Curved goodness

The Ibanez RGA121 was my first Ibanez Prestige. It was the first curved top RG offered by Ibanez together with the RGA321 (flame maple top). As I'm not a fan of elaborate flame tops, I opted for this plain version instead.

From this view, we can see how much maple was used for the instrument. At its thickest part, it is 1.5cm thick. The Prestige line was serious (still is) about having a top wood enhancement for all the guitars featuring a cap top.

Same ol' story... wood drying out but conditioning is the answer. 😀

There's a cloudy build up over at the headstock. No amount of polishing seems to cure the situation. Maybe some car-care product might do the trick. The other guitar suffering from this anomaly is my PRS S2 Singlecut.

Ibanez equipped this model with a pair of V pickups at the factory. It did very little to make me happy when it comes to overdrive/ distortion. These are the deserving Seymour Duncan replacements: JB (b) / Jazz (n). The JB will remain prolific when it comes to single note definition under high gain settings. Some players dislike this citing the extra treble as the cause of poor power chord tones but that happens if you ignore the EQ at your amp. The JB was conceived to be as such. If you wish for a pronounced bottom end thickness with the top end definition in check, the Custom is your best bet. The Jazz sounds good in all the guitars I own. Between the 59 & the Jazz, I prefer the latter as it doesn't mud out at higher volume settings. For woman tone lovers (all ye Clapton-era Cream fans), the 59 does a better job.

I'm in the initial stages of testing the new D'Addario XTs out, more comments when the time comes. 

Restring: What I do...

After much playing, my Ibanez RGA121 gets a restring. The numbered items are:

1. Beemis Wood Conditioner
2. GHS strings, .009 set
3. Vaseline

 I insist on removing all strings each & every time I restring my instruments. The nut slots get lubricated first. As you can see, I snipped a little bit off the the fresh set of strings to use as vaseline applicator.

The advantage of string absence is of course, easy access to the fretboard. It's not dirty so no cleaning was done, however, some parts of the fretboard was reconditioned. How often do we re-moisturize/ re-condition our fretboards? We do this as & when we see dryness, regardless of how many times it should be done. In other parts of the world, because the climate there isn't as humid as it is here, people would caution you against doing this too often (twice a year is enough, they say...) as it might soften the fretboard wood & weaken your neck. Well, this isn't the case here, so now you know. Let the moisturizing fluid settle for some time (say 10min or so) & wipe off the excess.

The headstock also got a cleaning treatment, a little dusting off & subsequent wipe down with regular guitar polishing fluid.

Next, the strings come on & the guitar tuned. I make it a point to stretch my strings & re-tune them as many times as it takes. Once the strings do not go out of tune, that's when I stop. This is especially necessary for guitars with a dual-action whammy bridge, we always complain our guitars go out of tune after each whammy action but that's because no stretching was done when the strings are fresh- they aren't 'acclimatized' to their tensioned selves, so to speak.

Before this guitar gets played further/ kept, I give the strings a protective coating. In this case, it's DR's String Life, liquid polymer fluid.

What does it do? It's an overcoat which serves to prolong freshness. Do note it does NOT prevent deterioration, it merely delays it.

I slip an unused string envelope between the strings & the fretboard so that the coating fluid do not come into contact with the fretboard & causes drying. Leave the finished process be for about 5min or so & the guitar is ready for play/ storage. This is the end of my re-stringing procedure, it's usually followed by a chocolate break.

RGA: Prestige vs Standard

Just stopped playing. Had the two guitars (above) out for a head-to-head comparisons in terms of tone.

Ibanez RGA121: This is a Prestige model, it manifests its Prestige quality in terms of feel, through the neck. It gives me a feel-good-play-more experience all the time. The pickups in there also also key attractions, it's a Duncan JB/ Jazz pair, not to everyone's liking but it works very well for me here. My RGA121 will be 5 years old come December & it's going strong.

Ibanez RGA32: The budget derivative is always endowed with quality issues, yes? But not the RGA32. Despite it being made in Indonesia, it very much shows quality production should be free from country associations. However, handling it simultaneously with the RGA121, there's much difference in feel when it comes to the neck. The RGA32 has a strong mahogany acoustics but it's unfortunately masked by the sombre pair of active pickups here (Ibanez's own LZ-3 model). I have plans to replace them but still thinking of I should go passive instead, I'm not too keen with active electronics. The Gibraltar Standard bridge, as opposed to the RGA121's Gibraltar Plus model, prevents it from achieving a very low action but it's not an adverse consideration of course.

The rhythm companion

The days leading to the new year were dreadful episodes of work preparation. Everything takes a back seat, work commands priority. I was too whacked to even update anything here hence the hiatus. Everybody else believes the new year would be the opportunity to start anew- less me, of course. I don't look forward to be engaged in the line of duty where change is marginal. The Luciferian whispers inside of me provokes a career switch...

Enough whining.

Anyway, I played my RGA121 today with some rhythm backing courtesy of my ZOOM RT123 (discont'd). I've put this away for a while because I misplaced the power adapter for it but today it was unearthed beneath a sheaf of rancid newspaper, so work took a back seat.

I invested in a simple drum machine to spur inspiration; I get motivated to play after hearing an interesting percussion inter-play more so than being intrigued by another guitar player. My rhythm companion here is really a fundamental beat generator but it does its job well. More importantly, it helps me play on.

Seymour Duncan: SH-2N (Jazz)

I used to dismiss the Jazz (SH-2) humbucker to be a one-trick pony; it's ony good for jazz. Back then, I was only interested in high output pickups because believeably, they are better for high gain/ drive music. Along the way, what became more important to me was achieving the end, regardless of the means; I should be checking the Jazz out because it might give me what I want to hear after all, regardless of its label, no harm trying, yes? So I swallowed some pride & bought the SH-2...

...which is now resident in my Ibanez RGA121 (neck). The Jazz sounds exceptional clean, I've heard it in use in a hollow body instrument & it's more appealing to me instead of the favoured '59 humbucker by many clean tone purveyors. The clean effect is indeed a bonus to me because in a driven setting (I rarely play without distortion), the Jazz is able to articulate individual notes very clearly which is what I wanted all along as I often solo in the neck position. So what I thought was a niche pickup is indeed pliable in other tonal settings. So the lesson learnt here- never dismiss a pickup by its label.

PS: For those of you who wish to have the Jazz in your RGA guitar, be informed that there is a need to round off the angular pickup mounting flap. As you can see in the pic above, the guitar's cavity necessitates such trimmings.