Ibanez guitars.

Neil-Nitro · 2014-01-31T19:18:02+00:00

I'm curious to hear some opinions on Ibanez guitars. They're mostly labeled only being good for metal and extreme shredding. But with models like the Roadcore and SA series or even the ARX and ART they seem to cater for almost everybody. Do we just have the perception that its mostly good for metal because a lot of metal players use them? Or maybe the tradionalist tends to overlook them? Way back when I started playing I had a cheap GRX40 and thinking back I really loved the neck and frets on that guitar and found it easier to play. Maybe because I have large hands ?. But what do you guys think?

Neil-Nitro

Wow Joe Satriani has some killer tone... Didn't he teach Steve Vai or something?

Bob-Dubery

I think they ended up prominent in heavy metal because there was less tradition to fight there, but they make good instruments and cover a wide variety of styles (of guitar and of music). I recall that George Benson was an endorsee at one time - and he's not exactly Pantera. My first electric was an Ibanez, so were my second and third. This was in the late 70s. Ibanez had stopped making copies and were repositioning themselves as a maker of good quality original instruments. They were very good guitars - the bang per buck was unbeatable right then.

NorioDS

Neil Nitro wrote Wow Joe Satriani has some killer tone... Didn't he teach Steve Vai or something?

Yep he has taught Steve Vai, Kirk Hammet and the guy from Counting Crows. Of course all of those guys had other teachers and influences as well. (Like Steve Vai's time with Frank Zappa.)

Neil-Nitro

Interesting statement by Bob. The logo on their wikipedia page does say: "Anything but traditional". Here is also an interesting part I've read on the wiki: "After the lawsuit Hoshino Gakki abandoned the strategy of copying "classic" U.S.A. electric guitar designs—having already introduced a plethora of original designs. Hoshino was producing Artist models of their own design from 1974, introducing a set neck model in 1975. In 1977 they upgraded and extended their Artist range and introduced a number of other top quality original designs made to match or surpass famous American brands."

Shibbibilybob

Norio wrote
Neil Nitro wrote Wow Joe Satriani has some killer tone... Didn't he teach Steve Vai or something?
Yep he has taught Steve Vai, Kirk Hammet and the guy from Counting Crows. Of course all of those guys had other teachers and influences as well. (Like Steve Vai's time with Frank Zappa.)

Was Vai not a student of Satriani well before the Zappa days? My understanding (shaped from years of guitar world interviews that may well have been jumbled) is that they were both still in school when Satriani was teaching Vai.

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