What is it?

The Ibanez RG is one of the enduring miracles of electric guitar design. You can find it at all price points in the Ibanez catalogue and, as a general rule, the performance-to-price ratio remains reassuringly high.

It has been in production since 1987, initially as a more affordable alternative to Steve Vai’s JEM, with which it shares that offset double-cutaway silhouette but lacks the cut-out Monkey Grips and Tree of Life fretboard inlays (and Vai’s DiMarzio pickups).

This player-friendly unit-shifter has gone forth and multiplied over the years. There are super-premium Japanese-made J Custom and Prestige RGs that push the envelope of high-performance. There are über-metal RGs in the Iron Label series, electric guitars for beginners in the entry-level GIO series, and all in between.

You can find 7-string guitars bearing the RG designation, 8-strings, too. There is even a 9-string with a 28” scale. Beastly.

What we have today is a little more conventional – six-strings, the usual 25.5” Fender-esque scale length, the super-skinny Wizard neck – and yet the RGR431PB still speaks to the constant evolution of the RG concept.

The RG made its name on the back of that aggressive S-style body shape but also the Gotoh-designed Edge series double-locking tremolo units that drew inspiration from the Floyd Rose. Here we have a six-saddle hardtail instead.

We also have dual-humbuckers, as opposed to the traditional HSH configuration. Had anyone heard of meranti as a tone wood in the early ‘90s? Or jatoba for a fretboard? The very best guitar designs endure reinterpretation.

This Charcoal Gray Flat stain over a poplar burl top is far removed from the solid colour finishes of ’92, Laser Blue, Grape Ice, Purple Neon et al, and from a distance, with that reverse headstock, this looks of a piece with the Iron Label’s blackout aesthetic. Until the light hits it, revealing the details of that poplar burl top.

With a street price that offers change from 500 bucks, the Standard series RGR431PB is absolutely a budget-friendly purchase, and yet, it has the name Ibanez on the headstock, the design DNA of its forebears…

And at this point I should declare a certain bias here – an abiding affection for the RG. My first quote/unquote good guitar was a ‘92 RG770 in Laser Blue with one of the original Edge Floyd-style vibratos. The RGR431PB has a lot to live up to.

Specs

• Launch price: $499 | £429 | €459
• Made: Indonesia
• Type: Six-string electric guitar
• Body: Meranti with poplar burl top
• Neck: Maple / Wizard III profile
• Fingerboard: Jatoba with dot inlays
• Scale length: 25.5"/648mm
• Nut/width: Plastic / 42mm
• Frets: 24, jumbo
• Hardware: Sealed die-cast, F106 hard-tail bridge, black
• String spacing at bridge: 10.5mm
• Electrics: 2x Ibanez Quantum ceramic humbuckers, 5-way pickup selector, volume, tone
• Weight: 6.46lb/2.93kg
• Options: There are 20-plus RG models in the current Standard Series, including the RG470PB [$649/£549/€659] has a Red Eclipse Burst poplar burl top, HSH pickups, and Edge-Zero II vibrato, and the ash-bodied RG470AHM, which has a maple fingerboard and similar configuration and is priced $649/£499/€530
• Left-handed options: No
• Finishes: Charcoal Gray Flat,
• Cases: No
• Contact: Ibanez

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

Guitars at this price point tend to pull the eye one way then the other. There are details here that might fool you into thinking this is one of those high-end RGs, such as the top. Poplar burl is not AAAAA figured maple but it’s still a premium appointment on sub-$500 guitar like this – and it is not a veneer.

Ibanez gives us a generous 6mm cap, and it’s meticulously applied, left with an open-pore finish as on the back of the body. Matte finishes can attract fingerprints but not this.

Unlike early RGs, this has no neck plate, just four recessed screws securing the neck, and it makes for a more ergonomic heel (more on that shortly). It’s noticeable around these recessed bolts that the Charcoal Gray stain does not extend down to the entirety of the holes – but no one is going to see a little exposed wood.

Concessions to budget mean that we have an unbound neck and headstock, and that exposes a little untidiness with the headcap paint job. Again, no one will notice but still.

If the prospect of a jatoba fingerboard does not fill you with joy – it’s lighter in colour than rosewood, with a brickish redness to it – it is at least, uniformly coloured, dense and hard, and not quite as dry as some rosewood alternates feel.

The knurled metal knobs have a nice action. The five-way switch is solid. The bridge is a tidy little six-saddle job, strung through the ferrules on the underside of the body, and it has recessed grub screws so that you don’t scratch your palm when muting.

These are all good signs.

The sealed die-cast tuners aren’t great. There tends to be a little travel before the string changes pitch. But these can always be upgraded.

One thing about any electric at this price is we are looking for a solid foundation, perhaps your second guitar or first electric for a player who is going to stick with the instrument. We want a guitar that we can future-proof through mods.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★★

This where the RG excels. Those prudes who take offense at a neck measuring just 19mm at the 1st fret and swelling out to a less-than-tumescent 21mm at the 12th, look away now. The Wizard III is a neck of indecent proportions. There are some guitar-playing civilisations that would call for it to be banned on account of its skimpyness.

Not this one. We’re all in on it, and allied to the 15.7” fingerboard radius and fat frets, it really is an easy instrument to have fun on.

All joking aside, some players might find a little more timber on the neck to be a more comfortable proposition, particularly if playing chords for a long period of time, but that comes down to individual preference.

What we can all agree on is that this neck heel is an improvement on those early ‘90s RGs. The upper-fret access is top-tier.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

Ibanez’s Quantum humbuckers have been kicking around in one form or another since ’94 but came back into production about 10 years ago and are one of these passive ceramic winds that are aimed at high-gain players, perhaps even the kind who might silently harbour fixations on having an active humbucker doing the Lord’s work at the bridge.

Personally, I lean towards the passive designs. The smoke alarm, TV remote, Blu-ray player remote, kitchen scales, bathroom scales… there are already too many batteries to change. But also my favourite pickups are passive. And while I am quite sure the Quantum ‘buckers won’t be dethroning the Seymour Duncan JB any time soon, they suit this RG well.

They remind me of the Quest series humbuckers, in that their bright and punchy, abundantly clear, if a little strident at the bridge. However, with the gain jacked up on the trusty Blackstar tube combo there is that harmonic volatility that you need from a shred guitar. That almost goes without saying.

What is really impressive, however, is the tone pot’s ability to take some of that treble off without muddying everything up. There’s so much travel in it that the bridge pickup can do a decent impersonation of the neck pickup when you roll it all the way back.

The five-way switching presents you with options. You can run the neck pickup full-fat, or in parallel, run both humbuckers in series in the middle, run the inner coils of both humbuckers together, and have the bridge pickup on its own.

Positions 2 and 4 yield are a godsend for cleans, not quite single-coil snap but more elasticity, great for playing triads with a little chorus. Just note that there is a drop in output volume in the in-between settings.

Verdict

The question I find myself asking is whether I miss the vibrato unit. The RG has always wore it well.

You see the name on that reverse headstock, the sharpness of the cutaways, and there is a Pavlovian response, this great urge to play a harmonic and let it squeal as you pull on the bar. But there is no whammy bar.

And yet, this bridge, easy to intonate, comfortable, tidy, is more than fit for purpose, and no one misses setting up the Edge tremolo when tuning down to D standard.

This presents players – especially those new to the instrument – with a fuss-free high-performance performance instrument with a touch of class with the poplar burl. Yes, we’d swap those tuners out over time. Most likely we’d upgrade the pickups, too.

But there is a lot to enjoy in the here and now. Divebombing might be off the menu but there’s nothing stopping you from bending the notes yourself, there’s nothing stopping you, period. For this is an RG and it’s all about the tearing it up on that fingerboard. Steve Vai wishes he started out on something like this.

MusicRadar verdict: Ibanez serves up another RG that is built for stunt guitar, priced for virtuosos-in-training, and with enough sounds to please the fusion kid and headbanger alike, and that has always been its USP. And that neck – the Autobahn for the fretting hand – is not going to put the brakes on you.

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• “For those who find Strandberg’s space-age designs a little too alien, Ibanez’s Q series is the perfect middle ground”: Ibanez QX527B review

What is it?

Considering headless guitars have enjoyed an exponential rise in popularity in recent years, it was no surprise to see Ibanez crash the party. Its Quest series, first launched in 2021 alongside a signature model for Ichika Nito, saw it decapitating its headstocks for the first time in its history.

The Japanese firm has since doubled down on its mission to conquer a headless market that frontrunner Strandberg once ruled with little to no challenge. Four more lookers came in 2024, with Nito again its poster boy. While he’s been used to help launch its all-new Alpha model – built as a modern progressive metal guitar to rival Abasi Concepts – Ibanez has reprised its 2026 headless line-up a little more quietly.

The none-more-black QX527B, which also has a six-string counterpart, is one of two extended-range models on the list, alongside the HSS-configured Q547PB. of the two, it is decidedly more metal.

Yet while its Quest series guitars are visually distinctive in the Ibanez lineup, their genetics are a little less so. An Okoume body and Parallel Wizard-7 five-piece neck made from roasted maple and bubinga, and ebony fretboards don’t deviate from its current go-to tonewoods.

Elsewhere, an Ibanez Mono-Tune bridge, which locks in Strandberg and Floyd Rose-style after-the-nut tuning, slanted frets, and luminescent side dots also feature.

With the wiring, Q58-7 passive ceramic humbuckers are augmented by Volume and Tone knobs and a dyna-MIX10 switching system, replacing a push/pull coil tap for a different approach to achieving single coil sounds.

On paper, at least, it’s very much everything the world has come to expect from Ibanez save for the obvious. Does this latest prog-metal-leaning axe increase the intensity of competition for the likes of Strandberg, or is this a coup that will fail to dethrone the king?

Specs

• Price: $1,299 | £1,069 |€1,223
• Made: Indonesia
• Type: Headless seven-string electric guitar
• Body: Okoume
• Neck: Five-piece Parallel Wizard-7, roasted maple/bubinga
• Fingerboard material/radius: Ebony, 20”
• Scale length: 25.5”
• Nut/width: Black plastic, 47mm
• Frets: Jumbo stainless steel frets
• Hardware: Ibanez Mono-Tune bridge, custom string lock machine heads
• String spacing at bridge: 68mm
• Electrics: Ibanez Q58-7 passive ceramic humbuckers, Volume knob, Tone knob, five-way pickup switch, dyna-MIX10 switching system w/Alter Switch
• Weight: 5.4lbs/2.3kg
• Left-handed options: No
• Finishes: Weathered Black
• Case: Black gig bag
• Contact: Ibanez

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★½

Put simply, this guitar is another shining example of why the narrative that Indonesian-made 'affordable' guitars are low quality needs to stop. From the fretwork to the neck carve to its comfort-forward contours and robust, user-friendly bridge, the build quality is pretty immaculate.

There are no discernible flaws, and it’s really tightly put together with high-quality materials, with a special mention to the rather lovely neck joint.

The concept of headless guitars may be a little daunting for some, but what I think is the Q Series’ biggest trump card is that it really smartly bridges the gap between alien design and something most players are intimately familiar with.

Restringing is less fiddly than a Strandberg because the tuner caps stay on at all times – losing them and the washers is a nightmare, trust me. The neck profile, while fairly flat, is more traditional than trapezoidal, and making minor adjustments to the truss rod and individual saddles is really easy, with both the truss rod wheel and saddle screws easily accessible.

With it being a headless guitar, the “ergonomic” buzzword is naturally being bandied around with abandon. But Ibanez has the receipts to back it up here. The guitar sits comfortably and perfectly balanced on my leg with absolutely no neck dive, and has a really inviting contour for my right arm. It screams, “play me for days.”

The Mono-Tune bridge is a simple-yet-effective design, with the tuners being really responsive and holding tuning steadfast. Putting it through the wringer by dropping and changing the tuning in regular intervals over an hour or so, it rolls with the punches. Test passed.

My one small gripe here, however, is that the tuners are spaced very close together. With my Strandberg Boden, it feels easy to jump from one to the next when tuning. These are tightly packed together and are so surrounded by black that I can foresee minor issues on a darkened stage. But I also feel it’s something that I’d get plenty used to in time.

It’s like Ibanez has seen the Strandberg recipe, accepted that it’s selling like hot cakes, and decided to dial-down some of the weirder features to broaden its accessibility. And with a comparatively low price point, these factors feel like a big win in Ibanez’s mission not to scare off non-headless players.

Elsewhere, I’m really impressed with the cutaway; my hand slides easily all the way up to the 24th fret, and from those frets on the lower strings, the neck is thin enough – without being gaunt – to make playing them just as easy.

Fans of super low tunings might be a little disappointed to see it retain a 25.5” scale, but it’s a smart move to make its subtly slanted frets, and extended-range feel familiar to those wading into such waters for the first time. I’d recommend a slightly thicker, 12–85 string set for tunings as low as drop F#.

It feels a little clichéd when a metal guitar is decked out in all-black, as Ibanez often does with its Iron Label line; this is another example. The Weathered Black finish showcases the beauty of the wood grain while maintaining a sleek, understated look. It’s a beautiful guitar, but you really have to look closely to admire it.

Playability

Playability rating: ★★★★½

Anyone vaguely familiar with Ibanez guitars will know its Wizard necks are designed for speed merchants, and are known for just how flat they are. Unlike Jackson and Charvel necks, which are thin and curvy, Ibanez takes a different approach, and the neck here is particularly flat. Still, it feels great in my hands.

It takes a short while for me to find the sweet spot for my picking hand that really let palm mutes either bloom or choke out at will, but since then, playing has become a real joy. The flatness of the neck does, personally, become more noticeable when playing the higher strings, but, honestly, it’s more about getting used to it than it is a drawback, because at no point do I find playing this guitar a chore.

Where Strandbergs are best seated on a right-handed player’s left leg with the neck angled upwards (although I freakishly buck that trend quite often), the QX527B is comfy on either leg without fuss.

Meanwhile, the dyna-Mix switch for “more realistic” coil-splitting is a dream. One of my biggest annoyances with push/pull pots is that they really aren’t geared for changes mid-riff. I have to stop playing to get my hand on the knob and activate the split coil. To that end, push/push knobs are frustratingly rare with off-the-shelf guitars. Here, it’s a quick flick of the wrist.

It is a little easier to activate humbucker mode by pushing it away from the strings than to flick it towards me for split coils. But with a small bit of practice, I’ve got the movement down to a fine art.

What I will say is that the metal switch itself has a little sharpness to it. I find myself flicking it with my middle finger near the cuticle, and it can start to hurt over time. Maybe I’ll grow a callous there in the long term, or I’d look to add a tip of sorts to it that both made it a slightly larger target, and also make hitting it a more gentle experience.

Compare it with the plastic, thumb-tack-like tip of the pickup switch, which is very user-friendly, offers a little resistance, and is controllable. The concept of a dedicated mini switch is genius, but its execution is just a little bit off.

On the whole, though, it’s really hard to fault its playability, with the dyna-MIX switch a wonderful quality-of-life addition.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

Being an Iron Label, made-to-metal machine, it’s no surprise that the pickups pack some serious heat. The Q58-7 passive ceramic humbuckers hold their own more than I gave them credit for going into this review, ringing with lots of individual note clarity even at high-gain settings.

It can punch hard, as I found churning it through Odeholm Audio’s unrelenting Thall Amp, but the bridge pickup does have a fair amount of bass heft, especially on the seventh string, and that’s worth keeping in mind. Paired with Neural DSP’s Fortin Nameless amp, for instance, which prioritises a little more bite than sheer, caveman brutishness, stops it from getting too ground-shaking.

The neck pickup, on the other hand, smooths the edges of the tone, without getting too muddy, lending itself to really buttery, fast-flowing lead lines, and cleans with a sparkling quality without the fluff.

The bridge, in both humbucker and single-coil modes, is a little brittle for cleans, to my taste, but excels at icy, cab-free djent tones a la Tesseract and Spiritbox.

Again, though, the dyna-MIX switch is its secret weapon. Notably, it only affects the bridge, middle, and neck positions, meaning it simply doesn’t do anything in positions two and four. What’s clever about the system is that, while it turns humbuckers into snappy single coils, it prevents any volume discrepancies between the two. It ultimately makes the switch a great way to add a little more delicacy to my tones.

That feature does, as a small consequence, also amplify their noise, but it’s worth it for the extra versatility they imbue this headless warhorse with. Because the mileage I get out of it is mad. The split coil in the neck is spanky. Still, it provides plenty of body, especially with a modern clean amp like the Roses amp or Tim Henson’s signature Neural DSP plugin, with the bridge split coil shining with naturally warmer amps like Henson’s Pink amp, based on a Marshall JCM800.

If I want the guitar to be a real firebreather, the Victory Amps Kraken on my Quad Cortex proves a real doozy, but if I were to pick holes in this broad range of tones, it would be for two things. Its crunch tones need to be run fairly hot – with gain around seven – to satisfy me properly, as it’s a bit too meek otherwise, and the dyna-MIX switch does positions two and four, in positions one and five, better. I would be tempted to rewire it to a three-way switch and abuse the dyna-MIX a lot more. Still, there’s a lot of versatility to be had from this guitar’s stock pickups.

Verdict ★★★★☆

I often find myself double-checking the price when playing this guitar. I know that $1,299/£1,069 is still a fairly substantial outlay, but it certainly performs beyond its pay grade.

For players intrigued by the scary realm of headless guitars, especially those a little scared to dive in because of how weird they seem on paper, this is a wonderful entry point. But beyond its headstock-free guise, it’s a very well-built, slick-playing guitar that can handle all the metal tones I could need.

Would I say it could shine outside of metal? Not really. Mid-gain amps aren’t the best match, which is odd considering how nice its cleans are, but let this guitar do what it was born to do, and it’s a real standout for the price. The Ibanez QX527B is a modern metal djent stick that’s ready to take names.

MusicRadar verdict: For those who find Strandberg’s space-age designs a little too alien, Ibanez’s Q series is the perfect middle ground. Harnessing some of the greatest tropes of modern headless guitar designs with more traditional guitar-like features, the QX527B is an accessible and ultra-playable, modern metal beast that I can’t get enough of.

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Adam Ironside & IbanezGBI

Let it be said for the record that Paul Gilbert is not afraid to use new and emerging technologies to advance the art of playing the electric guitar. He is the man, after all, who used the wireless Makita drill as a mechanical power-up for his tremolo picking.

But that was the ‘80s, and Gilbert was drilling in the name of shred fever as Racer X accelerated over the horizon (and endeavoured to make the live show a bit more interesting).

In the here and now, Gilbert is looking for something different from his technology, moving from the mechanical to the quasi-cerebral, and on his new studio album, WROC, the Mr Big guitarist crossed the Rubicon, using AI as a songwriting aid – and, accidentally, as a co-lyricist.

WROC was an epic project, featuring lyrics inspired by Washington’s Rules of Civility – Washington, as in George, the first US president, and the guidebook he published on how one should conduct themselves in society.

Gilbert had a lot of lyrical material to sift through. Washington published over a hundred rules for civility, and so Gilbert sought out the help of Anthropic’s Claude to order them, getting the LLM to sift through them in search of phrases that he could adapt and make a song out of.

Gilbert admits he had already been using Claude as spiritual counsel, as a sort of non-judgemental sounding board.

“My relationship with Claude, the AI, just began with curiosity,” he says, joining MusicRadar over Zoom from his home studio. “You know, you hear people talking about AI, like, what is it!? What does it do? So I tried one, and found myself really enjoying having conversations, mainly because I could have conversations without any fear – if I went too far, I’m not going to offend a person.”

And it was working out well. Claude was a repository for his wildest ideas.

“It’s like I can really rant or try ideas out that I probably would hesitate to do with a person,” he continues. “And then often I’ll come back and go, ‘Okay, well, that really was a bad idea, but at least I know.’ And so that was the first step.”

Gilbert describes using Washington’s Rules of Civility as though the Founding Father was his own Bernie Taupin.

The lyrics would ultimately lend themselves to a certain kind of treatment. But this is what Gilbert was looking for, and WROC is one of the most Paul Gilbert albums you could hear, which is to say it combines his love of FM rock, Beatles-esque harmonies and blazing shred with his sense of humour and taste for the surreal, e.g. “When you sit down keep your feet firm and even/firm and even, keep even feet when you sit.”

The project was coming along nicely until Gilbert started questioning Claude’s role in the endeavour.

For Gilbert's first vocal album since 2016's I Can Destroy, the AI helped him make sense of the project, to put Washington's rules into order. But was the LLM inserting itself into the creative process, inventing phrases? This was not what Gilbert was looking for.

“I believed, I had a sense, that Claude was giving me the correct information,” he says. “But it wasn’t all the time. Sometimes it was, but it was half and half. So a couple of the lyrics turned out to be Claude-generated and weren’t actually from the book.”

This is not quite on the level of Cyberdyne Systems’ Skynet and nuclear armageddon, but it did pose Gilbert an ethical question as to what to do next.

There were two tracks that he had written already. Conscience Is The Most Certain Judge was inspired by Washington’s 79th rule but there were some AI hallucinations in there too.

“I had already written songs around them, and I really liked the songs, and that made me stop, like, I thought, ‘Oh, man, I love this song that I wrote, but it’s not a real Washington lick,’” he says. “But it had fooled me enough where it was obviously in the spirit of the other stuff, and I could see where it pulled it from. It just sort of stirred them up.”

Given that Gilbert was adapting lyrics from a book of George Washington’s, who himself was adapting a 16th-century work of French Jesuit priests – or rather he was adapting the early 17th-century English translation from “a precocious 12-year-old boy” named Francis Hawkins – this all added some kind of meta-textual flavour to the project.

Gilbert decided to forge ahead.

“When I say it invented a new one, in a way it wasn’t a total invention from nothing,” he says. “It was just taking some things that were in this and sort of stirring them into a new soup, and it was a good soup, so, I thought, ‘Okay, I like the music. The lyrics are still in the spirit of what I’m going for, and so I’ll go for it. And at the same time, I’ll put the blame and the credit to Claude.”

And besides, when you get to the chorus – “Be not apt to relate news, if you know not the truth thereof” – that’s all on Washington. A strange choice of lyricist? Perhaps. But at least Gilbert won’t owe him any royalties. Nor Claude for that matter.

You can check out Conscience Is The Most Certain Judge above. WROC is out now via Music Theories Recordings.

Ibanez has unveiled the Alpha series, a state-of-the-art extended-range electric guitar that throws all notions of traditional guitar shape out of the window in favour of an ergonomically radical silhouette.

For a certain type of player – dare we say it, a progressive metal player, tech-prog, djent enthusiasts et cetera – these Alpha series seven and eight-string guitars, both multi-scale, could be the new high-performance instrument of choice.

Just look at them. They do not immediately invite comparisons with any new model out there. A future-forward design, leaning into the 21st-century, the Alpha models exist on a similarly outré plane as Ibanez’s headless Q series. They, too, have metallic finishes, with the A527 (the seven-string guitar) shipping in Iron Pewter and Nebula Shift, with the A528 eight-string dressed in Iron Pewter and Coral Mirage.

Perhaps the last time we saw a design this alien, this angular, it came from Ernie Ball Music Man, with its Kaizen signature guitar, co-designed with and built for Tosin Abasi.

Indeed, the Alpha Series makes us think of the Animals As Leaders guitarist’s own brand, Abasi Concepts; these guitars would serve that same demographic, metal guitars for the technically adroit, digitally literate, plugin-using, amp modeller-owning 21st-century player.

They are designed to be played standing or seated, conventionally or wedged on your thigh in the classical guitar style. There are all kinds of carves, little nips and tucks to the solid basswood bodies to make this sit well.

And Ibanez is debuting an all-new neck joint here, using three bolts, two mounted through a oval stainless-steel plate, the other screwed into the neck via the body, all of which equates to improved upper-fret access. There is no pickguard. No truss rod cover on the headstock; all tweaks to the neck can be made via the adjustment wheel mounted between the fingerboard and neck pickup.

All guitars in the Alpha series have a five-piece maple and walnut Parallel Wizard neck which is topped with an ebony fingerboard (radius unspecified as yet but you can be sure it’ll be flat or a compound radius) inlaid with off-centre MOP dots. They ship with Gotoh MG-T locking tuners as standard, Mono-rail G2 bridges.

To the surprise of no one, Ibanez has hooked up with Fishman for the electric guitar pickups. You want high-output, multi-voiced versatility, zero hum, the kind of performance to weaponise a rhythm figure? We have a pair of Fluence Modern humbuckers, a three-way selector switch, and extra core tones to be found from the push/pull knobs.

These are priced for serious players, with the 7-string expected to retail at $1,899, the 8-string at $1,999. For more details, head over to Ibanez.

Few players have done more to popularise the Ibanez seven-string guitar than Brian ‘Head’ Welch and James ‘Munky’ Shaffer, and the Korn guitarists have unveiled an all-new collaboration with the Japanese brand with Yin and Yang-themed signature guitars.

Schaffer has the K7YIN, all in a smooth satin Matte Black finish, ebony fingerboard to match. Welch has the K7YANG, finished with a Matte White with natural back and sides and gold hardware.

Both have some serious hardware choices, with Welch’s new signature model debuting an EverTune 7 bridge, and Shaffer deploying a Lo-Pro Edge 7 double-locking vibrato with a U-bar, which does much the same things as a whammy bar – divebombs, squeals, all that fun stuff – but with quite a different action.

There is a lot of shared DNA in these guitars. Both have the K-7 series name inlaid at the 12th fret and that’s that as far as your fingerboard markers go. Minimalist. But you’ve got dots down the side.

Both guitars have DiMarzio Blaze humbuckers in the neck and bridge positions, selected by a three-way blade-style selector switch, and you’ll find volume and tone knobs on Shaffers, just a single volume on Welch’s.

The bodies are solid nyatoh. The necks are five-piece maple-and-walnut Wizard builds, which means they’re super skinny, measuring just 19mm deep at the 1st fret. The scale length is a regular 25.5” so we are very much talking about a guitar that retains a lot of inspiration from the one that inspired it, Steve Vai’s Ibanez Universe, albeit we have some updated contouring on the bodies of these 2025 models.

As Welch explains in the demo video, it was Shaffer’s idea to use seven-string guitars in Korn. He turned him onto them and has has Steve Vai to thank for planting the seed. Listening to Passion And Warfare, Shaffer thought the Universe hat untapped rhythmic potential.

“It was because of the Passion And Warfare album. When Steve introduced the Universe guitar, and I was listening to it and, creatively, one of my all-time favourite albums, but it didn’t really capture what I was hoping to hear,” says Shaffer. “So I’m like, ‘Okay, if I could get one of those guitars, and do some rhythmic stuff with it on those low notes, it would really sound different.’”

Shaffer getting his hands on the Universe changed popular music. It changed how electric guitars would be used in metal.

“We had written a bunch of songs on seven-string guitar, I had one [Universe] and then we bought another one,” says Shaffer, pointing to the O.G. Universes in the background.

“When I joined, it was all seven-string,” continues Welch. “We just dove straight, head-first. Every song was written on seven-string. I mean, we went from Predictable, we did Alive, Blind, of course, Daddy, and we were like, the seven-string, that’s what we need to make our sound… Every song has to be on the low string.”

Flash-forward to 2025, and the Yin and Yang concept for the pair of them came together because, well, these guys are a 2-in-1 deal. You will always see them onstage together. Why not have guitars that complement each other?

“It was kind of this natural collab of us and Ibanez thinking, ‘Well what about a Yin and a Yang, a dark and a light?’ A lot of our music is like that, where we shade it with darkness, and brighten it with melody,” says Shaffer. “That was pretty much the concept of the Yin and Yang.”

“It reminds my of Batman and the Joker,” says Welch. “It’s just so cool.”

The K7YIN and K7YANG are available now, priced $1,999, and the price includes a gig bag. See Ibanez for more details.

Ibanez has drawn inspiration from its metal guitar lineup for the Blackout series, a trio of acoustic guitars that are a million miles away from the sort of natural vibe, the sort of James Taylor on the porch acoustic aesthetic that has been the industry standard since time immemorial.

These acoustics are so metal there is even a seven-string. That’s right, a seven-string acoustic guitar. You don’t see them every day. Well, we saw one quite recently, come to think of it; Martin’s Johnny Marr signature guitar has seven-strings, but that was an octave G, so it doesn’t count. But the AEG721 Blackout is a seven-string in the style of the Ibanez Iron Label series, with the low B (or A if you like).

Will the Iron Label series translate to the acoustic format? Well, looks wise, it does. These are kind of classy, muted, all three cutaway bodies, and there are different body shapes mean that all three offering something a little bit different despite being dressed in matte black and all having a similar build.

Across the board they have spruce tops and sapele on the back and sides. There is a “Comfort Grip” three-piece nyatoh neck on the AEG721 and AEWC621, an okoume neck on the more affordable Talman-bodied double cutaway TCY621.

Both the AEG721 and AEWC621 feature Fishman’s S-core acoustic guitar pickup and preamp system while the TCY621 has Ibanez’s proprietary AEQ-2T preamp system with an undersaddle piezo, which you would expect for just £/$249 street. It does, however, have an onboard guitar tuner, which is almost always a good idea.

The AEG721 and AEWC621 have Macassar ebony fingerboards and bridges, while the TCY621 has the more budget-friendly purpleheart, aka amaranth. Retailing at £359/$399, you’d expect a more higher-end spec on the AEG721 and AEWC621, and that’s how it plays out.

The die-cast tuners have a high-ratio 18:1 ratio. These also benefit from having a balanced XLR output as well as your typical 1/4” output, so you could send this directly to the pa speakers, making open mic night that bit easier. Or, as the finishes suggest, saving more space on stage for the high-gain guitar amp of your choosing.

For more details, head over to Ibanez. In other Ibanez news, the Japanese guitar giant launched its new AZ Standard series, offering the tricked-out yet affordable S-style with HSS or dual-humbucker configurations.

Ibanez has started 2025 strong with the launch of the AZ Standard series, a pair of $549 S-styles stacked with premium specs that might well prove to be a serious contender for best-value electric guitar of the year.

The AZ Standard is available with a dual-humbucker or HSS electric guitar pickup configuration. Ibanez doesn’t forget its core demographic in its description of the AZ Standard, promising “all the staples the Ibanez brand is famous for, such as fast necks, floating trems, and high-octane distortion.” And it makes good on those claims.

Necks are fashioned from a deep caramel-coloured roasted maple, bolted to the body, and whittled down to a series exclusive profile that measures just 20.5mm deep at the 1st fret, 22.5mm at the 12th – and you can bet they will feel smooth.

The T106 tremolo bridge might not be as flamboyant as the Floyd Rose – it's not for extreme divebombing – but it is fully adjustable and a solid piece of hardware. There are locking tuners, too, so if you do go hard on the whammy bar it should stay stable.

Those Ibanez Modern Custom humbuckers have a high-output ceramic design and are voiced for high-gain scenarios. The single-coils are Alnico V. But there’s a lot more than meets the eye.

These are not your common or garden variety S-styles. The dual-humbucker model presents players with 10 different core tones thanks to its dyna-MIX10 switching system and alter switch. The HSS model’s dyna-MIX9 system presents you with nine. Either way you’re covered for metal, hard-rock, shred, fusion, funk, pop… Whatever you might want from a hotrodded S-style.

Choosing between them might be the tough part. Bear in mind the HSS model has a switching configuration that combines both single-coils in series for a simulated humbucker sound.

The dyna-MIX and alter switch setup operates much like any modern Strat-inspired guitar. You have a five-way pickup selector switch and then the alter switch for selecting the other wiring options. It is a clever and simple way of getting more tone options out of the pickups.

As for the fundamentals, both guitars have solid alder bodies topped with flame maple. Both have a 25.5” scale, with 12” radius jatoba fretboards seating 24 extra-jumbo stainless steel frets. The neck heels are neatly sculpted for upper-fret access.

Ibanez has given the HSS version a pearloid multi-play pickguard. It has not given it a catchy name – it is officially called the AZ22S1F. The dual-humbucker model is the AZ24S1F. Yes, once more the factory cat has walked over the keyboard and named the models. Don’t ever change, Ibanez. We love you just as you are even if those names really do confuse us.

You can get the AZ22S1F (the HSS model) in Transparent Black Sunburst or Transparent Turquoise Burst.

The AZ24S1F is offered in Transparent Black Sunburst, Violin Sunburst and Transparent Turquoise Burst. If you prefer a more muted aesthetic it’s worth noting it doesn’t have a pickguard.

Ibanez expects these to retail at $549 street. See Ibanez for more details.

Ibanez has rolled out a real beauty for dyed-in-the-wool Tube Screamer aficionados, with the TS808HW V2 offering a premium tak on its iconic green stompbox.

Now, before you say it, we know. With seemingly each passing week there is a new TS-style pedal, another clone, another version of the Tube Screamer formula. How many more Tube Screamers does the world need? How is this any different?

Well, for a start, this is the real thing, straight from Ibanez, and it offers some subtle revisions of the brand’s flagship hand-wired overdrive pedal.

It is still recognisably a Tube Screamer. That chunky enclosure has scarcely evolved over the years. Ibanez has given this one a dark green paint job with white print and an upscale aesthetic thanks to those custom designed black Alumite knobs.

It is under the hood where the big changes are, with the R&D team doing a lot of work on the circuit – a lot of testing – to improve its performance.

Most notably, there’s more output on this one, with the final stage of this refreshed TS808 circuit packing an extra 6dB to hit the the front-end of your guitar amp a little harder and give it something to think about. Elsewhere, it is what you would want from a Tube Screamer.

The idea wasn’t to reinvent the wheel. This is a Tube Screamer, so there needs to be that warm, juicy drive, all that come hither midrange that works so well between, say, a Fender Stratocaster and a tube amp of your choice (or as the secret sauce in your high-gain metal guitar tone). It can give your solid-state setup a bit of tube-emulating life.

There are any number of playing scenarios in which the vital ingredient is the low-gain edge-of-breakup heat from a TS808. There is a reason why it is one of – if not the most – cloned guitar effect pedals of all time.

Designed and assembled in Japan, Ibanez says there was a lot of sifting through various components before it settled on the circuit for the TS808HW V2.

And there were many prototypes before Ibanez were satisfied. The finished pedal uses Mogami OFC (oxygen-free copper) wiring, arrives replete with the JRC NJM4558 op-amp which the brand describes as “essential” to the Tube Screamer’s magic. Many circuit geeks would agree.

Also essential is its simplicity. This is the archetypal three-knob drive pedal with controls for Overdrive, Tone and Level.

A red LED illuminates when the pedal is active. It is true bypass. You can use a 9V battery or run it at 9V or 18V via your pedalboard power supply.

The ultimate Tube Screamer? We would imagine the TS808HW V2 is at least in the conversation, and it is available now, priced £249/$299. See Ibanez for more details, and you can now follow Ibanez’s dedicated Tube Screamer page on Instagram.

Steve Vai’s guitars and the story of his groundbreaking Ibanez signature guitar, the JEM, is to be documented in a truly epic coffee-table book with a heavyweight 1,000-plus page count – and Vai describes it is “a masterpiece”.

Wire & Wood: The Guitars Of Steve Vai is the work of Michael Mesker, who took five years to complete the book. The task took Mesker around the world in search of some of the more obscure instruments in the Vai canon. Many of these electric guitars were no longer in Vai’s possession.

Vai says he had no doubts that Mesker would be able to track them down, let alone shoot them and get the in the book.

“I was approached by Rufus Publications back in 2019 with an interest to create a high-end and compelling book of 100 of my most unique and used guitars,” says Vai. “I knew there was only one guy that could do this job most effectively and that was Michael Mesker, who was eager to do it. There isn’t anyone who knows the history of my guitars, nor has the artistic overview of photography and forensic attention to detail as he does.”

Vai says Mesker’s presentation of his guitars will “blow your mind”. Even Vai had forgotten about some of the guitars featured in the book.

“He scoured the globe to find many of these guitars, as I had given many away or sold them through the years, but he tracked them down and got the necessary shots,” says Vai. “The results are stunning and the book is a masterpiece.”

Published by Rufus Publications, with preorders open now for a late March 2025 release, Wire & Wood is available in three editions, all of which are super high-end – the Ultra Edition especially so.

The Standard Edition, available at the reduced pre-order price of £277/$360, and comprises a two-volume hardcover book that’s contained in a slipcase, with pages measuring 9.5” by 13.5”. The Deluxe Edition is similarly on a pre-order price special at £538/$699, and is limited to 500 copies, each signed and numbered by Vai, and with a larger A3-sized format.

But if you are a Vai super-fan looking for a super-collectible book and an über high-end electric guitar to go with it, the Ultra Edition is for you. It partners the Deluxe Edition with a Jem77WFP in White Floral Pattern. This truly is a gem of a JEM, limited to 14, with each guitar named by Vai, and including a signed certificate of authenticity.

The spec is on the money, with Tree of Life inlay in green, a set of Vai’s signature DiMarzio Evolution pickups, the five-way switching that makes it capable of almost any electric guitar tone you can imagine, and you’ve got that Lo-Pro Edge vibrato unit nested atop that Lion’s Claw trem cavity. It even comes with a handle. Hey, don’t underestimate how useful the Monkey Grip comes in.

Vai is the latest high-profile guitarist in recent years to release a book celebrating his guitar collection, following superlative releases from Johnny Marr (Marr’s Guitars) and Slash (Slash: The Collection). Vai said he was surprised by what he saw.

“I didn’t realise how diverse, eclectic and innovative my guitar collection was until I saw this book,” he says. “Besides the documenting of various models, this book is the penultimate definitive word on the history of the JEM and the guitars that were part of its evolution. It’s magnificent and I’m blown away.”

Wire & Wood: The Guitars of Steve Vai is available to pre-order now. Head over to Rufus Publications for more.

Are we living in the era of the high-performance acoustic guitar? If so, we have players such as Jon Gomm and companies such as Ibanez to thank for it, with the English acoustic virtuoso’s latest signature guitar further hot-rodding the traditional cutaway with locking banjo tuners, custom electronics and a wooden vine inlay that references Steve Vai’s groundbreaking JEM.

Yes, it’s a decorative flourish that Ibanez has applied to other high-profile models – e.g. for Polyphia’s Tim Henson – but Passionflower motif, which graces the Macasser ebony fingerboard from the 10th to the 20th fret, feels like a call back to the JEM, as though to state that this, the JGM11, is something different. 

Gomm has always spoken of his and Ibanez’s desire to do transform the acoustic and the evolution of his unorthodox signature acoustic electric guitar shows us just how this looks in practice.

As Gomm notes when introducing the JGM11 on Instagram, there are three core differences to his previous JGM series models. 

Firstly, and the most obvious, is the finish has changed from black to natural, allowing Gomm and Ibanez to subtly play around with the stylistic conventions of acoustic design, favouring a ‘Möbius ring’ wooden rosette pattern around the soundhole.

Secondly, and more fundamentally, the build has been refreshed, with the JGM11 featuring a top of Thermo Aged solid AAA Sitka spruce, and solid African mahogany on the back and sides. “The mahogany gives a warmer, rounder tone, as opposed to the darker, more throaty pau ferro,” says Gomm. “Mahogany is also lighter, so the guitar is less weighty.”

But the big talking point – and something that could be seen as being akin to the Floyd Rose replacing the 2-point tremolo on Strat-style electric guitars – is the fitting of Bill Keith’s locking banjo tuners as standard. 

This was always Gomm’s big signature mod, allowing for dramatic detuning on the fly, and here they are on a production model instrument “ready for glissando fun” on your first and second strings.

For acoustic players with a contemporary percussive style, this presents many opportunities to get creative, with the design tailored to outré fingerstyle and legato styles. 

Two-handed tapping is encouraged on a fingerboard installed with jumbo stainless steel frets. Single notes should really pop out and make themselves heard on this guitar.

Capturing it all when you’re going into an acoustic guitar amp we have the same Fishman three-source electronics that have served previous editions of Gomm’s signature model well, with the PowerTap Earth Blend acoustic guitar pickup system developed specifically with percussive players in mind.

Everything here has a purpose, like the top-loading Macassar ebony bridge. No bridge pins makes for quicker and easier string changes – something that could come in handy if you get a little too excited on those banjo tuners – but also, says Ibanez, better percussive tone.

Combine this with the distinctive asymmetric jumbo body shape, the custom 25.75” scale to better accommodate alternate open tunings, and the dual outputs for the electronics and you have everything you need for adventures in 21st-century acoustic. Price TBC. For more details, head over to Ibanez.

Paul Gilbert has had four guitars stolen today (13 August) as Mr Big rolled into Frankfurt to play the first of two German dates at Batschkapp.

Taking to Instagram, Gilbert revealed that three of his Ibanez signature guitars had been stolen, along with a steel-string Godin acoustic.

“STOLEN GUITAR ALERT! These four guitars were stolen in Frankfurt, Germany today,” writes Gilbert. “I’ll post serial numbers soon, but please keep an eye out for them. [Gilbert has updated his post with serial numbers – see below]”

The stolen guitars included his limited edition PGM1000T in Aged Cream Burst, which photographs as a sort of custard yellow, his FRM300 in Purple with black pickguard, a PGM50 in Black with gold hardware and gold painted f-holes, and a Godin Multiac Steel Duet Ambiance in vintage sunburst.

Those are his four main touring guitars for Mr Big, and the theft threatened tonight’s show in Frankfurt. Luckily, Gilbert is not without his connections and he offered his gratitude that Ibanez came to the rescue.

“Huge thanks to Ibanez for quickly getting some instruments to me so the show will go on tonight!” he writes.

All three electrics have some distinguishing features, with Gilbert taping a 2” neodymium magnet to the lower cutaway of the guitar so that he can keep his metal guitar slide close at hand when playing. 

The PGM1000T is notable for being Gilbert’s first neck-through signature model with Ibanez, and is fitted with a pair of DiMarzio Air Classic humbuckers.

There are not many of these instruments about. Gilbert’s has been modified with rubber erasers cutout and placed underneath the pickups to keep feedback to a minimum. It has black painted f-holes, and ebony fingerboard with dot inlay (and a street price of £7,199).

Nixing feedback is a theme of Gilbert’s stage rig. Although he has had signature acoustics with Ibanez and played a number of different models over the years, but has lately been using the Godin acoustic electric guitar onstage with Mr Big because it performs so well in a rock show.

“This guitar is really good for high-volume stage situations,” said Gilbert, speaking to Sweetwater’s Nick D’Virgilio for a video tour of his Mr Big touring rig. “You’ve probably seen the rubber thing you can put in the soundhole? That definitely helps a lot. 

“But, man, I’ve done things with beautiful, great-sounding acoustic guitars, and then WOOOOOOM. As soon as the bass guitar hits a G note it’s all over. The top of the guitar just takes off and it’s a feedback monster. This one really holds it together. I don’t have any feedback problems. Really, the only problem I have is figuring out what all these buttons and knobs do.”

It turns out Gilbert is human after all. He, too, can’t remember what the Multiac controls do, and has labelled them for ease of use, which again makes this easier to spot in the wild. It has tape all across the top-mounted controls. 

As with the Ibanez signature models, Gilbert is desperate to be reunited with it. If anyone has any information as to their whereabouts, they can DM Paul Gilbert on Instagram or drop him an email at paulvsgodzilla[at]paulgilbert.com

Ibanez has launched Pat Metheny’s much-anticipated signature guitar, and it is an affordable option for any player looking for a pro-quality jazz guitar that was designed for a contemporary great but inspired by a jazz icon.

Available in Black or Natural Amber finishes, both with a “low-gloss” finish, the PM3C is a single-cut, single-pickup hollowbody on which the signature pickup is the star of the show, offering the players – Metheny included – a taste of Charlie Christian’s early electric guitar tone. The tone in question, is from his ES-150, and one of the earliest examples of an electric guitar pickup. 

Mounted on the neck position, the PM Special single-coil is custom-wound for that Christian tone. When asked if it would sound a little like Christian’s ES-250, which had recently been brought out of storage and demoed by the likes of George Benson and Julian Lage, Metheny told MusicRadar that he and Ibanez were going back even further.

“Charlie’s ES-250 that George played is actually the third generation Charlie Christian pickup,” he said. “It’s great, but my focus has been on the earlier generations that were featured on the ES-150. In essence they are the first single coil pickups, and my whole life until recently was in the realm of humbucking pickups. Both have their advantages.

The world was given a sneak preview of the Ibanez PM3C at NAMM 2024, in January, but no launch date had been confirmed. Having road-tested it, Metheny promised us it was coming soon and he is as good as his word.

“The new Ibanez guitar is exceptional, won’t be too expensive, and will offer a lot of players a window into that zone,” he said. At £1,399/$1,599, he’ll get no argument here. These are made in Indonesia and offer a lot of guitar for the money. 

Metheny has been with Ibanez for a long time now. But this is something different. Here we have an all-new headstock shape, new signature inlays on the bound ebony fretboard. 

With a body of spruce on top, maple on the back and sides, the PM3C is a twist on the usual all-maple recipe we get on Metheny’s more expensive humbucker-equipped PM200NT signature model. The neck is glued in and comprises a three-piece design of maple and nyatoh.

It is also equipped with a Gibraltar Performer bridge, which allied to the very classic VT200 tailpiece should enhance sustain and intonation. The hardware is finished in Titan Gold. Very nice, but there are a lot of nice details.

The 22 medium frets have been given the Artstar edge treatment. Ibanez lists the neck thickness as a relatively mainstream 20mm at the 1st fret, filling out to 22mm at the 9th. With a 24.7” scale length and 12” fingerboard radius we’d expect this to be very approachable for all your comping and soloing needs.

For more information, head over to Ibanez. It ships in a gig bag and pre-orders are now open at Ibanez dealers worldwide.

In other Metheny news, the jazz legend has just released his new album, MoonDial, via BMG, on which he plays a baritone nylon-string guitar in a custom tuning to extend the instrument’s range. 

You read all about the making of MoonDial and how the Linda Manzer baritone inspired the process in Metheny’s interview with MusicRadar.

Is there a new Polyphia signature guitar on the way from Ibanez? Last week, Scott LePage took to YouTube for a playthrough performance of the Bloodbath guitar solo. Nothing unusual in that. He linked to the tablature, individual song tabs are available for four bucks a pop from the Polyphia website. 

But the video served a dual purpose, as a little teaser of forthcoming attractions, because the electric guitar LePage is playing looks very much like a forthcoming signature model from Ibanez. And it’s a doozie.

Longtime fans of Ibanez’s lineup of metal guitars will recognise what LePage is holding in the video. It looks like a modern update on the Xiphos, an X-shaped electric often listed under the X Series, with the super-clean aesthetic that you might associate with one of progressive metal guitar’s most modernistic players.

A 7-string guitar, with a bevelled body that looks more like a 2007-2008 style Xyphos body [see the Ibanez Wiki for a comparison], LePage’s new model is all white, with white hardware, white bobbins on what is surely his signature Fishman Fluence Custom Series humbucker pairing. 

There is a pickup selector switch and another toggle switch to select the different voicings of the pickups, and a single knurled metal dial that is most definitely a master volume control.

What else can we see in this video? Well, that vine inlay on the fingerboard is pretty gnarly. We like the painted hardware. It gives this a 2001: A Space Odyssey vibe. And we definitely like the two-point vibrato. It is refreshing to see a 7-string built for metal that foregoes the temptation to go with the double-locking Floyd Rose. What you lose in divebombing you gain in more fuss-free setups. 

LePage similarly went with a Gotoh T1502 vibrato on his KRYS10 signature model. Like the KRYS10, this looks like it has an ebony ‘board and you better believe those are 24 jumbo stainless steel frets. 

Maybe it was only a matter of time before LePage got a signature Xiphos. You can see him playing one – albeit with a reverse headstock – alongside Steve Vai in the video for Ego Death.

Bloodbath? Well, you’d need something venomous for that, or more to the point unconventional. That’s the track from Remember You Will Die that welcomes Chino Moreno from the Deftones to the party, an arrangement that found LePage totally rewriting the track after Moreno had done his thing. Speaking to MusicRadar in 2022, LePage admitted that little was left once he was finished with it.

“Actually, it’s quite a funny story,” said LePage. “We had something for Chino and we sent him something, he wrote stuff to it, and then, once we finished up the session in the studio, I took that one home and changed everything, all the guitars, except for one of Tim’s parts and a couple of my parts here and there.

“I restructured the whole thing. I rewrote the chord progression. I changed fucking everything about the song just because I felt like our stuff no longer did his stuff justice. Yeah, a lot of these songs go through three, four, five different versions until we are finally happy with it, and some of the songs didn’t make it to the record. God! We probably have like 20 ideas that just didn’t make it, which we are either going to come back to one day or they’ll just be buried.”

You can watch LePage put this prototype signature Xiphos through its paces in the video above. We will bring you more news when Ibanez makes it official.

Wampler Pedals has unveiled the Mofetta, an overdrive/distortion pedal inspired by the out-of-production Ibanez MT10 Mostortion, loaded with MOSFETS and “supercharged” to offer players a wider range of amp-like gain.

If the MT10 Mostortion is not high on your list of vintage guitar effects pedals that might be because it was only around for a relatively short period in the ‘90s. It was not a particularly high-end pedal, either. 

And, as is often the way with stompboxes, its usefulness to guitar players only really became apparent after the fact. Once it was discontinued it became sought-after, and some of the prices people are paying for this thing online… Good lord, upwards of 400 bucks. What is it about Ibanez and little green stompboxes?

Over the years, other pedal builders have made versions, such as the Danelectro Roebuck, released in 2020. Wampler’s Mofetta is not a straight-up clone. Some elements are the same. Brian Wampler has given this the 3-band EQ, just like the original, but he has taken the design and ran with it.

“Think of the Mofetta as a supercharged Mostortion, reborn and amplified,” he says. “I made sure that it delivered the classic, amp-like overdrive, massive headroom, and versatile 3-band EQ that made the original so famous. But I also wanted more and added a Texture switch that introduces actual MOSFETs into the pedal’s overdrive section for a bolder, more articulate tone.”

Just as it deals in amp-like gain and response, the Mofetta has an amp-like control setup. There are Level and Gain controls, adjusting output volume and the level of gain in the circuit respectively. 

The Bass, Middle and Treble controls, meanwhile, can wholly change the character of the drive, allowing players to dial in a full-range drive, a transparent drive, or jack up the mids and treble for a focused boost to push your guitar amp. Also, it’s been designed to stack well with other drives. 

Wampler says there are some misconceptions about the original Mostortion units. They didn’t use the MOSFETS for the overdrive; that was the job of the clipping diodes.

“This left me thinking, ‘What if I built one that could actually use MOSFETs for the clipping, using multiple gain staging like a tube amp?’ That’s what the Mofetta’s Texture feature is all about,” says Wampler. “It takes the pedal from smooth overdrive to fiery distortion with the flick of the Texture switch.”

The Mofetta is not a high-gain drive pedal but Wampler says his approach gives it a wider range of gain. Its cascaded MOSFET gain stages make the drive harder, louder, and tighter. 

Priced £/$199, the Mofetta is available now. See Wampler Pedals for more details.

Over 80 guitars from the collection of the late Bernie Marsden are heading to auction on 11 June. The event, which is being hosted by Gardiner Houlgate, was originally scheduled for last August, but was postponed following the former Whitesnake guitarist’s death.

Many of these guitars  will be recognisable to fans of Marsden. Some have been documented in Tales Of Tone And Volume, a book that is essential reading for fans and budding collectors, a celebration of the instrument and of the most treasured items in his collection

Others you might have seen onstage, such as the Ibanez Destroyer that saw some action onstage in Marsden’s Whitesnake days. The Explorer-alike is from 1976, pure Japanese-made lawsuit material. It even reads “Bernie Marsden” on its six-in-line headstock.

“This is a rather special guitar, probably one of the picks of the auction,” says auctioneer Luke Hobbs, introducing the first half of the lots on Gardiner Houlgate’s YouTube channel.

“Bernie had a huge love for futuristic guitars, particularly Explorer guitars, or Gibson Explorer guitars. This isn’t quite a Gibson, though. This is an Ibanez Destroyer from around 1976 and Bernie remembers seeing this guitar up in the window of Top Gear Music in London during the very, very early Whitesnake days, and he just had to have it. Gibson Explorers were impossible to find, and even then ludicrously expensive when you could find them, and so he went for the Ibanez equivalent, which actually really do rival [Gibson]. They were really great, great copies.”

The Destroyer is a serious guitar. Marsden had Dick Knight refinish it – hence his name on the headstock. It has been retro-fitted with Bernie Marsden signature humbuckers. The originals he used with Whitesnake are lost. There is another Destroyer that has been refinished in gold by Clive Brown, and a Tokai Explorer copy. 

There are, however, some genuine Gibson guitars that were used on tour with Whitesnake. There’s a Flying V, an RD Artist, and a real Explorer, all from 1980. And the pick of the litter has to be a circa 1967 ES-335, which despite bearing the scars of a vibrato removal, a refinished neck and repair, nonetheless looks incredible.

Another highlight from the Whitesnake era include a 1968/‘69 Gretsch Streamliner that was so cool that his friend and idol Peter Green borrowed it for a while. It was another that Marsden picked up while on tour with Whitesnake. “Peter really did like this guitar and he did loan it off Bernie Marsden for a while, and enjoyed playing it before Bernie had it back,” says Hobbs. 

There are some signature guitars among the lots. There is a stage-played Bernie Marsden PRS SE (there’s also coincidentally a 2015 Private Stock Bernie Marsden No 1 that has is not part of the collection but is being auctioned nonetheless), plust Eric Clapton and Rory Gallagher signature Strats.

Check out the intro video with Hobbs above and for more information on the auction, head over to Gardiner Houlgate. A large consignment of Marsden's epic collection, which included his his ’52 Gold Top, ’61 Telecaster Custom and ’64 ES-345 TDSV, was already sold via ATB Guitars in August last year.

NAMM 2024: Ibanez has expanded its lineup of nylon-string cutaway acoustic electric guitars with two new finish options for the top-selling FRH10N, the smart hybrid acoustic that was in no small way inspired by Tim Henson of Polyphia’s signature model.

The FRH10N is now offered in Rose Gold Metallic and Indigo Blue, with Brown Sunburst and Natural finish options unveiled in 2023. Like Henson’s TOD10N, and like most models in the Ibanez catalogue, the FRH10N sounds as though it was named by a cat walking across the keyboard but there is no mistaking its provenance when you see pictures of it. It is essentially Henson’s TOD10N a few minor but key differences.

The more affordable FRH10N has minimalist dot fret markers rather than the ornate Vai/JEM-inspired ‘Tree of Death’ inlay of Henson’s model. And it has an Ibanez T-bar under-saddle piezo and Ibanez Custom Electronics AHA-1 preamp system as opposed to the Fishman S-core pickup and Ibanez preamp we have on the Henson model. Henson’s model has an onboard guitar tuner. 

Both present a lot of acoustic guitar for the money. Both cater for the same demographic, but it is hard to imagine the FRH10N existing had it not been for Henson hectoring Ibanez to make a signature nylon-string for him then debuting it alongside Scott LePage playing what was presumably a FRH10N prototype in the video for Polyphia's Playing God. And thus the potential for nylon-string guitars in progressive instrumental music was introduced to a new generation.

It was a big moment. The nylon-string electro had hitherto been a real niche instrument in popular music. The ex-Soulfly guitarist Marc Rizzo threatened to give them a moment; he has some serious flamenco chops and preferred the Washburn C64SCE. Alas, it never took. Now everyone wants one.

At £469/$499 street, the FRH10N presents very decent value. Like the TOD10N it has the thinline T-style inspired profile, with the soundhole relocated to the side of the guitar a la the Gibson Player Port, and a hybrid feel that blurs the line between electric guitar and classical. 

It has a solid Sitka spruce top, fan bracing under the hood, with sapele used for the back and sides, with a glued-in nyatoh neck fashioned into a highly playable C profile that’s just 21mm thick at the 1st fret, tapering to 22mm at the seventh.

There is a 22-fret walnut fingerboard and matching bridge. Ibanez has kitted this out with gold classical tuners and a bone nut, and the 1/4” output jack is exactly where you’d expect to find it, discretely integrated with the end-pin. 

The Rose Gold Metallic and Indigo Blue FRH10Ns are available now. For more details, head over to Ibanez.

Ibanez has launched the Twin Peaks wah pedal, a wah “unlike any other before it” that processes your electric guitar's signal across two frequency peaks where typically you just get one. 

Furthermore, Ibanez gives you the opportunity to blend these two frequency peaks in search of your own sweet spot, with a level control that can apply 6dB of boost to your signal. 

It’s an ingenuous way of finding a new angle on one of the oldest guitar effects pedals on your pedalboard, and it is achieved by a dual-inductor circuit design. This produces the two high and low-frequency resonance peaks, which can then be controlled via the Balance dial. 

Turning it counter clockwise will bring the low-frequency peak to the fore for a darker, throatier sound. Turning it clockwise will place the emphasis on that high-frequency peak, giving you a brighter tone – perhaps with an avian quality if we were to look to the animal kingdom for a tonal reference point.

The TWP10 Twin Peaks also has a slider switch for choosing High or Low frequency modes, which will surely come in handy when pairing this with your rig. Those with a super-bright Telecaster rig might want the Low mode. Those with a darker rig, with warmer, rounder sounding humbuckers erring towards the muddy side of things, can select the High mode.

The Low mode’s low-frequency sweep ranges from 220Hz to 750Hz, while the High mode’s low-end sweep is still lower than most wahs, ranging from 300Hz to 1kHz. The High mode’s high-frequency sweep is voiced for 670Hz to a 3kHz, while the Low mode’s higher frequency sweep is a classic wah range of 440Hz to 2kHz.

Both modes adhere to the designing principal and present their peaks with the Balance dial to control the mix between both. You will find unity gain at 12 o’clock on the Level dial, with your extra 6dB of boost goodness available when fully counterclockwise. Engage or disengage the pedal via the toe-mounted footswitch, much like your typical Vox or Cry Baby.

The treadle design, however, is vintage Ibanez, not a world away from the retro look of the WH10V3 that remains in the Japanese gear titan’s lineup, offering individual voicings for guitar and bass guitar.

The TWP10 Twin Peaks wah is true bypass. It takes a 9V of battery or DC pedalboard power supply, drawing 15mA. And it is available now, priced £169 / $192. For more details, head over to Ibanez.

Keeley Electronics has remixed two classic overdrive pedal circuits, housing them in the same enclosure and giving players the ability to create hybrid sounds from both with the launch of the much anticipated Noble Screamer Overdrive and Boost.

Teasers on social media pointed to something big coming from Robert Keeley. The green was a clue, and the name of this pedal, Noble Screamer, should give guitar players an idea of what it can do for their electric guitar tone. 

One side is inspired by the now legendary Nobels ODR-1 Natural Overdrive, the other by a Tube Screamer circuit, and Keeley Electronics describes it as a four-in-one pedal. 

It really is a simple design and yet it presents us with a lot of flexibility, featuring dials for Tone, Level and Drive, and toggles for getting creative. Underneath Tone and Drive controls, the individual toggle switches change how both controls behave. 

Switch the toggle underneath the Tone control to OD and it activates a broad spectrum tone control mode, that can take you from a flat EQ at one extreme to a boosted bass and treble EQ at the other. 

In the TS mode, you have a narrow focus filter control that makes the tone dial behave as a low pass filter, rolling off high frequencies as you turn it up.

Under the Drive control, select OD mode for hard-clipping, all bite and aggression and a little bit gnarly, or select TS for a smoother drive – the friendly sound of a tube amp getting all warm and happy drunk with your tone. The pedal will take 9V to 18V from a pedalboard power supply.

The Noble Screamer also sees the debut of a new aluminium enclosure design from Keeley Electronics, which was designed and made in the USA and not only looks super tough and ready for the road, it features switchable bypass. 

Simply hold down the footswitch for two seconds to alternate between true bypass and buffered, with an all-improved buffer design guaranteeing silent switching for your rig. The LED will flash twice to let you know you have activated true bypass, and three times for buffered bypass.

Jacks are mounted on the top of the pedal, and that pedal, it has to be said, looks very cool with green knobs on textured black painted metal. Very nice indeed. And you can add this thing to your pedalboard right now, with the Noble Screamer Overdrive and Boost priced $199. 

For more details, swing over to Keeley Electronics. 

Sammy Ash, COO of Sam Ash Music, the largest family-owned music retail company in the US, has died aged 65. He was diagnosed with melanoma last year, a battle his family say he fought “quietly and courageously” until his death on 16 September. 

In the five decades with the firm that his grandfather, Sam, founded in 1924, Ash would help maintain Sam Ash as one of America’s favourite music retailers, with 44 stores in 16 states across the United States. He can also take credit for naming the Tube Screamer.

Sammy Ash started early in the family business, and right at the ground floor. He would do odd jobs, cleaning bathrooms and loading goods into the warehouse. Speaking to Long Island Press in 2019, Ash recalled how his father, Jerry, used to pay him in hot dogs and “a few bucks” before he was officially put on the books, aged 15. 

“I did everything from clean the bathrooms, drive and load trucks, warehouse, sales, sales manager, manager and so on,” he said. “Our father made sure we knew every single aspect of the company.”

Especially the instruments. Ash had plenty of them, and was an enthusiastic guitar collector. When Sam Ash was featured on a recent episode of Gibson TV’s The Scene, Ash told Mark Agnesi that he had over 40 Gibson instruments, before joking that “it was a good start”. 

Ash understood the player’s mentality. He had a deep knowledge of guitars, especially vintage guitars. “I really dig musicians,” he said. “I wish I could call myself one! But I am a really good collector! I’m a much better collector than I am a player. I’ll tell you that. I collect good.”

Agnesi was one of the first to pay tribute. In an Instagram post, Agnesi said that the “guitar business has lost one of the greats”.

“Sammy Ash was a legend in the industry, a great father, and a passionate guitar nerd,” he wrote. “I’m proud to have called him a friend. My condolences to the Ash family.”

Ash’s legacy extends beyond the walls of Sam Ash Music stores. He is also responsible for naming one of the most ubiquitous overdrive pedals in history – the Tube Screamer. 

Speaking to Guitar Player, Susumu Tamura, designer of the Tube Screamer, recalled visiting Sam Ash Music and presenting Sammy with a prototype of the Mini Amp GA-10, a small guitar amp with a similar op-amp driven circuit to early TS808 Tube Screamers. The rest is history.

“We first visited Sam Ash Music at West 48th Street, Manhattan, and talked to [Sammy’s brother] Richard Ash. Since Sammy was familiar with the sound of pedals, Richard told me to speak with him,” said Tamura. “At this time, we brought a prototype of the Micro Teacher Mini Amp GA-10 and asked Sammy to evaluate it. When I connected the external speaker terminal of GA-10 to the input of the guitar amplifier, it suddenly made a screaming sound.

“Sammy asked, ‘Do you know how the Cry Baby pedal got its name?’ ‘Yes,’ I said, ‘it sounds like a baby crying.’ And he said, ‘This sounds like a screaming tube amp.’ So when the Maxon OD808 Overdrive Pro was born, Ibanez’s overdrive was named the TS808 Tube Screamer Overdrive Pro.”

Ash is survived by his wife, Rachel, and his four children – Ben, Max, Alex and Jason, three of whom work in the family business, which celebrates its centenary next year. 

“Sammy was incredibly grateful for all current and former employees of  Sam Ash Music,” read a tribute on the Sam Ash Music website. “He knew every individual, no matter what title they were or location they were from, was integral to make his company one of the best in the world. 

“He was proud of everyone and celebrated their achievements regularly. Sammy rested easy knowing the company he helped build was in great hands. He was most proud to have three of his sons be a part of his family’s legacy and carry it onward to the 100th Anniversary and beyond.”

Master of the ‘80s medley Martin Miller has leaned upon his convening powers once more to recruit fusion legato master and fellow Ibanez signature artist Tom Quayle to perform Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean, arranged for guitar.

The performance, posted to Miller’s YouTube channel, features two guitars and nothing else. Miller is on his Ibanez MMN1 signature guitar. Quayle is on his 21st-century T-style Ibanez TQMS1 in Celeste Blue. 

With just a little bit of grit when needed, their tones are on point, both players sending their electric guitar signal through Fractal amp modellers. Miller is using an FC-12 MkII foot controller – presumably with an Axe-Fx III – while Quayle is playing through an FM-9 amp modeller and multi-effects pedal. It sounds exquisite.

Miller and Quayle are regular collaborators, notably teaming up for a cover of Jimi Hendrix’s Little Wing at Guitar Summit 2022. In 2018, they put on an epic run of Ibanez guitar clinics, playing 45 shows in 15 different countries. That’s a lot of time spent playing together, and their playing styles are ideally suited to adapting material like this.

Miller might insist that he is more rock than fusion yet he is nonetheless preternaturally disposed to blurring the boundaries between jazz, funk, soul and rock as he does here. 

The duet is a change of pace from the Martin Miller Session Band treatment that stitches together the biggest hits of Toto, A-Ha, Tears For Fears and more into 25-minute epic jams, though the approach is similar. 

Speaking to MusicRadar in March, Miller said that digging into material like that and adapting it for a full band is an education, and it has changed the way he approaches his own writing.

“Performing this kind of music is the greatest research and the greatest study,” said Miller. “When you immerse yourself in this music? When I put a medley together, I first of all spend a lot of time listening to an artist’s catalogue, then I listen to various versions of that same set of tunes, then I learn it on my instrument, and then play it with my band, and at the end of all of that I mix it, so I listen to all the different parts in isolation.

“That is just fantastic study material, and that informs my own music to such a large degree. I can’t imagine what my compositional skill would without that. I took so much away from that. Now, putting this stuff together, for an individual medley it is all about the pacing. How do you hold the attention for 25 minutes?”

On Billie Jean, both Quayle and Miller take turns to solo, and to handle the melody, with Miller adapting the vocal melody first, and then transitioning this into the first solo just after three minutes in. Quayle takes over a minute and a half later.

It speaks to how much musical information is carried in the original arrangement – and Jackson’s vocal – that Miller and Quayle can build out from that to this, expanding it without it ever not sounding like Billie Jean. 

If you are brave enough to try this at home, and your chops are up to it, Miller has made the tablature available for this arrangement for five bucks.

If there’s one thing to heed to when executing it is to pay attention to your intonation. Miller’s is unimpeachable, and he advises us all that this can make the difference in performance and we don’t focus on it enough.

“I think us guitar players need to talk about this a lot more because never – either in my conservatory or my college years – has the topic of intonation been brought up,” said Miller. “Whenever I, for example, told my professor, ‘My intonation is a little off here.’ ‘What do you mean, the bending?’ No, no, no, the pressure of your hand and the position of your hand affects the intonation. 

“The better the form of your left hand, the better your intonation will be. And you can tell. It doesn’t matter what instrument you give them, if someone is not a professional player, or is a player who is early on their discovery of the instrument, you can tell. They constantly sound out of tune. Then you hand that same instrument to a pro, and suddenly everything is in tune, and not just with the bends and the vibrato.”

Subscribe to Martin Miller on YouTube here. Miller’s solo album, Maze Of My Mind, is out now.

Ibanez and Paul Gilbert go way back. It is one of the most essential brand-artist collaborations in the world of electric guitar, and that world has just gotten a little bigger with the release of two more built-for-speed signature guitars, the PGM50 and PGM1000T.

These might look familiar as Ibanez and Paul Gilbert revert to the sharpened offset S-style RG body shape with the painted-on f-holes, but there are some surprises in store.

Let's start with the limited edition PGM1000T. It arrives in a buttery yellow Aged Cream Burst finish and, in a first for the series, it has a neck-through build. Gilbert’s PGM models, including this new PGM50 in Black, have all been bolt-ons. His FRM300 having a set-neck.

The PGM1000T’s three-piece maple neck thus extends right through the body and is flanked by two ash wings. It is equipped with a pair of DiMarzio Air Classics – Gilbert’s favourite DiMarzio humbucker – that are selected via a three-way blade switch that alongside a single black volume pot is discretely positioned on that ornamental f-hole.

• Paul Gilbert: these are the 10 guitarists who blew my mind

You could even say the Air Classics, voiced perfectly for creamy high-gain rock tones, match the finish. Gilbert has gone for a 16.9” radius ebony fingerboard with abalone dot inlays, 22 jumbo frets with J Custom edge treatment to make it feel even more smooth. 

His signature neck profile is whip-thin, measuring just 18.5mm at the first fret and 20.5mm at the 12th. This really is a high-performance electric. Elsewhere, the PGM1000T has a 25.5” scale, a Duracon nut, black hardware, Gotoh tuners and a Gotoh GTC101 hard-tail bridge and gold pickup coverings. 

The PGM50, meanwhile, follows a more familiar recipe with a bolt-on five-piece maple and walnut neck, an American basswood body, a rosewood fingerboard with white dot inlays, 22 medium frets and Premium fret edge treatment. The neck is listed on the Ibanez site has measuring 20mm at the 1st fret, 22mm at the 12th, with a fingerboard radius of 15.7”.

Again we have a pair of DiMarzio Air Classics at the neck and bridge, with a DiMarzio PGM single-coil in the middle position, and a five-way switch to make this one versatile shred platform.

Complementing the black finish nicely, the no-fuss F106 hard-tail bridge and Gotoh MG-T locking tuners are finished in gold.

The PGM1000T ships in a hardshell guitar case, price TBC, while the PGM50 ships in a gig-bag and has a street price of $1,399. For more details, head over to Ibanez. 

And for a face-melting demonstration of what these guitars can do when played through a dimed Marshall guitar amp, check out Paul Gilbert demoing them in the video at the top of the page.

NAMM 2023: Ibanez has launched seven new signature guitars for some of its most high-profile guitar players on its artist roster, including four stunning limited edition models for long-time endorsees Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Paul Stanley, plus new Lari Basilio, Martin Miller and Ichika Nito electric guitars.

Basilio, Miller and Nito’s new models will be join the regular Ibanez lineup. Basilio’s is perhaps the least surprising. It has been teased for some time that her LB1 was going to be made available in White, and that’s what we’ve got here. 

All the other specs are the same; there’s the solid ash body, the roasted birdseye maple fingerboard and neck – aka Ibanez’s S-Tech Wood – plus Basilio’s signature Seymour Duncan pickups, a Gotoh T1702B vibrato and Gotoh Magnum Lock tuners, and all the features that make the LB1 a true do-it-all guitar. The LB1 in White has an estimated street price of $2,699.

The new Martin Miller model should look familiar. The MMN1 takes the MM1’s AZ-N-inspired profile, its Transparent Aqua Blue finish, but reimagines the contemporary S-Style in an HSS pickup configuration, with Miller going for a set of Seymour Duncan Fortuna pickups, controlled via Ibanez’s dyna-MIX9 switching system with Alter Switch.

• Martin Miller: “Guitar players need to talk about intonation a lot more. We don’t tune our ears towards it because it is never a topic that is brought up in tuition”

Fundamentally, the guitar is constructed of a solid mahogany body, capped with a 4mm piece of flame maple. It has a roasted maple neck, a rosewood fingerboard, stainless steel frets, and the same Gotoh hardware as the LB1.

Feel-wise, it might be a little similar, too, as both Basilio and Miller have gone for a 9” to 12” compound radius ‘board. Both guitars have, of course, Prestige fret edge treatment, Luminlay side-dot markers, and ship with a hard-shell guitar case. The Martin Miller MMN1 has a list price of $3,466.

Ichika Nito’s ICHI00 rounds out the production line signature models with a guitar based on the Ibanez Talman, the compact electric favoured by the likes of Yvette Young.

It arrives in a dairy White finish, and while not that far evolved from the TM1730 that inspired it, it has some premium appointments such as a roasted maple neck carved into Ibanez’s super-speedy Wizard C profile, Gotoh MG-T locking tuners, and a trio of ICHI-S single-coil pickups.

Best of all, Nito wanted his nyatoh-bodied bolt-on to be affordable, and with an estimated street price of $699, it is by far the easiest on the budget of Ibanez’s NAMM announcements so far.

And now to the real fancy stuff; four models you’ll have to dig deep for. Let’s start with a guitar that celebrates 35 years of partnership between Steve Vai and Ibanez, the PIA77BON. 

• Steve Vai: “One ear has been pulled towards rock my whole life, the other towards high-information music; my brain mixes it up and that’s when you get the weird Vai s**t”

This takes Vai’s signature PIA format and refinishes it in a hydro-dipped multicolour swirl finish, which was newly developed for this limited run. Vai, of course, picked the colour scheme, and it’s one that references some classic JEM and UV models in his collection. The finish, by the way, is called “Brilliance of Now”, hence the “BON” in the designation. It has an estimated street price of $8,499.

Not cheap, but then it is for the collectors. It is also as high-performance as an Ibanez electric gets. You’ve got the alder body, with the Petal Grip carry handles, the five-piece maple and walnut neck, the Low-Pro Edge double-locking vibrato, and there’s even a high-pass filter on the volume control. Pickups are Vai’s signature DiMarzio UtoPIA set.

Joe Satriani, meanwhile, gets not one but two new limited-edition JS models, and like Vai’s these are vintage Satch. Well, again, we’ve got a 35th anniversary to celebrate with Satch so it’s time to dig out the good stuff.

Pulling focus and reflecting light in all directions there is the JS3CR, a JS model that references Satch’s ‘Chrome Boy’ model with a solid basswood body finished in a metallic mirror chrome finish. Just the thing for checking whether you’ve got some spinach in your teeth before you head out onstage.

It has a DiMarzio Satchur8 humbucker at the bridge and and a PAF Pro ‘bucker at the neck. Satch also has a high-pass filter on the volume control, and there’s a coil-tap on the tone pot, too. Other features include a maple neck, rosewood ‘board, 22 medium frets, Edge tremolo, and top-shelf Gotoh tuners. The JS3CR has an estimated street price of $5,399.

If a chrome finish ain’t your thing, well, what about a Paisley pattern finish? Satch’s other limited edition option is the JS1BKP, and was designed by Satriani in collaboration with the Ibanez Custom Shop in Los Angeles. 

The JS1BKP obviously has a similar profile to the JS3CR but is quite a different guitar, with a body of solid alder and a pickup configuration comprising a SUSTAINIAC Driver neck pickup, and a DiMarzio Satchur8 humbucker at the price. It has an estimated street price of $3,499. 

Finally, how about a Paul Stanley Iceman with a Cracked Mirror finish to round things out? With KISS currently circumnavigating the globe many times over for their last ever tour, why not mark the occasion with a PS3CM. Technically, it has been designed to mark 45 years of the PS10 but it’s kind of timeless. 

One of the most aggressive and out-there body shapes in the Ibanez catalogue, the PS3CM has an African mahogany body, topped with maple, a three-piece maple neck, an ebony fingerboard with medium frets (and Prestige fret edge treatment as standard). 

The hardware is by Gotoh. The pickups are from Seymour Duncan, with the KISS frontman going for a ’59 and Custom 5 humbucker pairing. The PS3CM has an estimated street price of $6,999.

For more details, head over to Ibanez.

Ibanez will release over 40 new guitar models in 2023 and there are some really bold designs going on here from the Japanese company. The new Japan-made Axe Design Lab electric guitar series is allowing Ibanez to push the boat out on unusual specs, while there's plenty of signature models (some we've already covered), acoustic and AZ series additions to get excited about. 

Here are our highlights along with retailer street prices… 

1. Axe Design Lab RG8870

$2,999
Preorder at Sweetwater

Ibanez are not messing around when it comes to the Axe Design Lab series specs and this RG feels like a do-it-all deal with neck DiMarzio 36th Anniversary PAF, True Velvet middle and The Tone Zone bridge. 

A AAA flamed maple top on a chambered alder body custom Super Wizard five-piece maple and wenge neck (with 'Velvetouch' finish), Macassar ebony fretboard with Tree Of Life Inlay and Lo-Pro Edge bridge with locking nut makes this a premium machine. 

It's got a coil-tap switch for those pickups too. 

2. Axe Design Lab RGA622XH

$2,499 / £1,829
Preorder at Sweetwater and Andertons 

This 27-jumbo fret beast offers access to the higher previously uncharted ranges of its ebony fretboard. Available in Black and White finishes with a mahogany body, five-piece maple and walnut neck and Prestige fret edge treatment, the DiMarzio Air Norton and Tone Zone H/S pickup combo also has a coil-tap switch and three-way selector. 

Again, there's a Lo-Pro Edge tremolo bridge and Luminlay side dots so you can keep track of yourself onstage with that juggernaut of a neck. 

3. Q547

$1,099.99 / £999
Preorder at Sweetwater and Andertons

The first seven-string guitar from the headless Q range is a versatile Blue Chameleon Metallic Matte instrument on spec with Ibanez's Q58-7 (Ibanez really isn't very good at snappy model names is it?) humbucker and the R1-7 single-coil neck and middle pickups here with the dyna-MIX9 switching system w/Alter Switch.

A nyatoh body and Wizard C-7 five-piece Roasted maple and bubinga neck has our tonewood buds tingling. That fretboard is roasted birdseye maple too.  

An Ibanez Mono-Tune bridge and Ibanez Custom String Lock completes an impressively appointed guitar. 

4. FRH10N

$499 / £429
Preorder at Sweetwater and Andertons 

This is the cheaper, non signature model version of Tim Henson's TOD10N; an instrument that brings electric playability and dimensions to nylon string guitars. Like Fender's Acoustasonic series and the Cordoba Stage, we think Ibanez are really on to something here because while it may shake the tree of tradition, it's doing it to widen appeal and also provide practical stage solutions for 'acoustic' tones.

Available in Sunburst and Natural iterations, the price is attractive here. The FRH10N features a solid Sitka spruce top with laminate sapele back and sides with a C-shape nyatoh set neck, walnut fretboard and 22 frets. 

There's a bone nut and saddle with gold classical tuners and Ibanez Custom preamp with a T-bar undersaddle piezo pickup. 

5. AZES40

$349.99 / £299
Preorder at Sweetwater and Andertons

Ok, it's just a new finish but it's Pastel Pink! And we absolutely love the value proposition the AZES series offers in the Ibanez catalogue – that's not really just an ideal beginner guitar but just a really good electric guitar buy.

The 25-inch scale here offers a third way between short and traditional 25.5-inch scale; easier bends and stretches. The H/S/S pickups combo is also going to be able to cover plenty of ground – especially with the Alter switch. There's ten different pickup combinations to be enjoyed here, including series options.  

Build is a poplar body with jatoba fretboard on a maple neck. 

6. AMH90

$699 / £669
Preorder at Andertons

A new Ivory finish with gold hardware for a semi-hollow guitar series at the medium end of the price spectrum offers a beautiful vintage vibe here. We wanted to shine a light on this because we think the Artcores are underrated semi-hollow models and the Expressionist line is a fine showcase of their airy but chiming tonal qualities.

Woods here are a linden top, back and sides with a bound Macassar ebony fretboard on a nyatoh and maple three-piece neck with the AM Expressionist carve (described as as a compound A and B-profile as you move up). 

The pickups are a pair of Super 58 humbuckers with 'moderate output' and the tailpiece is a VT06 paired with a Gibraltar Performer bridge with low positioned saddles. 

7. AZ2204NW-DTB

$1,999.99 / £1,829  
Preorder at Andertons and Sweetwater

Another painfully unmemorable name for a guitar that's ticking plenty of boxes for us. The new Seymour Duncan Fortuna H/S/S pickup configuration has us intrigued to hear more. 

On paper Ibanez says they have a 'moderate output and natural clean voicing which accurately reflect subtle playing nuances. From treble to bass, the overall tonal balance is evenly adjusted and works well with various effect pedals.' in addition you get the AZ series cornerstones of dyna-MIX9 switching system with Alter Switch for nine sound variations. 

This Japanese-made Prestige model features an 'S-TECH special roasted treatment increases the wood's stability, durability, water resistance and tolerance of temperature changes'. Nice to know. 

Stainless steel frets, Gotoh hardware and a lovely Dark Tide Blue finish make this a lot of guitar for those in need of a versatile modern S-type workhorse. 

8. LM1-LWH

$2,199.99 / £1,799
Preorder at Sweetwater and Andertons

For our signature model choice we're going with an artist you may not be familiar with but can check out below; Italian Luca Mantovanelli. His Prestige signature model also showcases a single-coil trio of the Seymour Duncan's new Fortuna pickups, but also Ibanez's Blender feature to really fine tune in the trio of pickups here to your taste.

It's an alternative feature to the dyna-MIX9 system and according to Ibanez the blend knob allows players to 'incorporate just the right amount of each pickup in a given position to achieve your desired sound'. 

The neck here is a feast of specs; a highly durable oval C S-Tech Wood roasted maple sealed with an oil finish with a rosewood fretboard. It features a Super All Access joint for easier access to the high frets and a compound radius 'board of 228mm to 305mm to further enhance that upper register playing experience. 

• Check out Ibanez for the full roster of new guitar and bass models for 2023. 

Much like his music, Steve Vai’s guitar collection is in a state of constant evolution.

Unveiled at the 1987 NAMM show, his Japanese-made Ibanez JEM signature guitar signalled the birth of a modern classic.

Since then, the design has been tweaked into new and interesting areas. But testament to its winning formula the apple never seems to fall too far from the tree.

Featuring a host of instruments from Vai’s decades-long career, Thomann have released a new video in which guitar techs Doug and Thomas share some rare insights into these iconic axes.

Here’s a rundown of just some of the incredible electric guitars in Vai’s current rig…

Ibanez JEM Evo

Kicking off in style with Vai’s treasured 1992 Ibanez JEM named Evo, guitar tech Doug explains how he sets up the instrument using a regular .009 to .042 set of electric guitar strings while measuring in increments of 1/32-inch.

“He doesn’t like very low action,” says Doug. 

“He likes to really be able to grab the note.”

Ibanez JSM100

This John Scofield dual humbucker signature semi featuring a figured Anigre top, back and sides is used by Vai for a single song called Little Pretty (from his most recent studio album, Inviolate).

“Steve really likes the way this guitar sounds. And for that song, it’s perfect,” enthuses Doug, who sets the instrument up with a slightly heavier .046 bottom string.

Ibanez JEM Flo & Flo III

One of the oldest members of Vai’s guitarsenal, Flo has made a reappearance with a newer neck.

According to Doug, this stock Ibanez neck has been lightly scalloped and fretted with EVO Gold wire.

Flo III is one of the most treasured electric guitars in Vai’s collection.

“There are two JEMs that I reach for,” Vai recently told Guitarist magazine. “One is the one I call Flo III: it has a sustainer and it’s the one I’ve used the most in the last 10 years.

“The other would be Evo [see above], which doesn’t have a sustainer and has a pretty different sound. But they’re both the same guitar, basically.”

Ibanez Onyx PIA

The Onyx PIA, meaning “Paradise in Art” (also named after Vai’s wife, Pia) is an advanced version of the guitarist’s signature JEM guitars.

“These have stainless steel frets,” highlights Doug. “You can’t wear them out. They’re very durable and they have a very glassy feel for vibrato.”

This particular guitar has been fitted with a Sustainiac – something Vai is still experimenting with having used Fernandez Sustainers for many years.

Ibanez JEM Bo

This guitar gets a live outing on the Inviolate track Avalancha and is tuned to drop C.

“Steve lightened up his gauge for drop C,” reveals Doug. “He always used to use .010 to .052. It’s .010 to .046 right now.”

“Martin Sims: he was the first guy in the UK who came up with LEDs in the neck in 1999,” adds Vai’s long-time guitar tech Thomas Nordegg.

Ibanez PIA Envy

Dubbed Envy (after the finish Envy Green), this Ibanez PIA has also been fitted with fretboard LEDs.

“This one is set up for Bad Horsie,” points out Doug, referring to the famous track from Vai’s 1995 release Alien Love Secrets.

Fitted with a Sustainiac it also has a slide conveniently attached to the back of the headstock.

Interspersed with live performance footage the film later delves into Vai’s mind-blowing array of guitar amps and effects.

And who better to explain it than Vai himself?

Steve Vai is in his happy place. Literally and physically that is the Harmony Hut, base camp for his audio adventures, where “enthusiasm makes the time disappear” as he tunnels deeper into his appreciation of the electric guitar.

He joins us from the Harmony Hut via Zoom, a familiar framing for the conversation, with his mixing desk glowing softly in blue in the background. But Vai’s happy place is also a state of mind, and it can be found in the afterglow of discovery. 

He has enjoyed his share of discoveries over the years, working with Carvin, Synergy, Morley, DiMarzio, and most notably Ibanez with whom he developed the JEM, Universe, PIA, and of course the striking triple-necked Hydra that presented musical opportunities the likes of which Vai could scarcely dream of until he finally plugged the steampunk-inspired hybrid electric in and learned to play it. 

The satisfaction in bringing the Hydra to heel moved him to tears, and it gave him the sounds and inspiration to write Teeth Of The Hydra, the opening track to his 10th studio album, Inviolate. Those are the most profound discoveries for Vai; new ideas and techniques, a challenge to overcome and ultimately a sound he hasn’t heard before. Those are the experiences that keep him at the instrument.

“Satisfaction is addictive,” he says. “My style was accidental and innocent, because I sat there and thought, ‘I like this. As a matter of fact, I really like this. Okay, here’s a challenge…’ And then you complete the challenge and it is an opportunity for you. That’s the way it was in teenage Steve’s mind. Can’t do it, but wanna do it… ‘Oh, there it is. Oh my God! I can do it.’ That is all I ever needed, and that was all I ever had.”

This pattern of challenge then opportunity set the table for a recording career that has taken Vai from tutelage under Joe Satriani to stunt guitar foil for Frank Zappa, playing with David Lee Roth, starring in the movie Crossroads, Whitesnake, and then becoming one of guitar’s most respected and adventurous solo artists.

“Everything came as a consequence of that,” he explains. “I didn’t ask Frank to be in his band, he asked me. I didn’t ask Crossroads. They found me. David Lee Roth found me. My record deals, they came to me. Of course I put my radar out but the challenge for me was, ‘Who do I go with: D’Addario or Ernie Ball?’ That’s a challenge, a good challenge!”

The story of Inviolate is very Steve Vai; it’s all about alien sounds and quicksilver arrangements that came together through challenge and opportunity. Injured with his arm in a sling, he put his legato chops to work and wrote Knappsack, an idea that he describes as “low-hanging fruit.” 

The technique of joint-shifting was a challenge yet it yielded, finally, and gave him Candle Power, a track performed with the unerring rigour of an algorithm but an extravagance that is trademark Vai.

Playing the Hydra? That was a big one. He plays rehearsal footage over the video connection and it’s striking how smooth his movements have to be as he moves from neck to neck and keeps the song airborne. The Hydra’s complex terrain took a lot of time. 

A lot of these techniques take time. In an hour-long conversation, that’s the only limitation that Vai acknowledges. Not even he can cheat time. The rest, however, is up for grabs.

There are limitations to the guitar in terms of the frequencies we can play with but what you do is challenge what we think is possible from them – even on a micro level, your legato gives it a woodwind quality. Is that deliberate, that sense of challenging the guitar?

“I have been very fortunate in life because I discovered something I really enjoy. When a person enjoys something that they enjoy doing, in any field, and they stick with it, it’s inevitable that they are going to evolve their own world in it. Their world is going to evolve and it is going to constantly change.  You can’t go backwards. The idea of going back is actually insane. As you go forward, you are gaining experience.

“When you give your focus to something constantly, you are going to go deeper and deeper, and I think that what you are pointing out is an evolution of a particularly way that I play that was brought on by various situations. For instance, I always liked legato. I was a big Allan Holdsworth fan. I just liked that, like you were saying, that woodwind kind of a sound.

“And I always look for situations that are challenging. Some are harder than others, but challenging situations where I can ask myself, ‘How can this serve me? How can I make lemonade out of lemons?’ So, when they said, ‘Lockdown!’ I said, ‘Okay, how can that serve me?’ Candle Power, Under It All, Sandman Cloud Mist, Knappsack, that all came out of lockdown. That’s how it served me.”

You played on through injury. It’s difficult to get you away from the guitar.

“When I got home from the hospital, the second day, I picked up my guitar and there was no challenge involved in the idea; the idea was low-hanging fruit. I’m going to write this song with one hand!”

Sometimes the low-hanging fruit can be the hardest thing to recognise from a creative perspective. We look too hard for ideas. We undervalue some ideas because they feel too easy.

“Exactly! That it is an incredibly powerful point, because everything that I have done that has been worth its salt has always came with an innocent ease. It was a recognition of the low-hanging fruit. So, when people saw Knappsack, where I am playing with one hand all over the place, ‘Oh my God! It’s crazy!’ Nah, it’s simple. 

“The idea, I am sitting there, and I’m playing, and I only had one hand, and it was just low-hanging fruit. And the low-hanging fruit said, ‘You can write a song with one hand.’ So, I did it. And that was a simple recognition, just like what you were pointing out. 

“That low-hanging fruit exists in everybody when they look for it and those are the perfect creative ideas that the universe is feeding specifically for their own unique ability to exploit that idea. Somebody else who is a sports figure is not going to get an idea to record a song with one hand, y’know! [Laughs]”

This technique of joint-shifting and how you used it on Candle Power does not seem like low-hanging fruit. The execution of it is quite something, like pedal-steel country for an anime show. It has this almost programmed quality. 

“Well, thank you for that. Candle Power, many years ago, I had this visualisation, audible and visual, and being a guitar player you learn the real estate of the instrument, and you start thinking outside of the box.

“I just thought, ‘What would happen if I had a guitar that had a solid bridge?’ Because if you have a bridge that moves, like with a whammy bar, joint-shifting is impossible. And if I was to bend notes in different directions while using open strings and hammers and crawling up the neck? That was a vision. I had no idea what it was going to be but I knew in my mind’s ear it was going to sound unique and quirky, and obtuse and interesting, and it was going to look as freaky as shit!

“That was low-hanging fruit, brother. Here’s the thing, whenever you get an idea like that, specifically given to you from the universe, it comes with the feeling of enthusiasm, and when you follow that feeling of enthusiasm it is low-hanging fruit. It is innocent. You find yourself doing it because it is enjoyable. 

“‘Steve Vai, he’s got Grammys, he’s got number one records, he’s got all this stuff… He’s so lucky. He’s got it all!’ You know what tickles me the most? [Wiggles fingers] And going, ‘Holy shit! It worked! It worked better than I thought, and it sounds more obtuse than I could have imagined.” 

And that is where you find the pleasure? The satisfaction in acquiring a new technique.

“Other people can criticise [joint-shifting] but I’m fucking blown away! ‘Holy shit! I’m doing this!’ That’s joy. I’m allowed to feel that. There’s no arrogance in that. There’s an incredible appreciation. Here’s the kicker: when I thought of it, I knew I could do it if I got the time in. 

“I did not believe I could do it. If I believed I could do it I would be going, ‘I believe I could do it but I don’t know.’ That is what a belief is. But you don’t know. There’s something different inside of you when you are harbouring a belief or when you are harbouring a knowing. A knowing has no belief in it; it’s like, ‘I know I can do that.’ I just put the time in. And if I can’t do it, it’s because I can’t put the time in. 

“But the enthusiasm makes the time disappear. It stands still. That’s how you make time stand still; you give something your full attention, then you pick your head up and it’s three hours later. I picked my head up and it was three weeks later and I only got those two parts of the song that do the joint-shifting because it was so difficult.”

But now you have this technique, presumably there will be applications for it, more musical ideas. Other people can step up and use it.

“One of the things that we do creatively is create a landscape for new people to come along and be newly inspired and then take it from there. Because when I thought of joint-shifting, and you asked me if I was going to do more of that, in order to prepare for the tour I will have to work very hard just to play Candle Power, but in my mind’s eye I can see and hear a piece of music that sounds so different you will not believe it. It’s all joint-shifting and more. 

“I have these weird techniques! I hear it, and I know I can do it, but I don’t have the time. It’s going to take younger fingers and time. I try to contribute inspiration for kids to take it further because it’s a treasure. The joint-shifting thing is a treasure. You hear people say, ‘It’s a country technique everybody’s been doing…’ Fine. I don’t care. You saw me doing it that way, take it someplace else, because I took it somewhere different. Now it’s your turn. I want to see it. I want to live to see that.”

We are all standing on shoulders of giants. And yes, it could apply to country. Candle Power is like Dwight Yoakim from the Andromeda system. Players can take this and apply it in all kinds of different contexts. You can.

“Can you even imagine? I wanna do it so bad. Maybe I will. I do a little bit of it on Greenish Blues.”

You will, because it is part of your vocabulary now.

“It is, and that’s a great way of putting it. It’s your vocabulary.”

You also had a new instrument to learn in the Hydra. And then, of course, there is a big difference in being able to play a piece of music and being able to perform it.

“You’re exactly correct, and that was a real challenge for me, because the Hydra introduces some real limitations. It’s heavy. I recorded the song and learned everything when it was on a stand, because I just couldn’t hold it long enough, but Thomas Nordegg, my guitar tech, created this strap that holds the guitar and puts the weight on my waist. 

“Now you mention the performance, in my mind’s eye, I was thinking, ‘Okay, I have to get it to where I can navigate with this instrument freely onstage and not make any mistakes. I know I can do it, but it’s going to take a lot of time.’ Essentially, I am just about there.”

Can you not just use it with the stand onstage. The very act of playing it onstage is spectacle enough.

“I think so. Actually, Joe Satriani said the same thing to me, and I have decided as such that I will probably perform this with the stand. Because it is risky.”

Well, I endorse that approach. It’s funny how you both like to make things difficult for yourselves…

“We enjoy it though! What’s similar between Joe and I is that we were fortunate to discover something we really love when were young, and we just never stopped focusing on it. And you expand on it. We have a bit of a different voice, very different, but we have supported each other so much. I wouldn’t be anything, what I am today without Joe just being there – and many others. Without Jimmy Page just being there, Jimi Hendrix… 

“But Joe more than anyone else, for me, and it is just so nice that over the years we have been able to work together and we’re still like brothers. And we’re still trying to figure out ways of getting on tours together. His new record? Oh my God! It is so Satriani. It’s that expansion of melody and tone, and all of the things that you love about him. Inviolate is that artist making that next step, and those who are attracted to what I do see that as well.”

It’s fascinating that you have both made these records out at the same time and that are so indicative of where you are coming from artistically. It is great for us to look at them critically and appreciate the differences in your styles. You’ve both got a similar sensibility, a way of seeing the instrument, but how you do it is different.

“Joe is a class act, and his musical sensibilities are inspired. He has an ear like none other, and he is very precise and specific, and that has served me so well in my life. When I was a kid, he’d say, ‘No, don’t vibrate it out of tune! You’ll sound…’ Actually, I remember him saying, ‘You’ll sound like an idiot!’ When I was 13 years old! And I said, ‘Okay, I will never vibrate a note ever out of tune for the rest of my life.’”

He is Mr Intonation.

“I know! I couldn’t believe his intonation. It’s stunning.”

Going back to electric guitar design, it is funny, because this is a 20th century technology, playing through 19th-century technologies like vacuum tubes, it’s quite steampunk in its own right. 

“I see various things going on. There’s a part of me that looks into the world and sees what’s available: ‘Where is technology and how can it serve me, and what guitars are available and what can they do?’

“And I remember, early on, thinking, ‘This is a Stratocaster, okay, it’s got a whammy bar, which is what I want. I don’t like the way it sounds because it has single-coils. Now there’s the Les Paul; that’s what I want. That’s what Jimmy Page plays. It sounds great. It sounds rock ’n’ roll. But it doesn’t have a whammy bar. It doesn’t have enough frets. It doesn’t sit well.’

“Then I am working with Frank Zappa and watching what a free-thinker he is, and he had no governor. When it came to taking a guitar that Jimi Hendrix burned at a concert, that Frank got ahold of, and then putting parametric EQs in it? It didn’t matter whose guitar it was, it looked cool. 

“So, I decided at one point, and this was simple, innocent, low-hanging fruit, not having any intention of making something that anybody else would be interested in except myself, and what that was was the JEM.” 

That's the key. Doing what you want with no regard to what anyone else is thinking.

“I looked around and went, ‘What do I want? What’s not here? I want 24 frets with double-coil pickups. I want that.’ It didn’t exist, y’know. I wanted to be able to reach those frets! That didn’t exist. You can’t reach them on a Strat or a Les Paul. They make these cutaways so you can’t play comfortably up high.

“When you are doing things innocently, it’s not like you feel like you are being blasphemous. It’s blasphemous to put a whammy bar on a Les Paul? Fuck you! I’ll do what I want! Y’know, I am going to do what I want because it doesn’t matter to anybody, see? That makes it easy. When it doesn’t matter to anybody else but you, it’s really easy.”

Even so, Frank Zappa really modded Hendrix’s Strat? 

“Yeah! He had these double-stacked parametric EQs. And he put a Floyd Rose on it… [Laughs] Y’know! He took the pickups out! He changed the pickup covers that had the stuff Hendrix used, the lighter fluid. It had the pickup covers that had the holes from the lighter fluid. ‘Take them out and change them!’ [Laughs]”

It’s such a Frank Zappa thing to do.

“I know! But Dweezil got it all back together. Frank didn’t throw this shit out. From what I understand it was a guitar that Jimi burned in Miami.”

Incredible. There should be nothing sacred when it comes to art. It’s freeing.

“Yes, yes! [Especially] when you are sitting there thinking that you are doing doesn’t matter to anybody. I designed the JEM to my little idiosyncrasies, and when I started playing it I thought, ‘Yes, this it. This is the guitar. It’s perfect. It is perfect for me.’ And it didn’t exist in the world.”

You have made this record to be very much like a Side A / Side B release. The sequencing would suggest so – and this is something Mr Satriani did as well on his new on. Was the vinyl release on your mind when you sequenced the record? And is that the perfect form for your music, analogue, on vinyl?

“I know what you’re saying, yeah. If people could sit in that chair [at the Harmony Hut] and hear the digital version of Inviolate and then hear the analogue version, it would become very clear to them what is going on.

“So, here’s my best explanation: I like to preserve the analogue domain as much as I can, for the vinyl, because that is what the vinyl enthusiasts are looking for. In the past, all of my records that were recorded on analogue, were analogue, analogue, analogue; it goes from 24 track to two-track, to vinyl. So, it doesn’t get processed digitally. That’s the most authentic analogue sound. 

“With something like Inviolate, I did not record it on analogue. I haven’t done that for years. But it is recorded on high-quality with great convertors – the best. We found the convertors that we liked and then recorded digital, but when I was mixing Inviolate, I did one mix to digital, and then I did one mix directly to analogue, so when you take that analogue, that analogue tape, the two-track, then goes to get mastered completely differently to the digital.” 

And you notice the difference?

“I had Bernie Grundman master it. Bernie Grundman is the most-renowned analogue record maker in history. He’s been doing it since before I was born. So, when you listen to the digital version, and you are an engineer, you understand its limitations. 

“When you slam digital meters it creates a distortion that is very unpleasant. It’s got spikes and pops and razor-edges. When you slam analogue, because it is magnetic tape, it compresses, and it warms it up, so a slammed analogue – and I am not talking destroying it here, going many dBs above the limit – you are getting the full signal that is being fed. 

“Although the source was a digital source, it didn’t have to go through analogue to digital conversions millions of times, and this is when you can relieve the recording of a lot of hash, a lot of that digital hash that you don’t realise is so annoying to you. 

“It actually makes you feel different, and this was a study that was done, that Bernie actually told me about, where they took a group of people and they played them music from vinyl that was pure analogue, and the same music on digital, and the people who were exposed only to the digital had more of an aggressive kind of an attitude or feeling – much more!”

Maybe all the digital noise that's out there is what's making everybody so angry.

“When I was mixing Inviolate, when I am mixing anything that’s pure digital, there is a part of me that is enjoying the music, that’s listening for EQs and stuff like that. But there is part of me that says, ‘This absolutely sucks.’ I hear the digital in it. I know we can’t get rid of it because it’s digital, it’s there, it’s unnoticeable to many who aren’t listening for it… That’s why I said, ‘If you are sitting in that chair’. I put the record on and the analogue is like [sighs]. It has this warmth. The top end is completely different. It is just different.”

Sure, but digital is a fact of life and it does bring with it some benefits. Like we spoke about earlier on, maybe we just have to choose not to let it bother us.

“Yeah, you forgive it! You bypass it.” 

• Inviolate is out now on CD, vinyl and digital via Favored Nations / Mascot Label Group.

Hoshino USA, the US subsidiary of Ibanez parent company Hoshino Gakki, is 50-years-old this year, and Ibanez is launching its largest ever series of custom shop instruments.

The project sees the Ibanez Japan Custom Shop in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, working in tandem with its Los Angeles counterpart to create some of the most jaw-dropping high-end electric guitars and bass guitars you can buy.

Rest assured, the specs will be ridiculously stacked. There will be quilted maple, figured maple binding, imaginative tonewood combinations, stainless steel frets with Premium fret edge treatment, and top-shelf hardware from Gotoh. Although we are still waiting for details on each individual instrument, with the anniversary models expected to be announced via dealers worldwide today, it looks like there will be something for everyone.

For the shredder, there are high-performance RG models, some with what looks like a neck-through build – a recent 2022 development, as typically these are exclusively bolt-on. For the forward-thinking jazz cat, there looks to be a single-pickup AF variant finished in hot canary yellow. And we know from experience that Ibanez always likes to roll out some exotic tonewoods for its bass guitars.

“Just as no two years are ever exactly the same, each one of these guitars and basses are totally unique from one another,” says Ibanez in a statement. “They are instilled with their own unique style and feature set, principally inspired by the master luthiers who built them.”

Ibanez has allowed a closer look at three of the new 50th anniversary models from the Japan (JPCS) and LA (LACS) LACS Custom Shops. Let's take a look…

LACS5 'Root Beer Float'

It's great to see an Iceman in the lineup, and here's a wonderful vintage angle on the design with a Light Root Beer Burst finish on an approx half-inch-thick Flamed maple top. There's also the unusual Iceman spec of a maple fingerboard here with 12-inch radius, on a maple and korina three-piece neck.

Di Marzio 36th Anniversary PAF-style humbuckers feature here and hardware include Gotoh Magnum locking tuners and Gibraltar 1 bridge. 

Flamed Maple neck binding and gold hardware accents enhance the '70s feel. A custom-made Flamed Maple truss rod cover features the Ibanez 'spaghetti' logo. 

LACS18 'Hang 10'

The Talman has had a mini renaissance of late thanks to Yvette Young and this one is a rare bird indeed; a neck-thru construction rather than the usual Talman bolt-on. That striking finish is pretty special too; Turquoise Blue Stain finish over a 1-inch thick quilted maple that puts the surf into the surf rock style here. 

The neck here is three-piece maple/purpleheart with a 16-inch radius rosewood neck and Luminlay side dots. 

The 25.5-inch scale  'Hang 10' features a five-way pickup selector switch, Gotoh Magnum locking tuners and Gibraltar Std. II bridge. 

JPCS32 Sakura

Best looking bass of the year? Sakura (Japanese for ‘cherry blossom’) is going be hard to beat. The top of this bass is inlayed as many cherry blossoms as you'd ever desire, made from various types of wood and seashells. 

The inlay work here is super detailed and involved individually cutting, sanding and seating over 90 individual pieces of shell and wood. Even the pickup covers for the Nordstrand Big Singles have cherry blossom inlays. 

The bass has maple burl top over alder body and Yozakura Blue finish, with a burl and Lauan headstock inlay creating the appearance of the peak of a mountain. The result is where instrument and artwork merge to stunning effect.

The centre of the five-piece maple/purpleheart neck is another eyebrow raising feature; it's Timeless Timber Maple 'recovered from the depths of lakes and rivers after what sometimes amounts to hundreds of years, timeless timber hardwoods are special, rare, and highly coveted.'

Other features include a five-piece maples stainless steel frets, ebony fretboard, Gotoh RES-O-LITE tuners and Ibanez Custom Electronics 3-Band EQ.

For more on the Hoshino USA 50th Anniversary Custom Shop series, head over to Ibanez.

GEAR EXPO 2022: One of the cruellest facts of life in the guitar industry is that it only unveils its tastiest  treats after the holiday season (at the Winter NAMM show, in ‘normal’ times) – the point when we’re left at our most, er, financially depleted. The good news for 2022, though, is that many of the must-try guitars are attractively priced.

Whether it's the long-awaited PRS SE Silver Sky, Cort’s boutique-style workhorse G290 FAT II or one of the newly-finished Gretsch G2215-P90s, there are plenty of instruments on this list that can be attained by us mere mortals. 

That doesn’t mean there’s not something for those after premium options (hello to the PRS Fiore), but from the 40th Anniversary Squier builds to the new Epiphone Joan Jett Olympic Special there’s perhaps more tempting low- to mid-price options on display than ever before.

On second thoughts, perhaps this is not such good news for our wallets... 

PRS

PRS SE Silver Sky

$849 / £899

PRS has confirmed the long-awaited SE version of the John Mayer Silver Sky signature guitar with details of the four launch finishes and specs.

The £849 / £899 model been hoped for since the PRS version was launched in 2018 but brings with it a distinct take on the blueprint. Four new finishes are offered for its launch with Moon White, Dragon Fruit, Ever Green and, our favourite, Stone Blue. The biggest surprise with the SE offering is a distinct change in core spec; an unusual 8.5" fretboard radius compared to the original PRS model's 7.25".

Body wood is poplar with a maple 635JM shape bolt-on neck and rosewood fingerboard. The trio of pickups are again 635JM 'S', with a five-way selector and one volume / two tone controls. The 2-point steel tremolo continues the spec of the PRS version. Tuners are a departure with non-locking PRS Vintage-style this time and a synthetic bone nut is used.

Read more about the PRS SE Silver Sky

PRS Fiore Mark Lettieri signature model

$2,449 / £2,599

For 2022, Mark Lettieri’s PRS signature model, Fiore is offered in a new blue solid-colour finish, evocatively named Larkspur.

All the other specs remain the same, so if blue is your colour, you’ll find the Larkspur Fiore to be one of the most versatile high-end electric guitars on the market today, bringing you a fresh take on the HSS format with a set of custom designed pickups and a control circuit featuring a five-way pickup selector and a pair of push/pull controls capable of producing tones for almost any style you care to imagine.

Read more about PRS The Fiore in Larkspur blue finish 

Cort G290 FAT II

£639

Cort’s original G290 FAT received a five star review and now, with the G290 FAT II, these classy doublecuts just got classier. Features include roasted maple necks and matching fingerboards, a fresh colour option, a Graph Tech TUSQ nut and Luminlay side dot markers. 

Now available in Antique Violin Burst, Trans Black Burst and Bright Blue Burst, it is built for performance. The Voiced Tone VTH77 humbucker pairing offers a wide range of tones via the five-way pickup selector, so there are plenty of in-between sounds to complement the full-fat humbucker voicings. 

With the compound 12”-15.75” fingerboard radius, the feel is contemporary, but the Ergo-V profile is a nod to old-school neck and balances the need for speed with the need for comfort. The build sees figured maple on top of solid alder, and Cort don’t scrimp on the hardware, with staggered locking tuners keeping things solid, so you can ride that CFA-III tremolo unit hard.

Read more about the Cort G290 FAT II

Gretsch G2215-P90 Streamliner Junior Jet Club P90

$399.99 / £385 / €440

New finishes for the Streamliner Collection’s Junior Jet Club P90 are coming in 2022. This single cut solid body model combines the 'new' (we're thinking tweaked) Broad’Tron BT-2S bridge pickup and a P90 soap bar in the neck position for a very attractive combo. Especially in Shell Pink! 

Controls to shape those tones are a master tone control, master volume control and three-way pickup selector.  The body is bound nato with mahogany-stained bolt-on nato necks with 12-inch radius laurel fingerboards, elegant pearloid Neo-Classic thumbnail inlays and 22 medium jumbo frets. 

Finish options are Havana Burst, Ocean Turquoise and Shell Pink.

Read more about new Gretsch Streamliners for 2022

Squier 40th Anniversary Telecaster Gold Edition

$599.99 / £499 / €599

Squier celebrates a big birthday with its 40th Anniversary Collection. The Gold Edition models all include anodised aluminium pickguards, Fender-Designed Alnico single-coil pickups and vintage-style gold hardware. 

Given it is the ultimate workhorse, the Tele dresses up very well. The Gold Edition pairs a nyatoh body with a slim, C-shaped maple neck and a bound Indian laurel fingerboard with perloid block inlays, plus a three-saddle string-through-body bridge. Available in Black and Sherwood Green Metallic.

Read more about Squier’s 40th Anniversary Collection

Solar T1.7 Vinter

$1,399 (T1.7)

Ola Englund’s Solar Guitars has launched five new electric guitars for 2022, each equipped with active Fishman pickups and a high-performance spec that makes the brand a good fit for guitar players versed heavy metal’s dark arts.

We like the look of the seven-string T1.7 Vinter, which boast a vaguely T-style alder body, a bolt-on three-piece maple neck in a Thin C profile, a pair of Fishman Fluence Modern humbuckers, ebony fingerboards and 24 super jumbo stainless steel frets, and an EverTune bridge.

As with the others in the series, you’ve got high ratio 18:1 Solar tuners, Luminlay glow-in-the-dark side-markers, and altogether a serious metal guitar. 

Read more about Solar’s Fishman-equipped new for 2022 range

ESP LTD James Hetfield Snakebyte Camo

$1,676 / $1,899

Loosely drawn from the Gibson Explorer template, sharpened and modernised strategically, the Snakebyte Camo’s shape is by now familiar. But this finish is something new, bespoke even, and was inspired by Hetfield’s favourite high-performance hunting gear manufacturer KUIU. 

The Snakebyte Camo has a solid mahogany body with a thin U-profile mahogany set neck, and an ebony fingerboard seating 22 extra-jumbo frets.  Its TonePros locking TOM bridge and tailpiece offers a no-nonsense platform for ferocious downpicking, while Hetfield’s signature EMG active humbuckers delivers the firepower. 

Just be sure to run it through something high-gain and monstrous when it ships in May...

Read more about the ESP LTD James Hetfield Snakebyte Camo

Epiphone Joan Jett Olympic Special

£489 / $549

Epiphone and rock legend Joan Jett have teamed up for a signature guitar inspired by her favourite stage six-string. The Epiphone Joan Jett Olympic Special arrives in Aged Classic White with a black pickguard.

Comprising a lightweight mahogany body with a wide and shallow double-cutaway design, and a set mahogany neck, Jett’s Olympic Special is a kissing cousin of the Gibson Melody Maker that Jett has been associated with since the late ‘70s. 

There‘s a PowerHammer Pro located in the bridge position, with pickup controls limited a single CTS volume pot and – like her signature Gibson – a kill-switch toggle. 

The Gibson DNA is carried over into the 24.75” scale length and the 12” fingerboard radius, but as with the others in Epiphone’s contemporary lineup, we have an Indian laurel ‘board. Dot inlays further add to the throw-and-go vibe.

The narrow-style Olympic Special headstock bears Jett’s signature on the back and is fitted with a set of sealed die-cast tuners. Eschewing a tune-o-matic bridge, Jett instead plumps for a wraparound bridge and tailpiece that is easily adjustable.  

Read more about the Epiphone Joan Jett Olympic Special

Ibanez AZ Premium AZ42P1

$1,299 / £1,079

The AZ42P1 comes packing a first for the AZ Premium series - this time in the form of a rosewood fingerboard. As with the other new models, the body is basswood, this time without a fancy top, and finished instead in a flat gloss Black. 

The pickups are Seymour Duncan Hyperions, and just like the AZ427P1PB, they’re controlled with the dyna-MIX10 switching system, offering the same 10 variations and coil split. Hardware-wise, you get a Gotoh T1502 tremolo, Gotoh MG-T locking tuners and a Graph Tech nut. 

Read more about the new Ibanez RG and AZ Premium range guitars

Fender JV Modified 60s Stratocaster

$1,299.99 / £1,249

The new Japanese JV series is inspired by the highly-rated reissues from 1980s, but with added twists of wiring mods that will give players even wider tonal horizons.

Here it's one of our favourite guitar mods ever; adding the neck pickup to positions 1 and 2 on the Strat  via the Tone 2 push-pull pot makes the versatility of this classic guitar even greater. 

A vintage-correct soft “V”-shaped satin maple neck features here, with a 9.5” radius maple fingerboard and medium jumbo frets. This Olympic White model also comes equipped with a 6-point synchronised tremolo with bent steel saddles. Like all the JV models it's also fitted with vintage locking tuners. 

Read more about Fender's JV Series 

GEAR 2021: Ibanez has unveiled the AZS series, which sees the Japanese titan taking a little inspiration from the Telecaster and running with it for a fresh, contemporary electric guitar design. 

The new AZS DNA can be found on Josh Smith's new signature model, the FLATV1, albeit with a non-contoured slab body, and on the new signature LB1 electric for Lari Basilio.

Ibanez has used variations on a loose T-style format before, perhaps most notably on a signature guitar for Noodles from the Offspring, and on metal-friendly electrics such as the FR800. While the AZS series shape is in some ways more traditional, it is a very different guitar. 

There is no slab top for a start. There is a forearm contour for comfort, with deep belly cuts on the rear and a sculpted low-profile heel where a roasted maple neck joins the body with a four-bolt joint. 

The neck and fingerboard are carved from S-TECH roasted maple and seat 22 jumbo stainless steel frets with Ibanez's Prestige edge treatment. Very nice. And then there's the pickup switching... But we'll get to that. Let's take a closer look at them, starting with Smith's FLATV1, which offers a slightly more traditional proposition.

• NAMM 2021 is cancelled, but we'll be covering all the big January gear announcements right here on MusicRadar.

Ibanez Josh Smith FLATV1

A purveyor of bluesy rock, jazz and all-sorts, Josh Smith has gone for a slab-style ash body, with a bolt-on S-TECH roasted maple V-profile neck and fingerboard, with 22 medium frets with the all-important Prestige edge treatment. 

It features a three-saddle Gotoh F1803 string-through-body bridge. Now, this is not your grandaddy's barrel-saddle Tele bridge. Here, Ibanez and Gotoh have collaborated on an "In-Tune" saddle system which is pre-intonated with slots on titanium saddles.

The pickups are custom-wound to sound "bright and fat" but offer a familiar setup with Alnico single-coils in the neck and bridge positions, and a three-way pickup selector, volume and tone controls. 

Note the curved control plate: this is new to the AZS series and, Ibanez says, offers easier access to the controls. Also, those control knobs are extra-knurled... Good to know, right?

AZS2209H

While the AZS2209H shares the same curved control plate as Smith's signature model, has a solid ash body and the same Gotoh/Ibanez bridge system, the contoured body, Oval C profile neck and jumbo stainless steel frets ensures that it will have a very different feel.

Offered in Tri Fade Burst and Prussian Blue Metallic, the AZS2209H comes equipped with a Seymour Duncan Magic Touch-mini humbucker in the neck position and a Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro Custom single-coil in the bridge. Controls come via a three-way pickup selector, volume and tone, plus dyna-MIX5 switching system with Alter Switch that allows you to access five core sounds.

It has a bone nut, black dot inlays on the fingerboard, and like Lari Basilio's LB1 it has Gotoh Magnum Lock machine heads with adjustable posts. 

AZS2200

AZS2200 is largely spec'd as per the AZS2209H but dispenses with the control plate, instead direct-mounting the controls onto the body. 

Here you also have the choice of builds. There is a Black model with a solid alder body. There is a Sunset Burst model that pairs solid alder with a flame maple top. And then you have a Royal Blue Sapphire model that tops an alder body with quilted maple.

All three feature a Gotoh T1802 tremolo bridge. Other nice touches that are found across the series include Luminlay side dot markers, a steel pickup plate to give it some twang, and a hardshell case is included in the deal. All are made in Japan.

The AZS2009H models have a street price of £1,919 / $1,999. The AZS2000F is priced £2,419 / $2,499 while the AZS2000Q should retail for £/$2,599. Hey, those maple tops do not come cheap. 

See Ibanez for more details.

GEAR 2021: Ibanez has unveiled its much-anticipated Lari Basilio signature guitar, the LB1. A quite exquisite T-style, the LB1 has a Violet finish, gold hardware and roasted birdseye maple neck and fingerboard. 

• • NAMM 2021 is cancelled, but we'll be covering all the big January gear announcements right here on MusicRadar.

The LB1 features a number of signature flourishes, most significantly Basilio's signature Seymour Duncan pickups. Arranged in an HSS configuration and fitted with gold covers, these were wound with the LB1 in mind. 

Basilio likes to get involved in all kinds of styles so it is no surprise to see that the LB1's switching options are particularly interesting. 

Here Ibanez and Basilio have deployed a dyna-MIX9 switching system, which sees a mini-switch join forces with the five-way pickup selector for a total of nine sound variations from the pickups, including running both single-coils in series for a humbucker effect. 

The LB1 has an ash body with a deep belly cut and a contoured heel to ease passage up to the upper frets. The birdseye maple on the neck and compound radius fingerboard has received S-TECH special roasted treatment for enhanced stability no matter the conditions. The neck has been oil-finished for a lived-in feel.

Top to bottom, the LB1 is premium. There are Luminlay glow-in-the-dark side markers down the fingerboard, jumbo stainless steel frets with Prestige fret edge treatment and MOP dot inlays. 

Elsewhere, the LB1 is equipped with a Gotoh T1702B vibrato unit and Gotoh Magnum Lock tuners with a height-adjustable post (H.A.P.) system so you can fine-tune the tension of each string.

“Ibanez has beautifully brought to life my dream guitar,“ says Basilio. “I am so in love with this guitar. The playability is fantastic. I love the modern feel that it has.“

Ibanez has also revealed the long-awaited signature for English acoustic fingerstyle virtuoso Jon Gomm. Developed in close collaboration with Gomm, the JGM10 is arguably the first production line acoustic guitar to be designed for progressive acoustic players.

Gomm says he hopes that the guitar it does for modern fingerstyle acoustic guitar playing what Ibanez did for shredders in the 80s. You can read more about Gomm's JGM10 acoustic here.

GEAR 2021: Ibanez's RG series of electric guitars set the template for the ultimate shred guitar. They took the S-style body shape, sharpened it, whittled down the neck into the super-quick Wizard profile and made high-output pickups and double-locking vibrato units par for the course.

A perennial highlight of the New Year is sifting through the latest updates to the RG template, and 2021 sees Ibanez apply some very cool specs and finishes to its standard RG line, arch-topped solidbody RGA models, and extra-contoured RGD electrics.

From high-end Japanese-made Prestige models such as the RG752AHM to more affordable speedsters like the RG320EXZ, there is a lot to get into. And there is plenty of choice if you are looking for a guitar that's suitably spec'd for metal. 

Across the board, six-string electrics have a 25.5" scale and bolt-on necks, with extended range models such as the eight-string RG80F boasting a 27" scale. Let's take a closer look and run through some of the key features.

• NAMM 2021 is cancelled, but we'll be covering all the big January gear announcements right here on MusicRadar.

RG5320C Prestige in Deep Forest Green Metallic

The RG5320C has an African mahogany body and a bolt-on Super Wizard neck comprising a five-piece maple/wenge sandwich. 

Its fretboard is bound Macassar Ebony and has a 16/9" (430mm) radius and 24 Jumbo Stainless Steel frets with Prestige fret edge treatment for a super-premium feel. Luminlay dot markers align the side of the fretboard.

There is a classic Ibanez pickup paring of a DiMarzio Air Norton in the neck and a DiMarzio The Tone Zone humbucker in the bridge, plus the all-important Lo-Pro Edge double-locking vibrato bridge.

RG5170B Prestige in Black

The RG5170B has the five-piece Super Wizard neck but affixes this to a basswood body. Again, we've got the Prestige fret edge treatment and a Lo-Pro Edge, but the hardware is gold, and we've got multi-voiced Fishman pickups in situ.

There is a Fishman Fluence Modern Humbucker Alnico at the neck, a Fishman Fluence Single Width Ceramic in the middle, and a Fishman Fluence Modern Humbucker Ceramic at the bridge, with a five-way blade selector switch, volume, tone and Fishman Fluence Voicing switch to access the pickups' vintage and modern modes.

RG5121 Prestige 

Available in Burgundy Metallic Flat [pictured above] or Dark Tide Blue Flat, the RG5121 has a hard-tail Gibraltar Standard II bridge and a pair of Fishman Fluence Modern Humbuckers in the bridge and the neck.

It has an African Mahogany body, a Super Wizard neck, and shares the similar premium appointments as its Prestige siblings above.

RG752AHM Prestige in Royal Plum Burst

This seven-string Prestige RG752AHM has an ash body with a transparent finish, a speedy Wizard 7 maple/wenge neck, birdseye maple fingerboard with 24 jumbo frets, Lo-Pro Edge 7 tremolo bridge, and a pair of DiMarzio PAF 7 humbuckers in the neck and bridge positions.

RG652AHMFX Prestige in Royal Plum Burst

The RG652AHMFX is the six-string equivalent of the RG752AHM but swaps out the double-locking vibrato for a hard-tail Gibraltar Standard II bridge, and houses an Air Norton/The Tone Zone humbucker combo.

RG6PKAG Prestige in Natural Flat

The RG6PKAG has a mahogany body with a quite exquisite koa top. Little wonder Ibanez went for the natural finish here.

There is a slightly thinner Wizard neck (18mm at the 1st fret) and a rosewood 'board, decorated with Jescar EVO Gold frets (treated of course), plus an Edge double-locking vibrato and Gotoh tuners – both finished in gold.

Two EMG SA single-coils occupy the neck and middle positions, while a high-output EMG 81 humbucker is positioned by the bridge.

Ibanez Axion Label RG631ALF in Blue Chameleon

The Axion Label Series sees Ibanez swing for the fences a little more when it comes to concept, fit and finish. The RG631ALF has the familiar RG shape, but uses Nyatoh for the body and has a Nitro Wizard five-piece panga panga/walnut neck.

The Macassar ebony fretboard has 24 Jumbo Sub Zero frets, with Luminlay side dots markers to assist you in low-light situations.

It has a pair of Fishman Fluence Modern Humbuckers and a 3-way pickup selector, with volume, tone and a toggle switch for choosing pickup voicings.

RG80F in Iron Pewter

The finish is called Iron Pewter but that might well be a good way of describing the tone. This eight-string is voiced for djent and other progressive forms of metal, and has a pair of Fishman Fluence Modern humbuckers, a Meranti body, and a Wizard II five-piece maple/walnut neck.

The F108 bridge and tuners are finished in gold.

RG320EXZ in Black Flat

The RG320EXZ has a Meranti body and a Wizard III maple neck with a bound Jatoba fretboard.

A pair of passive Quantum humbuckers in the neck and bridge should provide plenty of crisp, articulate crunch – while a Edge-Zero II w/ZPS3Fe bridge is a nice, low-profile unit that is ideal for fretting harmonics and divebombing them with the whammy bar.

Ibanez RGA42HPQM in Blue Iceberg Gradation

Blue Iceberg Gradation is quite the finish, and the effect is reprised on the rear of the RGA42HPQM. Fundamentally, we've got a nyatoh body with a quilted maple top,  a Wizard III roasted maple neck with a Jatoba fingerboard, and an F106 bridge.

Pickups-wise, there are two passive DiMarzio Fusion Edge humbuckers, with a 3-way pickup selector, coil-tap switch and volume and tone controls.

RGA742FM in Transparent Gray Flat

The RGA742FM is 2021's seven-string RGA option and it comes with an Wizard II-7 three-piece maple neck, a flamed maple top and Meranti body. 

It has two Quantum-7 humbuckers, a five-way pickup selector, volume and tone controls, and an F107 hard-tail bridge.

RGDR4427FX Prestige

A top-line Japanese Prestige seven-string, the RGDR4427FX has the RGD's signature bevelled body showing some of the natural ash body underneat the Richlite top. It has a Wizard-7 five-piece maple/wenge neck that's reinforced with KTS Titanium Rods, a bound Macassar ebony fingerboard, 24 jumbo frets, and a pair of DiMarzio Fusion Edge 7 humbuckers.

Its Ibanez Mono-Rail bridge is arranged of seven independent saddles to help enhance sustain and intonation, and as Ibanez puts it, "cross-talk between strings."

Elsewhere, there are locking Gotoh MG-T tuners and, why of course, Luminlay side dot markers

RGD61ALA Axion Label in Midnight Tropical Rainforest

Midnight Tropical Rainforest, an exotic finish for an exotic Axion Label guitar. Like the other Axion model above, we've got a Nitro Wizard neck. 

It also has a pair of Fishman Fluence Modern Humbuckers, but with a very different control circuit. Here you have the Fishman voicings controlled via the volume pot, with a switch on-hand for tapping the coils, and a three-way switch for pickup selection. When you factor in the voice switching, the coil-tap and the three-way selector, that's a lot of tone options – you might never have touched the tone knob anyway.

RGD71ALPA Axion Label in Charcoal Burst Black Stained Flat

Another Axion Label model, another eye-popping finish. This seven-string has a Nitro Wizard-7 panga panga and walnut neck, with a layered ash and nyatoh body that's topped by poplar burl.

It has two Bare Knuckle Aftermath-7 humbuckers, with a volume, three-way pickup selector and coil-tap switch.

That Macassar ebony fingerboard looks sweet, and is topped by 24 jumbo Sub Zero treated frets. Once more, we have the Ibanez Mono-rail bridge.

RGD7521PB in Deep Seafloor Fade Flat

The Ibanez RGD7521PB has a new-school look but shoots for some more old-school voicings with its DiMarzio PAF 7 humbuckers. Again, we've got a control circuit that eschews a tone knob in favour of a coil-tap function and a three-way selector to help navigate you towards those 'tweener tones. 

It could be very interesting for progressive styles where you want to retain those open dynamics.

Prices and release dates are TBC. Head on over to Ibanez for full specs and more pictures.

Ibanez has added the RG565 to its Genesis Collection – a series of Japanese-made reissues of the company's cult classic electric guitars.

While the RG565 might have fallen out of production in 1992, it retains a place in the heart of many a shredder, who found its bolt-on Wizard neck a veritable Autobahn for the fretting hand, with its souped up S-style design one of the archetypal shred guitars.

The 2020 Genesis Collection model retains much of the original spec. This, too, has a minimally contoured basswood body, with sharp cutaways. It has a bolt-on construction with a Tilt neck heel that is a little blockier than some contemporary S-styles yet nonetheless doesn't block your passage to the upper frets. 

There is an Edge tremolo – a double-locking unit not unlike a Floyd Rose but built by Gotoh. While Ibanez lists the 2020 Genesis Collection model as having a Super Wizard neck, the proportions are similar to the Wizard necks of the early 90s, with a super-skinny 17mm depth at the first fret.

The neck materials have changed, however. Previously all maple, in 2020 we've got a five-piece maple and walnut build, and a reverse headstock for bonus cool points.

The pickups have been revised, too, with a passive Infinity R ceramic humbucker in the neck joined by a V8 Alnico humbucker in the bridge, and you have a five-way selector switch, master tone and volume controls to help dial in your tone.

Elsewhere, you've got a maple 'board with colour-matched dot inlay and 24 jumbo frets, and Gotoh tuners in black to match the bridge complete the picture. Choose from Emerald Green (which looks teal in the pictures) or Fluorescent Orange. 

No prices just yet, but expect these to be around £839 street as per the other RG models in the series. Pop on over to Ibanez for more pics and information.

What is it?

Ibanez’s reputation as a builder of excellent bass guitars has only been enhanced in recent years. Of course the top-end models coming out of the Ibanez Prestige series are head-turners of the highest order, but we’re also talking about basses in and around the magic 1000-buck price point. They just keep coming…

Take the evocatively titled SR2405W-BTL, a quite exquisite five-string from Ibanez’s SR Premium lineup A shallow-bodied beaut, finished in Brown Topaz, with gold hardware and a pair of active Aguilar Super Double single-coil pickups, this is a pro-quality instrument that’s accessibly priced, and testament to Ibanez’s imagination when it comes to tonewoods. 

Here we’ve got an African mahogany body with panga panga and quilted maple top. The SR2405W-BTL’s neck is a composite build, too, with a five-piece laminate of panga panga and purple heart – aka amaranth – strengthened by KTS titanium rods. 

The neck is joined to the body via four bolts on an ergonomically friendly heel, and a generous scoop to allow you up to the top-end of the fretboard should the the effervescent ecstasies of jazz-fusion spirit you there.

This unfettered access allied to the svelte body profile makes the neck feel a little longer than it is. It’s a 34” scale instrument – nothing extraordinary—and yet it just opens up all that territory to explore. The finish is tip-top. 

Build-wise, it’s solid, with Gotoh tuners and Ibanez’s Mono-rail bridge design – which isolates each saddle to reduce sympathetic vibrations and let each string, err, live its best life harmonically-speaking – but seriously, there are lots of lovely little touches, visual and practical, such as hand-crimped freds and abalone oval fret markers. 

Performance and verdict

Played seated or standing, there’s definitely a little headstock bias but not much to complain about. With a nut width of 45mm, there’s a broad fingerboard to accommodate those five-strings, but Ibanez have gone with a slinky neck profile to off-set this and there’s no question it feels welcoming in the palm. 

That neck has plenty of zip on it, which makes this an ideal choice for busy basslines and flamboyant styles. That panga panga fingerboard feels great. Sure, with the wood cocktail and the gold hardware and so on, the SR2405W-BTL is fancy-schmancy, but it’s a player’s bass, daring you to overplay.

Controls-wise, there is a three-band EQ, volume and pickup pan, and an EQ bypass switch should you want to run this flat. The two Aguilar Super Double Single-coil pickups are active and hum-cancelling, but when run in passive mode the EQ’s treble knob acts as a master tone control. There is certainly enough onboard tools to scuplt your tone without reaching back to your amp or pedalboard.

What tone do you associate with Ibanez basses? For us, it’s that liveliness, the elastic bounce and snap. The SR2405W-BTL has that in spades. It has a chewy lower-mid rasp that has plenty of attitude without losing that sense of refinement you want from a bass of this class. Dialling in a little more treble and you can really cut through with a sharp, precise tone. 

As ever, Ibanez has played the percentages with the SR2405W-BTL and delivered a crowd-pleaser. Players of all styled will have a lot of fun with that neck, zipping up and down the fretboard or holding it low in the pocket, and they’ll surely find the tone they need. 

For a do-it-all bass with some boutique stylings and excellent hardware and electronics, that price is a bargain. You’ll sure remember the bass even if you can quite remember its name.

MusicRadar verdict: This SR Premium five-string has a boutique vibe, excellent electronics, and a pro-quality, crowd-pleasing performance – it's a steal at this price.

Hands-on demos

PMT TV

Specifications

• Price: £1,149 / $1,599.99 / 
• Made In: Indonesia
• Colour: Brown topaz burst, low gloss finish
• Body: African mahogany core, panga panga and figured maple top
• Neck: Panga panga and purpleheart five-piece laminate, 34” scale, satin finish
• Neck Joint: Bolt-on, four-bolt attachment
• Nut Width: 45mm
• Fingerboard: Bound panga panga
• Frets: 24
• Pickups: Aguilar Super Double Single-Coils x 2
• Electronics: Active Ibanez custom 3-band EQ, 9-volt
• Controls: Volume, pickup pan, bass, middle, treble/passive tone control, three-way mid-frequency switch (250Hz, 450Hz, 700Hz), active/passive selector switch
• Hardware: Gold hardware, IbanezMR5S Mono-rail bridge, Gotoh machine heads
• Weight: 4.2 kg / 9.25 lbs
• Case/gig bag included: Gig bag
• Left-hand option available: Yes
• Contact: Ibanez

Over the last two decades, there has never been more left-handed guitars on the market than there are now. Instead of ordering specialist instruments months in advance at considerable mark-ups, you can now walk into virtually any guitar store and find great options at all price points for the best left-handed electric guitars and acoustic guitars.

Now we’re starting to see more lefty models priced exactly or almost the same as their right-handed equivalents, which is why we thought we’d round up all our favourite southpaw axes in one place…

• These are the best electric guitars in the world
• And these are the best acoustic guitars money can buy

Best left-handed guitars: The MusicRadar choice

Available in both Vintage Sunburst and Charcoal Burst, the PRS SE Custom 24 Lefty is one of the best-sounding and most versatile left-handed electric guitars you’ll find under $1,000/£1,000. The mahogany body packs plenty of punch for higher gain playing, though it can be easily tamed thanks to the push-pull pots for coil-split pickup configurations, making it our top pick for the best left-handed guitar.

We also heartily recommend the stunning Taylor 114ce-LH Grand Auditorium Acoustic-Electric. Granted it’s not as affordable as full-sized, entry-level acoustic guitars made by other brands, but what you do get is an instrument worthy of the iconic logo on its headstock. The perfect blend of quality woods and electronics makes this one of the top acoustics under $1,000/£1,000.

Choosing the best left-handed guitar for you

With any electric guitar purchase, power should be one of the first aspects for consideration. A high-output ceramic pickup might not suit those searching for slinky tones, like funk or RnB players, and similarly a low-output single-coil might not have enough thickness and sonic mass for those who prefer higher gain tones.

• 15 best guitar amps for beginners and experts
• Best guitar tuners to keep your guitar sounding great

That said – different things work for different artists – so follow your ears and don’t be afraid to break trends. For acoustics, the shape and size of the guitar is always an important factor. Some – particularly those who play leads or bend – prefer the cut and feel of parlour or auditorium instruments, others gravitate towards more chunky and rounded dreadnoughts and jumbos.

Looks can be deceiving here – a bigger guitar doesn’t necessarily mean a bigger sound – so it’s best to sit down, try a few and figure out which works best to your needs. Ready to find the best left-handed guitar for you? Let’s meet our top picks…

Find out more about how we test music gear and services at MusicRadar.

The best left-handed guitars to buy now

Bearing in mind just how much an American-made PRS Custom 24 sells for, this lefty in the more affordable SE range compromises very little on quality and build. The 85/15 'S' pickups offer plenty of power but there’s also added versatility thanks to its split coil options – meaning all kinds of tones can be covered with minimal ease.

The PRS vibrato system is one of the best of its kind, it’s able to take a fair amount of abuse and hold tuning well while remaining more user-friendly than the double-locking tremolos made by companies like Floyd Rose and Kahler. Ultimately, you’re getting a guitar that looks and sounds very close to its bigger boutique-priced brother…

Read the full PRS SE Custom 24 review

The ‘Black Beauty’ Custom with gold hardware is one of the most classic electric guitars of all-time, dating back to 1953 when Les Paul wanted to create a luxurious instrument that looked almost like a tuxedo. This Epiphone retains a lot of the characteristics you’d get from the much more expensive Gibson Custom Shop version, with a familiarity that feels authentic.

The Probucker pickups are more than capable of capturing that famous Les Paul magic, and are actually even more versatile thanks to a split-coil mode not featured on the Gibson version.

The main sacrifices made here are in the woods: the fretboard is Rosewood instead of Ebony, and the Epiphone maple veneer is much thinner than what you’d find on a Gibson maple top. Nevertheless, considering it costs six times less than its Custom Shop equivalent, this is easily one of the best Les Paul-shaped left-handed guitars out there.

• 11 best pedalboards for guitarists
• Check out the best multi-effects pedals
• On a budget? These are the best acoustic guitars under $500/£500

If you’re on the hunt for an affordable Fender Stratocaster with a bit more output, this Squier guitar offers much of the glassiness Strats are renowned for, plus some additional power courtesy of its humbucker in the bridge.

Instead of an alder or ash body and maple neck, as with the American-made Fenders, you’re getting cheaper tonewoods – poplar with laurel – but it still sounds close enough at this lower price. And with a 70s-era headstock, vintage-tinted glass neck finish and nickel-plated hardware, this is one left-handed guitar that definitely looks the part too…

It’s no secret that Taylor guitars have been producing some of the world’s best acoustics for nearly five decades. And while their instruments aren’t exactly known for being cheap, this entry-level grand auditorium acoustic-electric lives up to the brand’s pedigree and still feels like an instrument someone would treasure for life.

The preamp controls and phase switch helps players dial even further into that sweet spot, though it has to be said these guitars also have a wonderfully balanced and articulate resonance unplugged. That makes them the perfect writing tool for those on the search for extra inspiration.

Though it’s priced exactly the same as its right-handed version – which is great news for lefties – it may not be suited to those working to tighter budgets.

• 10 best delay pedals from Boss, Electro-Harmonix and more
• Best electric guitar strings for all playing styles

An American-made Strat is one of those guitars that everyone should own, no matter what style of music they play. The American Original '60s is very much the modern equivalent of what Jimi Hendrix rewrote the rulebook with five and a half decades ago, with an Olympic White body complimented by a mint green scratchplate.

Though it boasts a modern fretboard radius and modern switching, the wax-potted Pure Vintage '65 single-coil Stratocaster pickups are about as period-correct as you can get. And the thinner Nitro-Cellulose finish enables the wood to breathe and age like the classic Strats of the 60s. All of that gives you vintage looks and tones which, combined with modern functionality and versatility, are virtually unbeatable.

Read the full Fender American Original '60s Strat review

With a silver pickguard, aged white body binding and finished in a gorgeous Georgia Green that packs plenty of vintage appeal, this G5622LH Electromatic Center-Block features a double-cutaway maple body with chambered spruce center block for dynamic resonance, high gain power and lightweight comfort.

The two Broad’Tron humbuckers can cover a lot of tonal ground at all sorts of volumes without much worry of feeding back. It’s designed for everyone from country and rockabilly players to those in favour of metallic crunch. A great all-rounder left-handed guitar that screams old-school Gretsch without breaking the bank.

• Explore the best delay pedals for all budgets
• The 10 best reverb pedals for your pedalboard

The Fender Player series could very well be one of the most popular lines of guitars to come out of the Ensenada factory – bringing those ground-breaking designs and tones to a more affordable price range with marginal sacrifices made along the way.

The Player series instruments use the same kinds of woods – alder and maple – and the Player Series single-coil Alnico pickups are incredibly versatile, covering darker tones for rock and jazz just as well as the honky and high-endy sounds the Fender Telecaster has been long renowned for.

The thru-body-strung, six-saddle bridge provides precise intonation and the steel saddles add some extra bite to the Tele’s traditional twang. And the option for Butterscotch Blonde means you can get one of the most famous Tele finishes of all-time on a budget. A worthy addition to our round-up of the best left-handed guitars.

Read the full Fender Player Telecaster review

Perhaps compared to their electric guitars – favoured by metal musicians and jazz virtuosos alike – Ibanez’s acoustic instruments have often been the unsung heroes in the Japanese company’s catalogues. But few acoustic-electrics under $400 could out-perform this AEG19LII left-handed guitar, with its bold Transparent Tiger Eye finish and flamed maple top.

Then there’s the Fishman Sonicore pickup, a welcome addition for those hoping to amplify themselves with extra control thanks to the Ibanez EQ system. At this price it’s an ideal acoustic guitar for beginners or a second guitar for anyone looking to get a bit more serious with their playing.

• Our pick of the best Fender Telecasters money can buy
• The best acoustic amps for buskers and gigging guitarists

NAMM 2020: Ibanez has unveiled the next evolution of Steve Vai's signature JEM series, the frankly stunning Paradise In Art (PIA).

The PIA retains much of the decorative panache of the JEM. There is multi-coloured blossom inlay spiralling up the fretboard. There is gold hardware, evocatively titled finish options of  Stallion White, Envy Green, Panther Pink and Sun Dew Gold. It is unmistakably a Steve Vai guitar.

But the big dinner party talking point is that the Monkey Grip has been replaced by the Petal Grip. In a statement, Steve Vai explained the thinking behind it.

“The petals signify the bond that two people have when they resonate together, and this is represented in the art of the guitar,” explained Vai. “The petals are also reminiscent of the Yin and Yang sign which is thought of as complementary (rather than opposing) forces that interact to form a dynamic system in which the whole is greater than the assembled parts. The petals are also the most beautiful and attractive part of a flower and intended to signify a message of unity and companionship. It is the ethos that guided the artistic design of the guitar.”

The PIA has a solid alder body, a five-piece maple and walnut neck, and rosewood fingerboard with 24 jumbo stainless steel frets and Prestige edge treatment. 

It is equipped with an all-new DiMarzio HSH pickup set, which is as yet unnamed, and a Floyd Rose Edge tremolo. 

Speaking to our friends at Guitar World, Vai said that the design expanded on the JEM's player-first appointments.

“Just like the JEM, it’s a very sleek, very kind of ‘metal machine,’" he said. "It’s built for tone, for speed, for intonation, for real performance. The way it sits on me, the way it sounds, the way it plays…it just feels like home. The minute I got my hands on it, I instantly felt a deep connection to the instrument.”

There are no prices listed for the PIA yet but we would imagine it to be in line with the JEM's current pricing. 

See Ibanez for more details.

Check out our NAMM 2020 hub for more gear news. 

Ibanez has unveiled the range of acoustic guitars and basses it will have on display at next week’s NAMM 2012 in Anaheim, California.

Some of these acoustics might already look familiar to US readers. What we have here is an assortment of new guitars, updated models and a few guitars that are already available stateside, but are new for 2012 to the UK marketplace.

We’ve included what spec details we have where we can. Click through to see all the guitars.

Now check out the full range of electric guitars Ibanez will be unveiling at NAMM 2012.