 50 head /Crate 4-12 celestions with A Vox Satcherator and it screams. I can get rock to real metal sounds from this guitar.

One of the best guitars I've bought so far. The finish on it is awesome and the maple fretboard is sweet, I wish more companies wold bring more models out with maple fretboards, good call Ibanez.

The Edge-PRO bridge is a really good trem, had no problem getting set up properly.

The pickups on the other hand I'm not too crazy about, gonna change soon for some DiMarzio PAF Pros on Bridge and Neck and a DiMarzio HS-3 single coil.

Props on the guitar Ibanez.

The first time I laid eyes on this guitar I felt I had to have it, I dont own it YET. but I'm working on fixing that, When I get it it's going to be in the "Poisoned pumpkin" which is almost a vintage blonde color. I play a multitude of styles. Okay enough babble. Lets get to the brass tacks.

Features; I banez split wireing is a plus it offers you the "strat' 2&4 position sound, one up from the bridge and it also offers a multitude of sounds. If your a solo hound like me you understand the importance of these features.

pick-ups: part of the reason I only rated a 4.5 on features is due to the pickups, they're EMG designed V8's I'll probably wind up shanginf them out to Duncans.

Construction; another reason for the 4.5 is due to the fact that it's a bolt-on I like bonlt on's for the ease of parts replacement. But if I'm paying close to a grand for a guitar I'd like it be be a set-neck or something of that nature.