Ibanez RG470

1994 Made in Japan, Metallic red finish, 24 frets, "Super-strat" body shape, thin 2 piece neck, h/s/h Ibanez Pickups, 1 Volume & 1 Tone control, 5 position selector switch, Ibanez "Floyd Rose" bridge, Gotoh tuners.
Case included.

This is a good guitar for the beginner and intermediate metal player. When I bought it (1994) I was playing mainly metal, and this guitar suited that sound very well. I play it directly through my Marshall 40Wx2, dual reverb combo and it sounds really powerfull. It's has a tight sound, a "fast neck" and is very confortable to play.
The two humbuckers have a nice tone (although not very versatile), but the single coil (center position)is of no use at all - the tone is terrible, flat dead, has no spark at all.
I use the bridge humbucker for rythm (this is my favourite pickup in this guitar) and the neck humbkr. for clean sounds (richer tone but a little too bassy).
The worst feature by far on this guitar is the tremolo. It is an Ibanez modification of the Floyd Rose, and although it looks great, it works really bad. Even a moderate use of the tremolo, causes noticeble detuning...The only workaround seems to be the replacement of the bridge for a real Floyd Rose.
Besides this issue it's a good guitar, very confortable to play, and with a special vocation for metal.

The factory set-up was ok (I'm taking it for the 1st set-up ever next week), and the guitar had no flaws whatsoever.

I have this guitar for eight years, and despite some heavy gigging and practicing, it almost looks good as new.
The metal "plate" in the neck/body junction oxigenated a bit from the sweat, but apart from that, there's no other visual detiorations.
Besides that, I get some noise in the pickup selector, but only in one position and only every now and then.
I've used it several times without any backup guitar.

Never dealt with them.

- I've been playing for 11 years, and besides this guitar I own a Vester Strat, a Marshall Valvestate 8240(40Wx2), a Korg Pandora PX3 effects processor and a Jim Dunlop Wah pedal.
- At the time, and in the 5 or 6 years that followed the purchase of this guitar, yes I would definetly buy it again if it was stolen. In the present time, I probably wouldn't, only because I'm looking for a guitar with a different, more versatile tone - I'm on the process of buying a Epiphone Les Paul Standart.
- I love the playability and the guitar tone when playing metal (it has great looks too!). I don't like (at all!):the tremolo and the single coil pickup.

This guitar was made in late 2000 I believe. It is a Japan made guitar. With the Neck Wizard II. Basswood body. Jumbo frets. Floyd Rose floating temelo Lo bridge design. H/S/H pick up configeration. V7 humbucker neck pick up. S1 single middle pick up. V8 humbucker bridge pick up. In a flat black color. For the price you can't expect much more.

I like this guitar cause it fits my metal music style needs. With a Boss MT-2 you can't go wrong. Too distorted in the neck position but the single and bridge pick up work and suit my needs. I think if your looking for a clean sounding guitar this is not it. The guitar seems to bring out its own form of distortion. But as I said before. If your into metal and heavy sounds, this is the guitar for you.

I bought the guitar from a shop and it was set up after the factory. So I have no idea how the Ibanez reps took care of the set up. The pick ups are fine so I left them there. I'm not anal with my guitars. If they sounds right off the bat, I let them do their own thing. As far as flaws there was one slight nick in the finger board. I'm not sure where it came from. I noticed it after owning it for a year. I really don't like the flat finish. Oil from your hands shows up like a sore thumb. Over time from strumming, my fingers rubbing cause a glossy shine in the finish. But it adds character so I don't mind. The action is sweet. The neck is real thin and makes playing a breeze. One complaint is the neck finish though. It's a bit rough, sometime I wonder if I should chalk up before playing.

I believe this guitar could hold its own. Only for metal and rock though. I can't see anyone playing classics on this guitar. I think if I dropped this guitar it would be the end of it. It seems real fragile. The hardware however seems solid. I like the strap bottons they are big and chances of dropping this fragile guitar are slim. I guess Ibanez had that in mind. It's been dependable for the last year and I feel it will continue to be.

Don't know anything. If it breaks or gets stupid. I'll just buy a new one. And yes I would buy another.

Like I said, if it was lost or stolen I'd buy another. I like it for it's metal and rock abilities. I can't say I really hate anything about this guitar. The look of this guitar is sharp though, and I think thats what brought me to buy it in the first place. I must say that if it came up to this guitar vs. my Brian Moore. The Brian Moore would win by a guitar length.

These are all set up the same. V8 and V7 humbuckers, S1 single-coil, controlled with a 5 way switch. Volume and tone knobs. LO-TRS double locking tremelo. This is where I have a problem with the guitar. It is marketed mostly to metal-heads (although very versatile) but doesn't have two volume knobs - very key for Morello style fun. I have rewired my previous two-knob guitars, but this can be expensive at the shop when all those wires are too confusing for people like me. For those of you complaining about the tremelo system...why did you buy this guitar? You need to know what you're getting into when you buy a Floyd Rose guitar. The advantages include guilt-free whammying and never having to tune after stringing - ever. The disadvantage is a more complicated re-stringing process and no dropping D on a whim (what would be ideal is Floyd Rose with those new MIDI pickups). *** Here is how to string this type of guitar *** (1) Open up the backplate. (2) Loosen the screws providing tension to the trem. (3) Place a stick of chapstick between the trem and the backplate. (4) Turn guitar over and re-string one string at a time. (5) Get all strings to tune then remove chapstick, which will cause the tuning to drop a step or so. (6) Tighten the screws evenly until the trem tightens to tune. (7) Relock nut and don't worry about it until your strings turn black.

I run my guitars through a wah and a Digitech RP300 (also a must have) into a Marshall Valvestate 100. Between three pickups, a tone knob, and the multi-fx, I've got more tone than I know what to do with. The V8 is awesome. I've purchased Seymore Duncan pickups as replacements before, but this V8 is here to stay. Great metal sound. I do play a wide variety of music, and really have no problem getting the sound I want. Right now, I'm mostly into old Metallica, Rage, AC/DC, System of a Down, and old White Zombie. I have no problem matching these tones - but I also have the help of song-specific fx patches.

The guitar was set up very well except the high E string was broken between the nut and the tuner, and ringing E flat. I just popped in a new string, not finding the process too difficult. The action is awesome. This guitar replaced my old BC Rich Platinum, and there is a world of difference. The neck is soooo thin and you can barely even feel the strings below your fingers. It was more like I bought an additional two years of experience rather than a new guitar. This guitar is so easy to play, it's unbelievable. It's almost boring playing songs that I found challenging before. Instruments can be very limiting to performance, and this guitar is helping me get to a new level.

I have only had this guitar for about a month, and have had no problems, so I don't feel like I can fully comment here.

Haven't had to deal with Ibanez.

If this guitar were stolen, I would definitely get a new one. I really want another one for a different tuning, but I know I should wait. I really love everything about this guitar except the single volume knob and (as with all floating Floyd Rose trems) no changing tune on the fly. I compared this guitar with many other guitars in this price range, and this one really stood out - seeming as though it should be grouped with much more pricey guitars. I know you're not supposed to submit a super-glowing review, but this guitar really exceeded my expectations!!

2001 Model Made in Korea, 24 frets, solid top, one chrome volume and tone knob, 5-way selector w/ coli taps in 2nd and 4th positions, passive HSH configuration: V8 bridge position high output alnico humbucker, S1 ceramic(?) single coil, V7 high output ceramic humbucker, basswood neck and body, thin Wizard neck, rosewood fingerboard, black finish, contour on the side of the body, floyd rose style floating tremelo bridge, locking tuners, came with gig bag and strap. basically, everything i wanted in a guitar at the time. not very special though.

first of the positions:
five way selector: 1. full bridge humbucker 2. middle sc w/ coil tapped bridge hum 3. middle sc 4. middle sc w/ coil tapped neck hum 5. full neck humbucker

this guitar is very versatile it can get many sounds ranging from twangy blues to warm, acoustic-like tones and heavy distortion. the pickups really don't shine out by themselves but a lot of different sounds are achievable.

1st position: a bit thin sounding on clean, i turned up the bass and treble almost full and it was better, sounded nice, not very special though. distortion is good, nice bass, not very tight, but doesn't ge muddy. treble is a bit harsh, good for low gain blues, not very smooth though. not a lot of mids. i use this position for most of my distorted stuff (metal and punk).

2nd position: less output, twangier. good for acoustic-like lead tones and single notes are fairly sweet. i prefer the tapped neck pu though.

3rd position: the single coil is okay, blues is nice, a bit harsh and percussive sounding, especially with distortion, kinda "quacky".

4th position: big, warm, acoustic-like tone. very nice. good for short passages or chords. very big and warm.

5th position: basically a bigger, warmer, bassier version of the bridge pu. single notes are nice and warm. with distortion, the bass is tight but there seems to be too much of it, it can get muddy.

when i got this guitar i was into mainly punk, such as blink-182, green day, sum. 41, new found glory, and nu metal (korn, limp bizkit, staind, linkin park) and i didn't know much about guitars. this guitar looked sick (black pointy guitar!), had a cool looking bridge (floyd rose), and felt good/was easy to play. now i play mostly metal, ala megadeth, metallica, ozzy/zakk wylde, korn, slipknot, and still some punk and progressive rock: satriani, vai, SRV. and this guitar still fits great with me. i recently replaced the bridge pu with a seymour duncan JB model, very similar to the replaced pu w/ thicker distortion and sweeter clean tones. individually the pickups are okay, and overall this guitar is versatile.

the guitar came with stock ibanez light (42-09) strings i replaced them with regular(46-10) dean markley/ernie ball strings and for a while my git stayed in tune as much as my friend's mice singing acapella, it was horrible. i tuned the strings and by the time i was done tuning the bottom strings were out of tune again, SH*T! i finally figure out how to adjust the spring tension and now it's fine, stays in tune great. action was set fairly low, i raised it a little. pickup height was just fine, good string-to-string balance. the pots were a bit scratchy so i had to unscrew the back plate and spray some WD40 on them. the finish was pretty cheap, typical of ibanez, really thing and the edges chipped especially easily.

the guitar is pretty durable, i've banged it around quite a lot, the finish isn't great and the bridge is rusting. the ibanez floyd rose isn't the same as the original, as ibanez uses cheaper, less solid metal, which means it isn't as durable and doesn't stay in tune as well. i prefer higher end bridges, such as edge's. those in my opinion are the best on the market. strap buttons are pretty solid. i don't gig but in a few years this would be my backup.

never talked to them, 3 year warranty

i've been playing close to a year. i wish i had gotten a HH guitar instead, but this guitar's fine. my only gripes are the bridge and the cheap paint job. if it were stolen, i would track the guy down, impale him with the headstock, and if he were still a live sell him the guitar for double the price i paid or send him to jail. i would definitelyt get a new guitar. if it were a HH guitar i would probably stick EMG's 81/60 in 'em and replace the bridge. good guitar nonetheless

This is a Japanese made 24 fret guitar. The body is made of Basswood and the Neck is maple. The neck width is 44mm which comes out to about 1 11/16. The pickup configuration on mine is H/S/H. It comes with a Floyd Rose trem and has a Wizard II neck.

The sound is very bass oriented (lacking mids). Sounds great unplugged. The pickups are very quiet. This is a great metal guitar but do not buy it if you are looking for a blues sound. It is meant to be played with a lot of distortion and the neck is made for metal riffs. I mostly play rock/metal so it suits my style fine.

Let me first say that when I took the guitar home it made a cracking sound on the neck everytime I picked it up. I returned it an got an exchange. From the factory the second guitar was set up horribly. The action was high & the bridge was not adjusted properly, minor probelms. The frets were not well dressed and I have noticed superficial cracks beginning to form where the neck meets the body. Nothing serious but annoying none the less.

Be aware, the hardware quality is horrible on this model. The screws on the nut began to rust a month after I got it.

This guitar is good for home use or as a backup but it cannot take abuse. The finish is durable but to use this for live playing requires some serious hardware upgrades.

Never had to use it. The store I purchase it from Sam Ash, NYC was great.

I've been playing for 14 years. If this guitar was stolen I would not repalce it. The sound is great both plugged in & acoustically. Compared to other guitars in its price range its a good buy.

The main thing I would like to see changed on this guitar is a narrower, fatter neck. Also better quality hardware.

Every body has already mentioned all of them, has all the features i need

I love the sound of this thing! I play alot of ozzy-metallica type stuff and it does it perfect! I love the tremolo on this thing i can go crazy on it and it doesnt even think about going out of tune. When i compare to my Epi les paul it sounds better with clearer notes on the higher frets, its sounds a bit brighter with distortion and i love the clean tone i get from the V7 in the neck. I'll give it a 9 because its not perfect but pretty damn good.

When i got it the action was a far bit too high and the pickups were too low so i lowered the action and the pickups. the when i was playing i discovered that the trem was raising above the body so i TRIED to adjust it and srewed it all to hell so i figured while it was srewed up i would just new strings on it. that messed it up even more and it ended up taking me and my freind about 2 hours or so to fix it, but now that it is fixed i can change the strings in about 5 min or so, there wasnt any flaws on anything and checked it over really good because of the price i got it for i was skepticle about the quality of it but it is great!

Every thing is rock solid,it will last!

No clue, hope i dont need it!

overall i give it a nine, i love it! When the guy told me the price of the thing over the phone i about shit myself, it was on clearence for $299, but when i called the dude said he would let me have it for $220! What a deal!

2000 Ibanez rg470... medium yellow finish... very nice looking. 24 frets(jumbo) and 5 way selector. H/S/H pickup config and basswood body. Floyd Rose lockin tremolo and lo bridge.

This is the perfect metal guitar. Sounds very very close to Pantera, Slipknot, Slayer, Sabbath, Mudvayne... you can get it to sound just about like any metal guitarist. Not too noisy on back or front setting alone... but on middle pickup it is a little noisy.

Set up perfectly from the factory for a normal person, but I had to go and re-tune it down to C# for Pantera. No flaws whatsoever.

Hardware seems durable and so do the strap buttons. I would use it in a gig without a backup guitar... but I have only played a few gigs so I don't know for sure yet.

I have been playing for approx. 3.5 years and I also have a B.C. Rich bronze warlock and a Washburn dimebag darrell 333(which owns the ibanez). I love the tone versatility and I also like the thin neck it has. If it were stolen, I would pry save up and buy an rg higher up the ladder like a 570 or something... for the few extra features... but all in all this is a sweet guitar.

Made in 2002, most likely in Japan. 24 frets with a laminated top. One tone knob, one volume knob, with a 5-way selector. Passive Ibanez Vintage 7 neck humbucker, S1 middle single-coil, Vintage 8 bridge humbucker. Basswood body with a Wizzard II maple neck. Really cool metallic blue finish. Standard pointy Ibanez body. Ibanez Lo Trs double locking bridge. Nice thin neck with jumbo frets.

I play mostly metal, with some punk thrown in for good measure. This guitar is the best sounding guitar I've played, and it suits my musical tastes perfectly. Right now im using it through a Dunlop Cry-Baby wah pedal and a Crate GX-65 watt amp. Nice and quiet except on the middle single-coil, but that should be expected.

Guitar was set up great from the music store, but i don't know how it was set up from the factory. The action is nice and low, but not so low as to cause fret buzz. No flaws that i can find. It was actually in tune when i brought it home from the store.

Only had it for a couple hours, so I really cant comment on this one.

Never dealt with Ibanez, but Brighton Music Center was VERY helpful and friendly.

GREAT METAL AXE!!!!!!!

2001 Ibanez RG470, Japan made, 24 frets, Lo TRS (Floyd Rose style), normal pointy superstrat. Very thin neck.

The H-S-H pickup routing is pretty good, with better pickups this is a very versatile combination. The bridge pickup is very hot, even on a crystal clean amp setting it sounds dirty and distorted, this pickup had to be raised considerably to get a hope of an artificial harmonic on this guitar, and even now it's still hard, which is confusing considering the power of the pickup. Middle single-coil is very noisy, no real use unless linked with a humbucker in posistions 2 or 4. Neck pickup is thick and warm, although very quiet compared to the bridge. This guitar has a slightly "wiry" tone due to the Floyd Rose style bride. Not usefull for everything, but it gets the job done.

Neck is THIN, which to me is absolutely useless for rhythmym playing, its just too damn thin! My hands are just too big for this guitar,it'd suit those who have small hands or like a thin neck, but it's not for me, my hand's keep falling off it. Definately an aqquired taste, but its not for me. Upper-fret access is superb, deep cutaways and a contoured neck-body bolt mean your comfortable all the way up to 24. Had a few chinks on the back of the body, also had some very odd mark on the lower horn, almost looks like black paint, its not very noticable but its a bit on the odd side.

This guitar would look great live playing due to stage-lighting off its almost glittery paint job, the hardware (especially the bridge) seem's to be able to withstand my slightly over-powerfull picking. The Floyd rose is an interesting one. It's probably my biggest fault of the guitar, it sucks sustain away, it gives a wiry tone, it's not too good for dive-bombs, or EVH style whammy-bar abuse without strings snapping. And when a string DOES break, its time to get the anger management books out. On the plus side though, that with all floating bridge, whenever you pick a string, the entire bridge flexes, lessening the wear on the strings, thus making them last alot longer, I've not broken a string on this guitar yet apart from when using the whammy bar. The floyd rose really lets this guitar down, I dont see myself using a Floyd Rose equiped guitar again.

No dealings with them.

The Floyd Rose and the neck are my main concerns here, I just cant use them. I'm not sure whether its due to the scale length or not but for some reason this guitar feels very uncomfortable to strum away on, this is an aqquired taste, but not for me.

Read the other reviews, except this is a black one, made in 2000, Japanese etc.

I play a bilot of everything in the broad Rock genre. Punkt to thrash, abit of Robert Palmer, 80's pop covers.

I play through a couple of different setups. Acoustically it has quite a neutral, but well sustained sound.

I generally practice through a korg AX10G (cheap multifex). It sounds just the same as everything else, except on the low gain patches, where it has a noticably fuller and deeper tone than some of my other guitars.

Through my serious stuff (Marshall JMP1, Behringer tube composer, Into mixing desk with some EQ adjustment) it can be a fickle beast. It ranges from tear you head off, uncontrollable tone etc, if played with too much gain, all the way too the best, chunkiest metal guitar sound I have ever heard. It has clarity especially when combining the single coil with the humbuckers. We used to cover Mr Crowley (you know the one) and it was our start of practice warm up and end of practice run down. I swear we used to play that song for an hour a night, and the ridiculous sounds (in the way of tremolo dives, pick scrapes, and harmonic screams)we managed to get just never got dull.

The whole thing was setup beautifully. In fact when I bought it I compared it with a Satriani model, and it blew it away, even though the JS was way more expensive.

Recently I have been using thicker strings (.0010, oh my god they are like tree trunks to a super strat type like me)with a higher action, and it still plays fantastically if not better than with a super low action. The added bonus is that my finger strength, and picking accuracy is really improving. So aet up your guitars badly like me, and improve your playing.

Solid work horse, totally vrsatile. Once setup it is incredibly stable. I used to break plectrums on the strings from being just too metal for words, and it never even detuned, with serious abuse that is impressive. Definately one to buy if you want a main axe that can do everything well.

They wont sell me a seperate neck with inverted headstock, and I don't want to pay over a grand for a PGM, which is basically an rg 4xx or 5xx with said inverted head.

I have been playing for 10 yrs, and I also own a fender pre CBS Musicmaster, and an Ibanez DT350 (80's pointy guitar). They are good, but the RG is way better.

I have played alot of guitars over the years (les pauls, washburns, charvel, jackson, more fenders, cheapies, the lot). The only other guitars that I liked as much in the same style were charvels (my other Ibanez is pretty good too). The only guitar to beat it was an early Jem. Since the RG is really a low spec Jem I suppose that is not too bad.

What don't I like.

1. Ibanez wont sell you custom bits. I want to use Ibanez parts and i can't.

2. For me the fret wire is too chunky, but after a while you get used to it.

3. The pickup sound is raw and powerful. This can be good, but it is tempting to turn it up to 11, you never get the best sound that the guitar can give that way.

4. Setup is a bitch, really, It takes me hours to get it in tune. Iam sure for professional it is a 2 minute job, but for me it is a real chore. This means that I don't restring as often as I should. Or worse still when I am practiicng or gigging, I spend 4 hours a fortnight restringing and buggering about.

Other than that it is a dream (once it is setup it is truly a lovely guitar). I actually wanted an Ibanez for about 7 or 8 years befroe i bought this, and I wasn't disappointed. It is arguably one of the best alround guitars that money can buy, after the HM strat.