Some of you guys know I've been recommending the Yamaha RGX420DZ - that yamaha superstrat with 24 frets, licensed floyd rose, rosewood/maple neck, alder body, H-H, 5-way pup selector, vol & tone controls and a hot switch.
I got one in a trade with one of my pedals and I must say - the thing truly exceeds expectations.
I've played them before and I thought - feels good, excellent construction, shredder kind of neck, jumbo frets, a pretty stable licensed floyd and strong output pickups. Nice. All for some 600 - 700 bucks brand new. What a steal.
Now that I own one, I can say that this guitar is really bang for buck.
A couple of reasons:
1) A brass trem block
Yes, the thing comes with a brass trem block. Pretty much explains why it sounds bigger than expected from a guitar with a licensed floyd.
2) The Electronics
Other than the jack, I find that the pots, switches and wiring in general - good quality. Even the shielding - the cavity has shielding paint and each humbucker route has shielding paint and a wire + metal screw to ground. Geez, that's pretty rad. The hot switch, while isn't a terribly useful concept, is a 3pdt 2-way toggle. Wow.
Bad side: The jack seems fragile and the cover plate isn't shielded.
3) The Floyd
Stable. The thing is stable, dive after dive. The mass of the unit seems/feels a little light but the brass block makes up for it. Feels like a gotoh, just not so smooth. No stupid wood screw type trem posts... while non-locking, they go into a threaded metal insert. The arm assembly is... average at best. Better than an Edge's arm assembly - doesn't get loose - but kinda impractical. The nut is a yamaha designed locking nut - you can adjust the height without the need for shims. Pretty interesting but I wonder what would happen to sustain/tone if I did that.
4) The Truss Rod
Is... Peavey/EBMM style heel adjust from the top of the fretboard. Very very nice.
5) Pickups
Pretty decent actually but they really need to be setup properly. Stock, the middle poles are raised to compensate for the bridge/neck/nut radius but come on... humbuckers? Hello? 16" radius? Hello? All the stock setup did was to make the middle strings unbearably loud. So I lowered the poles. Everything is cool.
Another thing is that the neck pup seems to be alnico while the bridge is a ceremic. Nothing bad - similar setups can be found in Micheal Romeo's guitar and Victor Smolski's - but it is less common than having "matched"/similar pups. They sound good enough for me to not want to bother changing anything but there are plenty of better pups out there.
On my piece, I managed to set up a straight neck and action that's so low, you can play legato on it all day long.
So, in a nut shell - bang for buck because of great features. Some setup needed to make it play its best but nothing you can't DIY. Definitely an Ibanez RG killer.
I got one in a trade with one of my pedals and I must say - the thing truly exceeds expectations.
I've played them before and I thought - feels good, excellent construction, shredder kind of neck, jumbo frets, a pretty stable licensed floyd and strong output pickups. Nice. All for some 600 - 700 bucks brand new. What a steal.
Now that I own one, I can say that this guitar is really bang for buck.
A couple of reasons:
1) A brass trem block
Yes, the thing comes with a brass trem block. Pretty much explains why it sounds bigger than expected from a guitar with a licensed floyd.
2) The Electronics
Other than the jack, I find that the pots, switches and wiring in general - good quality. Even the shielding - the cavity has shielding paint and each humbucker route has shielding paint and a wire + metal screw to ground. Geez, that's pretty rad. The hot switch, while isn't a terribly useful concept, is a 3pdt 2-way toggle. Wow.
Bad side: The jack seems fragile and the cover plate isn't shielded.
3) The Floyd
Stable. The thing is stable, dive after dive. The mass of the unit seems/feels a little light but the brass block makes up for it. Feels like a gotoh, just not so smooth. No stupid wood screw type trem posts... while non-locking, they go into a threaded metal insert. The arm assembly is... average at best. Better than an Edge's arm assembly - doesn't get loose - but kinda impractical. The nut is a yamaha designed locking nut - you can adjust the height without the need for shims. Pretty interesting but I wonder what would happen to sustain/tone if I did that.
4) The Truss Rod
Is... Peavey/EBMM style heel adjust from the top of the fretboard. Very very nice.
5) Pickups
Pretty decent actually but they really need to be setup properly. Stock, the middle poles are raised to compensate for the bridge/neck/nut radius but come on... humbuckers? Hello? 16" radius? Hello? All the stock setup did was to make the middle strings unbearably loud. So I lowered the poles. Everything is cool.
Another thing is that the neck pup seems to be alnico while the bridge is a ceremic. Nothing bad - similar setups can be found in Micheal Romeo's guitar and Victor Smolski's - but it is less common than having "matched"/similar pups. They sound good enough for me to not want to bother changing anything but there are plenty of better pups out there.
On my piece, I managed to set up a straight neck and action that's so low, you can play legato on it all day long.
So, in a nut shell - bang for buck because of great features. Some setup needed to make it play its best but nothing you can't DIY. Definitely an Ibanez RG killer.
