dric
New member
you got that right. i was never really a fan of the lighter basswood rg's. the tone of the basswood rgsnever seemed full enough for me.
this axe ain't light. but ofcourse it ain't as heavy as a lp.
Ibanez RG / Superstrats Appreciation Thread
- Thread starter taytehni
- Start date
you got that right. i was never really a fan of the lighter basswood rg's. the tone of the basswood rgsnever seemed full enough for me.
this axe ain't light. but ofcourse it ain't as heavy as a lp.
dric
New member
ShredCow: ah yes dude when i first bought the guitar it had dimarzio breeds in em. had quite a nice chug chug in em. but that was as nice as it got, chord work and appregios was quite muddy and had excessive bass. the notes didn't ring out clearly.
i then swapped em out for sd duncan customs n duncan distortions. it was better as i had slightly more clarity for the bridge but the harmonics didn't ring out very clearly. and the neck pickup was still mudding up a bit. and the o/p of the duncan distortion wasn't much to my liking anyways. the cleans didn't sound very nice with em.
early this year i changed em to a dropzone and viper. the viper works really well at the bridge, brings out the harmonics very well and no issue on clarity altho it brings out slightly more mids than the duncan custom. as for the drop zone it works very very well for most of the stuff i play. BUT, drop tunings tend to get muddy at some settings, but i've managed to rectify it with the eq on my board. in the past, my eq settings were quite extreme and i was using 2 equalisers. now i only use one. actually i was rather surprised by the dropzone n viper. the dropzone seems to work especially well in standard tuning, even tho it was made more for the drop tunings.
but anyways, i feel the maple fretboard on the rg450mmh is a good combination with the mahogany body. the rg450mh with the rosewood board however, might have slightly less clarity the the mmh.
i then swapped em out for sd duncan customs n duncan distortions. it was better as i had slightly more clarity for the bridge but the harmonics didn't ring out very clearly. and the neck pickup was still mudding up a bit. and the o/p of the duncan distortion wasn't much to my liking anyways. the cleans didn't sound very nice with em.
early this year i changed em to a dropzone and viper. the viper works really well at the bridge, brings out the harmonics very well and no issue on clarity altho it brings out slightly more mids than the duncan custom. as for the drop zone it works very very well for most of the stuff i play. BUT, drop tunings tend to get muddy at some settings, but i've managed to rectify it with the eq on my board. in the past, my eq settings were quite extreme and i was using 2 equalisers. now i only use one. actually i was rather surprised by the dropzone n viper. the dropzone seems to work especially well in standard tuning, even tho it was made more for the drop tunings.
but anyways, i feel the maple fretboard on the rg450mmh is a good combination with the mahogany body. the rg450mh with the rosewood board however, might have slightly less clarity the the mmh.
Ah... I had HAS Sound Viper7 and Dropzone7 in my old RG7621... very nice pickups. Stan has some serious mojo in his hands.
I thought the Viper was cool in that, it had a sort of... slightly loose sound. I liked that, felt more natural.
I'm curious to how the DropZone sounds on the guitar though, gimme a comparison if you will, especially with the Dimarizo Breed neck you used to have.
Actually, dude, the rosewood fingerboard would have more clarity. Rosewood is a brighter sounding wood than maple, which has a rounded top end. According to Malcolm and John Suhr and a tap test on the 2 woods. Interesting no?
dric
New member
yes dude he definitely has. one think i'm really surprised about his pickups is how it sounds coil-tapped. i've got a viper and zen on my other guitar, the viper in the neck and zen in the bridge. coil tapped, both sound extremely close to single coils. esp the viper.
as for the dropzone n breed. well the breed had quite a lot of bassiness coming from it. to me its quite excessive. i had it on an s540 previously also and i felt the same way about the excessive bass too. through a ts kind of overdrive the breed tends to start getting muddy, you can't really hear each note ring out of the amp. the dropzone on the other hand, doesn't have the excessive bass, neither does it have too much mids. i feel its very well balanced, more responsive to the right frequencies and less responsive to the less desired ones. which is what contributes to its much greater articulation and clarity compared to the breed. both pickups are rather natural sounding. in fact i feel the breed is one of the more natural sounding dimarzio pickups. to me the breed is basically a more well balanced tone zone(tho not balanced enough for me).
most people i know would dig the mahogany/maple neck, rosewood board combination as opposed to the mahogany/maple neck n board combi. this is what i've seen from other forums and from most other guitarists i know. in fact i was always more inclined to that combination too previously. but this was the guitar that sort of, changed my thinkin(and hearing) of the mahogany/maple neck n board combi. it appealed to me as an extremely well tone balanced guitar. altho i think a thinner finish coat would have been better. anyways that aside, honestly, i've always found more articulation in maple boards dude. maybe its my hearing or something. lol. or maybe its just its brightness that's affecting my perception. haha.
i dont have any clips of the guitar with breeds on em, but maybe i'll record some with the dropzone when my amp comes in. cos currently i'm ampless. waiting for amp to come in november. heehee.
akira
New member
lovely swirl akira..would like to own 1 someday
heres mine =)
I LOVE YOURS...AHHHHHH SWEET!
EugeneSmasher
New member
Whoa, how much did you pay for those?
J-custom! Ooohlala...
J-custom! Ooohlala...
PinkSpId3r
New member
dric: yeap very lovely color. it looks much stunning in person 
akira: i believe you have enough dough to own those also.
xyper, eugenesmasher: yeap around that price.
one of the most beautiful j-custom i seen so far
akira: i believe you have enough dough to own those also.
xyper, eugenesmasher: yeap around that price.
one of the most beautiful j-custom i seen so far
dric
New member
ZiiopBoii: I've got the zen on my usacg dude. with a viper in the bridge. i can get really nice bluesy tones out of it. very very smooth and very clear. it doesn't saturate the amp too much. if your more into fusion jazz blues and sorts, definitely a good choice. yes i agree with you it sounds very good tapped.
PinkSpId3r: i love the flamed pink man. not a jcustom fan tho. haha.
PinkSpId3r: i love the flamed pink man. not a jcustom fan tho. haha.
Whitestrat
New member
Mahogany RG not as special these days. Can find easily. But a maple neck with 24 fret and floyd rose? heh...
EugeneSmasher
New member
Nobody has an Ibanez RG Fixed or SZ series that is fixed-bridge?
Kinda interested in those...
Kinda interested in those...
