Starting to play guitar again, Ibanez RG still good?

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superclarkey

Member
Hey, new to the forum and looking to get back into playing guitar after several years of not playing on and off, so just wanted to get some thoughts on my plans. (I’m hoping for a more honest opinion as this isn’t just a Ibanez forum)

I’ve never played in a band, I’m someone who enjoys learning technical music over and over until I perfect it :) or come close at least, so not professional or ever gigged.

I started playing when I was 14 on an acoustic random £50 guitar and soon as I was old enough I bought a Ibanez RG507 in 1996 (I think), I used to have a Line 6 pod or whatever it was called and in 2000ish I bought one of the first Line 6 Flextone II and floor board, and I played that combo for 17+ odd years without wanting for anything else tbh (always been a one guitar type of guy) until it was stolen and I was so upset I quit there and then and didn’t touch a guitar for 5 plus years.

I decided to get another guitar and so I stuck with what I knew and grew up with and the specs seemed the same/similar, so I bought a RG655 in 2017 I believe, at the same time I bought a Marshall JVM410JS and matching cab as I intended to pick back up where I left off, however was short lived, I had loads of issues with the RG655 and in the end the neck started to slit down the centre and I got a replacement but that never played well and buzzed on frets and didn’t sound good, so ended up selling it and then someone offered me more than I paid for my Amp so I was like okey, and that went. Had that combo for about a year. Basically was super disappointed with all the issues with the RG655 and wasn’t into anything else guitar wise so again.. went silent.

So another 5+ years have passed by and I miss it more and more, but I just want my RG507 back lol

right, your going to say to my next statement why buy another RG, lol but it’s all I want and all I have ever played :) (seriously never even strummed another guitar haha) If the RG507 had not been stolen I would still be playing it now.

put a deposit down on a RG8870 which again has a similar set upto to my original guitar, but as I didn’t get the quality I wanted from the prestige line of guitars, I though I will have to go for a J-custom this time, and it’s some Axe line up, which is meant to be a higher tier again (clueless on this tbh)

Any feedback on the current J-custom axe line up and will it be better than the RG655? (Hopefully that’s a yes).

My plan is to get new guitar and fractal modeller and that’s job done. (When I bought the RG655 I bought a Line 6 Helix floor board thing and I was disappointed in the sound quality and couldn’t get it to how I wanted it to sound and ended up selling it at the time, I’m very sensitive to tone and sound effects and it just seemed to not be subtle imho).

One last note, I had a friend set up my RG507 and got allot of treatment over the years, and I got rid of the v8 pickups early on and they were replaced with something special but can’t remember what they where and I loved the sound, used to get sweet feedback on demand with them, but when it was stolen I had no idea what my mate had fitted and 15 odd years later he couldn’t remember either, but the tone zone didn’t have the same sound and seemed dull to me and felt like I had to really attack the strings, so going to have new issue with the one.

So looking for some recommendation on pickups, happy to buy them straight away too.

I tend to play, Joe Satriani, Steve vai etc, like anything technical and fun to play. :)

Sorry about long winded story, but I always find you keep it short and sweet then your asked loads of questions and I might as well just took the time to write it all out in the first place haha

Will appreciate any help.
 
RG’s are still the shit and what’s cool is about half the people selling them used haven’t gone full lunatic yet, so you can find them at reasonable prices still. Hell, if anything, people put more stock in 90’s Ibanez stuff than anything they’ve put out since the 00’s.

I’d just find a used RG570 and pick up where ya left off!
 
First, RG507 was stolen

Second, RG655 neck started to split down the centre, got a replacement and neck buzzed like everywhere and I put it down to fitting 10’s on it and looked like neck bowed, so put 9’s back on and sold it as I was paranoid the neck was going to split again.
 
RevDrucifer said:
RG’s are still the shit and what’s cool is about half the people selling them used haven’t gone full lunatic yet, so you can find them at reasonable prices still. Hell, if anything, people put more stock in 90’s Ibanez stuff than anything they’ve put out since the 00’s.

I’d just find a used RG570 and pick up where ya left off!
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I thought about getting another RG507 second hand, but I didn’t want to replace my original back then, so didn’t really want to do it now.

I know this seems daft, but was emotional lol

Also I had loads done to the guitar to make it mine, another RG507 wouldn’t be the same.

The Ibanez RG8870 in black looks so nice, it really caught my attention. (Bearing in mind I’m lusting after it and never played it) LoL
 
For those who are as lazy as me, save you the effort and here is the link to the 8870, which seems to be based on the 8570.

You’ll have to put www. Infront as I can post links yet as I’m new.

ibanez.com/eu/products/detail/rg8870_00_01.html
 
well if you're looking for that vai satch sound and vibes, dimarzio is maybe a good starting point as both of them have signature pickups from dimarzio...maybe do a little research to narrow down a model that maybe checks most of the boxes for you are trying to get
 
just looked at the spec of the RG550, that is dang close to a RG507.

My original RG507 was in black with dark fretboard, I like dark guitars and I don’t know how I would feel about a light coloured fretboard lol

The only thing I didn’t like about the RG655 was the pick guard/cover plate, always prefered them without, the RG8870 doesn’t have the pick guard plate either so kinda like the look of that allot.

Really wanted an alder wood body this time.
 
superclarkey said:
First, RG507 was stolen

Second, RG655 neck started to split down the centre, got a replacement and neck buzzed like everywhere and I put it down to fitting 10’s on it and looked like neck bowed, so put 9’s back on and sold it as I was paranoid the neck was going to split again.
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The buzzing reads like a setup issue as is the neck bow.

+1 RG550.
 
Another fantastic surgestion, thank you.

I noticed that allot of modern fretboards have s/s frets, however the 8870 does, seems strange?
 
Budda said:
The buzzing reads like a setup issue as is the neck bow.

+1 RG550.
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I can’t disagree with you on that, you could be right, but after the first neck issue I wasn’t willing to play the same game, as I spend money on trying to resolve the first one for it to be just exchanged, so never recovered that money.

I always played with 10’s strings, and my thoughts was that it was too much tension on the neck, you could see that from the nut to where the neck bolted to the body it bowed, frets were low, and then it was dead flat, a straight edge you could see it. So action was high to deal with this and drove me insane. (But we are not talking miles out, enough to cause a higher than expected action).

Not saying it couldn’t be rectified, fixed or whatever but I didn’t want to mess with it and cause a cracked neck again.
 
Riccardo Ros said:
Another good choice could be the RG5320..
Top prestige line with s/s frets, reinforced necks and the most clever configuration (for the genres you want to play) with Air Norton + Tone Zone
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YES - i have the RG5320C-DFM and RG5320CSW....they are my "go to's" with my strandbergs!
I was hesitating on going into anything but the 550's and 700's because the rabbit hole on the Premium vs Prestige vs J-Custom vs Signature is too deep and fraught with all sorts of varied opinions :p YMMV!
for the record the C-DFM (chrome - deep forest (green) metallic is blue :p)
 
My thought on RG's has been always getting something above the RG300 series. I had an RG340, first electric guitar I ever bought in the late 80's and got lucky with it since I knew squat about guitars at the time. A friend of mine who was a monster player said as much, he was a Kramer player.

I've had several RG's since and they have all been great guitars. Sorry you seem to have been unlucky in the quality of your purchases. Any Ibanez in the 400 and higher series has been in my mind one of best guitars for the money for a long time, I recommend them all of the time. I currently have a JS2400 and it's one of the best guitars I own. It's one of the few guitars that will stay with me to the bitter end.
 
Basically that’s what I wanted to hear, that I was just unlucky with my RG655.

I mean, should 10’s be an issue with these thin necks? Should I just learn to play with 9’s?
 
If any of you see a RG550LTD under your radar, do not hesitate to grab it. I don't know if all the LTD (Limited Edition) were make like that or if I have been blessed with a lucky piece of wood, but it has an amazing resonance, sustain and playability. Real mojo. It has been my #1 since 1994. It has not only survived hundreds of gigs, but also surpassed JEMs, J-Customs, JS2450, Prestiges, Charvels, Suhrs... even a Tom Anderson! I sold all these because they had no added value over the RG550LTD.

IMG_0750.JPG
 
superclarkey said:
Basically that’s what I wanted to hear, that I was just unlucky with my RG655.

I mean, should 10’s be an issue with these thin necks? Should I just learn to play with 9’s?
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nope, it's thin but very stiff and stable.
I suggested also the pricey prestige (e.g. the 5320) vs the "cheaper" RG652 also for this. The latter has a thin walnut stripe and I believe they need more time to become stable. KTS titanium bar in certain models is also a welcome spec (I had one in a RGD... impressive stability)
 
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