New guitar opinions

Thrash

Hey there all,

OK, so I know there are a good couple of threads with guys asking for opinions on new axes, but none of them seem to address quite what I'm looking into

I'm currently jamming on an Ibanez RG470, great guitar! I play mostly metal and rock, but I like being able to have a bit of versatility, I need sweet sounds when I'm playing open chords, which the 470 is excellent at. My only problem is this floating bridge... Its a bit of a mission to drop tune it, an hour or so worth of mission. So I've returned it to standard and I intend on keeping it that way. So I'm looking for a fixed bridge guitar that wont break the bank, has decent metal sounds, but that can also play decently clean if my 470 isn't close at hand.

I do have a few guitars in mind, so its not a complete 'what must I do' thread.

I've looked at the vintage series of guitars, v100's, but was told if I want rock sounds out of it, I gotta change the pickups. To be honest, I don't want to have to modify the guitar to get the sounds I want. So does anyone have any experience with this brand, and whether they have a guitar that could work for me?

I've also looked at tokai, which I really like, but at R8k odd for a new one, I'd have to find a pretty decently priced second hand to be able to get it.

Flatfourfan pointed me in the direction of the RGA series of guitars, which look really good in terms of price. I'm looking at 2 at the moment, the RGA32 and the RGA42. The 32 is gorgeous in the mahogany oil finish, the 42 looks awesome in black. The thing is though, the 42 doesn't have a tone pot, its got a switch which activates an 'active equilizer'. I don't really understand that, and I don't know how keen I'd be for more complex circuitry in a guitar. I'm a simple man.... I wanted to know if anyone has experience with the feature, and what they think of it?

The RGA42
http://www.ibanez.co.jp/products/eg_page12.php?area_id=4&data_id=237&color=CL01&year=2012&cat_id=1&series_id=74

The RGA32
http://www.ibanez.co.jp/products/eg_page12.php?area_id=4&data_id=238&color=CL01&year=2012&cat_id=1&series_id=74

I will try to go in store to test these guitars out before I buy, but opinions from others, and possible things to look out for would be appreciated. Maybe some other guitars I could look into?

TI-Distribution

Firstly, what is the max amount that you are prepared to spend?

Shibbibilybob

So I have never played any of those guitars, but I feel like having my say haha.
Those two RGA's look sweet dude, and if you're looking for summin similar to your RG, but fixed bridge, either of those fits the mould.

The website is not very informative about the active eq system, seems it just changes the frequency response to drop the output centered around 800Hz,kinda scooping the mids a bit.
But boosting the treble and bass. This is just from that tiny graph on the page.
A guy on the Ibanez forum here : http://forum.ibanez.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=78161
seems to understand it differently,(mids dropped when active eq is disabled?) and he owns the guitar, but certainly the graph provided by ibanez shows boosts up to about 300Hz and from about 2kHz, and drops in between, so I'd be inclined to trust that.

The guy on that thread seemed to be a disappointed with the lack of variety offered by this system, and I reckon I would be too. It really just gives you two sounds, so your amp twiddling skills best be sharp, but that's hard to do on the fly.

Looking at the options above, if I was keen to buy one and had the cash, I'd probably look most closely at the RGA32.
Those Gibraltar bridges are also really solid...

Thrash

My budget is about R3500, with a bit of a stretch possible. But not much. lol.

Although, this is not a RIGHT NOW buy, that's my current budget, if I can hold out till xmas, it'll probably go up to 5k or 6k (guys, hold thumbs for xmas bonus :roflmao?

KT66

I have A vintage V100 tobacco sunbust
it definately has em smoky rock tunes
vintage v100 comes with Wilkinson "PAF" pickups he got the design from seth lover who is the guy that designed the original PAF humbucker

I have also played the V100 Paradise which has the slash type look and is also a awesome guitar
the paradise is actually the top of the range v100

ill tell you this whit my strat I have a squier standard and I had to change the pickups to be happy

I have never touched the v100 pickups
because they are awesome

ZarK

If you prefer to stick with Ibanez, I'd also recommend the RGA32. The mahogany body will offer some tonal variety and the neck will feel familiar + that oil finish is hot! Another brand I can highly recommend for the price and quality is the PRS SE range of axes. The Tremonti SE will serve you well... All the PRS SE's I've played offer exceptional fit & finish + tone + ultra low action. I'm quite an Ibanez fan but the PRS SE's are hard to beat at their price point imho...

Best of luck finding your next axe!

Thrash

Shibbibilybob wrote: The guy on that thread seemed to be a disappointed with the lack of variety offered by this system, and I reckon I would be too. It really just gives you two sounds, so your amp twiddling skills best be sharp, but that's hard to do on the fly.

I think this is my issue with that switch.... It gives you two options, where the tone pot gives a whole lot more. I like the settings on my amp, and prefer fiddling with the guitar to change the sound. There's just something about the black... Although I do own a purple guitar, so looks aren't bottom line for me :roflmao:

KT66 wrote: I have A vintage V100 tobacco sunbust
it definately has em smoky rock tunes
vintage v100 comes with Wilkinson "PAF" pickups he got the design from seth lover who is the guy that designed the original PAF humbucker

Have you ever played atreyu, lost prophets, lamb of god kind of stuff through it? how does it fare? I really want something tat has that nice growl on the power chords, but when you play the higher notes, they cut through.

I dunno if I've described that quite right... But the metal sample from this epiphone is kinda the ideal sound I'm looking for.
http://www.thomann.de/gb/epiphone_les_paul_custom.htm

KT66

I play more traditional hard rock
but you can get metal tones out of it ,just have a look at v100 on you tube to get an idea
but I would say you need to go to a good music store and try one out

Psean

Thrash wrote:
I've looked at the vintage series of guitars, v100's, but was told if I want rock sounds out of it, I gotta change the pickups. To be honest, I don't want to have to modify the guitar to get the sounds I want. So does anyone have any experience with this brand, and whether they have a guitar that could work for me?

Sounds like BS to me. Those have PAF or P90 style pickups as far as I'm aware. Two of the most classic pickups for rock.
Unless by rock he meant modern radio hard rock stuff like Linkin park or whatever?

Big-G

Also consider LTD. They have a nice LP type with EMG's fitted that rocks! I know they are not so cheap, but they can be got reasonably 2nd hand. They have a real fat tone thats as happy doing Jazz and blues as it is doing full on Metal.

Failing that, whats wrong with a straight forward Epiphone LP? Plenty of beef, and usually great playability. And you'll pick a nice used one up for well within your budget.

Just my thoughts. But what would I know? I'm just a bass player! ?

Cheers
G!

Thrash

Psean wrote:
Thrash wrote:
I've looked at the vintage series of guitars, v100's, but was told if I want rock sounds out of it, I gotta change the pickups. To be honest, I don't want to have to modify the guitar to get the sounds I want. So does anyone have any experience with this brand, and whether they have a guitar that could work for me?

Sounds like BS to me. Those have PAF or P90 style pickups as far as I'm aware. Two of the most classic pickups for rock.
Unless by rock he meant modern radio hard rock stuff like Linkin park or whatever?

haha, ok wait I think I misspoke there. Metal rock is what I'm talking about

Psean

Thrash wrote:
Psean wrote:
Thrash wrote:
I've looked at the vintage series of guitars, v100's, but was told if I want rock sounds out of it, I gotta change the pickups. To be honest, I don't want to have to modify the guitar to get the sounds I want. So does anyone have any experience with this brand, and whether they have a guitar that could work for me?

Sounds like BS to me. Those have PAF or P90 style pickups as far as I'm aware. Two of the most classic pickups for rock.
Unless by rock he meant modern radio hard rock stuff like Linkin park or whatever?
haha, ok wait I think I misspoke there. Metal rock is what I'm talking about

Okay ?
What kind of bands have the general range of sounds you're looking for?

singemonkey

I don't know much about Ibanez super-strats, but it sounds like many will get you right there.

Your options will be widened if you're happy to change pickups though. I think a few will agree with me that good, cheaper guitars often skimp on electronics to get the prices down. Fair enough. At the same time, I'm so impressed by what I've heard, and what people say about, the tonerider pickups available locally. They seem to be really great sounding pickups at knockout prices. So not that much more expensive to give a good guitar the sound it deserves.

Thrash

Big G wrote: Also consider LTD. They have a nice LP type with EMG's fitted that rocks! I know they are not so cheap, but they can be got reasonably 2nd hand. They have a real fat tone thats as happy doing Jazz and blues as it is doing full on Metal.

Failing that, whats wrong with a straight forward Epiphone LP? Plenty of beef, and usually great playability. And you'll pick a nice used one up for well within your budget.

I dunno why... But I've always had a thing against LTD's, I've played on a few and they felt weird to me. That was years ago, so maybe when I go in to try out all the guitars that have been suggested here, and find I have a different opinion. And I'm struggling to find epiphones locally, but then again I've only been to the guitar shop near me in edenvale.

Psean wrote:
Okay ?
What kind of bands have the general range of sounds you're looking for?

Well, I quite like the sound that Atreyu puts out, lamb of god, drowning pool and five finger death punch. I don't really dig the hardcore deathmetal type sounds. The more mellow side of metal lol

singemonkey wrote: I don't know much about Ibanez super-strats, but it sounds like many will get you right there.

Your options will be widened if you're happy to change pickups though. I think a few will agree with me that good, cheaper guitars often skimp on electronics to get the prices down. Fair enough. At the same time, I'm so impressed by what I've heard, and what people say about, the tonerider pickups available locally. They seem to be really great sounding pickups at knockout prices. So not that much more expensive to give a good guitar the sound it deserves.

I'll definitely have a look into it, I've heard of toneriders, but didn't know they were local, or even that they might suite my needs. Thanks! this is why I opened the thread ?

BMU

"I dunno why... But I've always had a thing against LTD's, I've played on a few and they felt weird to me."
Same here, and same with the PRS SE's. Great guitar brands, I've owned both, respected them but could never manage to love them. I always come back to Ibanez, especially in your price range.

So you actually already know what you want. We usually do. Trust your instinct and get what feels good to you. And don't read advice on forums LOL. Writing about buying guitars is like dancing about quantum physics.

VellaJ

Hey man. I own an RGA32, in fact I bought it off Flatfourfan. It is an awesome guitar, that's why I haven't sold it back to him ? I use it mainly for Rammstein, or general hard rock stuff, 'cos it has amazing overdrive sounds and sustain.

HOWEVER. I am in the process of buying a Vintage V100. The thing about the active pickups in the Ibanez is that the cleans aren't amazing. There's too much gain. On my amp, I have a lot of clean headroom, so it doesn't break up, but I had it through a Roland a while ago, and it just overloaded the clean channel. The cleans are kinda in your face, but a bit bassy for my liking...

Also, I like having some good, screaming pinch harmonics periodically, which the RGA just can't quite deliver.

Having played both the Vintage V100 and the MIC Tokai, I preferred the sound and feel of the Vintage, I suspect due to a combination of a solid mahogany body and the PAF pickups.

So yeah, if you want metal, the Ibanez RGA32 is awesome. If you want some good ol' cleans as well, I'd suggest passive pups.

singemonkey

BMU wrote: And don't read advice on forums LOL.