Last Sunday, just before I called it a day, I decided to give the Ibanez RGD321 some playing time. The RGD is Ibanez's extended scale guitar measuring 26.5" from nut to bridge. The objective of owning such an instrument is to enjoy lower tuning without dealing with string tension issues. I initially settled with a set of 10s sporting only a half-step detune, enough to play along Depeche Mode tunes 😄 Anyway, there was a re-think along the way- why go through an under-experience so to speak, with a guitar of such a potential? The nut was filed a wee bit to accommodate a thicker set of strings (11s) to sport a C# tuning.
Same set of tuning was done here with the RGDIX6 as well. Played on the same day, the IX6 offers a different voicing namely due to its DiMarzio pickups on board while the RGD321 above has Seymour Duncans in there.
Sometimes we only have ourselves to blame for not accepting things that were meant to be in the first place. You want to play standard tuning with the RGDs- no issues but they were not meant to excel in this application. It's like driving an off-road vehicle on tarmac on a daily basis & whining about the vehicle's under-performance. My RGDs will continue to manifest low tunings in the mean time. The extended scale length proves to be a challenge when when playing fast but I have other guitars to realize speed potential.
Happy mid-December, everyone. 👍
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