It had been a while since I'd gone up against a top-of-the-line Ibanez. This time, and for a limited time, a true jewel of the Prestige series, the product of the Team J. Craft's painstaking work, has fallen into my hands. Even better, this isn't a guitar designed solely to shake the foundations of the temple of metal, but a more open concept that aims to expand a guitarist's versatility to unsuspected limits. Just try combining loaded hardware, multiple options in the electronics, first-rate building materials, a neck with an exquisite feel, and a sleek, supremely comfortable design. That, in essence, is what Musicmanía has witnessed with this beauty, fresh from Japan. Let's see whether the facts live up to the promises.

Unboxing
As always, we'll start with first impressions on opening the package. The whole thing was well packed, and on opening it I find an excellent Prestige case whose interior is shaped to the guitar's silhouette for total immobilization in transit. Something else I like is the latch system: it allows an external padlock to be fitted instead of having its own lock. Why? Experience tells me that built-in locks often wear out or break with relative ease.

And, as always, the constants of this series: adjustment tools, sealed documentation, and in this case a tremolo arm (as we'll see, this guitar's bridge is floating).

But let's focus on the guitar. On to the next section.

Examining the Instrument
As soon as I take it out of the case, I discover a true beauty: mahogany body with an ash top (both one-piece), a five-piece maple and walnut neck, and a 24-fret rosewood fretboard. The finish is truly curious: Black Blond. It's a matte finish that lets you see the wood grain in a golden tone. It's a delight to the touch, and it gives off good vibes, because it looks like it will be very durable. Add a cream binding and you have a top-of-the-line finish.

The body follows the design of the S series, slim and sleek, with a Stratocaster®-style cut. The only detail that might not have been out of place would be a metal protector for the wood around the output jack. The reason is that it sits on the side of the body and is exposed to friction from the cable plug when connecting it.
All right, let's get fully into the analysis. We'll go piece by piece, component by component:

a) THE RIGHT HARDWARE
Given Ibanez's enormous range of guitars with double-locking tremolos (Edge), the combination chosen for this guitar struck me as simply sensational (and, personally, my preferred style). It consists of a SynchroniZR bridge, which is essentially a non-locking floating bridge with the stability advantages of Ibanez's famous ZR tremolo (ball-type pivot instead of a knife edge), plus a lock for the tremolo arm so we can position it wherever we want.

But without a doubt, something that sets this guitar apart from others is how easily we can adjust how far this bridge floats, thanks to the ZPS-FX system. It consists of a screw that limits the movement of the bridge block, so we can adjust it with a simple turn of a wheel located on the back of the body.

And speaking of that back plate, I couldn't help unscrewing it. I was able to confirm that the finish quality isn't limited to the visible areas of the body; great care has gone into finishing the interior well, too.

Even more? Yes. Since this isn't a double-locking bridge, and locking the nut wouldn't be very appropriate in this case, what could be better than locking tuners? These are tuning machines designed by Ibanez, with a clever design that cuts off the excess string once locked. Quality material, though it's true that on a model in this class, with locking tuners, I expected a row of Sperzels. We'll find out later whether this in-house product measures up to the overall quality of the instrument.

Locking tuners, stable bridge... can intonation be improved any further? A Graphtech nut guarantees a minimal friction coefficient that won't damage the strings and promotes longer sustain, even with aggressive tremolo action.

All in all, a good system that will be more than welcome to those of you who aren't fans of the Floyd Rose/Edge or locking nuts. Personally, I loved it.

b) IBANEZ PRESTIGE NECKS
I paid special attention to the neck, as it has a curvature that differs slightly from what I was used to until now. In its tireless pursuit of neck research, Ibanez has recently developed three types of Prestige necks: Wizard HP, Super Wizard HP, and Ultra HP. In our case, we have the Wizard HP, with a 430 mm fretboard radius, which allows very low action. This is the neck with the most balanced profile of the three.

The neck is extremely comfortable and silky, but compared with my RG1570, I do notice the edges are slightly thicker. That said, it still allows quick and fast playing. It's simply a matter of taste, and subjectivity varies from player to player. What's more, I even felt a greater sturdiness with this neck. Access to the highest frets is guaranteed with no problem, and the neck joint with the body is perfect, something I really value in a guitar, since this is the point where a mistake can cause long-term deterioration.

The neck is bolted to the body, and the overall feeling of solidity is more than palpable, because the construction is, I insist, bombproof.

c) DUAL ELECTRONICS
This is another of my favorite features, the icing on the cake for our guest's versatility. The guitar offers a humbucker (bridge) – single-coil (middle) – humbucker (neck) pickup configuration, with one tone knob and one volume knob. To tell the truth, on a guitar in this category I expected a combination of DiMarzios or Duncans (I could mention other renowned makers, but these are the ones most associated with Ibanez) to complement the tone of the wood.

However, Ibanez opted to fit in-house parts, specifically the True Duo TDB2 and TDB3 humbuckers and the ST2 single coil. True Duo technology is truly ingenious: it combines ferrite magnets (a material made of iron oxides and ceramic, with excellent magnetic properties at high frequencies) in the north-facing coil, and alnico in the south coil. Why? The former provides a bright, crystalline tone, while the latter provides a warm tone. And it's done thoughtfully, since the circuit has a push-pull coil-tap switch on the volume knob. Pulling it up cuts the south coils, so only the north-facing ones are available. Since those are the ones containing the ferrite magnet, you virtually get a Stratocaster single-single-single configuration (hereafter “SSS”), with a truly convincing sharp tone. Press the push-pull again, and we're back to a humbucker – single – humbucker configuration (hereafter “HSH”).

In each mode we have a five-way switch, so we can achieve a total of 2 x 5 – 1 = nine different sounds! (We subtract one because, in both modes, the third position activates only the middle pickup.) The results of the sound analysis will be presented later.

Lastly, it's worth noting that the control cavity cover contains an alloy clamp that offers great resistance to slipping, so it is guaranteed to stay secure and protected. Also, after opening the control cavity, you can see a properly finished surface, as well as clean, tidy wiring.

Testing and Amplification
As always, we'll test the instrument unplugged first.

Admittedly, the factory setup wasn't the best, and although it may not do the company's name any favors, they always reasonably consider that it is the player who will decide the best setup according to their preferences. Totally true. Nothing serious.

After tuning up, I play an open chord, and a colossal resonance from the wood blows my hair back. It reverberates throughout the body and neck with a balanced tone, thanks to the wise combination of body woods: mahogany back and ash top. That guarantees emphasis on both lows and highs.

Let's see how it responds to low action. After lowering the bridge height, we run chromatic scales. The installed string set starts at a .010 gauge and causes no noticeable fret buzz, something I expected from this guitar.

Also, to the touch, this neck feels like pure butter, and the contouring of the body-neck joint makes reaching the highest frets a piece of cake, without the neck suffering for it. This guitar is solid as a tank and will withstand the harsh conditions of live playing. Not to mention the balance of the whole instrument when we strap it on; it is extremely comfortable, and the profile is one of the thinnest I've seen on a solid-body electric guitar.

This may seem like splitting hairs. However, at times this kind of test gives unsatisfactory results on guitars worth double this one.

Now, let's plug in. Let's try a clean sound, straight into the preamp input, with flat EQ. In HSH mode, the tone is thick and a bit dull, but without losing color. It tends toward balance.
We add a little overdrive, and as I play bends I realize that if I wait out the sustain on this guitar, the sea will probably dry up before I notice. Truly long.

Now let's try SSS mode, increasing the treble level on the preamp. I must say that this guitar, though it doesn't sound 100% Strat, has that characteristic twang in the out-of-phase positions (2 and 4), which makes the tone very similar. Much more so than you'd expect from an instrument with so many possibilities.

Let's see how this little one holds up with lead and modern distortions. The high sustain and the speed the neck lets us move at make a vintage distortion fit quite well when developing solos. It should be made clear, though, that these pickups have a moderate output, so they aren't ideal for cultivating extreme styles. Still, when needed, they hold their own.

That said, although these pickups aren't bad quality, I still think that at this level it would have been smarter to fit a combination of, say, DiMarzios (for example, Norton/True Velvet/PAF Pro), keeping the push-pull circuit. Of course, in general it isn't easy for a guitar's stock pickups, however good, to turn out to be our preference.

In any case, I was extremely pleased with the idea of creating a dual technology that favors a sharp sound in SSS mode and balances out with warmth when switching to HSH mode. Two worlds in one.

Conclusion
This is possibly one of the most loaded guitars I've tried when it comes to features and versatility. With everything it comes with stock, we have access to endless sounds, bridge modes, high-quality woods and finishes, stability systems... Even some details, like the automatic cutting of excess string when installing new strings, make it feel as though you hardly need any tools to set up this little one.

For all these reasons, I think it would be the ideal guitar for live playing, given the immediate access to so many features and the speed at which we can take advantage of them. Few guitars give so much, although the price isn't within everyone's reach (1725 € VAT included).

Once again, Ibanez crowns itself and shows that it can produce far more than mere metal guitars. Chapeau!