7 + 1

This is the set back of playing an 8-string guitar- the hardship of finding a set of 8 per pack manifests itself every time the instrument is due for a re-string... I'm fortunate enough to find a .065 sold as an individual offering so it's a set of D'Addario 7 + a single .065... I am dutifully enduring this tribulation until Ibanez comes across my blog & sees that I am a big fan of their instruments & decides to reward me with a year's worth of 8-string packs- in my dreams.

Fine oversight

I've been frustrated by this since my first string change & re-tuning- this is an oversight Ibanez should address. The above pic shows my RG2228's FX Edge III bridge unit. Fine tuners A & B are effectively dysfunctional due to:

1. Their location- these are placed at the center of the tail arch where the bridge is at its highest. There's very little play here because the tuner's vertical movement is limited by this clearance. It could barely manage a full rotation (in both directions) before it's either bucked by the arch's structure or maximized it's threaded allowance.*SIGH*
2. Blockage by Part C- this is the bridge's action adjustment stud (together with the other two bigger counterparts on the unit's bass & treble sides). One's fingers are blocked by this protrusion when screwing the fine tuners down, so the fine tuners' already restricted leeway is further hindered. *SIGH* 

Recommendation: Ibanez should refine the mechanisms to make it more functional. As it is, Fine tuners A & B could not even address a half step (flat/ sharp) tuning anomaly. The bridge here could be replaced entirely with a hard tail type version. Ibanez's current derivative of this is its Gibraltar Standard. It's already engineered for a 7-string version featured in the RGA7 so the technology exists to vary the existing design. The entailing concern here would be tuning stability should the nut be the non-locking version to complement the Gibraltar Standard. Roller type nuts could be installed as an alternative complement.

We should also learn from Chris Broderick, whose 7-string customized Ibanez guitars feature a non-locking nut.

Head to head

I was browsing the 2010 Ibanez catalogue after dinner & noticed the above. It's the RG2228 headstock, all too familiar to me as I own this guitar.
Then I saw the RGA8 headstock, this guitar is new this year. I thought Ibanez went economic & did the RG2228 neck wholesale for the RGA8 model but the differences are there for all to note. The headstock tip is a little longer, construction-wise, it implies the RGA8 body being a little heftier which necessitates an off-set balance at the neck/ headstock area. I also keep forgetting the RGA is not a Prestige model... hence no 'Prestige' tag there implying a more affordable price tag. Judging by the in-house LZ8 pickups installed, it would seem so. Nothing's for sure until this guitar gets here, of course.

Time flies

A year ago, when I started this blog, I took a pic of my little girl with my Ibanez RG8- this is the same person with the same guitar...

8string

I am finally settling down with this string gauge for my Ibanez RG2228:

• D'Addario EXL110-7 set (.010 - .059)
• additional SIT .008 high E as the 8th string

One of the obvious setbacks of owning an instrument of this ilk is the unavailability of a ready string set. Before this decision, I had to buy 2 packs of strings & do a mix-match accordingly. I can't make do with a regular 7-string set + the additional .008 as the RG2228 sports an extended scale length so it has to be thicker to avoid that slack feel once the guitar's in tune. By the way, I tune this guitar only a half step down...

Had the opportunity to 'measure' my baby girl yesterday- she's now bigger than the instrument's body...

Guitar in pic: Ibanez RG2888