IBANEZ GUITARS

Ibanez is a guitar brand owned by Hoshino Gakki based in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan. Hoshino Gakki was one of the first Japanese guitar companies to gain a significant foothold in the United States and Europe with their Ibanez branded guitars and were later followed by other Japanese guitar companies such as ESP.
The modern era of Ibanez guitars began in 1957 [1] and the late 1950s and 1960s Ibanez catalogues [2] show guitars with some wild looking designs [3]. Some of the late 1960s Ibanez designs were similar to Hagstrom and EKO guitar designs and Hoshino Gakki used the Teisco and FujiGen Gakki guitar factories to manufacture Ibanez branded guitars after they stopped manufacturing their own guitars in 1966. After the Teisco guitar factory closed down in 1969/1970 Hoshino Gakki used the FujiGen Gakki guitar factory to make most of the Ibanez branded guitars and the Ibanez headstock logo also changed from a metal logo to a more modern decal logo. This was the beginning of the Gibson, Fender, Dan Armstrong and Rickenbacker Ibanez copies. Using somewhat cheaper materials and greater automation in manufacturing, they were able to sell these guitars for a significantly lower price than the originals. The low price combined with the relatively high quality of the guitars made these models very popular. Many guitar aficionados feel that the early and mid 1970s mark a low point in the quality of guitars from the major manufacturers, which helped contribute to the popularity of the Ibanez copies. After the lawsuit period Hoshino Gakki introduced Ibanez models that were not copies of the Gibson or Fender designs such as the Ibanez Iceman and Ibanez Roadstar. The company has produced its own unique guitar designs ever since. The late 1980s and early 1990s were an important period for Hoshino Gakki's Ibanez brand. Hoshino Gakki's relationship with Frank Zappa's former guitarist Steve Vai resulted in the introduction of the Ibanez JEM and the Ibanez Universe models and after the earlier successes of the Ibanez Roadstar and Ibanez Iceman models in the late 1970s/early 1980s, Hoshino Gakki entered the superstrat market with the Ibanez RG series which were a low priced version of the Ibanez JEM model .
Hoshino Gakki also had semi acoustic, nylon and steel stringed acoustic guitars manufactured under the Ibanez brand name. Tama acoustic guitars were made from 1974-1979 at the Tama Drum factory. In 1979 the Tama acoustic guitars were renamed to the Ibanez Artwood Series and were also made at the Tama Drum factory. Most Ibanez guitars were made for Hoshino Gakki by the FujiGen guitar factory in Japan up until the mid to late 1980s and from then on Ibanez guitars have also been made in other Asian countries such as Korea, China and Indonesia. During the early 1980s the FujiGen guitar factory also produced most of the Roland guitar synthesizers, including the Stratocaster-style Roland GR-505, the twin humbucker Roland GR-202 and the Ibanez X-ING IMG-2010.


Ibanez RG450 Review:

Features : 10 96 or 97 i think. It has a 24 fret maple fretboard , The guitar is black with black pickguard. It has a volume, tone and 5 way switch all which have been replaced with DiMarzio. H-S-H pickup config with DiMarzio Super Distrotion (Bridge), Blue Velvet (Mid) and Humbcker from hell. As far as i know the guitar has a basswood body. Sound alot like a Jem7dbk in certain aspects. It has a LO-TRSII trem which i've noticed alot of people bashing on here. lol The 2 best trems out right now are LO-TRSII and the Edge Tremolos so get a grip guys. ;) I also installed a trem-setter. Which the Jem7vwh's come standard with so no it's not a LO-TRS thing.
Sound : 10 With the mods that i've done the guitar has a ferocious amount of style capability. I play anything from classical to full on shred and any metal. It fits all those sounds. THe guitar is actually quite quiet not alot of buzz at all. I absolutely love the variety of sounds i can get from it. And i'm usin a Randall RH100 head with a Crate Blue Voodoo Vintage30 4x12 cab and a Digitech GeNetX GNX2 processor.
Action, Fit, & Finish : 10 The guitar did need some cleaning and setup when i got it. My choice for this is the way Rich from ibanez rules does it. So here you guys go, http://www.ibanezrules.com/tech/grunge_1.htm Check that site if you need to give your 450 a nice setup. ;) Once i did this my guitar not only looked great but played like a dream.
Reliability/Durability : 9 My only complaint is the finish on the tremolo. It's starting to wear. And the pickguard is scratched. But those are easy fixes. I will probably play this guitar into the ground unless i buy another Jem7dbk. And if i do it will definitely be my backup guitar. No questions asked.
Overall Rating : 10 I've been playin since i was about 8 or so and i also own a les paul and i've owned a few other ibanez guitars also. If it were lost or stolen i'd say this is pretty much irreplaceable to me due to all the work i've out into it customizing it. But if i could find another one i'd definitely go for it. It has everything i want cuz i out it there. I compared it to a jem 555 cuz they were in the same price range so i just went with the RG because i thought it sounded better and the neck was starting to warp on the 555.