Most unexciting NGD day ever. Hooray.

Diego

Diego

New member
Due to financial troubles, I just sold my G&L Tribute Superhawk.

As a partial payment, I got a 2002 Ibanez RG270, the only year it was made with a double-locking trem. Haven't had a Floyded guitar in almost 10 years, or an HSH.
What can I say? I'd had no other serious offers for my G&L and the guy lives 5 miles away so I just went with it.

It looks vanilla and commonplace. It's not very exciting visually.
The body is very light and well balanced.
It's an HSH. Both humbuckers just stink, they sound cheap as hell. But I'm really digging the 2 and 4 positions. The single coil is my favorite pickup so far from all three. I think I could use this guitar it the way John Mayer uses his pink Jackson, who knows?
The neck is slightly rounder and fatter than I thought it would be. Thumbs up.
The Floyd Rose works nicely and it's very stable. It also has the thinnest crappy block I've ever seen in any guitar.
It needs a treble bleed ASAP.
It was refretted recently with XJs and the action is crazy low, raised it just a hint and it plays great. Major thumbs up on this.

I've never been less excited with a new guitar, but it is what it is for now. I won't even bother you with pictures. It's blue.
I'll probably put it up for sale next week.

Hooray. :lame:
 
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Re: Most unexciting NGD day ever. Hooray.

LOL, that sucks, but any NGD is better than a non-NGD day. I like NGDs.

Sorry you had to part with the G&L.
 
Re: Most unexciting NGD day ever. Hooray.

I'll keep going:

The neck humbucker is an abomination. These should be Powersounds (haven't checked) which I already thought sucked more than 10 years ago when I knew nothing about anything, and in 2019 my opinion remains unchanged.
Its resonant peak sits exactly where my ears hurt, and I'm not kidding. It's more piercing than any cheap single coil.
It's not a glassy peak, it sits lower in the frequency range. It's just CLANK CLANK CLANK in the high mids. Just nasty, reminiscent of the bell in a hotel's reception.
It sounds thin and cuts in the most annoying fashion under gain with no sustain whatsoever, and bland clean. It's also low output so it doesn't hold it's own as a shredder's choice, which would have been an acceptable trade-off.
Comparing it to my Ibanez SZ with an Alnico II Pro humbucker in the neck is an exercise in cruelty. It's just laughable.
My older brother doesn't even play guitar and noticed the RG sounded like **** next to my SZ, which isn't a '59 Les Paul either, mind you.

However, the neck HB combined with the middle single coil sounds quite nice, surprisingly so.
It sounds balanced, more compressed than my Strat, and it's an enjoyable sound for big clean chords with reverb, delay and tremolo.
Who would have thought I'd use an RG for this kind of thing? I'm digging it more than my Strat I think.
Combined with the bridge HB, it's not as clean. It's fatter in the mids but it's still an in-between sound I like. Sounds great with fuzz.

The bridge humbucker on it's own is wimpy and muddy. It just sucks. Not every pickup needs to be a deathbucker, but at least they should have clarity. This doesn't.
Compared to the Duncan Custom in my SZ, I can't think of a single application where I'd rather have the RG. It's just pure, unadulterated mediocrity.
How these pieces of **** went in so many cheap RG guitars for so many years is beyond me. Why not use Duncan Designed pickups?
Mind you, I owned an Ibanez Prestige RG1550 and the V7/S1/V8 pickup set were a modest improvement over these pickups. So I guess that's what Ibanez does, or did.

Overall I still think this is a nicer, more solid guitar than the Jackson JS32 I used to own, except for the pickups which are shockingly bad.
But I'm digging the 2 and 4 positions a lot, I'll keep testing it for a few days but I think it's gonna go for sale real soon.
 
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Re: Most unexciting NGD day ever. Hooray.

If it plays well and stay in tune, that's a plus. Maybe you should keep it and reload it with good pickups? If you want clarity and power, Bill Lawrence stuff is great - and you could buy a whole set for slightly more than $150. Put in some CTS pots and a Switchcraft jack and you'd have a kickass rig for right around $200.
 
Re: Most unexciting NGD day ever. Hooray.

I've got a few Duncans without a guitar at this point, including a Screamin' Demon and a JB.

I'll try a few and see how it goes. It does stay in tune, the trem action is a bit stiff despite having only two springs in the back and a 9-46 set; I think it needs some lubrication in the pivot points.

Also, the fact that the in-between positions sound good make me think there's some hope for this guitar, but I shouldn't go with earth scorchers to keep that top end. The Demon will decongest things in the bridge for sure. We'll see about the rest.
 
Re: Most unexciting NGD day ever. Hooray.

I'd try the Demon in the bridge with a p/p to split it for the 2 position.

But my recommendation would be to put a StagMag in the bridge with a p/p to split. It gets great cleans, very Strat-like when split, great notch position (2 position) tones either full or split. And it has enough output in full bucker mode to get some good overdriven tones in position 1.
 
Re: Most unexciting NGD day ever. Hooray.

Frankly I'm not in a position to invest a dime on it. I'm not going through the best of times so upgrades will have to wait for a while.

Meanwhile I'll try the pickups I've got in hand (got a few Jackson, Ibanez and Epiphone OEMs around alongside my Duncans) I'll add a treble bleed and do some maintenance and see how it goes.
 
Re: Most unexciting NGD day ever. Hooray.

I'm happy to report that this cheap guitar is starting to earn a place in my stable.

I replaced the stock bridge humbucker with a Screamin' Demon, added a treble bleed, and so far it's a winning combination.

The stock pickup was very mushy and indistinct. The SD is not a scorcher, but it's a very clear sounding pickup, with a healthy dose of mids in it to keep some substance for solos. In this guitar it doesn't sound as fat as my Les Paul or as aggressive as my SZ, but it's a crunchy medium output all-rounder which is fine by me. It distorts nicely and doesn't sound ice picky for leads, which I thought could be an issue. It could use some extra thickness but I can live with it.

It blends nicely with the middle pickup, too. So now it has more tones to offer. The 2 and 4 positions are making me forget that I don't own a nice Strat, at least for now. The neck HB is a stinker on it's own but it works so well with the stock middle pickup I think I'll let them be. It's filling a nice niche at the moment.

I wasn't expecting this at all!
 
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Re: Most unexciting NGD day ever. Hooray.

I find the necks on my Epiphone and my RGs to be very similar
The RG being just a bit flatter across the center of the back

But very much alike

My favorite guitars at this moment
 
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