First impressions of my new guitar (Ibanez RG7421)

New to me, that is. It's used, but in great shape. I got it from a Sam Ash listing on Reverb. The buying experience was great, shipping was fast and the guitar was well-packed. Before we get to the meat of this article, I'd like to mention that I'm not an expert on guitars (though I've played a few in my time), and bass is more my instrument, so you may want to bear that in mind as I continue this review.

(this photo is from the listing)

I own two other Ibanez instruments, a mid-range 5-string bass from their Soundgear line, and a lower-end 6-string guitar from their GIO line (AX-style, the one that's kind of shaped like a Gibson SG), both of which I really like. I've been especially impressed with the guitar, because it doesn't play or sound like a low-end instrument, imo. That's the guitar I have the most experience with, so that will be my main comparison here.

(this is a quick and ugly photo I took upon first unpacking the guitar)

On first picking up the RG, I was struck by how different it felt from the GIO I've had. Not necessarily in any way related to build quality, but in the feel of the neck. I knew the GAX-style neck of the GIO was a little thicker than the Wizard II neck on the RG, but ithere's a bigger difference in feel than I expected. I put part of this down to the fact that the 7-string has a wider fretboard, but there's definitely more to it than that. The back of the neck (where your thumb goes) is also kind of flat on the RG, while the GIO's is much rounder (as is my bass, for that matter). This tripped me up a bit at first, but after playing it a bit, I stopped noticing. The other big difference in feel is that the RG has more "jumbo" frets. It also came with lighter strings than I'm used to. These two things combined make it feel really strange to me, but I think I will grow to like the bigger frets. The low-B string is perhaps a bit too floppy, but heavier strings should help there.

One of the main reasons I picked this particular guitar was the electronics. Specifically, the 5-way switch that has two settings that let you use the pickups as single-coils (one mixes one coil from each pickup, the other has the neck pickup wired in parallel, as though it were 2 singles). I was also considering an Agile that had a coil-tap switch, but reviews were mixed, and there's no place nearby that I could try one. Upon trying this out, I'm quite happy with the new range of sounds at my disposal. The pickups in this also seem to have a bit more spunk than the ones in my GIO, and I wasn't unhappy with those. My initial impression is that the RG's have a bit more attack and overall high-end.

There are two other things I like better about the RG as compared to my old GIO. One is the tuners, these are definitely smoother. The other thing is the balance. The GIO has a bit of neck-dive, whick I imagine is partly due to the shorter horn. The RG seems to stay in place pretty well.

Overall, I would say that I'm definitely happy with this guitar. It feels like a bit less of an upgrade than I was expecting, but I think that's more of a compliment to the GIO than an insult to the RG. I wasn't necessarily buying this to upgrade anyway, I was more interested in the extended low range (same reason I have the 5-string bass) and the wider range of sounds from the pickup switching. As far as the latter goes, I'm actually a little happier than I expected to be, because I think these are nicer pickups. This has me considering new pickups for the GIO, but that's a story for another day. :)

That's all I have to say about this for now. Thanks for reading, and please feel free to ask any questions or leave any comments you may have below.