The Ibanez Darkstone is a slightly unusual foray for Ibanez. The company has never been afraid to take chances, of course – after all, they did build the first production 7-string guitar – but the new Darkstone line takes a lot more of these chances than even the legendary Universe. The line is pitched at the metal market, a notoriously difficult egg to crack if you want to try something different. Does the gamble pay off? Let’s see.

The first interesting quirk of the Darkstone is that it’s built from Sapele, a wood which is tonally reminiscent of mahogany but is more commonly found in acoustic guitars. Both the body and the set-in neck are built from Sapele. The scale length is 24.75″ (ie: Les Paul-ish rather than the Strat-like 25.5″ of an RG), and the neck feels surprisingly beefy for a D-shaped profile. The frets are medium, but the slightly curvy 305mm (12″) radius and the pearloid binding (just like the binding on my beloved Ibanez UV777BK) makes the frets feel a little bigger. By the way, I reviewed the black model, but it’s also available in white. Get both and alternate them each night the way Jimmy Page alternated his black and white stage suits.

The Tight-Tune bridge and tailpiece lock down securely for a dual purpose: to prevent movement and to increase sustain. The locking effect is two-fold: each saddle locks into the base plate, and the bridge itself locks into the body. The controls are very basis, consisting of master volume and tone pots (the latter is coil-splitting) and a 3-way pickup selector switch. The pickups are Ibanez’s new PP1-N and PP1-B units, which feature snazzy rectangular bobbins and tubular pole pieces.The pickup rings are designed especially for the Darkstone to keep the pickups parallel to the strings, and they have unique bevelled edges that are also super comfortable for those of us who like to latch the pinkie finger on to the pickup ring for stability when speed picking. In fact, before we even get into the playability let me tell you that this feature is so handy that I hope Ibanez carries it over to other models. There are a lot of guys like me who anchor their finger on the pickup ring or pickup like that.

The Darkstone is surprisingly comfortable to play. The chunky, deep and wide neck fits snuggly in the palm, and the light string tension makes bending a breeze. The 12″ radius is just curvy enough to make chording and double stops comfortable but flat enough that you won’t fret out when bending.

As surprising as the playability is, though, it has nothing on the tone. The Darkstone has a distinctive character with a very open high end and tight bass. In the bridge humbucker mode it almost reminds me of a hot-rodded Gretsch without the noise: a defined ‘braaang’ sound which emphasises the detail of the strings. The upper mids leap out in a really powerful and musical way. It works great for clean and dirty overdrive sounds but it’s surprisingly perfect for metal. It’s not a conventional metal tone – much edgier, brighter and with a bit more dynamic range compared to the pickups one might more readily think of for metal – but for those brave enough to step out of the regular list of guitars and pickups typically used in the genre, it could just change the way they approach tone forever. The neck humbucker has a juicy tone which does that great Satch thing when you dig in hard with the pick. The tone sounds a bit scooped in the ‘mid-midrange’ but boosted just a little in the high midrange, emphasising pick attack and harmonics while also adding depth. It tracks stupidly well for super-fast picking. In single coil mode, the basic character of the guitar is the same but the sound toughens up considerably, with even more impact and punch. It can get way down and dirty, and even in single coil mode it’s still great for heavier styles. As singles these pickups clean up very effectively when you roll back the volume control.

Want to hear the Darkstone in action? Here are some clips of me playing this baby through AmpliTube 3. You’ll hear (in order): the neck pickup in humbucker mode; the neck pickup in single coil mode; the bridge pickup in humbucker mode; the bridge pickup in single coil mode; then both pickups together in single coil mode.

Darkstone Sounds by I Heart Guitar

The Darkstone is pitched at the metal market but it can do rockabilly and punk like you won’t believe. But its greatest strength, even beyond the utterly flawless build quality, is that ultimately it has a very clearly defined tone of its own.

LINK: The DK500 at Ibanez.com