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