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.
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