Having an eight-string electric guitar is not that usual. However, the eight-string guitar has become more popular in the past recent years. Special credit for this popularity goes to metal music. Smelling this trend in the air, Ibanez has created this guitar that is an eight-string guitar and still is within an affordable price range. This guitar gives the ability to musicians for branching out and doing something out of the box without spending a lot. Read the Ibanez RG8 Review to find out more about the instrument.
Ibanez RG8 is a guitar that’s readily affordable for a large sect of musicians. With the purchase of an Ibanez RG8, your entry is confirmed with a different level of musicians than the general acoustic or electric guitar holders. This guitar offers excellent playability in the list of other 8 eight-string electric guitars. Tried and tested by the best, some musicians complaint about the looks of the guitar. However. The guitarists that are concerned with its playability, appreciate this guitar to be a boon in the sector wherein they could never enter if this guitar did not come into existence.
The way Ibanez Rg-8’s tuning pegs hold the tuning of the guitar is shock-providing. One of the complaints about electric guitar players is the tuning pegs. To all those guitarists, this guitar won’t upset you. These tuners do an exceptional job of keeping your instrument in tune for a decent period of time. Time can be even as close to six hours of heavy playing.
Overview
Ibanez Rg-8 proves to be exceptional in value with its string-through design, fixed bridge, and slim Wizard II-8 neck. The manufacturing company’s research and design team need to be appreciated because this guitar is available at a price point that’s hard to resist. Following the Ibanez RG8 review you would find out why the instrument is so popular. This series of guitars are famous, slim, fast, and have an ultra-playable Wizard neck and Ibanez Rg-8 is no exception. Because its complete body has through-body stringing and a fixed bridge, the guitar sustains maximum. With specially-designed humbucking pickups, evenly reproduced wide frequencies that a normal 8-string is capable of reproducing is reproduced.
When looking towards the affordable 8-string guitar market, an Ibanez model strikes out in our sights. This Ibanez RG8 model is available, under $400, which is the cheapest model available in 8-string guitars. The strings of this guitar are a little flat, but that’s really impressive, considering the price tag of this guitar. However, the best part for a lot of other musicians in the neck of Ibanez Rg-8. Most musicians that are upgrading to an eight-string guitar are likely to choose this guitar because of its price and playability. This means that typically, transitioning to a guitar with a larger neck is going to take time and practice, but with the Ibanez RG8, the neck is comfortable and easy to adapt to!
Specifications
Let us understand the features of this guitar by reading the Ibanez RG8 review. Here is what you must expect.
- Number of strings: 8-string
- Neck wood: Mahogany
- Neck Type: Wizard II-8 5pc Maple/Walnut
- Fretboard: Jatoba with White dot inlay
- Fret type: Jumbo frets.
- Neck pickup: IBZ-8 (H) neck pickup (Passive/Ceramic)
- Bridge pickup: IBZ-8 (H) bridge pickup (Passive/Ceramic)
- Factory tuning: 1D#, 2A#, 3F#, 4C#, 5G#, 6D#, 7A#, 8F
This is transparency in the guitar’s feature-photo offering. It is one of that guitar that offers what it says it will. Ibanez Rg8 is a super basic guitar with minimal features and is meant to be an entry-level 8-string guitar. Ibanez is a company that has realized that if you are first picking up an 8-string guitar, you’ve probably had at least some guitar playing experience and aren’t looking for something as cheap as a GIO or other cheap-o beginner guitar.
More in Store
Utilizing this realization, Ibanez has designed RG-8 which has some reasonably good quality hardware and playability! The bridge of the guitar is actually comfortable and holds up well. Tuning of this guitar is really worth appreciating because it holds up for a longer time than most 8 strings would, despite aggressive playing. If you are someone who doesn’t necessarily look to spend any extra money in upgrading, to locking tuners then Ibanez Rg-8 has really got the job done. The neck of the guitar is its best part. Compared to other 8-strings guitar, adjusting one’s hand on this guitar is extremely easier and one is easily able to jump, regardless of whether he/she is a 6 or 7 string player.
Because of the fact that it is cheaper compared to other 8-strings the guitar doesn’t brag about being outlandish 8-string guitar. But it shows off solid looks that will appeal to 99% of guitarists. Ibanez has stuck with the timeless RG Series superstrat body shape, with a large double-cutaway solid mahogany body. This guitar has a 27” scale length, it’s a larger guitar but remains sleek and comfortable against the body. Ibanez RG8 is available in two colors i.e. black or white, both with a high-gloss finish. There’s no-body decoration or any fancy binding.
Nor are there any fretboard inlays, if it has anything attractive then that is an axe that looks built for performance. Thanks to the slim Wizard II-8 five-piece maple/walnut neck, which is smooth and comfortable when taken in the hands, but is sturdy with a bolt-on construction. This neck has a nut width of 2.165”, a rosewood fretboard, and 24 jumbo frets.
Sound
Ibanez RG8 has a reasonably balanced sound that anyone can remain fairly happy with. The mixture of the Mahogany body and the IBZ-8 pickups create a warm tone that has a present midrange. Although, it takes a bit of amp-side tweaking to get the highs to come through it. Ibanez RG-8 handles low tunings quite well. It is only a ton of distortion that can get the guitar sound too muddy! The cleans are actually fairly usable and smooth, especially when sounding from the neck pickup. Overall, this guitar can do a good amount of justice to death metal, and progressive styles. It takes a bit of tweaking to get the highs to shine through so that leads could cut through the mix when played in a band. But rhythm playing and simple chords sound quite thick and beefy.
The two IBZ-8s complete stock pickups. IBZ-8s are actually quite robust and offer a very good sound which is more than ample for practice and experimentation, and would help you happily survive on stage. When cleansed, the tone is clearer than we expected, without any depth at the low-end. But again, they get muddy when surplus distortion is added.
The warm sound produced by this guitar is credited to the combination of the IBZ-8 pickups and the RG8’s body that’s comprised of Mahogany. If a guitarist is looking to have more of a higher range to come through, he/she too will find that on Ibanez RG-8 with a little adjustment on the amplifier.
As mentioned before, if you’re really looking to have your highs be very prominent in your music, you will have to do some tweaking! However, simple chords and rhythm playing has a thick and juicy sound on Ibanez RG-8.
Playability
27-inch long scale length on the neck provides musicians to articulate their music and provides the abilities to sustain longer. The neck itself is at a very comfortable scale, because of which even smaller hand players are at a plus. As soon as you begin to play this guitar for a while, even the smaller hand players’ hand starts to warm up. The truss rod comprises a titanium reinforcement rod to provide extra support to the neck.
This means that, for your playing experience, you’re not going to have to play with high action! Which in turn results in detuning of most the guitars. With the extra support from the reinforcement rod, the neck is going to be able to support the tension that the eight strings place on the neck without having to worry about warping. While the neck isn’t thin compared to a six-string neck, instead, it is thin in comparison to other eight-string guitars. The stock pickups that come with this instrument and for the bridge pickups, there is a bit of grainy-ness and some bite to the tone. The middle position takes away some of the gains and replaces that it a punch. The neck position helps to have the highs roll off easily, making the bass line more prevalent and a lot more fun to play.
Hardware
The Ibanez RG8 comes fitted with two Ibanez-designed IBZ-8 passive humbuckers. These humbucking pickups sit at the bridge and neck positions. Controls of the humbuckers are kept simple. There are just a single master tone and master volume rotary knob, with a three-way pickup selector switch. Everything else apart from this is hardware that is to be stocked. Holding the eight strings in place is simple. However, having a sturdy fixed bridge on the other end of the head is a set of black Ibanez tuners in a 4+4 configuration that keeps tuning in check.
Controls
Keeping in mind that Ibanez RG-8 is an 8string Guitar, there are three controls that are given inside the guitar:
- Volume Control
- 3 Way PU selector
- Tone Control
These are the three controls that are most common to have in any Strat instrument and Ibanez has maintained the traditions.
Build Quality
The neck of this guitar is really solid and the pocket is well-cut. All of the hardware, especially the tuners, feels and looks great. Though the bridge looks a little bit cheap, it does fulfill the purpose of maintaining the tuning for a long long time. The pots of Ibanez RG-8 are super smooth, which are rare for this price range to offer. Solid black is a great finish and there aren’t any finish issues or scratching/bubbling on the body. There are two sharp fret ends that look poorly cut. But overall for getting an 8 string guitar at such a price, anyone can compromise a little bit.
Ibanez RG8 Review – Pros/Cons
Let’s wrap up the Ibanez RG8 review with these pros and cons.
- The neck of Ibanez RG8 is comprised of a Wizard II neck, which is famous for being as slim as it is comfortable to play. The Wizard II also has a closed action. This makes playing fast runs on the neck incredibly easy and effortless. However, the neck makes up a slim profile for an eight-string guitar and it is wide enough to accommodate the extra strings on the guitar. Although, the comfortability of the fretboard may surprise your fingers when you touch it for the very first time.
- High-quality pickups provide guitarists with both, a great clean sound and a great distorted sound that isn’t muddy. They aren’t the highest of quality pickups, but they’re perfect if you’re a beginner or an intermediate musician. There are massy passive pickups meaning that the tones of this instrument aren’t very clear or precise and the bass can overpower the highs easily and quickly.
- Stock strings that come with this guitar cause the fret to buzz for a long while. This can be extremely annoying when you’re trying to play with your new instrument! The biggest tip for anyone who is looking to pick up the RG8 is that he/she should pick up a set of high gauge strings because the stock strings that are on this electric guitar won’t hold up very well to playing.
- The biggest downside to the RG8 from Ibanez is that there are two sharp fret ends on this instrument. When a brand offers something out of the box it will have some flaws and for RG-8, it is the fret ends.
The conclusion
Ibanez RG8 should be bought keeping in mind its quality and wonderful playability. It is ant as famous as a Fender Stratocaster or any Yamaha electric guitars. Ibanez is a company that stands out with its offering at a very cheaper price than other companies in the market and this guitar should also be bought keeping the same in mind. So, Ibanez RG8 Review clarifies that an affordable mid-range 8-string can also provide great sound quality. At the same time, ease of performing.
