Is This The BEST Budget Ibanez?
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- čas přidán 11. 09. 2024
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And check out the Ibanez GRX120SP-MLM for yourself
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Sweetwater doesn't sell it woops sorry
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looks better than the dog bowl!
Has better tone as well
You should do a series on budget guitars.
Maybe 🤔
I will second that request. As a dad that just plays to relive stress and doesn't have a band or any real aspiration to have one. All my gear is budget and there is not a lot of critical reviews to go on when buying budget gear.
Id up this
This could definitely help out the beginners to choose their perfect first guitar !! I’d up this👍👍👍
@@peepkindoesstuff4066 i hope he starts this as a series cause I want a good budget guitar
4:36 playing Crystal Mountain on a guitar with a metallic blue almost glowing finish
Genius.
he didnt do the scale run thing tho :(
@@8ballman749Gotta leave some mystery to the algorithm.
Well... the coil split is integrated inside the 5 switch, and if you ask me it's better and easier to use than a push pull pot :)
I’ve had Ibanez guitars since 1990. Love them. Really great to see they’re still putting out great quality products.
I love the respect you showed for it.
Big Ibanez fan myself. Love their necks. It really is amazing how good the GIO series is becoming. I don't mind the cheap humbuckers they use. Blows away anything I had as a kid.
Thank you for the demo! The palm mute sounds are my most important measure for pickup definition and I'm very grateful you included proper riffs and not just messing around like other reviewers.
@@J.C... I'm not telling you anything, but it works for me. Like it's my preference. I decide if a pickup is muddy or focused by listening to the palm mute attack. Pls don't laugh, I'm not arguing with anyone, that's just my preference.
Reminds me of my Ibanez Gio GRG7221M RG 7-string in a very similar finish I picked up in mid 2020. The guitar was $199 at the time but has served me very well these past three years.
It's a beauty!
In my opinion, the GRG121SP in blue cameleon is the most beautiful guitar in ANY price range, the finish is prettier than my RG550 in purple neon.
I bought the GRG, swapped the neck with a RG350DX indo neck with sharktooth inlays,swapped the bridge with a chinese copy of a Hipshot Ibby HM, I kept the pickups because they actually sound decent and for little money it's my best guitar 😂😂😂
Stays in tune better than the RG550 that i bought a month earlier!
Edit: there was nothing fundamentally wrong with the original neck, I just didn't love the medium size frets, I'm a bigger the better guy, extra jumbo any day! The original frets were cut perfectly, no pocking out ends, however they could have been polished a bit, as you could hear and feel the strings grinding on them when bending, overall a 6/10 neck. The indo neck is considerably above in quality, and the jump to the RG550 super wizard neck is rather small in quality.
Absolutely love mine as well. Absolutely stunning guitar. Love the neck, but hate the tiny frets. Probably gonna throw on some SS X-Jumbo frets, better bridge, tusk nut, and better electronics. Oh and some Grover’s. Aaaand a metal output jack. Sick guitar as is, but I feel it deserves to be fully upgraded.
The vintage trem and covered pickups with the pointy headstock are actually a pretty steezy aesthetic. It looks cool af
I made a vow last year after playing for a good 20 years. I won't buy a guitar unless I can play it first. Price gives you a ballpark, but there can be a HUGE variance in playability and sound quality in every model. Unfortunately, it's all wood, so consistency is almost impossible. Some cheapo "couch guitars" seem to play and sound as well or better than some of my most expensive guitars.
Coil splits typically sound trash in almost every guitar I’ve tried them in. I had a PRS that had a pretty decent split, but that was the only guitar out of the 70 - 80 I’ve owned that sounded good with coil splits. It’s always so thin and anemic.
Best playing guitar I have ever had is my 1984 DT-155 X series (Phil Collen model). Bought it when it came out and will never part with it. Ibanez really makes great playing/quality instruments. Would definitely recommend Ibanez as a starter guitar as well as higher end models for pros.
I'm a newer guitarist, and picked up a similar gio, it has that colour changing paintjob that goes from blue to purple and I've leaved it. For about $400 CAD it's been great, I have noticed a bunch of these cheaper ibanez guitars tend to have microphonic pickups though and that's been a bit of a problem for me
I ordered a Ibanez GRGR120ex all white. Can’t wait for it to arrive. Already saving up for a 400-500 dollar range with Floyd and rose setup. I miss my Marshall amp 😢
Have you ever heard of the Zakk Wylde/357 customs scam that happened a few years ago? It might be something you could make a video about.
The 5 way switch allows the humbuckers to be split, one spot does the neck in single, the other does both neck and bridge in single coil mode.
Budget guitars seem to be getting better
By miles. It’s kind of nuts how far they’ve come in the last 20 years.
Appreciate the Death riffs 🤘
It looks nice! I apologize if I misunderstood the comment in the video, but most Ibanez gios do have coil splits - Ibanez just likes putting the split coils as part of a 5-way switch instead of doing 3-way plus push-pull pots for some reason.
Looks awesome! I would rock that even though I don't need another "beginner" guitar. I have an AX 120 which is another budget/low end Ibanez that I would say is the same in quality as that one. They're around $200 new and it looks like an SG. It has an raw/unfinished neck which is a huge plus for me.
I am currently saving up for one of these lol
I too bought a Ibanez in half-panic. Needed something with a decent floating tremolo for live stuff fast. I went for my usual Jacksons and ESP's, but all the sellers seemed to have different stages of mental issues. Found an Ibanez, close by, nice price (400 euro) A white 350dxz. It has the edge zero 2 and well, I couldn't be happier. I had the intention of selling the guitar short after the gigs and getting something "better" but now I'm not so sure. The edge zero 2 is like if you gave a floyd rose to an actual engineer.
Various stages of mental issues with sellers? Yeah some are a nightmare I’ve bought used a lot too. Glad you found something for you that works for your needs!
Well, the Ibanez seller was an exellent person. He also wanted to sell a Boss Katana in package with the Ibanez, but I had no use for it, but I convinced him to raise the price for it, which he got :D@@Guitarist19887
Upgrade the bridge with a new trem, put in a decent set of locking tuners and you got a mean guitar
Ibanez tend to use rather odd (often proprietary) designs that make swapping OEM for something else difficult.
If only Gotoh would bring out a low profile version of the GE1996T...
Goodbye Floyd, stuff you Schaller, get lost Ibby Edges...
Hey man id love to see a video or a review on the Fazley guitars ive had a few Fazley and they were good for the money , they are BAX musics in house brand and in my opinion extreme competition for Harley Benton. They put out these line of guitars called the Sunrise ( at least im sure sorry memory is a bit hazy on that ) but the superstrat model is called the Seawave ,they have a series called The Project series and thats like relic'd models supposed to look like that guitar your dad bought in the 80s then molested in a garage 😂 they lool nice though and the specs are tasty , should give BAX a message man they will probably be open to working with you expecially since your in Germany and they are in the Netherlands
Tried a few cheaper brands on my excursion into 7 strings, out of 4 guitars (gear4music/harleybenton/jackson) the ibanez gio stood out head and shoulders as superior just such a great feel on the neck
ive had 20 ibanez gio guitars of different configurations in my life, and illl probablly buy 20 more before i die. i love them
Why is this model not sold in the US ??? This is essentially the same as the Ibanez GIO GRG121SP but has a trem bar!! Why is the US exempt from this guitar?
That balloon test (patent pending) reminds me of Phillip McKnight’s sock test.
The last two Ibanez guitars I’ve owned had the neck die.
Just give up.
First one had been hanging around, and when I went up in string gauge one step (9S to 10s) it gave out at a 1/4 turn to make up the tension.
My SRC6 lasted a week. A week.
Oh, and speaking of nuts, I would prefer stainless zero frets. Zero frets of some kind at minimum, but stainless saves wear and tear, as the string with always be in contact.
The string guide is still necessary, but the only thing that matters is the sides of the slots.
Oh, and gimme a glossy neck any day of the week.
I have an aluminum neck on the way (should be here next month) and was given the choice of satin (natural or black, black costing notably more) and mirror polished.
Keep in mind, it will stay how I get it basically forever, and I chose polished.
I love the neck on my Squier Classic Vibe 70s. Glossy af.
I want the grip! I don’t have a problem with sticking. I don’t have a problem with satin, either
I think my Universe (2001 UV777PBK. Loved it. Don’t miss it because it doesn’t suit what I do anymore) had a sealed neck, and nothing more.
Sweat, for me, makes things too slick, if anything bad. Too slippery.
But that’s only if I’m in a very hot environment and playing for an extended period, which has happened very rarely.
@@GretchZ
Aluminium should in theory be more stable than wood, but that's not to say it won't move over time.
Stuff like carbon fibre/composites are probably the most resilient to temperature change.
Neither will finish wear be much of a problem.
@@pauln6803 Aircraft aluminum is pretty dang stable under tension, and can take a lot of it.
It just expands due to temperature changes much faster than wood, so I’ll be retuning whenever the temperature changes noticeably.
Composites are much more stable, and often stiffer, but long-term they will inevitably degrade due to them being, fundamentally, plastic. Will they outlive me? Sure.
But so will an aluminium one, which can be recycled in the unlikely event of catastrophic failure/irreparable damage.
Sustainable aluminium is not (no matter what a certain company that makes plastic-and-aluminum guitars says), but at least it ain’t plastic.
There was some company that lasted a couple seconds in the 80s that made guitars out of magnesium alloy. Apparently they were super stable and light, but also prohibitively expensive.
I’m gonna go read about them for way too long.
This is the only Gio I've ever considered buying.
I'd snort at an Ibanez with that very low price, immediately. Namastè.
The color alone is worth it
I worked in a music store in the early 2000’s. Ibanez Gio line was junk. I’m glad their quality has improved dramatically since then.
I had like a 2010 Gio once, thing sucked ass. They've definitely upped their game massively
From the few early Gio I've seen, they weren't so much truly bad, more overpriced.
@@pauln6803 Mine was legitimately the worst guitar I've ever owned.
@@vvoof2601
Fair enough.
Every bolt on LTD I've seen in person has had serious setup issues and an acquaintance who is a tech/repair guy said he'd even had to re-set a couple of set ECs.
And yet according to (seemingly) everyone, LTD was the best thing to happen to the sub £/€/$ guitar bracket!
@@vvoof2601 The ones we had at the guitar shop had such bad fret sprout, they'd slice your hand. I tried to get the owner to do something about it but I was ignored. I was just some punk 15 year old kid, what did I now about running a business? That store was gone in under 10 years.
Nice one, there are many mid-level & lower ibenhads which don't have paper-thin wiz@rd necks & @sswood body construction which are very solid platforms for all kinds of music...I've been particularly impressed with the mid-2010s Iron Label models with the laminated nitro-wizard necks...
4:34-4:46 ❤
We should just call it Greg.
GRG = Greg.
The ibanez Greg seems like a Good budget shredder
I've had this one for nearly 2 years(check my channel for me playing it), it is still phenomenal for the price but i have a few major gripes with it, the pickups on mine aged horribly, they pick up every unwanted noise under the sun including me talking, the bridge is kinda not as stable as it was new and i understand that this might be asking too much for this price but still there's no other guitar I'd rather have at this price so peace. Also fortunately the one i have came with a super dark and lovely looking neck.
oh also i don't know if its a QC issue but the 1st string is cut slightly down on the nut which makes it fall off the fretboard like ANYTHING.Some fine points were made in the video, replacing the nut and the pickups may solve my problem👍
Would love to see if you could try out the (grg220pa1)
I will never understand why push/pull coil split pots aren't standard on EVERY humbucker-equipped guitar. My $1500 Ibanez JIVA-10L (Nita Strauss signature) comes stock with 4-conductor DiMarzio humbuckers and NOT with a push-pull pot to actually split the coils. It's an amazing guitar, both for sound and playability as well as the aesthetics (I love the Ibanez S platform as an ergonomic Super Strat design). I don't mind it not having locking tuners or strap locks (though those should also be de facto standards by now), but not having coil splitting is just silly.
Also, I have two higher-end LTDs (an EC-1000 and a Snakebyte) that came with stock molded plastic nuts. The one on the Snakebyte was about a 1/16" too narrow so it looked terrible, in addition to the nuts just not being good in general. Seriously. Just throw on an extra $10 for a Graph Tech nut and save everyone time.
God damn, a high end LTD with a plastic nut is a kick in the face 💀
@@sixstringtv1NOT Necessary to Take GOD’S Name in Vain, Schmuck !!!
good review. great guitar for the price
I bought this guitare a week ago and i absolutely love it. I might upgrade it by changing the pickups to tim henson's fishman set ! Anyway I have two questions. What problems were due to the low quality nut on the grx120 and is it possible to put active pickups on that guitare ? (Putting a battery somewhere in the body i mean)
Dude, I was thinking the same thing. I'm a die-hard polyphia fan and this guitar looks like it would suit me. Do you like the guitar? How is it going?
I still love it. It even has a split coil sound and a 4th position Strat sound so it fits polyphia's sound super well :)
@@emiiot
The pickups are much expensive than the guitar lol
Hi, thanks for the video. I'd rather hear the guitar with not so much reverb. And it'd be good if you tested the whammy bar's effect on the tuning.
Patent pending balloon test 😂😂
Hey it's my thing 🤷🏻♂️
Nobody else has done it as far as I know so if someone starta doing I'll know they watch my channel
you playing teachers pet gave yo umy sub, rock on!
I love Ibanez, I'm an Ibanez player, but their affordable options aren't the best. They're a big name so they want you to pay more. They don't seem to feel the need to compete.
I guess I got a lemon, my old gio that I got in the mid 2010s was the worst guitar I've ever played (won a contest). Thing wouldn't stay in tune no matter what I did and how I adjusted it, it was impossible for some reason to shred on and the whammy bar would always make it out of tune. So I rebuilt it and now it's a good guitar but it's not a gio anymore lol, only thing original is the body structure.
Hey there, hope you’re having a wonderful day! You’re my favorite guitar channel currently , and also a fellow EXTREME fan, so I wanted to know, what did you think about the new EXTREME album?
Thanks for the great videos!
I hated the album hahah, sounds more like Shinedown than Extreme. 😬😬
@@sixstringtv1 really? Wow, I loved it, thought you would too..
anyway, can you maybe make a video about extreme / the album?
Thanks a lot man.
Your leads sound a lot like Kerry King but actually really melodic and better. Cool riffs too. Do you have any composed music out
None, but I'm kinda on/off working on some stuff just for fun. Idk if it'll ever be released, even if I do release it nobody will listen lmao
Nothing to put the fishmans into? The headless Les Paul is right there..
I didn't even know those pickups finally came out. I have not seen a review and want to know about the "Hi-Fi" voice 3. If you still want to do a review or throw them into other content I would watch it
The set I got was broken, I likely won't ask for a new one since a review of a pickup that came out weeks ago won't be as exciting
@@sixstringtv1just do it! Content is content!
I got a higher end artist 420 and it came with a plastic nut. I don't understand why they use plastic either.
Kaylen what’s ur opinion on esp ltd e-ii etc
Steer well clear of early production LTD guitars.
This thing looks more expensive than it is.
That's good.
*looks over at dime dean* painted necks all the way I agree lol
Needs more fan.
Great video
Please try the Harley Benton HWY-25BKS, it's a good competitor against this one!
is it smaller than the regular guitar?
Thank you
🫡🫡
Cheap Ibanez and Jackson guitars are great, I had a Jackson JS11 that I paid 100 euros for and it was crazy good for it's price.
I generally buy JS32 guitars all the time, and they're awesome. Only problem is that the QC is pretty questionable sometimes and causes a lot of problems. Despite that, though, they are pretty fucking cool. I actually plan on getting the 8-string dinky model soon, but after this video, I will also check out some Ibanez guitars as well.
@@RichardDeBerryOfficial my brother plays a JS32 Kelly, it has amazing neck and the build quality is good, but it has a Floyd that I couldn't set up properly, like it would do it's own thing no matter how you set it up. I used it for a bit and then got myself a MIJ RR3 that's WAY different. The JS32 compares very close to it, quality wise (the necks are very different), apart from the Floyd, I guess it's a hit or miss. The JS11 I had was amazing for the price, I just didn't like the satin neck finish and the Stratocaster neck profile, I wanted a Jackson neck with compound radius.
@@RichardDeBerryOfficial
To be honest, even the USA built guitars have had QC problems since moving to the Fender factory.
@@dindinbre
This, IMHO, is the problem with corporate owned guitar brands; they pick a factory that already manufactures guitars, supplies them with a body shape and hammer out a spec and price... And that's it.
No real consideration to how something feels in the hand in comparison to the OG instrument.
Pick up a late 90's Ibanez 5 series RG with a Wizard II profile and it will feel considerably different to the Indonesian built guitars, despite having the same neck dimensions on paper.
This is one of the reasons why the premium Chushin Gakki built Jackson/Charvel guitars have become legendary, as you were literally buying a cheaper equivalent to a USA Jackson.
Hardware, electronics (the latter only applies to the initial Charvel model series as latter guitars didn't have USA pickups) and even the neck profiles were the same as the Americans spent time in Japan to ensure the guitars were literally cheaper mass production versions of the - mostly custom shop in the mid to late 80's - American Jackson's
@@pauln6803 True, I managed to lower the action on my RR3 till the bolts bottomed on the floyd, and no fretbuzz to speak of. Absolutely amazing guitar to play. And it's a 2004 MiJ guitar. I can only imagine how good the 80s and 90s ones were.
Did I sense you playing Crystal mountain in there
Wich is better the Jackson Js11 or this Ibanez?
why didnt you use the trem more !!
Best neck I have, and have had for 38 years is gloss including thr fretboard. And it is straight as an arrow, never needs adjusting, ever.
And I think it's because of the this cost of gloss.
I have the satin finish unglossed necks on other guitars and I am constantly having to adjust the truss rods on them....
So would it stay in tune well enough to hit a dive bomb??
Not with that trem, but it's not meant for dive bombs. That's why they make FRs
666 like right here lml loved your video im getting into guitar again been playing for 12 years and might save up for this guitar im really on a budget here in chile guitars are wayyy overpriced so this helpes me alot it hurt me see that guitar without pickups I would shred the s*** out of that ibanez I love playing metal haha love your vids my dude keep them coming
Test the waters apprentice… jk I play whatever you throw. I bet you could play a tuba.
Does it have the horrible molded plastic jack?
It's molded plastic, but I don't mind it.
I wanna see you put a Floyd in the baretta you got there 😊
The best budget ibzs are the old Japanese ones, 350-500 for something that blows literally everything else they make out of the water
I have Ibanez GRG121DX-WNF
Here is the invoice...
?
@@sixstringtv1 We never see the invoice, but it sounds like we're being offered to see it.
which is better the kramer baretta special or this ibanez
The Kramer, but the Kramer isn't an Ibanez. If you wanna start on an Ibanez this one is 100% the way to go
@sixstringtv1 thanks just want a 2nd guitar just wondering which is better overall
@@sixstringtv1 have you done a video on the kramer
I'm waiting for those 🆓️bies enthusiasts guys to move their kinder attentionts from Dave Mustaine to Dave Navarro. Namastè.
🔥🤘
KDH signature gio when?
Wrong channel
im gio ibanez had far better fret work than my 1600USD schecter. had to spend 300$ fixing the frets of the expensive guitar
Pah! I can top that.
Try a £3,000 USA Jackson Soloist SL2H with frets you could pull out by hand, lifting inlays and the clear coat separating from the paint.
If it were not for the neck profile exactly matching my '91 Soloist (and all the appropriate branded hardware), I'd have thought it was a Chinese Knock off!
Do a video on how to tremolo pick please
I wanna hear about what emergency situation. Geez. You’re so hip. Golly geez. Gee golly. Sorry. I wanna know when you set the fan up to blow your hair around like yer a Swedish guy that’ll c us. You know him.
I really don’t like Ibanez guitars 🎸🩵
That's okay, just don't buy this one
GREAT VIDS BUDDY! WHERE DID U GET THAT BADASS SWEATER??
Army surplus store
The R on the model of the pickups is "right handed'
So left handed pickups are wound backwards 😂😂
Screws are also reverse threaded? 🤣🤣
I bought an AZES instead of one of these, thanks for confirming I did the wrong choice 🫠
the AZES series is fantastic! they're like $150 more so they're a whole other tier. Nothing to worry about hahah