Ibanez RG 2550e Review

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Ibanez RG 2550e

General Information

Original Author: Haas1mj

Weapon: Ibanez RG 2550e Prestige Electric Guitar

Make: Ibanez

Model: RG 2550e

Price: $879.99 USD from zzsounds.com

Playing Style: Metal, Blues, Rock N' Roll

For the seven years that I have been playing i've always been a Les Paul/Strat guy and was always against the Ibanez name simply because I thought they were gimmicky Japanese made guitars. But boy was I wrong, I can easily see myself never playing with another brand after getting this guitar.

Sound

When I first plugged in this guitar the first thing I did was flip the pickup selector switch through all five positions and quickly found out that this is the most versatile guitar that I have ever played. The Dimarzio IBZ Neck, Single Coil, and Bridge pickups manage to give a very wide range of tones with this guitar. The Neck pickup is fat and warm, perfect for shredding or blues playing. The Single Coil pickup is great for that gritty and cutting strat sound and goes great with a little bit of overdrive. Finally, the bridge pickup is hot and trebley, perfect for those screamin' leads or tight aggressive riffs. When you use the selector switch and combine all these options you get a wide array of tonal possibilities that make the guitar suitable for playing any type of music.

Feel

First thing I noticed about this guitar is that it is very light in comparison to the other guitars I own. The Basswood body resonates well making it easy to sit and play comfortably for hours on end. Along with the famous five piece maple Wizard neck, this thing is easily the fastest and smoothest neck i've ever played. The nice addition of a white binding on the neck makes jumping around on the jumbo sized frets much easier. I haven't had too much time to mess around with the whammy bar, but the Edge Pro Tremolo does live up to it's reputation. I've only had to tune this thing once in the two weeks that i've had it so far.

Value

For paying $879 I feel this is one of the best values you can get today, this thing plays and feels like it should be easily priced at $1000 or higher. As Andrew has said in his review this guitar is basically a stripped down version of his JEM, and for me personally thats fine. I'm a person that is more concerned with playability than looks, and saving some extra money is also a great added bonus.

Overall Impression

In my opinion this is the best guitar you can purchase for under $1000, it gives you all the great features of a prestige line Ibanez, but at the same time doesn't crush your wallet. While I love the finish and pickguard of this guitar I could see some people not digging the black and eggplant colored pickguard. My only flaw for this guitar is that it is only available in one finish at the moment, but even with that being my only gripe I have no problem giving this guitar a 9.5/10.