Ibanez RG7620
List price: $1299 (paid approx $700)
I picked this guitar up new at the beginning of the summer of '01. The idea of a 7th string had been growing on me a lot in the past few months, and the neck of the RG-520QS i'd been playing was starting to give me wrist problems- it was just a little too thin for me. So, i started browsing, and found a brand new '99 7620 sitting in a guitar shop not too far from where i lived, on closeout at $749. (this was, ironically, just over a month before Musician's Friend dropped the price to $449. At the time, i figured there was no way it could go any lower, and accordingly bought it the day after i found it, as soon as i was sure i could afford it. Did they take a loss selling those things for less than five hundred? i was tempted to grab another one as a spare...) It's a rather sophisticated looking guitar, with black hardware and a rosewood fretboard, with the body finished in "Vampire Kiss," which is essentially a metallic burgandy. Definaltely more from the John Petrucci school of 7-string cosmetics than the KoRn, or even Steve Vai, side of things. Fingerprints DO show on it, of course, and like every other ibanez i've played, the finish tends to chip- I've done more damage to this in the last 8 months than i have to my strat i've had for nearly 4 years now. I played a few other 7's before i got to this one (a used schecter and a few jacksons), and this was by far the best player out of the group. Low, even action with minimal buzz, with a thin but comfortable neck (to my hands the Wizard-7 neck feels better than ibanez's original Wizard). An initial problem was the balance is horrible- the extra maple on the neck makes the guitar top-heavy and the neck had a tendancy to slide down towards the floor if i took my hand away from it, but getting a leather strap solved that one. It took me about 20 minutes to get acclimated to having a 7th string, whereas on the jackson i spent the most time playing, i hadn't even come close after a half hour. It felt pretty natural. Tonally, my first impression was, "Wow, the stock Ibanez pickups in this thing smoke the ones in my RG." it was only when the salesman handed me a copy of the '99 catalogue that i realized they were Dimarzios. There's a definate improvement in clarity and definition between this and a 7420. And maybe it's the pickups, but most likely it's the extra mass in the neck- this thing sustains better than any other floating bridge-equipped guitar i've ever played. The extra mass of the neck,a nd to a lesser extent the body, DEFINATELY effects the tone- even the low E on this thing sounds FAR more massive than it did on my (mahogany bodied, incidentally) RG i sold to buy this. Youdrop down to that B and you sound like God. or, at the very least, Steve Vai. The stock pickups, like i said, are pretty good. However, i'm in the process of replacing them- i've got a Dimarzio Tone Zone 7 in the bridge right now, with an Air Norton 7 on the way. The Tone Zone improved the harmonics quite noticeably and gave ita more focused sound. Devastating for heavy riffing, but still clear enough for lead work. Another mandatory mod for the thing is sanding the finish off the back of the neck- i was fine with the matte finish for the first few months, but constant playing wore it up to a tacky high gloss, and the neck feels a lot better now that it's bare. Aside from that, the guitar rocks straight out of the box. Anyone who tells you the Lo-TRS II trem can match an edge or a lo-pro is either a moron or has never owned a guitar with one of ibanez's better trems on it- i used to agree with them that there was no real difference between the two until i got that RG, and ever since then, there's been no looking back. The edge trem blows away every other floating trem on the market in terms of feel, stability, and ease of use, and as this is probably the cheapest 7 you can get it on (course, now you gotta go used because they discontinued the model), it's a huge price-for-performance winner. It's also, like i said, a very cosmetically neutral model- the contors scream "metal" but the finish and construction is still muted and elegant enough so you could play jazz on this thing without getting too many weird looks. Also worth noting is the extremely responsive volume control- the taper is super-smooth, and even the most saturated tones (and believe me, with the pickups in it, the tones WILL be saturated- side-by-side comparisons with a gibson into my mesa/boogie left me with my jaw hanging on the ground when the gibson turned out to be about half as loud at a given setting on the clean channel) clean up beautifully as you roll the volume back. This is something i've noticed about most ibanez guitars. Even if you have no intention of using the whammy bar, it still might be worth purchasing this over a 7621 and simply blocking the trem- like i mentioned, tuning stability is superb on the edge system, and you'll have the option of unblocking it later down the road if you want. I have yet to play a Universe, soi can't tell you how they compare in terms of feel, but i know the newest universe's neck (the 777BK, and the ony one worth bothering with as a "player" guitar for serious lead work, because of the all-access neck) is a bit thicker than this one. I'm also quite fond of the middle pickup position- both humbuckers combined. You lose this on the UV, with it's middle single coil. This may or may not be a fair tradeoff, depending on your tastes. Me? i'd rather have one of each. ;) These things go for just over $500 all the time at E-bay, and if you're interested in purchasing a 7, this is probably the best place to start if you want a serious guitar. -Drew submitted by Drew
Read More Reviews!
back to homepage