Thursday, April 15, 2010

Ibanez Grx70 Review




















Heres another great Ibanez gio model baby!! Sweet

Price paid: $ 308.7

Purchased from: Trimis Music Shop

Features: This is one of the japanese Ibanez models. It has an Agathis body and 22 frets from which, only the 18 are playable to me! The 5 way selector for one single and two humbucker pick-up is good although the sound gets very poor when you are playing with only the single coil and very bass when you are on the upper humbucker! Oh, and the tuners are not locking causing problems with the string tension! // 6

Sound: My style varies among american alternative & grunge-like sounds to manchester brit-pop and Indie like Pixies or Dinosaur Jr. And this guitar was always a great performer when I need heavy sounds or distorted wahs and generally heavy effects (flangers,phasers etc.) But when it comes to clean playing it doesn't feel right to play with it...and doesn't compare to my Mexican Strat. // 8

Action, Fit & Finish: The guitar was quite well set up and forgetting those .10 strings and the distance they had from the fretboard that made barres difficult to play after the 8th fret everything else was really good. // 8

Reliability & Durability: I have used this guitar on a live show, and I can't say it was perfect but it was not bad.I don't know if for this mediocre performance was responsible the amp I used then, a Fender 65W Twin Reverb. I think it's a quite good guitar for beginners and people who know exactly what heavy/distorted sound want to create.The buttons and the body look really well built and solid, but of course improving your playing won't let this guitar last for more than 2-3 years as your main instrument. I have it since January 2001 and I have already bought a Mexican Strat and a Squier Tele as main guitars for live shows and studio. // 6

Impression: In the studio I use it with my Marshall JCM 2000 / TSL 100 with an 100W stereo cabinet and the Korg AX100 digital effects, plus a Boss Digital Delay, a Cry Baby and a Boss Flanger pedal and i turn on the amp's crunch channel it's perfect!

Ibanez GRX-70 can give me all this heavy sound I need when playing fast riffs, or distorteed wah solos, fifths. When in the studio, I always use it to record the rhythm guitar parts!

But of course it's not a guitar with great features or very bad ones...Ibanez covers all the average needs of a guitar player in a smart way and doesn't promise something more...
 // 8

Saturday, April 3, 2010

The new Ibanez Mikro GRGM21GB


















This is the new Ibanez Gio Mikro Guitar
GRGM21GB


Small hands make big sounds with the Ibanez miKros. These compact guitars keep many of the features of their bigger counterparts and even come with a gig bag for hitting the road.

Specifications:
* 1pc GRGM Maple neck
* Poplar body
* Medium frets
* Fixed bridge
* Standard (H) neck pu
* Standard (H) bridge pu
* Hardware color : Chrome
* Scale : 560mm/22"
* Colors : BKN (Black Night), BMB (Beam Blue)


The Ibanez Mikro GRGM21 can truly shred in smaller places than its competitors.
The Ibanez Mikro is not a toy – made to the same high standards of the other GIO series guitars. The RGRM21 has the same high-output Powersound pickups, the same construction, materials, set-up and inspection. It’s just shorter, a 22.2-inch scale neck instead of 25.5-inch, and smaller. That makes it perfect for tour buses, songwriting, running scales while downloading and, of course, for young rockers and beginners.

Feature:
Love the sound from the pickups! The string action is very light, perfect for a beginner or an accomplished player. They do not come with tremolo systems, which for me would be a drawback, but for my son it actually is great, because it will save me from having to tune it up every time he used it. Great for rock, blues, or jazz.

Quality:
There are no strings but the guitar is in great condition. Dropped it twice, didn’t break a thing. The neck is perfectly solid and beautiful. The finish is very hard to scratch or damage as well as the pick guard. I feel comfortable with lots of use of this guitar. The only thing though is its size can make a worry.

Value:
Its a good price for what you’re getting. Ok for the price I got my red mikro at, 120$ I would pay the price double just to keep it. after looking at this guitar and playing it for the first time I would of never guessed it to be this price. I would guess around 3 or 400 dollars. wow. It has the looks of a 500 dollar guitar with sound of a 300 dollar guitar. so they could of made the price this way because of the bodies size, but really that’s just an added bonus to me. Cheap and sounds like a bought it for 1000000 dollars. Check latest price.

Desirability:
The shark tooth inlay on the fret board makes this guitar stand out from the other Start copies. The pickups are much better than the usual single coil from this type of guitar. This is a great looking guitar. I can sit and look at it for hours. I’m looking to get a Ibanez RG 350dx and this guitar actually looks similar to it. It has the black on candy apple red which is my favorite combination. it is available in other good colors to. The neck is a beauty I love the shark tooth diagrams. Beyond that just set it down and step away and stare at it and u will just want to kiss this thing

Sound:
This guitar produces a way better sound than it looks it would. The pickups can sound great for metal, softy stuff, or just any rock. I think it could have a 5 way toggle switch but it still produces great sounds w/o.

Ease of Use:

It is very playable. The smaller body makes great for good solo play on the 24 fret neck. Its hard enough to get to 21st fret on my start so this makes things all fine and dandy. For a fat metal or rock sound I simply just use the neck pickup. and the bridge pickup is great for a thinner moderate rock sound that cant be beat. If u can play a regular standard sized guitar this one is no different except a lilt easier. Pretty easy to use. I got small fingers and it’s easy to move the strings around without having to strain.

Overall:
This is the perfect sized guitar for my 9 year old son. The double coil pickups and the shark tooth inlay were the reasons for buying this one over the Stratocaster Squire. I was very happy when the guitar came perfectly set up, ready to play. I would definitely buy another one.

The guitar was a backup or extra axe to have when I buy my 350dx Ibanez. but after purchase and playing time with it its now more of my main go to guitars. I love that about it. Great pickups smooth sound. Great for rock, blues, or jazz.

Technical Info
Neck: GRGM
Scale: 22.2 in.
Neck Material: Maple
Alder Body: Best known as the body wood for the “classic single coil, bolt on neck guitar,” alder produces clear, full bodied vintage tone that works well for lead or rhythm work.
Fret: 24, Medium
Rosewood Fingerboard: Rosewood offers a strong, bright sound and an attractive appearance with a long grain.
Bridge: Fixed – This design offers thru-body stringing for stronger tone and sustain.
Neck Pickup: PSND1 (Humbucker)
Bridge Pickup: PSND2 (Humbucker)
Inlay: Pearl Dot

Technical Detail

Ibanez GRGM21 Mikro Compact Electric Guitar Specifications
• Body Material: Poplar
• Neck Material: Maple
• Neck Scale: 22.2 inches
• Type: Bolt-on
• Number of Frets: 22
• Fret Type: Medium
• Fingerboard: Rosewood
• Inlay: Sharktooth
• Bridge: Fixed
• Hardware Color: Chrome
• Neck Pickup: Powersound PSND1
• Bridge Pickup: Powersound PSND2
• Controls: One Tone, One Volume

Ibanez Grx20 BKN Review










My Review on Ibanez GRX20 Series
Black Knight Finish, Rosewood Fretboard, Maple Neck, Agatis Body, 2 Powersound Humbucker Pickups.

Price paid: $ 170

Purchased from: Music Centre

Features: The guitar is a normal 22 fret guitar, laminated top. There is one volume and one tone nob which makes for easy control. // 6
Sound: This definitely suits all music styles, I play everything from acoustic emo, to synth rock, to death metal, and it plays all of those very well. I'm currently using a Peavey Blazer 158 amp with the Ibanez Super Tub pedal. Yea I know, old pedal, but it's still kicking and working perfectly. It gives a beautiful rich acoustic clean sound and the heaviest full lead sounds. The tone can give the meatiest bass sound or the crunchiest grunge sounds. I especially love that grunge sound. // 10

Action, Fit & Finish: It is a very well set up guitar, well adjusted and great strings out of the factory. The only string that broke on me out of it was the low E and that was about 11 months after i had owned it. The pickups although are a little loose, the one closest to the fretboard is bent down a little after some... tough playing, but it still sounds like it was brand new despite this little incident, and i'm sure it can be fixed if it causes any serious problems. // 8

Reliability & Durability
: This guitar will withstand live playing, and I don't need a back up when I've got this. It is the most durable guitar ever, I bet I could smash it against the ground, pick it up, maybe repair a few strings, and it would sound fine. I've had it for a year or so and the hardware is in excellent shape, and I do have a scratch or two on the paint but it's not a problem. The strap buttons although can get very insecure, expecially the bottom one. // 10

Impression: This is a great guitar especially for beginners. I love every part of this guitar accept for the minor problems but like out of tuning a bit. Recommended for beginners and intermediate. // 10

The Ibanez Gio Series

The history and facts behind Ibanez Gio

The Ibanez GIO Series is a budget guitar series produced by Hoshino Gakki (Ibanez), replacing the Cimar line. The GIO guitars are a "budget" model line similar to Fender's Squier guitars and Gibson's Epiphone line. Unlike those particular budget lines however, these are produced as fully Ibanez branded, with a GIO logo above the standard Ibanez logo to indicate the series. This series of guitars were produced in either China or Indonesia, depending on model.

  • GAX series: The budget version of the AX series. This guitar's neck is based on the 22 fret AX profile, and the guitar is fitted with a hard-tail bridge and a dual humbucker (H-H) pickup configuration. The GAX75GP comes with a Shortstop bridge and "downshifter" to allow for quick drop-D tuning.
  • GSA series: The budget version of the SA series. This guitar uses a variety of configurations including a SAT-10 bridge, instead of the SAT-Pro bridge on the SA models, and the body wood is Agathis. This models neck is based on the 22 fret SA neck profile. Hardware configurations include a dual humbucker and single coil pickup (H-S-H) combined with a full locking system, a dual single-coil and humbucker (S-S-H) with a standard floating bridge, and a dual humbucker setup (H-H) with a standard floating bridge.
  • GSZ series: The budget version of theIbanez SZ series. This guitar uses a Full Tune II bridge instead of the Gibraltar III, and also comes with a Quik Change III tailpiece for easy and quick string changes, these are mounted on top of the body using a wrappiece instead of thru-body stringing. These models use a neck profile based on a 22 fret SZ profile, but use bolt on construction rather than set-neck.
  • GRG series. Not including the GRGM, these are the budget versions of the Ibanez RGseries. The DX version uses a Fat 10 single-locking floating tremolo bridges instead of a double locking tremolo system. The body is constructed of basswood, although of a lower grade than that found in Ibanez' higher ranges. The neck profile is based on the 24 fret RG-series neck, and comes with shark-tooth inlay. The non-DX model is fitted with a standard Ibanez floating bridge and dot inlays.
  • GRX series. The budget version of the Ibanez RX series (Similar in design to the RG, and with a similarly thin neck, but 22 frets rather than 24.). These guitars use the Fat 6 floating tremolo bridge instead of a double locking bridge design. The body is constructed of basswood, although of a lower grade than that found in Ibanez' higher ranges. The neck profile is based on the 22 fret RX-series neck. There are a number of configurations for this model including the use of pick-guards, humbuckers and single coil pickups. Models range from no pick-guard and two humbuckers (H-H) to a super-strat design with pick-guard, two single coils and a humbucker (S-S-H).
  • GRGM series, also known as miKro RG series, this model is a smaller scale guitar designed for smaller hands, with a 22 inch, 24-fret neck, based upon the RG neck. These models use a fixed through body bridge. While normally provided with 2 pickups, a recent model was made available which replaced the neck pickup with an onboard 2.5 watt amplifier. With a recent update, the GRGM now uses Mahogany instead of Agathis for body wood.