I got my RG1XXV yesterday!
I put 10s on it and set it up as good as it will setup.
I spent some time playing it yesterday and today.
I also compared it to my RG550RFR and my JEM777SK.
This guitar in my opinion, is the RG5XX of today.
First Glance-
The RG1XXV is the brightest of the three guitars.
The color is very nuclear compared to the other two guitars.
It's almost the same as the JEM777SK with just a touch on neon that the SK doesn't have.
The RG550RFR has a definite orange hue to the pinkish color that it is.
A Second Look-
The inlays are cool, sharks teeth!
The color of the inlays, pickups and knobs are not even close to the color of the paint.
They look very salmon colored to me.
Even the single coil cover is a different color than the humbuckers.
The knobs and switch tip are different in color than the inlays and the pickups too.
So basically this guitar has five different types of pink on it, I wish it all matched.
The Fretboard-
The inlays were done with very nice precisions, no back fill or rounded ball ends on the points of teeth.
You can't feel the transition from wood to plastic at all, nice!
The Rose Wood is not very good quality.
The grain is very open with little pits throughout that can easily be seen.
The color of the fretboard is split down the middle, dark on the bass side and lighter on the treble side the full length of the board.
The frets themselves, are the worst part of the guitar.
I played with the truss rod and the angle of the neck with no luck.
I can't get the action as low as I would like it to be.
A lot of the upper frets (12-24) buzz a lot if I attempt to get the action lower.
Even having it a little high, I still get buzzing.
This RG1XXV is going to need some fret work done on it.
The Neck-
Taking a look at the wood used on the back of the neck I see five pieces of wood.
Maple / Walnut / Maple / Walnut / Maple
The center piece of Maple is quarter sawn, with very nice grain.
The two other pieces of Maple are straight cut.
One has very straight, wide grain and the other has very wide grain too, but not very straight grain.
The two pieces of Walnut are about 1/8" wide each, they add a nice look to the neck.
They run from the base of the neck where it connects to the body, all the way through the headstock.
There is no scarf joint like older Ibanez necks.
It has a Gibson style volute behind the nut area.
The locking nut does not pass through the neck like JEMs and some RG nuts.
The headstock is made of seven pieces of wood.
Ibanez tacks two pieces of wood on the sides of the five pieces used for the neck.
Ibanez saves money this way by not having to use wider pieces of Maple for the outer two Maple pieces of the neck.
My older JEMs and RGs use one piece of wood for the headstock.
The Truss Rod is not the same either.
It doesn't use a barrel wrench like JEMs and many RGs.
It uses an Allen Wrench to adjust the truss rod.
My S1XXV has the same thing.
The Body-
The look, finish and feel if the body is good.
You can see just a little bad finishing in the AANJ where the screw holes are.
The clear coat has a few black dots that are very small throughout the body.
These dots a re the size of pin heads, they don't bother me, it's just sloppy in my opinion.
Electronics-
The volume rolls of nicely and the switch work well and tight.
I'm glad they used a barrel jack and not a football plate with a jack in it.
The pickups are on the low end of medium output.
They have the highs rolled way back giving the guitar a very warm tone, very classic sounding and not modern at all.
The Hardware-
I have this same hardware on my RG350MYE.
The Edge Zero II is a nice system.
The Edge Zero II doesn't use a pop-in trem bar.
It has a nut that holds it in place.
If you like to position your bar and tighten it down, you'll like this.
It works as good as my Original Edges and Lo Pros.
Getting the Allen Wrench in to remove the strings from the bridge is a bit of a challenge.
The Allen goes in at a funny angle and just barley clears the fine tuners.
You don't have to stick that wrench in there every day, so no big deal.
The studs are locking, but they are different than the ones on Edge trems, they even use a larger Allen Wrench to tighten and loosen the inner lock inside the studs.
They also use a smaller Allen Wrench for the outer part of the studs, it's the same size as the lock nut Allen Wrench.
All-in-All, I think this will be a good playing guitar once I get some fretwork done to it.
I'm glad I got it used or I'd be pissed for $900 + $120 for a case = $1020.
My overall rating for this RG1XXV is 7 out of 10.
Check out my pics of all three guitars together to see the color differences.
http://s878.photobucket.com/albums/a...pcsbmx/RG1XXV/
