Better quality lefty guitars and some suggestions!!

[freewheeler]

Even though this site is mainly (?) for the American market I would still like to write this to those of you that cares (I posted most of this message at the old forum BUT I find these points still important, so here it goes again);

Sincerely a huge THANK YOU to those of you that made the limited run of the lefthanded RG3120LTW possible to us in Europe to get hold of. Iīm a proud owner to one of these fantastic guitars!! I sincerely hope that you in the future will continue to produce at least one lefthanded prestige or highend guitar every year. A real Jem maybe???? *


Just a few suggestions though;

Suggestion 1:
Make lefty guitars with a WIZARD I neck thickness and NOT the WIZARD II. Wizard I necks is what made your shredmachines famous and it really sucks that lefties only can get hold of guitars with Wizard II necks. Leave that neckprofile to your cheapest guitars and let the better ones have the better comfortable necks.

Suggestion 2:
Since Heavy Metal and Power Metal is climbing high in many music-charts in various countries in Europe and these kind of Metalbands are selling more and more albums, you should do a limited run of Metalaxes with custompainting. Metalguitars are becoming cool again.

Select a model or two with a cool custompaintwork, Rg-style body, reversed headstock, sharkfine inlays, Ebony fretboard (24 frets of course), LoPro whammy, EMGs (or others according to your taste), WIZARD I PROFILE (this is for the soloists not the posers) and market this as a exclusive LIMITED run. (And make a few lefties also of this model...)

Suggestion 3:
Add a chat /messageboard /discussion forum to your website. Let people discuss their Ibanez equipment (moderate away what is not appropriate) let them post links to their own music (of course recorded with Ibanezstuff *), pictures of themselves with their Ibanezstuff, add cool contests to your webpage and GET all VITAL information back to your site (your 1999-site was way better than this 2000). If you donīt want to do this then at least add jemsite to your links since Glen is doing all this for you already *!!!!

Suggestion 4:
Please make the leftyguitars in another colour than black. Darkblue, green whatever.

Suggestion 5:
Open the customshop so that we can order our Ibanez dreamguitar!!!

Sincerely

Isaiah


(Edited by freewheeler at 7:05 pm on Dec. 10, 2000)

[lefty]

Preach on brother. *I understand that a highend lefty guitar is not something that most stores want to carry however, it would be a dream come true to be able to order the guitar of my dreams the 7VWH. *I would pay up front and wait for however long it took. *It is so frustrating to never find a really great guitar ever. *And now that they have discontinued the 555 in lefty all avenues towards a Jem have been effectively closed. *Anyone with a lefty 555 can sell it to me. *A custom shop would be awesome.

[chilln2music]

I totally agree!! The lefties need better guitars...hopefully Ibanez will realize that there IS a market for good left handed guitars.

(Edited by Andrew Amicarelli at 2:47 pm on Oct. 17, 2001)

[freewheeler]

Again huge thanks for producing the RG3120LTW. I have had it now for almost 8 months and it is still awesome!!
Give the person a raise who made you manufacture these great guitars. And I hope that you will produce other great HIGHENDlefties in the close future...

A suggestion;
Display ALL lefthanded Ibanezguitars that you have in stock or are currently producing on the japanese (or USA) website.
That way all lefties can see what you have to offer, and then they order it from the nearest Ibanez seller (or whatever shop they want) who then contacts the importer for that country...

Simple sollution which will make the customers and retailers happy and increase your amount of sold lefties. So please think about this.

Sincerely

Isaiah

[sixstringphoenix]

I know this is an old post but I too feel it is important for Ibanez to manufacture and advertise quality left-handed guitars.

• These are the deficiencies I'm most :angryfire: with, after thumbing through the 2001 catalog:
  
• Only color is black. I mean, come on...
• No maple fretboards. Sure it looks horrible with black, but here you could kill two birds with one stone - adding more colors lets you put maple on some guitars.
• Only hardware color is black. Rectifying this is a natural extension to the above two suggestions.
• Only available models are the S470, RG470, and GRX20. Atrocious. Simply atrocious. They look even more basic because of the black paint job. :lame:
• Only available trems are TRS's. But there are new Japanese RG's with Lo-Pro's! I don't get it. Is the state of popular music influencing new guitars (i.e., heavy trem use is not popular right now.)?
• No lefty sigs. Now of course they are under the endorsers' discrection, and although the 555 was sacreligious by the opinion of many, it was an attempt. I've never seen a JSxxxLH or a PGMxxxLH ...
• I have no interest in basses but the only available lefties there are two basic looking ones. No Ergodynes.

I have an RG470LH and, just to make it a decent playing & looking guitar, am planning to install a lefty Edge; to send it to ATD sometime for a swirl, monkey grip, and lions claw; replace the black hardware with chrome; and to possibly install new frets.

My main guitar is a MusicMan Axis and the only thing I'd ever want to change about it is the pickups. I wish I could find a lefty Ibanez that was good enough to not need replacing all sorts of things.

I think Ibanez is losing a lot of business to left-handed guitarists who choose other brands which cater more favorably to them. I agree with Andrew; Ibanez needs to look past profits to see the light at the end of the customer satisfaction tunnel. However, I won't be surprised if there aren't any new developments - lefty guitarists have never been widely catered to. We've just had to adapt.

-Justin

[sixstringphoenix]

*bump*

Come on, I know I'm not the only lefty. Backwards people of the world (err, the Forum ), where are you?!

-Justin

[7 Dying Trees]

Other thing to consider:

You can make seven strings with lo pro's for lefties, the korn signature model has the u-bar system, which I believe entails two trembar holes in the bridge making it reversible and thus lefty compatible.

just a though,

James

[sixstringphoenix]

I have never seen a decent lefty 7... please, I'd like to see Ibanez make the first.

-Justin

[chilln2music]

good idea James. It does look like the trem is already lefty compatible and if its not...how hard would it be to move the bar insert to the other side since there is already a hole.

Justin I agree...lefties need a good 7 string guitar but a good 6 string to start off with would be nice.

[sixstringphoenix]

good idea James. It does look like the trem is already lefty compatible and if its not...how hard would it be to move the bar insert to the other side since there is already a hole.

Yep, that trem is completely reversible. I think ALL trems ought to be made that way, so as not to require a different part for righties, lefties, AND K-7s. Saves money and hassle.

...lefties need a good 7 string guitar but a good 6 string to start off with would be nice.

LOL. Good one and you are absolutely right!

-Justin

[jem7vwh]

I'm not even a lefty but a i have to add my support here.

* Ibanez is losing business simply by not having product on the market. *That's a horrible business practice. *It's one thing to lose buyers to lower prices or better marketing, but to be losing simply because you're not making product available is ridiculous.

[freewheeler]

UPDATE !!!!

Lefthanded jemsters. There are some new lefthanded Ibanezguitars to get hold of.

Ibanez RG550EX LEFT HANDED Galaxy black, lo pro edge trem comes with SUPERWIZARD neck!! Including case (these can be bought in UK, see link http://www.machinehead.co.uk for prices).

Ibanez RG680CL curlymaple w/basswoodbody Loproedge. Rosewoodfretboard. (these can be bought in japan, see link
http://www.ibanez.co.jp/japan/el_gui...x/rg680cl.html ).
However be aware! For some idiotic reason these sweet guitars comes with Wizard II necks instead of a good Superwizard neck. (I have tried one of these guitar, great tone and excellent built, however neck was NOT comfortable. BUT if you like ****necks such as wizard II then it might be something for you.)

Ibanez RG580L JBB reversed headstock with maplefretboard. Mahoganybody and Lo-ProEdge (these can be bought in UK, see link http://www.ibanez.co.jp/japan/el_gui...x/rgr580l.html ).
However be aware! For some idiotic reason these sweet guitars comes with Wizard II necks instead of a good Superwizard neck.



(Edited by freewheeler at 11:56 pm on Nov. 29, 2001)

[Drew]

[quote] sixstringphoenix on 2:58 pm on Oct. 17, 2001

[size=1]Yep, that trem is completely reversible. I think ALL trems ought to be made that way, so as not to require a different part for righties, lefties, AND K-7s. Saves money and hassle.

That's actually a rather good idea. Cosmetically the other hole isn't really the greatest thing, but you could ship the 6-string version with a U-bar as well for those who are bothered by the cosmetics, and by having a completely reversable bridge, it'd lessen production costs for lefties...

At any rate, i'm a right handed guitarist who plays lefty about as well as i breathe underwater, but i still wanted to both voice my support for the lefties on the site, and congradulate ibanez for a job well done in introducng a few new lefty models. good job, guys.

By the way, i actually rather like the WII neck as opposed to the original- the original wizard on the RG i used to own was hard on my wrist- between bad posture (which i remidied within a month or two, but by then it was already too late) and the paper thin neck, i gave myself tendonitis within about 2 months of getting the thing. Sold it for a RG-7620 (with a girthier neck) and the problems cleared right up.

anyway, you guys at ibanez absolutely rock. keep up the good work.

-Drew

[UV7WH-LH !]

Well as my nickname mention it i own a UV7WH left handed model. Not a custom shop one ... one made by a luthier ... with everything the same that the original one .. excepting that the body is made of alder and i ve got a K7 trem now ... (lol)
Everybody can do the same ... so if Ibanez don't want to make good lefty model it is a solution ...

Ibanez has made a 7 string for lefties but it has been quickly discontinued ... they also make good guitars in very limited editions, but most of the time you never know about it ...

One solution would be to make a newsletter for lefties.

Excepting the old sabre ltd and rg ... all i ve played recently from Ibanez was disapointing ...

Time to wake ! Or we'll all move to first brand that cares about us ...

Best regards

The 1st only lefty UV player ... (better in alder hehe, ask Vai)

[dex]

New RG1527L on the market.
7 string Prestige Leftie.
Should suit most of the lefties that are craving a seven string axe.
It only comes in black but at least this way you get colourcoded headstock.

ilia