TL;DR: It’s sick, pics at the bottom!
I’ve wanted an 8-string since they became more commonplace initially just for Meshuggah riffs... And honestly still mostly just for those riffs
Took some time to look things up and see what I’d want and found that most 8-strings had some element of compromise I didn’t want to deal with. I’m an Ibanez fan at heart so I didn’t want to stray from the brand having not liked the few other 8-strings I’ve tried (Jackson and Schecter locally). The only non-Ibanez I was willing to entertain was the LTD SC-608 in Red Sparkle, but that was purely because of the color. Wasn’t a fan of the middle pickup or the finished back of the neck, plus the pickup selector seems like it’d get right in the way for me.
Anyway, I landed on a second stock M80M Rich @ IbanezRules had for sale – Even with the currency conversion to Canada Monopoly money + taxes + duties + UPS highway robbery fees I still came in $500 less than the SC-608 would have cost, and $700 less than a new M80M, plus I got the joy of not buying from a big box store which is always a plus.
In case anyone is curious or on the fence, ordering from Rich is super quick and straightforward, I’d recommend it for any Ibanez purchase.
This guitar was marked second stock for a blemish you can barely see unless it’s under direct light, pic from IbanezRules:
Otherwise the guitar is flawless. Made in Indonesia but appears to be built really nicely. I can’t find any really harsh tooling marks like my MII Soundgear bass has all over the frets. I got the bronze package from Rich and he set it up for all the strings to have 1.5mm action, same as I like on my MIJ prestiges. No chokes or buzzing that I can tell. Fit and finish isn’t quite as nice as my MIJ Prestige, but for an MII it’s fantastic compared to others I’ve tried at stores. Ultimately I’d like to have a Stainless refret done but that will be an ordeal and cost for another day
Neck:
The neck has a very similar profile to my 1998 RG7620 – Wide and very flat on the back. My 752FX has more of a rounded profile on the back that while a bit thinner, makes the Wizard-7 neck feel thicker:
As mentioned earlier, the fretwork is quite good for an MII. No chokes on big bends that my 752fx chokes on, and it’s been to a luthier for fretwork already. Ends of the frets are dressed nicely compared to the violence they inflicted on my MII SR505E:
So far the scale length has been a complete non-issue for me. It’s slightly more difficult for big stretches at most. The upper fret access isn’t as perfect as 7 and 6 stringers with a normal scale, but I didn’t buy this to practice my scales above the 17th fret
Nothing negative to say about the fretboard - It's clearly not the jet black you'd see with Ebony or dyed Rosewood, but the Jatoba (I think?) gives it a real evil red look that I dig. Also loving the no inlays life with the grain of this wood.
I'm also not sure what crack Ibanez was smoking, but their choice to set this up with .009/.011/.016/.024/.032/.042/.054/.065 a half step down is... Strange at best. Ordered some custom sets from Stringjoy to test out, starting with a copy of the gauges used by Fredrik/Marten on the M8M: .009/.011/.016/.026/.036/.046/.052/.070. I do like the .054 for the B, but we'll see how the .052 feels. Can't wait for the .070 for F, since the .065 is usable and sounds fine but only with some feather touch playing
Body, Pickup, Controls:
Heavy. I knew going in this was a particularly heavy guitar, coming in at 10.28lbs (Pic from Rich):
Not a problem for me, my 752 is quite heavy as well but then again I am not a gigging musician and wouldn’t be standing with this for hours on end so YMMV with a 10lb guitar lol.
So far I’m loving the Lundgren M8 pickup and the location of the control layout. I don’t like guitars where the volume is so far away you can’t do anything with it, so the slightly displaced but still usable Ibanez Vol and Tone layout works well for me - Transitioning from my 752 to this was seamless.
Nothing exciting to write about the bridge other than it’s comfortable and works like I’m used to for Floyds, but without the initial setup of a trem. I saw it elsewhere on SSO, but there needs to be more fixed FR-Style bridges like this for those of us not 100% sold on Evertune – Tuning has held up for hours just like I would expect from a standard double locking setup.
Anyway, some pics!
UPS doing their best to put some speed holes in the box about 1/8" away from the neck, which gave me heart palpitations as I was unboxing:
I’ve wanted an 8-string since they became more commonplace initially just for Meshuggah riffs... And honestly still mostly just for those riffs
Took some time to look things up and see what I’d want and found that most 8-strings had some element of compromise I didn’t want to deal with. I’m an Ibanez fan at heart so I didn’t want to stray from the brand having not liked the few other 8-strings I’ve tried (Jackson and Schecter locally). The only non-Ibanez I was willing to entertain was the LTD SC-608 in Red Sparkle, but that was purely because of the color. Wasn’t a fan of the middle pickup or the finished back of the neck, plus the pickup selector seems like it’d get right in the way for me.Anyway, I landed on a second stock M80M Rich @ IbanezRules had for sale – Even with the currency conversion to Canada Monopoly money + taxes + duties + UPS highway robbery fees I still came in $500 less than the SC-608 would have cost, and $700 less than a new M80M, plus I got the joy of not buying from a big box store which is always a plus.
In case anyone is curious or on the fence, ordering from Rich is super quick and straightforward, I’d recommend it for any Ibanez purchase.
This guitar was marked second stock for a blemish you can barely see unless it’s under direct light, pic from IbanezRules:
Otherwise the guitar is flawless. Made in Indonesia but appears to be built really nicely. I can’t find any really harsh tooling marks like my MII Soundgear bass has all over the frets. I got the bronze package from Rich and he set it up for all the strings to have 1.5mm action, same as I like on my MIJ prestiges. No chokes or buzzing that I can tell. Fit and finish isn’t quite as nice as my MIJ Prestige, but for an MII it’s fantastic compared to others I’ve tried at stores. Ultimately I’d like to have a Stainless refret done but that will be an ordeal and cost for another day
Neck:
The neck has a very similar profile to my 1998 RG7620 – Wide and very flat on the back. My 752FX has more of a rounded profile on the back that while a bit thinner, makes the Wizard-7 neck feel thicker:
As mentioned earlier, the fretwork is quite good for an MII. No chokes on big bends that my 752fx chokes on, and it’s been to a luthier for fretwork already. Ends of the frets are dressed nicely compared to the violence they inflicted on my MII SR505E:
So far the scale length has been a complete non-issue for me. It’s slightly more difficult for big stretches at most. The upper fret access isn’t as perfect as 7 and 6 stringers with a normal scale, but I didn’t buy this to practice my scales above the 17th fret
Nothing negative to say about the fretboard - It's clearly not the jet black you'd see with Ebony or dyed Rosewood, but the Jatoba (I think?) gives it a real evil red look that I dig. Also loving the no inlays life with the grain of this wood.
I'm also not sure what crack Ibanez was smoking, but their choice to set this up with .009/.011/.016/.024/.032/.042/.054/.065 a half step down is... Strange at best. Ordered some custom sets from Stringjoy to test out, starting with a copy of the gauges used by Fredrik/Marten on the M8M: .009/.011/.016/.026/.036/.046/.052/.070. I do like the .054 for the B, but we'll see how the .052 feels. Can't wait for the .070 for F, since the .065 is usable and sounds fine but only with some feather touch playing
Body, Pickup, Controls:
Heavy. I knew going in this was a particularly heavy guitar, coming in at 10.28lbs (Pic from Rich):
Not a problem for me, my 752 is quite heavy as well but then again I am not a gigging musician and wouldn’t be standing with this for hours on end so YMMV with a 10lb guitar lol.
So far I’m loving the Lundgren M8 pickup and the location of the control layout. I don’t like guitars where the volume is so far away you can’t do anything with it, so the slightly displaced but still usable Ibanez Vol and Tone layout works well for me - Transitioning from my 752 to this was seamless.
Nothing exciting to write about the bridge other than it’s comfortable and works like I’m used to for Floyds, but without the initial setup of a trem. I saw it elsewhere on SSO, but there needs to be more fixed FR-Style bridges like this for those of us not 100% sold on Evertune – Tuning has held up for hours just like I would expect from a standard double locking setup.
Anyway, some pics!
UPS doing their best to put some speed holes in the box about 1/8" away from the neck, which gave me heart palpitations as I was unboxing:
