Review quickie: Ibanez Q52

The Q52 is a member of the Ibanez Quest family, a series of bolt-on, headless guitars. The instrument is very light & suitable for extended strap on use & does not tax the thigh in sitting position. Pickups are in-house Ibanez Q-models with an additional Dynamix-10 switch. Gold frets, if you missed those.

Construction / fit / finish

Likes

• well-assembled, no shoddy workmanship, solid all-round feel
• roasted maple / bubinga neck is a joy to handle, fretboard has mild birds-eye feature with interesting spalting
• responsive Mono-Tune tuners

Dislikes

• 5-way selector rather stiff
• 5-way selector switch tip is ugly

Playability / tone

Likes 

• well-finished neck promotes playability
• rounded neck profile similar to AZ model but a little thinner in feel
• body ergonomics (single side taper) contributes to playing comfort
• Q-pickups are above expectations, clarity & warmth all round

Dislikes

• Tone control has next to no effect once the Dynamix-10 switch is activated
• Light weight takes away bottom end from an otherwise impressive tone

Conclusion

If there's any significant feature here then it has to be the neck. This seems to be the forte of the instrument because the headless highlight had already been established by names like Strandberg & Kiesel. Harley Benton & Agile have also proven to the world that a good headless guitar can be done for not much money so Ibanez had to prove its case with the Quest models. The Q humbuckers are, in my opinion, very good, just lacking that much needed beef in the lower frequencies. The Quest Series ambassador is Ichika Nito & his playing style necessitates clarity & single note definition more than lower frequency girth. In fact, he has single coils in all positions so that aspect of the Q models were cascaded unto the rest in general. I'm still wondering what's going on in the electronics of the guitar because that tone pot is virtually useless once the Dynamix switch is in use. Ibanez needs another design for the selector switch or just stick to what they've been using for the rest of their guitars (RG /S). An overall impressive guitar, a strong performance in the playability aspect.

Overall rating: 85%

Ibanez Q52

• List: $1399 (bag included)
• Availability: Swee Lee Co.