Francis Viviers wrote
I dont want a bright sounding instrument again.
The through neck of the RGT is going to make it brighter than the bolt-on of the EGEN. Both will have brighter than usual neck pickups, thanks to the 24 fret thing (not necessarily a bad thing - you may find normal neck buckers are a bit too thick and indistinct if you are used to single-coils).
The biggest difference in tone will come from the humbuckers and darker sounding pickups can work wonders in a brighter guitar. Mahogany and maple will not be that much darker than an Alder body. It'll have a more present and compressed midrange, but the maple adds a lot of snap to it. An all-mahogany body would be darker. Also, don't forget the IBZ favourite - basswood. With a maple neck, basswood gives a good, strong, low-mid focused voice that cuts through really well for lead stuff. The stronger low end and reduced highs makes up for the tone of the double-locking trem, which has the reverse.
Now i need to get a place to test drive them.
In these price ranges, any decent store should be willing to order both on consignment from MIDI (IBZ agents) and will happily return the one they don't sell. As long as they know you are serious, they should be willing. The only potential bugbear is that MIDI might not have stock of both...
What I would do, however is try a few different IBZ's first ...and
make 100% sure you like the Wizard (and especially the Wizard 2) necks. Those skinny things are fast, sure, but as VV pointed out, they can make your fretting hand cramp very quickly. As primarily a Strat player, you are going to be used to around 21mm, and 2-3mm is a
huge difference in a neck.
