If anything, I think it's the 570 series that are under-rated. All great guitars regardless.

Had it been really produced, the RG765. Of real production guitars, probably an RG760 or a '92-93 RG770 with direct mount pickups. Really, I'd always take the equivalent 700 Series model over a 500 Series.

The prices on the used market really drive this point home. I got a really nice used '93 RG770 (with direct-mounts) for right around $500 some time back. I've paid at most $400 for an RG760. Decent RG550's go for significantly more than either of those. To me that's extra money for not as good of a guitar.

I love my old RG770DX Blue.
It blows my RG550s away.
The neck seem really wide and super thin.
I think the binding makes it feel a little wider.

I sold this thing (with a different neck) to Ryc. It KILLS.



Not as big of a fan of the DX. I prefer the rosewood board.

And now it looks like this.......IT STILL KILLS!!

sucks anyway, what really scares me is the trem.s on old guitars.

I mean Ibanez updates them and thats I guess good but as time passes most probably they will be harder to find. Consider this as someone in the majority (less than 3 guitar at home and expect 10-15 years of good use of them) and this may be a valid reason if such decrease is observed.

In the last few months I've purchased an RG770, (2) RG760's, and an RG750. The combined total of all four guitars was still less than a new RG1570 or RG Premium. Each was 100% reliably playable when I received them.

Some people may not like the older RG's (5xx, 7xx) and that's OK.....but they're BY FAR still the best "bang for your buck" guitars out there on the used market. The only way an old trem can go bad is if it's abused.............I've NEVER seen an Edge or Lo-Pro "wear out".

Position 2 or 4 can kick out some authentic R&B/Pop/Funk tones as well - something a LP or SG can't do without serious mods

The 570 is so underrated even Ibanez doesn't ever give it a proper reissue.

I like position 2 (neck and single) or 3 with a cranked Tubescreamer. You can push out some decent Stevie Ray like tones there. With its mass and basswood it's easy enough to go from SRV to a rock humbucker almost LP tone on the bridge pickup. Certainly, nothing really sounds like an LP or a Strat but the RG, IMO, is a good guitar that sits in the middle. No, that range isn't available on an LP.
The thing I really like about RGs is that there's a good amount of range in the line now, especially now if you consider the RGA and RGD in the same lineage. If you ask me the RG was more pidgeonholed when it came out in the 80's as it was a pure metal guitar. Now I think it's earned its due in the variety available from the current models.
I've really been digging on my RG7321 lately. The newer cousin of my old RG570 from '91 sounds very different from it's 80's ancestors.

That's damn nice!

nope having owned rg550`s compared to todays,even used and abused they still play buttery smooth.

I have the almost the exact same guitar except mine has the lo-pro edge and is a 1991 model. Sweet guitar none the less.

Actually, wood dries out, changing the resonance (even with a thick finish, the wood is still drying over time... and usually the neck isn't nearly as thickly finished)

Plus: the magnets in the pickups do get weaker as they get older, and this will change the tone as well.

That's why you'll see artificially aged aftermarket pickups advertised from some companies.

Many attribute the 'great' sound of old guitars not only to the idea that the guitar started life sounding that good, but also that as it's aged its sound has 'matured' from the small, but observable, changes in tone due to these unavoidable factors of simple physics.

I know a guy that bought an old set of strat pickups from the the 50s.
He put them in a guitar and I think they sound like crap.
They are really weak and thin sounding, not as good as todays strat pickups.

Could be the tone got worse as they aged, or they were simply crap to begin with.

Those old p/ups were hand wound. Very inconstant. Some were gems, some were refrigerator magnets.

A guy I used to work for had a '64 Stratocaster with a rosewood board that sounds great. One of, if not the, best sounding Strats I'd ever heard/played.

A guy brought me an old '62 or '63 to clean/set up for him and it sounded like total carp.

YMMV with those old guitars since everything was hand made at the time.