My Sound Clinic

Price new: £340

Neck type: Bolt-on Maple

Body: Basswood with Flame Maple Veneer

Hardware: Chrome

Bridge: Floyd Rose licensed double-locking trem

Frets: 22 Jumbo

Pickups: 2 Duncan Designed humbuckers. HB-103B (bridge), HB-103N (neck)

Price second hand: £170 - £250

Review
It’s a privilege to be able to say that this was my first big brand guitar. Not so much for its playability or sound, but for its iconicity and status in the metal world. Despite it being a low-end model of the Randy Rhoads series it was a model of his non-the-less, and for a 16-year-old avid Ozzy fan that was enough for me!

Playability
One of the flattest Jackson necks I’ve ever felt. It feels right the moment you put finger to wood. Major effortlessness, fast action, and great fret access, which is marginally due to the shape of the body. Speaking of which, this is not a guitar for sitting down! In fact it’s a total pain. The only way I managed to comfortably jam whilst sitting in a chair was to perch myself right on the edge, put one ‘spike’ of the V-shaped body either side of my right thigh so it’s sort of pivoted, and have the neck across my body as though I were standing up. Needless to say this is a performing guitar, you only have to look at the shape and the man behind the design to know that, but I can imagine it being a thorn in your side in a recording studio.

On the contrary it feels extremely well balanced when playing standing up. The sheer length of the body evens the weight out very well, and if you leave it to hang freely around your neck without laying hands on it, it finds the perfect medium.

Sound
If I’m honest, this has to be one of the guitar’s only flaws. That’s not to say it lacks tone, but a bit more oomph wouldn’t have gone a miss, as it does tend to die a bit early on sustained notes – a problem that does tend to be across the board with a lot of Duncan Designed pickups. Swap them out for some actual Seymour Duncans though and you’re laughing! Besides the lack of bite there is definitely a nice amount of crunchiness about the sound that’s perfect for all hard rock styles. Keeping it simple, Jackson has only mounted a volume pot, no tone, and a 3-way selector switch.

Over all
Ultimately this is one of the most metal guitars. With an iconic shape, shark fin inlays, amazing metallic finishes and a Floyd Rose trem, you can’t go wrong if you wanted to lay down some speed metal. If only the pickups delivered to the standard of the rest of the machine. Still, there are always the £1500+ models!

Rating

Sound: 7

Looks: 9.5

Playability: 8

Value for money: 7

Overall: 8

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Specs

Price new: £299

Neck type: Bolt-on 3pc Wizard II

Body: Basswood

Hardware: Black

Bridge: Edge III double locking

Frets: 24 Jumbo

Pickups: INF3 neck humbucker, INFS3 single coil middle, INF4 bridge humbucker

Price second hand: Probably not much less than rrp, because they’re still very much in production. £180 - £210

Review
Out of all the 6 string solid body electrics I’ve ever played and/or owned this is most probably the best so far, especially for the price. As soon as I picked It up it just felt right, looked right, played right, and most importantly it sounded right. It was my first Ibanez, and it was this guitar that made me an avid Ibanez player, and I’ve never ventured into other brands since. I wasn’t even intending on buying a guitar that day, I just happened to wander over to the music shop in my lunch break to annoy the staff by requesting to play guitars I couldn’t afford!

Playability
9 times out of 10 when I play a guitar that looks like this it always turns out to be quite disappointing. You’ve probably done it yourself; you see a guitar in a magazine or onstage, you think it looks amazing, then when you get to playing it it’s as dull as shopping with your Nan. Especially when you consider how badly they have the amps set up in music shops. But no, not this time, I plugged it in and it practically played itself. It was effortless, and even on low gain settings I could squeal it like a little piggy. Then when I got it home and adjusted it to my preference it was even more amazing. It had low action, amazing fret access, and a quick smooth tremolo, just awesome.

Sound
I’ve always said Ibanez have the best stock pickups on their guitars I’ve ever heard, and this one is no exception. Second only to the ones on my RG7620, the INF pups have such a bright, mid-crunch tone with a massive output, perfect for heavy metal and shredding. Even when you tune down they retain their brightness, which is a rarity in passive pickups. Usually you sacrifice clarity in the mid ranges when you drop a few pitches, making a sludge, but I’ve had this right down at drop B without having to drastically alter my amp settings at all.

Over all
For its price you cannot fault this guitar what so ever. It looks amazing, very Steve Vai (if you like that sort of thing) with the pearl-effect scratch plate, white paintjob, black hardware and white shark tooth inlays, this axe is a sexual beast and will look the mutts nuts onstage! It’s most certainly giggable, with tight crisp pickups that don’t feedback, and a durable smooth whammy that you can dive all day long, it would definitely be an instrument of longevity for home use, studio, or on the road.

Rating

Sound: 9

Looks: 10

Playability: 8.5

Value for money: 9

Overall: 9

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