RG 8420 ZD Review

Price paid: $ 1800

Features: This guitar was made by Team J Craft in Japan in 2008. This guitar is very well built, since it's made by the best builders in The Ibanez Company. The neck is a five piece "super Wizard" neck (maple and walnut). I think this neck is in a good way different from other wizard necks. The neck profile is thin, witch makes it easy to play fast. It has 24 fret fretboard with "Tree Of Life Inlay" inlays.

The bpdy is made of African mahogany and has a flamed maple top that's looks amazing in the color of red. The bridge is the new Edge Zero with the "zero-point" system witch works perfectly fine. When it's set up properly (it comes from the factory very well set up) it stays perfectly in tune, even after heavy use. But I don't recommend you to change bridge settings on a gig, because you'll need to retune the guitar (at least I had to do it). I experienced that the tremolo arm made som sounds, but the seller said that they will go away after some use.

The electronics is passive and this guitar comes with Seymour Duncans. In the bridge position it has a Seymour DuncanR CUSTOM 5 TB-14 and in the bridge position it has a Seymour DuncanR JAZZ model SH2-n. The pickup selector is a 5-way Switch. The guitar also has a volum nob and a tone nob.

It comes with a J custom case identical to the Prestige cases. It also comes with wrenches, straplocks from Gotoh, and the coolest thing is the certificate that comes with the guitar luthiers signature and all other documents. // 8

Sound: The pickups is powerful and has a nice sound for rock and metal. At the same time, you can have a Strat kind of a clean sound, because it can splitt the humbuckers to single coils, so the guitar is very versatile in sound. I only use a Dunlop Crybaby wah wah and a DigiTech Whammy IV into a Marshall AVT 10, and I love the guitar sound. It has a lot of options in sound and all of them sound very, very good. // 9
Action, Fit & Finish: Since the guitar is a custom shop guitar, and the seller was the first owner and the guitar only had been played for 3 hours, it was very good set up, it was even tuned perfectly. The pickups are monunted straight to the body and are very well mounted to the body. The bridge is very well routed for the tremolo and you can really pull the bridge up. The hardware doesn't make any sound and works very well. // 10

Reliability & Durability: I haven't tried the guitar Live, but I think it will stand a Live show with out problems, if you use it properly. The hardware works so good that I don't think thats the weak spot on this guitar. The strap buttons are very good, but needs to be tighten now and then, but since the guitar comes with straplocks, it probably won't be a problem. The finish is good and if you polish the guitar and take care of the guitar, it will last for a long time. I've had this guitar for a half week, but I think the finish can take a lot of beating. // 10

Impression: I play a lot of rock and instumental rock/metal like Joe Satriani and Steve Vai. The guitar suits my playing styles good. I've been playing for 3 years and was ready for a new guitar. I don't use a lot of effects, and I don't think it's necessary.

When I was going to buy a new guitar, it stood between Music Man JP6, Jackson SL-1 and this one, and I don't regret for buying this guitar. I chose this guitar because I felt that it had everything I needed on a guitar. This guitar is worth trying out, and are worth the money. // 10

Review from ultimate-guitar.com