Ibanez RG270R

This guitar was made in Japan, has H-S-H config, a LO-TRS 'locking' trem, all-access bolt-on Wizard II 24-fret neck, Jumbo frets, volume and tone knobs... you know.

I play through several different configurations, i.e. a Peavey Rage, a big Fender stack thing, and loads of other stuff. the bridge pickup on this guitar is a little weedy, mainly because I'm used to playing with a Seymour-Duncan which will soon be changed to a Dimarzio Evolution, although it has a smooth-ish sound. Because the pickups are so close together, there isn't too much variation between the bridge and neck humbuckers when you play with some overdrive or distortion. The bass increase is noticeable, though. Interesting a remotely believable single coil sounds from the 2 and 4 positions, but the middle one is pretty dire.
The tone knob actually works as well which is nice.

I don't know what this guitar was like factory-fresh, as I got it from a friend. The action can be altered to be pretty low though, with a bit a fiddling with the tremolo. The frets where pretty good, although the neck was too thick for my liking. Nice and wide, though. The frets were impeccably installed and filed, although some of the paint on the trem looked like it had smudged during the drying process, which was slightly dismaying to say the least.

Oh, yes. I'm sure this thing would survive a hard playing in front of a thousand people or whatever. Although it goes out of tune if you dive-bomb it (even with the 'locking trem'), I'm sure somebody would use it . The finish is good, and the hardware will probably last a while.
If I was playing an important gig, I wouldn't use this guitar in the first place, because it's not as easy or as fun to play as the other one I have.

I've emailed them a couple of times, and they've never written back (in 6 months)... I don't think their backlog is that big, somehow. But I'm sure that if I'd have bought a Jem or something they'd have taken a bit more notice.

This guitar definately a good piece of work from Ibanez, and is probably a good introductory instrument for the metal-shredder beginner who only wants one-and-a-half sounds. The Lo-TRS trem doesn't lock the strings properly as can be found by a suitable beastly dive-bomb or Vai/Satriani-esque squeal. Nice vibrato, though.
If you want a great guitar, with a really thin neck, a reasonably brutal humbucker in the bridge and electronics that work, and a good old-fashioned bridge designed to put your guitar out of tune, then go for something like a Yamaha Pacifica. I own a 512, and compared to the Ibanez, it is amazing. Don't get me wrong, if you insist on having an Ibanez as a first instrument, and buy with your ego instead of your brain, then this is a great guitar. But you can do a lot better for the money.
And anyway. How many beginners do you know who will know what to do with and how to use a Floyd Rose trem?
One more thing. Don't listen to anything Ibanez or anybody else says about their ALL ACCESS NECK joint. All it is is a bolt-on which has been filed down. It makes a bit of difference, but not much. I'm lucky I've got hands the size of a cinema screen, so it isn't too much of a burden.
Go for a through-neck. Much better.