Left Face Down

Guitar: Ibanez RG-1570
Year: 2002

Specs:

Ibanez Prestige series
Wizard Prestige neck
3pc. Maple Neck Material
Basswood Body
24/Jumbo frets
Rosewood Finger Board
Edge Pro bridge
IBZ V7 (H) Neck PU
IBZ S1 (S) Mid PU
IBZ V8 (H) Bridge PU
Pearl Dot Inlay
PC : Hardware Co
One five way switch
Two knobs (1 tone : 1 Volume)
Made In Japan

Neck Specs:
Width at nut- 43 mm
Thickness at 1st Fret- 17mm
Scale- 25.5 inch
Thickness at 12th Fret- 19mm
Width at 21st Fret- 56mm

The guitar:

The guitar it self is a beautiful creation from our great friends in Japan. It is truelly put together very good. I doubt you will have any troubles with the actual guitar itself through out the time that you own it. The prestige neck is truelly a great thin neck which is great for any style of playing. While the body is light weight for your average guitar. This basswood body, though an wood not often used compared to others, is a great wood which gives great added sound. The cuts on this guitar also give you easy axcess to the upper frets, which I might add you have 24 of. The Edge Pro Bridge, floating trem, is actually very easy to work with, it holds tuning perfect for months even through torturous dive bombs and pulling on the strings.

Neck Pickup:
Ok... the neck pickup in this guitar is an IBZ V7 Humbucker. I was actually suprized by this pickup seeing at first I didn't like it and said, as many have, that if anything this is what needs to be replaced on this guitar. Apon further playing though I have found it a very good pickup on the higher end amps, while on the lower ends it sounded rather crappy. It can give you some rather nice creamy cleans which is what it is good at, though when distorted I must revert to my old saying of "it's just a muffled V8".

Middle Pickup:
The middle pickup is an Ibanez S1 Single... originally this is what I used for the cleans on the smaller and crappier amps, sorry for saying "crappy" but hey. It has a rather nice single sound but it still has the flaws of most singles out there... it has a buzz... the one thing I dis-like about it. Though I have found ways around this through pedals I still dis-like it on my higher end amp. This, unlike the neck pup, is very good for a more percussive clean tone... it may seem a little empty to some but it is a stock pup.. you get what you pay for.

Bridge Pickup:
The bridge pickup is an Ibanez V8 humbucker.. this humbucker I have found rather nice. I love the sound it gives me and for me is easily use able for gigging and anything else I can thing of. it has a really nice heavy-ish clean distortion, though it does very the amp that you use.

Pickups Over-all:
Sorry for not being a great pickup sound explainer but over all, as I've heard said before the pickups on this guitar are that of an advanced players caliber... they're not perfect... but for some one to say they "need" to be replaced is an overstatement.

In The End:
I'll just say this... you will not be dis-appointed with this guitar at all. Ibanez delivers great quality products from the cheapest Ibanez to the most expensive Ibanez and I believe all these guitars will still be around to give to your grandchildren if you take care of them properly. This guitar can take bumps pretty good, I'll tell you I don't gig but my confined room has way more objects to knock into than a stage, and I have hit just about every one with the body or the headstock only to put one nick it the head stock. I once heard that this guitar is a professional guitar with an advanced players pickups... the only thing that you could even clarify wrong is the pickups... a guitar of this calibur deserves the best pickups in the world that you can buy for it's quality... but Ibanez hasn't supplied us with those so customise it to your likeing and love the quality.

Hope this helps... if you have any questions then please post them... I will try to check back every so often and try to keep up with your questions.

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Since writting this review, it's been years though this review still rings true, I have replaced the pickups. It definantly gave it a needed sound quality change for the better for those who are picky, me included, about their sound.

I've now had this guitar for a good 2 1/2 years now and I replaced the pickups a year ago with DiMarzio Super Distortion/Red Velvet/PAF. The pickups definantly livened up the guitar, but then still they do that with the amp. A bad amp and good pickups isn't going to get you a good sound, but this is stil a quality built guitar that isn't that expensive.

In 2005 they changed the paint schemes on this guitar and started putting 5-piece maple/babinga necks on them. Which I must say are pure sex.

 

MusicMan

Nice review! The maple/babinga necks is something I'll have to check out. I never have played one of these, but I think I'll try one out the next time I go to the music store. I'll also have a look at the DiMarzio's you spoke of. I'm kinda looking to customize a couple of my guitars with some pickups that get a whole different distortion tone. Thanks for sharing your review with us

BmwM3AF

Theres a family-type owned guitar shop near me that does custom orders for guitar..I think i'm going to get a guitar with a picture of my car and name ingraved in it..

gonna be costly though..

Oasis

Good job on the review! I've been thinking about getting an ibanez for a while now, just haven't saved up the money to do so yet. I like how you broke up the review into different parts of the guitar!