Blind purchase: Ibanez RG Prestige - Not happy, help

[InAbsentia_]

So I received my brand new Ibanez RG652FX Prestige yesterday morning. It's a Fujigen Gakki MIJ Dealer Select Prestige, Team J Craft. I've never owned an Ibanez guitar before and I'm more of a Schecter, Gibson or Mayones player.

Whilst it looked lovely, picking it up immediately made me realise I might have made a mistake - It was incredibly light (Basswood). I proceeded to play the thing unamplified and it felt dead, I could feel minimal resonance through the neck although the vibrations transmitted fairly well through the body.

Plugging it in, it was underwhelming at best. The DiMarzio Tone Zone and Air Norton's severely lacked balls and I felt like I was drowning in a sea of fuzz. Dynamics were poor and the output just felt weak. Riffing on it just didn't feel right and the neck didn't feel "buttery" or "silky" to me at all like some people describe.

Please help me give this thing some balls. I already restrung it, set up the action and intonation etc. It didn't help much. Would a set of BKP Nailbomb's help?

 

[GrabtharsHammer77]

Reading your post I get the impression you dislike everything about that guitar. Honestly, changing pickups won't make the neck better and it won't give the guitar a more resonant, "heavier" feel.

Send it back. You will never be happy with it.

 

[InAbsentia_]

Reading your post I get the impression you dislike everything about that guitar. Honestly, changing pickups won't make the neck better and it won't give the guitar a more resonant, "heavier" feel.

Send it back. You will never be happy with it.

I won't say I haven't considered sending it back but I just don't understand how it could be such an unappealing guitar to me considering millions of people rave about it? I really want to like it or work with it to make me like it. I'm hoping someone would have had a similar experience before and would be willing to share how it worked out for them

 

[newamerikangospel]

I am a Schecter guy as well, and haven't gelled with Ibanez since I sold my mid 90s ex series. Guitars can be vastly different, and you may just not like Ibanez. Nothing wrong with it, or you, just individual preference.

 

[Delitzsch]

I'm hoping someone would have had a similar experience before and would be willing to share how it worked out for them

Same thing happened to me. I bought a guitar over the internet before playing it. I always play a guitar in a store before buying it online or in the actual store. Anyway, I got the guitar in and disliked many of the same things that you are describing. I sent it to a guitar tech and had a complete setup done on it and a pickup change. Bottom line: I still disliked it. Where's it at, today? Gone. I sold it. Took a massive hit, but I would've never played it that much. Learn from my mistake and if you can return it, please do it!

 

[InAbsentia_]

Same thing happened to me. I bought a guitar over the internet before playing it. I always play a guitar in a store before buying it online or in the actual store. Anyway, I got the guitar in and disliked many of the same things that you are describing. I sent it to a guitar tech and had a complete setup done on it and a pickup change. Bottom line: I still disliked it. Where's it at, today? Gone. I sold it. Took a massive hit, but I would've never played it that much. Learn from my mistake and if you can return it, please do it!

It would be a massive hassle to return and I'd have to pay shipping but good advice. Unless the Nailbomb's drastically improve the tone if I had a Schecter or Mayones on hand I'd literally never play this guitar. It did nothing good, bad cleans, bad dirty tone. I just don't get how it could be so bad as a MIJ Prestige Ibanez. Team J Craft must have been drinking when they made this one.

 

[Delitzsch]

It would be a massive hassle to return and I'd have to pay shipping but good advice.

If you go down the rabbit hole, I guarantee that you'll end up spending more money than just returning it right now. You'll also save yourself a lot of headache and grief.

 

[nezvers]

If problems with sending back, then consider re-selling.

Although I don't get the idea that if you are Schecter guy, why wouldn't you like Ibanez? I've owned both and for time being I have Agile Septor, they all seems to me the same feeling.
Either guitar is faulty or you are not into specific guitar specs. Basswood is hit or miss, but mahogany and maple seem to be always in the ballpark.

 

[Delitzsch]

Although I don't get the idea that if you are Schecter guy, why wouldn't you like Ibanez?

Because Schecter necks feel like baseball bats compared to Ibanez's.

 

[GrabtharsHammer77]

Yeah, most Ibanez guitars' necks are thinner than Schecter necks (although they do have some crazy thin ones, too) and their guitars tend to have an overall brighter tone and "lighter" feel. I know what you are talking about.

It's just a matter of personal taste. Nothing wrong with you. But no matter how much money you invest to tune the guitar more to your liking - it will never ever be perfect for you. You will never fall in love with it. It's like Harry Potter choosing a wand - if it isn't right for you from the start, it will never be. And you will never get great results out if it, no matter how hard you try. It might be perfect for another wizard's hands, though.

IMHO you really don't have a choice. Send it back as fast as you can and stop thinking about it any further. Then go to the wizard store and look for the one that feels right immediately. You won't regret it and you'll never look back.

 

[RiF]

I have an old and pretty rare US Fender Contemporary Stratocaster from the early 1990's, which I've bought in an impulse buy on a vacation in the US. It looks great, but it sounds dead and hollow played unamplified, similar to what you're describing about your Ibanez. This basic character doesn't change through an amp. I've changed pickups (form the originals to Duncans to EMGs) a dozen times since then, but this basic tone is always there. Due to that, I never actually play it.

 

[GrabtharsHammer77]

Buying a guitar without playing it first is always a high risk. I remember how I nearly bought Washburn's Ola Englund model online last year just because I liked the photos and the youtube clips. Thankfully one last tiny bit of doubt brought me to get in the car and drive to the music store to try it out although I was already 99% convinced this would be my next guitar. But as soon as I had the guitar in my hands I felt a huge wave of disappointment - it didn't even feel like a real guitar but more like a toy model of starship enterprise. I don't know if I ever disliked a guitar that much before. I ended up trying a PRS SE Standard and falling in love with it immediately. Well, I had to make some changes to it afterwards (new PUs and nut, locking tuners and a fully intonatable bridge), but I still love my PRS.

 

[InAbsentia_]

Quick update.

I spent the weekend setting the guitar up and playing it a bit more. I can now safely say this is an incredible guitar - the pickups sounded muddy because the pickup height was way off. As soon as I lowered them slightly the crunch came through and it stopped pushing my inputs into the red.

Also, I decided to look at it this way - it's a different type of guitar to what I'm used to. It's a bolt on, so the neck resonance isn't going to be as good as a neck thru. It's got a basswood body so it's going to be lighter, etc.

If there's one thing I've learned it's that you should always play a guitar in person to avoid disappointment. This might not mean the guitar is bad, it just means your expectations were different and sometimes that's hard to come to terms with.

 

[Delitzsch]

Riffing on it just didn't feel right and the neck didn't feel "buttery" or "silky" to me at all like some people describe.

I already restrung it, set up the action and intonation etc. It didn't help much.

I spent the weekend setting the guitar up and playing it a bit more. I can now safely say this is an incredible guitar - the pickups sounded muddy because the pickup height was way off.

Am I missing something here? How does the pickup height alleviate the feel of the neck? Or that "it just didn't feel right"? It baffles me that you could go from conveying complete contempt for the guitar to "this is an incredible guitar".

This looks like an example of psychological self-justification.

It seems that you're trying to reduce the dissonance created by purchasing this guitar with finding some sort of rationalization.

Take some time for reflection and try to disconnect from your feelings. Look at this from an outsider's perspective and be critical instead of letting self-protective mechanisms clear up your discomfort. (Yes, I am studied a bit in psychology.)

 

[Aeolian]

Am I missing something here? How does the pickup height alleviate the feel of the neck? Or that "it just didn't feel right"? It baffles me that you could go from conveying complete contempt for the guitar to "this is an incredible guitar".

This looks like an example of psychological self-justification.

It seems that you're trying to reduce the dissonance created by purchasing this guitar with finding some sort of rationalization.

Take some time for reflection and try to disconnect from your feelings. Look at this from an outsider's perspective and be critical instead of letting self-protective mechanisms clear up your discomfort. (Yes, I am studied a bit in philosophy.)

There are multiple factors at play here. First of all, I hadn't played guitar for a month before buying this one so I expected it to feel a certain way. When it didn't it was an immediate let down. My fingers have since adjusted to the neck, and setting it up with some TLC has made it feel and sound great. There's no psychology at play here - if you're well versed with it you'll know what disappointment is mainly a difference in expected and actual results.

Seems my browser has logged in from a newer account I made, anyways, this is me.

 

[Delitzsch]

There are multiple factors at play here. First of all, I hadn't played guitar for a month before buying this one so I expected it to feel a certain way. When it didn't it was an immediate let down. My fingers have since adjusted to the neck, and setting it up with some TLC has made it feel and sound great. There's no psychology at play here - if you're well versed with it you'll know what disappointment is mainly a difference in expected and actual results.

Seems my browser has logged in from a newer account I made, anyways, this is me.