NGD: Ibanez RGIR28FE Iron Label 8-string

[Petie]

WOO! It's here! And so far so awesome! I've already noticed that it's bringing things out of my playing that I don't do on my 7-strings, especially in terms of extended chord voices and fingerpicky things.

I'll be replacing the stock 808s with a Pegasus and Sentient soon, although I'll probably hang on to the EMGs for the occasional recording session and whatnot. But I'll be swapping the 3-way switch for a 5-way so I can get single coil sounds in the 2, 3 and 4 positions with the SDs.

The only workmanship issues are a few blotches on the binding, a little bit of clearcoat overrun on the bass side of the headstock, and sloppy edge on one corner of the neck pickup rout. The fretwork is obviously not going to be Premium, Prestige or J.Custom level but it's certainly better than my Fujigen-made RG20th. Is it wrong that I already want another one? Hehehe.

Here are some pics, stolen from my own instagram.

 

[s_k_mullins]

Excellent! Will be awesome loaded with the new SD pickups!

 

[EFooteSCH]

looks pretty sweet. HNGD!

 

[Philligan]

Looks great with the blank fretboard man I'm kinda wishing I'd ponied up for one of these over the RG8

 

[jephjacques]

The nice thing about guitars with not-great fretwork is that a good tech can make it 100 times better. It's one of the most fixable problems you can have! HNGD

 

[Daf57]

Nice!! Congrats!

 

[DoubleAA]

Happy NGD! Looks sweet!

 

[Petie]

The nice thing about guitars with not-great fretwork is that a good tech can make it 100 times better. It's one of the most fixable problems you can have! HNGD

Great point! And frankly, it's a relief that they're simply 'not great' rather than 'actually bad' - I can live with not-great frets for a while but not bad ones.

 

[Petie]

Thanks folks! I'll be filming some video once I've got the Duncans installed. I'm pleasantly surprised at how quickly my hands adapted. I wondered how long the 'picking a different string to the one you're fretting' thing would last this time around, and the answer was 'about 25 minutes' as opposed to 'about two weeks' when I first switched from 6 to 7 string about 10 years ago.

 

[F4R537KTP09]

Looks great with the blank fretboard man

Yeah I feel the same way!
This axe seems great!
HNGD!

 

[ondellonoya]

damn man, I always look Iron Label as a really super cool guitar.. happy NGD..!!

 

[Petie]

Okay, a few days later and I'm obsessed with this damn guitar. I've always loved playing but it's been a long time since I've had that "Oh dammit I've GOTTA play guitar right now just for the sake of it" feeling. The 8 just seems to make so much sense to me. It's gonna be weird picking up a 6-string again, and already the 7-string feels different to me.

Can't wait to get the new pickups and see what it can do with passives.

 

[Shredmon]

It looks awesome, im seriously considering this guitar as a follow up for my soon sold RGA8....
HNGD man..
greets

 

[Hyacinth]

How are the stock pickups? I'm thinking of getting one, but I won't have money for pickups for a while. Are they decent enough to not need to change them immediately?

 

[Shredmon]

emg808 are ok for "stock" pickups, imho they compress the tone way to much and it gets muddy the lower you get, but they are not too bad, you could easily let them in for a few months or so..
greets

 

[Petie]

emg808 are ok for "stock" pickups, imho they compress the tone way to much and it gets muddy the lower you get, but they are not too bad, you could easily let them in for a few months or so..
greets

For me they'll do until my Pegasus and Sentient arrive soon, and I'll pop them back in if I need to record something that they'd be appropriate for, but I need more definition on the lower strings and more dynamics all-round. It's kinda fun to step on a delay and pretend I'm Devin Townsend for an afternoon, but it's not me in the way that a nice clear set of passives is.

 

[Daxten]

I love the Ironlabel, seems to me like its on par with the RG2228.. great guitar! have a nice NGD!