I was never into ibby's. When I walked into guitar center I was set on buying a jackson. when I finally picked one up and started to play it, it didnt feel right to me. It felt like pieces of wood slapped together with some strings. Maybe because they were the cheaper jacksons. I tried just about every guitar in there, when I finally got to this Ibanez I have, I was like "WOW this feels so good to me" and it was in my price range so it was a no brainer.