Best Blues Rock Guitar (2024 Update)

Sound: Today's guitars are all made on cnc's unless you get something like a US made G&L, those are cut out with bandsaws and routers, like fenders in the 50s up to the 70s. The neck pocket in mine is very clean and neat, the body routing is very clean, the frets were nice out of the box, no misaligned screws or parts, no blemishes in the finish or anything. Features: The least useful feature for a majority of people will be the rhythm circuit, it has its own volume and tone pots and is neck pickup only, with a much darker tone than the neck pickup on the lead circuit, leave the switch in the down position, and you never have to worry about it unless you want an old school jazz guitar tone. Then push that switch up. (It does old jazz guitar really well) Ease of Use: The jazzmaster has quite a bright bridge pickup, makes it well suited for surf, or spaghetti western guitar, but it also means distortion on the bridge pickup will cut through rather well. the neck pickup is strat like, but bigger and thicker. Like a strat neck pickup on steroids. Both pickups together results in a sweet soft sort of quack tone, due to the pickups being so far apart, it's not the same as a strat quack tone, but its very nice sounding. Then of course there's the neck only rhythm circuit which is very much like an old jazz tone (hence the name Jazzmaster)The pickups are generally higher output than most other fender pickups, and work well with distortion. A lot of people still think jazzmaster pickups are p90s. Nope, real jazzmaster pickups are roughly the same size, but thats where the similarities end. They don't even sound similar. This confusion is furthered by the old mexican player jazzmasters, the j mascius, and others that have P90's. Quality: Fender mexico didn't skimp on the electronic parts, the pickups are very much like a mid 60s jazzmaster in sound, even down to the gray bobbins and enamel coated coil wire. Pots are CTS, both switches and the jack are switchcraft, just like they are supposed to be. They should last forever. The trem is built well, but not exactly the same as the old ones, the trem arm is screw in, it really should be a push in arm, like all the old ones. Also, I think the hole of the trem arm in the top plate is way way too big, it only needs to be slightly bigger than the trem arm collet.The tuners are kluson like split shaft, loke fender used from the very earliest days until 68, they're not made by kluson but it doesn't matter the design is too simple to screw up. The frets are vintage, they're always described as tall and thin. They're not tall, but they are thin, it is a 60s styled guitar after all. But I think a lot of people used to 9.5 and flatter radiuses will have problems, it's a 7.25" radius fretboard, requires a bit higher action but a half hour or so of playing, you get used to it. It also has a truss rod nut at the heel of the neck, its a correct feature for all fender's prior to 1971, but man was that a bad design choice on leo fender's part. You either have to loosen the neck a lot or take it completely off to adjust neck relief, and hope you got it right.Now when I got my guitar I took it completely apart (I always do). What I found on the inside could be improved. First was an excessive amount of wire. There is a lot of wire in a jazzmaster, but they didn't even bother cutting the pickup leads to length. Both pickups had about a foot of unnecessary lead wire, so I fixed that.The other issue was a bad conductive paint job in the cavities. The jazzmaster is an electrically noisy guitar, they need all the shielding they can get. The conductive paint was one thin coat, and didn't even go up the sides of the cavities, it wasn't doing anything. From 1958 to the end of the original run around 1980 each jazzmaster had brass tubs in all the cavities, all soldered together and grounded. I don't expect that in a new jazzmaster, but they knew then that it needed shielding. The pickguard in 58 was also gold anodized aluminum, which was excellent for shielding. But the anodizing wasn't good, and the gold wore off after a few months so and looked awful. In 59 fender switched to plastic tort pickguards, with a thin pickguard sized aluminum shield underneath. Anyway I properly shielded the cavities. Also the pickguard only had aluminum tape for the toggle switch to the jack, and another piece for piece for rhythm circuit switch and pots. That ain't going to do it. I added more shielding, put it all back together and it was a major improvement. Recently I decided to see what a proper gold anodized aluminum pickguard would look like on ice blue metallic, and its VERY cool, looks like a 1960s california speed shop modded my guitar, might put some tele knobs on it sometime.I also made another modification, I had a 65 reissue trem and bridge laying around, so I put them on it. In the old days, the lock button, trem

Overall: For 100 bucks less than a Japanese made RG550 I'll say the quality of this Indonesian assembled guitar is sub-par albeit correctable. All hardware was loose. Blase switch wast rubbing against finish. Tone and volume pots were pushed down into contact with body. Gold playing on bridge pick-up shows nickel plating already. Action was set so low that it was unplayable. Some frets are razor sharp at the edge of the fretboard. Neck and fretboard are dry as a bone, and need to be sanded and sealed. The grain was raised when I unboxed. Which basically tells me that there was very little if any polyurethane applied to the neck or fretboard. As with all Indonesian guitars ai take this as an opportunity to fix these little things on my own, but you are better off getting an RG550 Genesis. The quality is far superior. Also the paint is awful, and the plating on all gold plated surfaces are sure to deteriorate quickly. One note: Sounds has nothing to do with these inadequacies or defects. Ibanez should just seize operations in Indonesia, as should all other guitar manufactures. Indonesian guitars are ok enough to correct, but even at the 800 dollar mark you should get a 100% gigable axe. This is not at that level.

I've owned this guitar for a year. I own more than a few Ibanez, with about half of them being Prestige and the others being 80's/90's Fujigen Ibby's, 2010's Iron Labels and Premium. I love this RGA and it's remarkably well spec'ed for most anything a diverse player will want. What it isn't: it isn't a prestige and it doesn't feel like it. That's not a bad thing; the roasted maple neck is amazing, feels comfortable, but the fingerboard does feel a little different (given the wood type). The only real negative I find is that the finish (the actual finish) feels like it's very delicate. I can see this finish cracking easily with an everyday bump. I hang my guitars and pull them just to record, so not a n issue for me, but it definitely feels very delicate. The only other reasonable complaint is that for the pricepoint, it should include at least a gig bag. This is basically a 1,000 dollar guitar.

Overall: The fit and finish on this Mexican-made guitar is terrible! The cheaper Indonesian-made version I have is much much better. Fender should be ashamed of themselves for turning out product like this. The frets are not finished on either edge. They'll cut you if you're not careful. The binding on the lower bout is much wider than on the upper bout. The toggle switch is noisy, doesn't engage well, and is cheap feeling. The intonation setup on arrival was not only severely off on the lower strings, but required moving to the alternate saddle screw location on the Floyd bridge. I have other Mexican-made instruments as well. They are all substandard, but this one is the worst. Cannot recommend any Mexican-made Fender instruments.

Overall: Awesome feeling neck, good bridge and decent pickups. The finish is amazing I’m person and it plays like really well. I’ve never played a guitar in this price range that plays this well. The only weak point would be the pickups , the bridge sounds decent , the neck pickup leaves a lot to be desired . If you looking for a mod platform or just started out , you could easily swap the pickups and this would be a great guitar for years .

I bought this guitar a few months ago, didn't want to spend a lot. The finish is beautiful, and I can't find a problem with any part of this instrument. Needed a light neck for my aging fingers and this cuts it without costing an arm and a leg. Ibanez has made it good at this level and I can only imagine that it gets better as the money goes up. If you are hesitating, don't! You will be happy you did this!