Ibanez RG421-MOL

A great guitar for the beginner looking for a light and good looking guitar, with a fast and easy to play neck.

Let's start this review at the top:

The headstock is quite small. It does however have enough left over space for a clip tuner, and maybe a fret wrap. But don't expect to have enough space to also store your capo on the headstock. The tuning pegs however are positioned far enough from each other to make turning them easy without hitting the other pegs.

The tuners themselves are ok for home use, but don't hold tune very well. If I where to use this guitar for more than just practise, and maybe some lessons, I would upgrade them immediately.

The nut is ok, but on the guitar I received it needed to be filed down a little bit, since it was set up way to high. The nut itself is quite ok though. It isn't anything special, but with a bit of lubrication it does what it should do. This guitar does suffer from a bit of harmonic by noises coming from the strings between the tuning pegs and the nut. A fret wrap however is a great way to dampen these noises.

The neck is simply lovely, as is with any Ibanez. It feels comfortable to hold, and the playability is amazing. A real neck to shred your heart out.
The fretboard itself is smooth to the touch, and the radius makes for a great shred machine. Chords on the upper frets however are a bit less comfortable due to the flatness of the fretboard.

The fret work was as good as can be expected on a guitar in this price range. I was however pleasantly surprised that on my guitar there weren't any sharp fret ends. The frets did need a polish though to make the frets comfortable to play.

The pick ups are simply meh... They sound very clinical, with a lot of sharpness in the mids and highs while the lows are very undefined. They are however very quiet when it comes to unwanted noise, which is a rarity in this price range.

The electronics however are by far and away the biggest issue with this guitar. On the guitar I received all the knobs where noisy when used, and the tone knob stopped working all together after a couple of months. I replaced the entire electronics for some left over parts, and this made a massive difference, both in the quietness when operating the knobs, as the sound of the guitar when it is amplified. (If you are looking for a great blanc canvas to modify, I would highly recommend this guitar after I got such great results with just left over parts)

The great thing about natural finishes, is that the manufacturer can't hide imperfections, or glue lines as easily as they can on painted guitars. On this particular guitars I can only identify 3 pieces of wood that make up the body. Which in this price range s simply amazing.

The body itself has a nice shape, with the bellycut making it comfy when the guitar sits on your lap. There isn't any real bevels or extra cut aways near the upper frets. However upper fret access is very good.

The strap buttons on this guitar aren't very good. Even a new strap slides easily on and off the knobs, so I replaced hem with strap locks, even though I don't use this guitar live.

It is surprisingly well built guitar considering it's price.

Headstock and Neck is standard quality of Ibanez. Very thin neck and quiet flat fret board is very comfortable. Frets are very well treated, there were no sharp ends on my guitar. But they need to be shined up.

Tuners are fine but I suggest upgrade. I already upgraded mine Planetwave Lockin tuners which lying around. I strongly suggest buying et least Gotoh SG-381 MG together with guitar(You need to drill headstock for installation) for the sake of comfort and tuning stabilty.

Pickups are just meh, which is normal in this price range, but surprisingly low noise. Parallel mode for Neck Humbucker in Position 4 is quiet interesting feature. Biggest downside is electronics. Mini pots are not best around, I suggest upgrade.

Overall It is beautiful, comfortable and good quality guitar. I am happy with the guitar.