I have both of these right now, and have to send one back. More on that below, and later I will post a full comparison of the two. At the moment I have a dilemma and need some opinions.
I got a great deal on a blemished rg2610e and jumped on it. I loved this guitar immediately out of the box, and it played beautifully unplugged. No cosmetic flaws but it turns out there may be a problem with the ducan, or the ground wiring and I would need to fix that or possibly replace the duncan TB-10 (which I might want to do anyway). The place I bought it from was really cool about it and since they did not have any more 2610s they sent me a NEW rg2550e. Now I have to send one back but I love both of them.
Which one would you keep?
They have more in common than not. Same body, neck, fretboard, inlay, headstock, tuners, bridge/trem. Differences are just the pickups and cosmetics, and I assume the rg2550e is front routed since it has the pickguard.
The Dimarzio/IBZ pups in the rg2550e are not bad at all and sound better with my setup than the SD trembucker on the 2610, although I think there is something wrong with that one. The 2550 e may also be more versatile since it has 3, but to be honest I use the bridge 99% of the time anyway and have other guitars if I need a neck sound or single.
Not sure why the 2610 is $120 more then the 2550 new. It has two less pickups, 1 less pickguard, 1 less switch, and the single OEM pickup should not add that much, plus there is less wiring and body work.
I really love the style/look of the rg2610e, even more in person than the pics, and the longer you have, the more it grows on you. The simplicity of 1 pickup and 1 knob makes it really sleek, and it is noticeably lighter than the 2550. I know there are others here that disagree with this, but I prefer the clean look of no pickguard too, but this is not a big deal to me. I also like the black gloss with binding better than the sparkly paint with no binding. Everyone comments on the cheap knob, and it is cheap, but that has to be intentional. A better knob would cost them $3 more at the factory which is nothing on a $1000 guitar.
So anyway, which one would you keep in this case? Same price, one is new, one was previously returned and has an minor issue. And then there is the style/aesthetics.
