Tjore
Hipster Jesus
Here's my first shot at a guitar review, and here's my experience with the Premium RG827Z 7-string I got september of 2011.
The story
So basically, before I even heard about this guitar or the Ibanez Premium line, I seeked to find my very first 7-string. I had been playing 6-string for 9 years, and as my influences got wider, so did the need for a seventh string.
I spent half the year of 2011 finding the guitar with the right price and the right fit for me. With plans of maybe getting the Prestige 1527, and using tons of time and energy in saving for it, I found the Premium RG827Z on the german version of ebay, being sold by a company called ProMusicTools.
What striked me at first sight on the article were the offset dot inlays, which I love. I looked into it, and after reading a bit on it, and seeing the awesome price for being european at the same time. And so, I placed my order for it.
First experience
In probbably 1-2 weeks I think, it arrived to Norway in it's original "Premium" cardboard box. The guitar was inside a Premium softcase as seen on the picture that it came with. The smoothness of the case was amazing. It was also quite hard under the surface, and the material was quite reliable. It has two zippers and a zipline around it, so I opened the zippline, slowly opened the casing and I jizzed in my pants of joy. I spent probbably over ten minutes just looking at it. It was super shiny, the inlays were looking fucking amazing, and I was really impressed with the buildquality. I inspected it, no flaws or anything like that anywhere except one microscopic finish flaw at the edge of the back plate on the back of the guitar, which I didn't care about at all.
The guitar also comes with a Premium toolset with alan keys and screwdrivers that I used to open the locking nut and tune it down to drop A very shortly after trying it out for the first time. The tremolo stayed in tune perfectly, thanks to the stop-bar and it really worked out for me. I tried playing some Red Seas Fire riffs, and I got used to the new neck width and the new amount of strings after only a minute or two with playing around with it unplugged, and I fell in love with how it felt. The neck and the bridge was set up pretty good. The walnut stripes on the 5pcs neck did have tiny microscopic bumps or dents to it, but my thumb or my hand never touch those parts. Didn't bother me at all.
Here's the specs:
Basswood body
Maple/Walnut 5 piece bolt on neck
24 frets
Offset inlays
Gotoh tuners
1 volume knob, 1 tone knob
5 way pickup switch blade
Crappy Ibanez pickups
Edge Zero II locking bridge
Silver - Black hardware
And also, a maple top on the headstock, wich is very unique on a guitar without a top to the body.
The sound
The worst thing about the guitar were the stock pickups. I imagined they would be worse than they did, but they were definatley muddy and dirty. With a lot of tweaking, I found an acceptable sound on my ENGL Blackmore that I could use to just play some Periphery or some Red Seas Fire. I tried recording with it, but it sounded really bad. With a Line 6 75W transisitor amp they sounded a lot better, because the crappyness would be hidden from the output.
It comes with a 5 way pickup selector, which opens up for many interesting sounds and configurations. Here's how it comes wired.
This is one of the reasons why I bought it. I wanted some diversity, and with the stock pickups, the clean sound on the second and fourth positions sounded really good
Recently, I swapped them into Dimarzio Crunchlab/Liquifire, and the guitar now sounds fucking awesome!
I've never been more happy with any guitar in my life.
Pic:
The verdict
This guitar comes as a mix between the worst (Ibanez pickups) and the best. (5 piece neck, 5 way pickup selector, American basswood body, Maple neck, Edge Zero trem)
I've read some comments around here about a lot of flaws on these guitars, but I couldn't find any of that in my guitar, except the microscopic one I mentioned earlier. With the new pickups, it sounds amazing, but the rating is 3 for the stock pickups. If it came stock with the CL/LF pickups, It would get the score 5 for the sound right away.
I recommend this guitar. It has brought me a lot of joy, and it brought me into the world of 7-strings. It's the perfect guitar for me, I'm very very happy with it, and I love it!
Hope this was a worthy review, and thanks for reading!
Shred on!
For more pics, check the NGD!!!!!
(Sorry for any english flaws, I'm Norwegian for crying out loud, haha)
The story
So basically, before I even heard about this guitar or the Ibanez Premium line, I seeked to find my very first 7-string. I had been playing 6-string for 9 years, and as my influences got wider, so did the need for a seventh string.
I spent half the year of 2011 finding the guitar with the right price and the right fit for me. With plans of maybe getting the Prestige 1527, and using tons of time and energy in saving for it, I found the Premium RG827Z on the german version of ebay, being sold by a company called ProMusicTools.
What striked me at first sight on the article were the offset dot inlays, which I love. I looked into it, and after reading a bit on it, and seeing the awesome price for being european at the same time. And so, I placed my order for it.
First experience
In probbably 1-2 weeks I think, it arrived to Norway in it's original "Premium" cardboard box. The guitar was inside a Premium softcase as seen on the picture that it came with. The smoothness of the case was amazing. It was also quite hard under the surface, and the material was quite reliable. It has two zippers and a zipline around it, so I opened the zippline, slowly opened the casing and I jizzed in my pants of joy. I spent probbably over ten minutes just looking at it. It was super shiny, the inlays were looking fucking amazing, and I was really impressed with the buildquality. I inspected it, no flaws or anything like that anywhere except one microscopic finish flaw at the edge of the back plate on the back of the guitar, which I didn't care about at all.
The guitar also comes with a Premium toolset with alan keys and screwdrivers that I used to open the locking nut and tune it down to drop A very shortly after trying it out for the first time. The tremolo stayed in tune perfectly, thanks to the stop-bar and it really worked out for me. I tried playing some Red Seas Fire riffs, and I got used to the new neck width and the new amount of strings after only a minute or two with playing around with it unplugged, and I fell in love with how it felt. The neck and the bridge was set up pretty good. The walnut stripes on the 5pcs neck did have tiny microscopic bumps or dents to it, but my thumb or my hand never touch those parts. Didn't bother me at all.
Here's the specs:
Basswood body
Maple/Walnut 5 piece bolt on neck
24 frets
Offset inlays
Gotoh tuners
1 volume knob, 1 tone knob
5 way pickup switch blade
Crappy Ibanez pickups
Edge Zero II locking bridge
Silver - Black hardware
And also, a maple top on the headstock, wich is very unique on a guitar without a top to the body.
The sound
The worst thing about the guitar were the stock pickups. I imagined they would be worse than they did, but they were definatley muddy and dirty. With a lot of tweaking, I found an acceptable sound on my ENGL Blackmore that I could use to just play some Periphery or some Red Seas Fire. I tried recording with it, but it sounded really bad. With a Line 6 75W transisitor amp they sounded a lot better, because the crappyness would be hidden from the output.
It comes with a 5 way pickup selector, which opens up for many interesting sounds and configurations. Here's how it comes wired.
This is one of the reasons why I bought it. I wanted some diversity, and with the stock pickups, the clean sound on the second and fourth positions sounded really good
Recently, I swapped them into Dimarzio Crunchlab/Liquifire, and the guitar now sounds fucking awesome!
I've never been more happy with any guitar in my life.
Pic:
The verdict
This guitar comes as a mix between the worst (Ibanez pickups) and the best. (5 piece neck, 5 way pickup selector, American basswood body, Maple neck, Edge Zero trem)
I've read some comments around here about a lot of flaws on these guitars, but I couldn't find any of that in my guitar, except the microscopic one I mentioned earlier. With the new pickups, it sounds amazing, but the rating is 3 for the stock pickups. If it came stock with the CL/LF pickups, It would get the score 5 for the sound right away.
I recommend this guitar. It has brought me a lot of joy, and it brought me into the world of 7-strings. It's the perfect guitar for me, I'm very very happy with it, and I love it!
Hope this was a worthy review, and thanks for reading!
Shred on!
For more pics, check the NGD!!!!!
(Sorry for any english flaws, I'm Norwegian for crying out loud, haha
)
