Ibanez GRG170DX Review
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== Ease Of Use == | == Ease Of Use == | ||
| - | This guitar is very easy to play compared to other guitars (some even expensiver) that I have played. The action is low, and there is not a lot of friction on the fretboard. The guitar also has 24 frets which comes in handy time to time, although the 24th fret is so small it's very difficult to play and will not sustain for more than a second or two. The main problem with this guitar is the tremolo. It sounds fine, but makes the tuning on this guitar ''terrible''. I should have expected this when I bought a cheap guitar with a whammy bar, but I knew barely anything about guitars then. If you use the whammy bar then the guitar will be guaranteed to start detuning itself, and sometimes very drastically (strings a quarter tone out of tune). It is impossible to play anything that need you to use the whammy bar at the beginning as you will play out of tune for the rest. | + | This guitar is very easy to play compared to other guitars (some even expensiver) that I have played. The action is low, and there is not a lot of friction on the fretboard. The guitar also has 24 frets which comes in handy time to time, although the 24th fret is so small it's very difficult to play and will not sustain for more than a second or two. The main problem with this guitar is the tremolo. It sounds fine, but makes the tuning on this guitar ''terrible''. I should have expected this when I bought a cheap guitar with a whammy bar, but I knew barely anything about guitars then. If you use the whammy bar then the guitar will be guaranteed to start detuning itself, and sometimes very drastically (strings a quarter tone out of tune). It is impossible to play anything that need you to use the whammy bar at the beginning as you will play out of tune for the rest. The problem doesn't just stop with the whammy bar. The first problem is that if you change the tuning to DADGBE without a tuner, you will actually be in EbBbEbF#BbEb, or something close to that, and horribly out of tune as this huitar cannot adjust to alternate tunings. The last, and worst problem, is this guitar goes out of tune without you even doing anything except playing it. This is partly the fault of the tremolo as when you do a bend or vibrato the bridge moves and this sends the guitar out of tune, but I also suspect the tuners are partly to blame, as the guitar does go out of tune without bends or vibrato. Also when you are tuning a string sometimes you can turn the machine head about an eighth of the way round and the pitch of the string won't change at all so I think the tuners aren't very good either. Having said all this if you tune the guitar about ten times in a row (as after you have tuned each string seperately the first one you tuned will be out of tune again) it does settle down for a little bit, and you do get used to having to tune your guitar all the time or play out of tune, and it isn't as annoying as you might think once your used to it. |
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== Overall Impression == | == Overall Impression == | ||
Revision as of 00:15, 31 July 2008
Contents |
General Information
Original Author: Matt23
Weapon: Ibanez GRG170DX
Make: Ibanez
Model: GRG170DX
Price: £150
Specifications
Neck: GRG neck Neck Type: GRG Body: Basswood body Frets: Medium frets Fingerboard: Bound Rosewood Inlay: Sharktooth inlay Bridge: FAT 10 bridge NeckPU: PSND1 neck pu MiddlePU: PSNDS mid pu BridgePU: PSND2 bridge pu HW Color: CH
Sound
The sound is quite good considering the price. It is nothing special but isn't bad. The neck humbucker has quite a nice round sound to it but is very muddy if you use it on lower strings. The bridge humbucker is nothing special though does make the notes squeal with a bit of coaxing (half pinch harmonics etc). The middle single coil is a bit pointless as it doesn't sound good as a single coil for playing with lots of drive and the volume knob on the guitar on full. And if you do get a sort of bluesy sound then this pickup sounds too metally so I think it is a bit useless, apart from when combined with the bridge it sounds very good for a clean setting. The sustain on this guitar is not good, as notes end up dying in about 5 seconds. Overall the sound is not bad, but is nothing special.
Ease Of Use
This guitar is very easy to play compared to other guitars (some even expensiver) that I have played. The action is low, and there is not a lot of friction on the fretboard. The guitar also has 24 frets which comes in handy time to time, although the 24th fret is so small it's very difficult to play and will not sustain for more than a second or two. The main problem with this guitar is the tremolo. It sounds fine, but makes the tuning on this guitar terrible. I should have expected this when I bought a cheap guitar with a whammy bar, but I knew barely anything about guitars then. If you use the whammy bar then the guitar will be guaranteed to start detuning itself, and sometimes very drastically (strings a quarter tone out of tune). It is impossible to play anything that need you to use the whammy bar at the beginning as you will play out of tune for the rest. The problem doesn't just stop with the whammy bar. The first problem is that if you change the tuning to DADGBE without a tuner, you will actually be in EbBbEbF#BbEb, or something close to that, and horribly out of tune as this huitar cannot adjust to alternate tunings. The last, and worst problem, is this guitar goes out of tune without you even doing anything except playing it. This is partly the fault of the tremolo as when you do a bend or vibrato the bridge moves and this sends the guitar out of tune, but I also suspect the tuners are partly to blame, as the guitar does go out of tune without bends or vibrato. Also when you are tuning a string sometimes you can turn the machine head about an eighth of the way round and the pitch of the string won't change at all so I think the tuners aren't very good either. Having said all this if you tune the guitar about ten times in a row (as after you have tuned each string seperately the first one you tuned will be out of tune again) it does settle down for a little bit, and you do get used to having to tune your guitar all the time or play out of tune, and it isn't as annoying as you might think once your used to it.
Overall Impression
Alternative Weapon
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