Originally Posted by GuitarBizarre

If it was your first guitar, the of course it will have had low quality hardware. Its a beginners guitar. Thats like expecting a 70's skoda to have interior trim to match a ferrari. My S has a ZR, I know people with 20 year old plus RG's and my old music tech teacher had a 15 year old S prestige with the original Edge tremolo. Out of all of those not one is showing any signs of excessive wear.

This is compared to my Uncles 70s Les Paul, where the strings have eaten through the tops of bridge saddles, the finish is wearing away in places, the tuners and bridge are tarnished and most importantly, the neck itself is actually very slightly warped longitudinally, leading to a vaguely uncomfortable compromise between high action and low buzz.

Second, I picked those guitars out from the product line because they were more traditionally style, as I figured they would appeal to you more than a succession of RG and S types, which are MY preference. I can certainly post many Ibanez guitars that I feel are beautiful, but you would disagree I feel.

To be honest, I'd like to know how often you've actually played a high end Ibanez (Prestige or above)





Let me ramble about my dislike of gibsons a bit more.

My uncles Gibson is a perfectly fine guitar. It plays well and it sounds good.
HOWEVER. I have played many and varied guitars that are much better than it, many of which have been ibanez.

Gibsons quality control is currently awful. I have heard horror stories from various luthiers, guitar techs, and dealers, who have seen some truly awful gibson ****ups. They mainly come from the times gibson have changed ownership. Every time they are bought out or put under new management, the quality rises drastically as the new owners try to bring back the gibson name.

Later on in this process the quality slowly drops and QC becomes less rigourous. Inlays start being routed shallower, to save on buying new router bits. I have seen examples where the ivoroid is actually just a thin grey, as its so thin. There is a review on ultimate guitar.com of a gibson les paul that arrived to them badly set up and with numerous flaws in the finish. This is compared to much cheaper guitars that have arrived to me set up perfectly and with no flaws in the finish whatsoever. The review states its a good guitar, but I think he's pushing too hard for a gibson paycheck, since the site in general has been very pro gibson lately, as many of their writers work for them.

There are also efforts to produce better looking guitars over better playing. Examples being a dealer I spoke to once, who was suckered into buying a beautiful quilt top LP, that had no resonance whatsoever, as the quilt was where ALL the attention had gone, with no thought as to its effect on tone. Since that quilt turned out to be incredibly dense, the guitar never lived up to its true potential. Another flaw on the same guitar was the third fret was in the wrong place entirely, so the guitar could NEVER be intonated.

THis also holds true in my PERSONAL experience. A friend has bought two Les Paul Studios from different years. Neither of them has played anywhere near as nicely as its pricetag dictated. Ibanez S, RG, and Jem guitars all managed t outdo it in all areas of ton and feel. Not to mention other brands.

Of the guitars I've played in stores, I have played £1300 Gibson Les Pauls, then swapped out to an Epiphone Les Paul that actually played and sounded MUCH better. Not a litle but a lot, through the same amp and same settings of that amp.




To make a long story short, out of literally hundreds of guitars, the gibsons have been the ones that for me, have ALWAYS stuck out as being worth nowhere near their pricetags or reputation. My personal preference for ibanez is just that, personal preference, but IMO, Gibson are selling on their name and heritage more than the instruments they make.




Edit: Nothing new to offer? Ibanez are the only company in the guitar building world, other than tiny independent luthiers, who actually build their own bridges. Floyd rose, Gotoh, Schaller, TOMS, Kahlers, even Tonepros. The one thing they have in common is they build bridges and hardware that is used in other peoples guitars primarily. Only FR actually build guitars at all out of those.

Compare this to Ibanez. Ibanez have patented the ZR trem using a tension bar and ball bearings. They have heavily redesigned and improved on floyd rose designs to produce the Edge, Edge Pro, Edge II, Edge III, and newer ZR style edge trems. They are the only company who build a floating bridge with an inbuilt intonation tool (A system which is far more accurate and easy than setting intonation on a floyd bridge). They make the gibraltar bridges, fixed bridge versions of the Edge, as seen on mick thomsons RG.

Along with this, as far as I know, they were the first company to use a retention bar after the locking nut to improve tuning stability. They patented the All Access Neck Joint that EVERY guitar company has had to catch up to or ignore. They have developed a style of fret dressing on their J custom series, where the ends of the frets are made perfectly round and smooth. No other company offers this. The Wizard Neck is still held by many to be the best neck ever made. They are the only company I know of who offer a fully chromed body guitar, or a mirror top that isnt a flat top (Something they ran many many many tests onto avoid crazing of the upper body bout), they contract Dimarzio to build pickups for their prestige lines, as opposed to other manufacturers own brand pickups which almost universally suck, they are hands down most diverse guitar company EVER when it comes to finishing options, having used veneers, laser etching, swirls, chrome, graphics, tung oil, gloss, trans, satin, carved tops, archtops, figured poplar and bubinga, puzzle patterns, glitters, pearlescent paint on things like the xiphos, etc.

Only company to offer guitars with integrated grips for stage shows. Guitar company of choice for the worlds most prominent Sustainer user. Only company to offer anything even remotely like the Jem 20th, which is an acrylic body with integrated LEDs and swirls of paint. The Jem 10th used engraved stainless steel. Worlds first production 7 string. Worlds first 7 string tremolo system.


Thats pretty damn innovative for one company.