Ibanez 25th Anniversary RG550 Relic
I’ve just managed to get my hands on Ibanez‘s latest RG 25th anniversary model, and it’s amazing. I guess Ibanez was encouraged by the response to the Evo relic announced at NAMM, so they’ve decided to apply the same treatment to the RG550.
The idea behind this model is to present a typical 1987 Ibanez RG550 as it might appear today, 25 years later and after plenty of hard playing. Features include:
* Basswood body with paint sinking into the wood grain and the joins between the multiple pieces of wood that make up the body.
* Authentic dings and scratches befitting a guitar that fell out of favour in the early 90s and was therefore chucked in a closet without a case.
* Authentic no-name case with Gama Go, Lou’s Records, What’s That Dude Play and Vai backstage pass stickers.
* Original Ibanez S1 single coil, Seymour Duncan Parallel Axis Trembucker humbucker in the bridge position and DiMarzio PAF Pro humbucker in the neck.
* Simulated drool patches to mimic what happened to the typical RG550 when the owner replaced the stock pickups with DiMarzios or Duncans.
* Neck joint finish crack.
* Neck crack in between the two bolts for the locking nut.
* ‘Finger dirt’ on the fretboard – as if the owner of the guitar was a loser who kept forgetting to clean his frigging guitar.
* Strap Locks in place of the original strap buttons.
* Dusty, rusted-ass Ibanez Edge tremolo bridge.
The Ibanez RG550APRIL1 is released worldwide on April 1, 2012.
REVIEW: Seymour Duncan Gus G. FIRE Blackouts
There are plenty of benefits to be gained from using active pickups, not the least of which are low noise and high signal integrity over long cable runs. But not everyone loves the sound of typical actives. EMGs are well known for their killer metal tone – they’ve driven the tones of players like Metallica’s Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield, Zakk Wylde and Devin Townsend to name just a few – and their single coils were long used by Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour. Seymour Duncan seems to be especially good at spotting holes in the market, and there was a pretty glaring one in the active sector: players who want the benefits of active pickups but would prefer a more organic tone. The Blackouts series of pickups do a great job of this, but the Blackouts Modular Preamp is another very clever approach to the issue.
Available separately and in the Blackouts Coil Pack and Gus G FIRE Blackouts System signature set (which is featured in some of Gus’s signature ESP and LTD guitar models), the BMP-1s replaces your existing volume pot, throws in a 9v battery, and allows you to get a high gain active guitar sound from any passive four-conductor pickup. In Gus’s case, the BMP-1s is combined with a matched pair of low-out Alnico 5-loaded passive humbuckers. Gus explains: “This system combines the massive tone, kick, and distortion of Blackouts with the rich tone and expressive feel of my favorite passive pickups. It responds perfectly to all my picking techniques, and more of my personality comes through than with any active pickup I’ve tried.” Naturally Gus needs plenty of sonic versatility within the rock/metal realm, since he does double time in Firewind and as Ozzy Osbourne’s guitarist.
REVIEW: ESP Horizon FR 27
I’ve always been an admirer of ESP’s Horizon body shape, ever since I saw Devin Townsend holding one on the cover of Guitar World when he was in Steve Vai’s band. Part traditional, part sleek modern and, in Townsend’s words, “It looks like Satan,” the Horizon is a great platform for experimentation. The arched, carved top is comfortable and attractive whether it’s finished in a solid colour or a transparent finish over quilted maple, the recessed controls are comfortable, and it can be a wildly different guitar depending on whether you go for a Floyd Rose model or a fixed bridge one, and if you rock active or passive pickups. Part of ESP’s Japanese-made Standard Series, the Horizon FR 27 is an alder-bodied superstrat with a three piece maple neck, neck thru construction with super-comfortable neck/body carve, snappy 25.5″ scale length, and smoky-looking black nickel hardware. The fretboard is ebony, and the bridge is an original Floyd Rose double locking unit.
The neck features 27 — yes, 27 – extra jumbo frets, although the last one doesn’t quite extend all the way up to the low E string thanks to the curved fretboard edge. The neck pickup is a Seymour Duncan SHR-1n single coil-sized humbucker which slants along with the fretboard, while the bridge pickup is a Seymour Duncan TB-14 ‘Custom’ model. There’s a three way pickup selector switch, a master volume control, and a master tone pot which doubles as a push-push coil split. Oh and the fretboard is scalloped from the 12th fret to the 24th, which makes a huge difference to playability but is a subtle enough modification that you might not even notice it if you see the guitar hanging on the wall in a store.
REVIEW: Framus Diablo Supreme X
Framus was founded in Germany by Fred Wilfer in 1946, and although its guitars found their way into the hands of players like Bill Wyman and John Lennon, before going bankrupt in 1975. The brand was resurrected by Hans Peter Wilfer, son of Fred, as part of Warwick 20 years later.
The body of the Diablo Supreme X is made of US swamp ash, and the top is AAA grade flamed maple which dances in a satisfyingly 3D way when you tilt the guitar from left to right. The carve is optomised for ergonomics but it also leads the eye purposefully to the cutaways. Pickups are a trio of Seymour Duncans: SSCR-1N Cool Rail in the neck, SSL-1 RW/RP Vintage Staggered Single Coil in the middle and STB-4 JB Trembucker in the bridge. The pickups are hooked up to 500K volume and tone pots, the latter serving as a push-pull coil splitter. Interestingly the coil split also works as a coil tap on the middle pickup, dropping its output a little for further tonal variety. Nice touch! There’s a 5-way pickup selector, but when you consider the extra sounds created by the coil split/tap, there are 10 pickup selections lurking in the Diablo. The Wilkinson/Framus bridge is of the 2-point fulcrum variety, and does the Floyd Rose-style ‘so low that the E string flaps off the fretboard’ thing with ease, returning to pitch easily with help from Framus locking tuners and a Graphtech Black Tusq low friction nut.
Hi! I'm Peter Hodgson. I write for Gibson.com, Australian Guitar, Australian Musician, Mixdown Magazine (including my instructional column, 'Unleash Your Inner Rock God,' which has been running since 2007), guitarworld.com, Tone Deaf, Beat (including their weekly hard rock/metal column Crunch) and The Brag. And I'm Assistant Social Coordinator with Seymour Duncan.
I've been playing guitar since I was 8 years old, and I've been writing for magazines since I was 18. I've also worked as a guitar teacher (up to 50 students a week), a setup tech, a newspaper editor, and I've also dabbled in radio a little bit. I live in Melbourne, Australia, and my hobbies include drinking way too much coffee, and eating way too much Mexican food.
You can check out my guitar playing at Reverbnation or on YouTube, and feel free to email me at iheartguitarblog@gmail.com