Ibanez RG550 Prestige Electric Guitar in Purple Neon

Wanted an RG550 since I first saw them in the '90s. Does not disappoint in any way. High quality finish for the money. Trem is better than the cheaper edge versions on some other mid-range ibanez. v8 and v7 pickups arent bad for off the shelf and unless you are fussy (like me) you wont need to change them, although they sound a little thin on totally clean settings. The colour is almost luminous, pictures dont give a true feel really, its almost like '80s luminous socks! Switch gear and pots are smooth and solid. The star of this instrument is the neck. Action was pretty good out of the box, just a smidge high for my liking but very playable. Frets are very large and allow a lot of fast finger work and accurate bends. Im finding myself nailing bends especially well. ... MoreWanted an RG550 since I first saw them in the '90s. Does not disappoint in any way. High quality finish for the money. Trem is better than the cheaper edge versions on some other mid-range ibanez. v8 and v7 pickups arent bad for off the shelf and unless you are fussy (like me) you wont need to change them, although they sound a little thin on totally clean settings. The colour is almost luminous, pictures dont give a true feel really, its almost like '80s luminous socks! Switch gear and pots are smooth and solid. The star of this instrument is the neck. Action was pretty good out of the box, just a smidge high for my liking but very playable. Frets are very large and allow a lot of fast finger work and accurate bends. Im finding myself nailing bends especially well. This neck is better than my s420, the scale length feels a little longer than the 420 (I havent looked up the specs) but there is plenty of room at the top to fully exploit all 24 frets; the 420 feels a bit of a squeeze right at the top compared. Tuners feel very solid and the locking nut is placed with precision; no noticeable pitch change when tightening the nut bolts. This is a very comfortable and usable instrument out of the box. Serious pro's will probably want a setup and the fret edges stoning a little.

Massively impressed with the setup which was perfect out of the box. Neck relief and action were spot both on, super low with no fret buzz, and in tune! No tweaking required, which is a first for me! I left with it for a gig 40 minutes after it arrived, didn't put it down all evening. A really great guitar!

This is my first premium/intermediate guitar after using sub £300 ones for a number of years. You can really tell the difference in quality!The Wizard neck is a great thickness, so much thinner that i've ever played before. It allows you to reach around the fret board so much more easily.The pick ups sound great, at least in comparison to what i'm used to. The single coil pickup is nice to have, while it's not what I'd normally use for the music I enjoy it does sound good for cirtain types of music.The edge tremlo bridge is far superior to the cheap floyd rose I have on another guitar, you can bend it around all over the place and it stays perfectly in tune.There are only two negatives with this guitar. The first is the bolt on neck means that despite the thin ... MoreThis is my first premium/intermediate guitar after using sub £300 ones for a number of years. You can really tell the difference in quality!The Wizard neck is a great thickness, so much thinner that i've ever played before. It allows you to reach around the fret board so much more easily.The pick ups sound great, at least in comparison to what i'm used to. The single coil pickup is nice to have, while it's not what I'd normally use for the music I enjoy it does sound good for cirtain types of music.The edge tremlo bridge is far superior to the cheap floyd rose I have on another guitar, you can bend it around all over the place and it stays perfectly in tune.There are only two negatives with this guitar. The first is the bolt on neck means that despite the thin Wizard neck the highest few frets aren't as comfortable to reach as with a neck through guitar. The second is that Ibanez edge bridges require proprietry intonation tool which is substantially more expensive than a floyd rose one. But that's an extra £50 with a £900 guitar i guess?All in all an excellent guitar I would recomend to anyone wanting to upgrade to something in the £1000 range who plays rock and metal music (although, as I said it does have some musical diversity with the selection of 3 pickups.)