Ibanez RG2570 Prestige Mini Review
Ibanez RG2570 Prestige Mini Review by Fran
The Ibanez RG2570 belongs to Ibanez's Prestige line, which means it's made in Japan. It's easy to get confused with Ibanez models (at least it was for me), until I learnt that all their recent guitars featuring 4 numbers in the model are actually made in Japan, and belong to the Prestige series, which should mean they have an overall better finish & materials. That's just a fast approach and if you wish to go deep you should read this excellent guide by GMCer Marc Maiden :)
Ok, so this is a Japanese guitar. What else? Well, it's an RG, which means it's a metal machine, though quite versatile at the same time. Let's do a quick review of its main features:
Thin neck!, this neck is much thinner than Gibson's, and thinner than usual strats too. It's a 5pc Wizard HP Maple/Walnut neck with jumbo frets, which is actually the thinnest neck I've played, and it feels good. At first I found it strange, specially after playing an SG, but it is comfortable and well finished. The hand slides on it easily, and it doesn't get stuck with the finish like it sometimes does on my SG.
Low action. Maybe it's the neck that's so thin that makes the action look even lower than it is. But it goes extreamly low with no fret buzz, unless you pluck the strings hard and even then you won't hear it through the amp. Even though it came pretty well adjusted from factory I had the guitar set-up at my local shop. I have no experience with floyd style bridges and wanted it to be mint.
Pickups: It has a H-S-H configuration. Truth is I don't use the single pickup much, sound's a bit thin for my taste and I rather play my strat for a single sound better. Having said that it's useful to play some mild parts on certain songs, and I'm glad it's there, even if it took me a while to get used to it as I often got stuck with it with my pick, maybe because the strings are so low. Oh, I didn't mention the stock pickups are Dimarzio/IBZs, which means they are real Dimarzios, made in USA for Ibanez guitars. They sound great to me, plenty of gain on the bridge, sweet sounding on the neck. Some may argue there are better Dimarzio models, and I'll be sure to check them in the future, but so far I'm pleased.
Weight: This guitar is light! It's made of Basswood, and it's well balanced too. It's not neck heavy at all for a light guitar, which makes it really comfortable to play.
Bridge: For a metal guitar this is part of its soul, so I wanted something that stayed in tune no matter what, Edge-Zero trem does it's job perfectly, keeping my strings in tune no matter how much I push and pull that whammy. Good stuff.
Sound: Sounds good. Took me a while to adjust my pedals to find the right combination. All guitars are different. Settings used on a strat won't work on this metal beast, specially gain & distortions. This guitar roars, and despite the floating trem sustains pretty well. Not to mention with a high gain setting it can sustain forever!
Last words: This is already a bit long for a mini review, let's just say that since I got this baby I can't stop playing it over my Strat and SG (even though I love all three!). This RG begs to be played, so light, well balanced, comfortable and yet powerful and versatile. It's a great guitar.
