Strange Lefty RG550 possible fake?

[filterzero]

I saw this 550. http://www.trademe.co.nz/Music-instr...-248930578.htm
Made a bid on it and after I did a bit of searching I found that although it looks like a 550 it only has 2 pickups and a All Access Neck joint, instead if the square one.
The trem looks likes it is from a 550.
I think the serial number is B1012682-1. And that serial does not match current naming schemes. (That I can find)

Can anyone help identify this guitar? I suspect that it is a fake. it's hard to tell from the photos.

[moonlight]

I think it is a fake. The upper horn looks too thick,the neck has two stripes like a 1550 but they are too thick and in the wrong place. I've never seen a AANJ 550 or1550 with a colored head stock.....But heck I'm relatively new to this and finding there is a lot of weird Ibanez stuff out there.

[560licious]

It almost looks like the back and the front photos are two different guitars...look very carefully at the shape from the front view...the bottom is a little more rounded..but the back view looks more normal...something is fishy, that's for sure.

Hey filterzero, I hope you weren't the winning bid on this...$610....someone got ripped off

[prydogga]

It's so hard to tell with a lefty for me... But the back of the trem looks like it goes WAY off the route, and the headstock looks a little mis-shaped. But it isn't blatantly bad so it's hard to tell.

[moonlight]

I wonder if it is some custom shop model and the picture of the front make it look distorted?

[filterzero]

I guest the only way to tell for sure is to look up the serial number.
Do I contact Ibanez for that?

[Brambram]

The serial is bogus and probably so is the guitar. It doesn't make sense at all, the RG550 styling, but with a 5-piece neck, two humbuckers, AANJ and some oddball tremolo that sure as hell doesn't look like an original Edge. The headstock looks slightly distorted too. I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole.

[gpenguins]

The other thing is that there isn't a cavity for the jack on the back, all the 500 series models have those, so it certainly wouldn't be a 550.

[littlephil]

Definitely not a genuine Ibanez. Its got a lions claw, the AANJ doesnt look right, the trem isnt an Edge.

[mikeymike]

Originally Posted by moonlight

I think it is a fake. The upper horn looks too thick,the neck has two stripes like a 1550 but they are too thick and in the wrong place. I've never seen a AANJ 550 or1550 with a colored head stock.....But heck I'm relatively new to this and finding there is a lot of weird Ibanez stuff out there.

I have a 1998 RG-550 in Desert Yellow. It has an AANJ (being from 98 of course) and it has a matching headstock.

[mikeymike]

Originally Posted by littlephil

Definitely not a genuine Ibanez. Its got a lions claw, the AANJ doesnt look right, the trem isnt an Edge.

It doesn't have a lion's claw.... wtf are you looking at. That being said, it has a strange neck like a 7 string prestige but it's obviously not. The body is perfectly normal though and the pickguard gradually moves away from the lower edge of the body and that is something most fakes don't nail. Just mirror the image of the front in an image editing program and then turn it 90 degrees to the right so you can view it as if it were a normal-handed guitar. It looks just like a regular RG.

Here is a comparison image:

keep in mind the RG in question was taken at a different angle from the JEM as the JEM was taken from perfectly above.

That being said, I think it's a fake neck at the very least... hard to say about the body.

[littlephil]

Whoops. Small image + string lock bolts = looked like shadow in a lions claw. I dont think the body is real though, at least not a 550. The trem rout has the sides angled (towards the fine tuners) Edge routs are square around there.