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Hatsubai « Prestige fretwork and quality »
Published on 10/22/11 at 13:42This is the upgraded model from the famous RG570. To be honest, it's not that much different from the RG570 except for a few minor things. The most notable would be that this is made in the new Prestige factory. The guitar features a basswood body, a maple neck with a rosewood fretboard, 24 jumbo frets with dot inlays, an Edge Pro tremolo, two humbuckers, one volume, one tone and a five way switch.
UTILIZATION
The fretwork on this is superb, and it's the main selling point of these newer guitars. The frets on these, while not quite as good as the Prestige, offer some semi-rounded fret ends that other guitar manufacturers don't seem to do. I was able to get some super low action on this. The necks on these aren't quite as thin as the original Wizard necks, but they're stil very slim. The bridge on this is the brand new (at the time) Edge Pro tremolo, and it works great. It doesn't have the locking studs, and it's a little stiffer than the original Edge or LoPro Edge, but it's still a very high quality bridge that can take tons of abuse and remain stable.
SOUNDS
These still have the same old bland IBZ pickups that are installed in all of standard production line Ibanez guitars. They're not that great, and I recommend you replace them with real DiMarzios. The bridge pickups in these are a bit thick sounding, and that's great for basswood, but it's not that clear or dynamic. I find that regular production DiMarzios sound a lot better in these than these IBZ pickups do. The neck pickup I always found to be a touch bright in these, and turning the tone knob down doesn't really seem to solve the issue. The guitar has a five way switch that gives you lots of different sounds which is real cool, and I wish more guitars would feature these extended controls as they're easy to implement.
OVERALL OPINION
The guitars are very high quality, and I actually prefer these over the RG570 models. You can get these super cheap, and I find the fretwork to be a lot more consistent than on the previous models. If you're going to keep these, one thing I'd recommend would be replacing the pickups with some real ones. Also, if you can spend the extra 40 bucks, you can get some locking studs in these to make the trem as good as the old ones.
UTILIZATION
The fretwork on this is superb, and it's the main selling point of these newer guitars. The frets on these, while not quite as good as the Prestige, offer some semi-rounded fret ends that other guitar manufacturers don't seem to do. I was able to get some super low action on this. The necks on these aren't quite as thin as the original Wizard necks, but they're stil very slim. The bridge on this is the brand new (at the time) Edge Pro tremolo, and it works great. It doesn't have the locking studs, and it's a little stiffer than the original Edge or LoPro Edge, but it's still a very high quality bridge that can take tons of abuse and remain stable.
SOUNDS
These still have the same old bland IBZ pickups that are installed in all of standard production line Ibanez guitars. They're not that great, and I recommend you replace them with real DiMarzios. The bridge pickups in these are a bit thick sounding, and that's great for basswood, but it's not that clear or dynamic. I find that regular production DiMarzios sound a lot better in these than these IBZ pickups do. The neck pickup I always found to be a touch bright in these, and turning the tone knob down doesn't really seem to solve the issue. The guitar has a five way switch that gives you lots of different sounds which is real cool, and I wish more guitars would feature these extended controls as they're easy to implement.
OVERALL OPINION
The guitars are very high quality, and I actually prefer these over the RG570 models. You can get these super cheap, and I find the fretwork to be a lot more consistent than on the previous models. If you're going to keep these, one thing I'd recommend would be replacing the pickups with some real ones. Also, if you can spend the extra 40 bucks, you can get some locking studs in these to make the trem as good as the old ones.