Ibanez RG550

Early nineties, made in Japan. White with black pickguard. V1, V2, and S1 pickups. Edge tremolo. Gotoh tuners. Wizard neck with jumbo frets.

Capable of convincing Metal, Classic Rock, and surprisingly Country sounds. Have thought about upgrading pickups to Dimarzios or Duncans, but I'm afraid I'd lose the nice, ratty distortion that the stock pickups are capable of.

Incredible playability with the jumbo frets. Intonation is more precise over the whole neck than any Fender. Stays in tune forever. The neck does not move.

Bullet proof.

For the money a used RG550 is hard to beat.

1999 USA, 24 FRET, Ibanez design pickups, blah blah.

It's an Ibanez! Full locking, low-profile, Floyd Rose trem system.
Jumbo frets, shallow neck, sounds more like a laser gun than a guitar.

I was given an amazing offer on purchasing the guitar, spend #500 on this guitar-shaped lump of butter and get an Ibanez hard case for only #90. Where's my wallet.

Forget brands and small names which make things better, this isn't a guitar, it's an Ibanez.

It sounds like a laser gun battle when playing lead, using any effect you want because the pickups are super high gain, and there is little resonation to speak of. Less wood means faster playing, and that's why you want one isn't it?
The guitar can make 2 sounds, 2nd rate Satriani lead or scratchy, tinny......deadness.
Guitars are guitars, I know. But good pickups, nice resonance and sustain, and a good solid sound do matter.

Action, as low as you can get it - It's for Satriani and Dream Theatre fans (nothing wrong with a bit of Satch, but you're not him. Stop it.)
Very well made, well put together, but for #500 I want Semour Duncans on there, not Ibanez S8 or whatever they are.
If you don't know how to setup a guitar (action, intonation, truss) don't get one. Ibanez guitars like the RG are expensive hobbies. If you exhale whilst using the Ibanez, the heat from your breath will melt it. Then you'll have to spend a couple of hours re-setting everything and getting rid of the buzzes. If you take it back to the store, they'll take it away, set it up, file down the frets (every time I took it back because I did have time to fix it, they said, "Oh, the frets need filing down.") which will cost up to #30.
I spent more time getting it set up than playing it.
This is what will happen, I guarantee. But of course, action, fit and finish. Perfect.

If you manage to keep the guitar set up with no buzzes, in tune, for more than 2 hours, yes, you can play a gig with it.
You could keep your Ibanez for a hundred years, they are very well made and have excellent parts. They also feature oversized strap pegs so your strap doesn't fall off, causing the guitar to swing to ground and break it's brittle neck.
The paint is very thin. I had to recover a patch on the edge of the guitar where it had rubbed against various cotton shirts.

Ibanez are a very friendly and helpful company (in my opinion). It is very costly to get the guitar repaired if it's not under warranty.
If you have spent a lot of money on the guitar, when you come to ask for spare parts they'll send them for free (even a tuning head!) or at least, they did when I sent for them.

I bought this guitar as a young, foolish, lead guitarist.
Ibanez do make great guitars, but this isn't one of them. I have an Ibanez Performance Nylon strung electro-acoustic classical guitar which is beautiful, and I've just got rid of an Ibanez Artist (I regret) which was one piece, solid mahogany, vintage semour duncan humbuckers, fantastic chunky tuning heads, great sustain, solid as a house (a really good house), sounded amazing. I want it back. Buy one like that, not a Vai looking super guitar. You'll regret it.
Hey, I almost forgot the best part! The guitar comes with a little booklet showing you how to adjust your guitar (if you're learning from the booklet, you can't do it, don't do it) and a couple of Allen Keys, but if you use them and try and do it yourself (as instructed) they'll try as hard as they can to void your warranty. I had to get a fucking letter from Ibanez before the store would touch it....again.

yr2000 made in japan.
24 Frets
it has a volume and tone knob, and a 5 way pickup selector
H/S/H pickup config
Ibanez S1 single coil and V7 and V8 Humbuckers
Ibanez edge trem bridge
its got a maple neck and fingerboard
basswood body.

this guitar sounds great, especially clean, overdrive is pretty good too, just a tad muddy, im thinking of replacing the stock bridge pickup with a dimarzio
I love basically everything about the sounds (I generally use a clean tone)
Its got a great variety of sounds, due to the pickup config.

the finish seems to be tough and durable, ive hit it against stuff by accident and it seems to still stay in perfect shape.
pickups were adjusted great when I got it, no need to change the position
everything seemed in perfect condition, and no need for adjustment.

This guitar is very tough so i think it would
the hardware, if treated correctly would last.
the finish is great, nice and thick
the strap buttons are one of the many high points on this guitar, they're really big in circumference so your strap stays on really well.
I could depend on it
I would use a backup definately, regardless of what guitar I used.

Never dealt with ibanez

Great guitar for rock/heavy rock, if it were stolen id get the police to find that moron and get it back.
It compares well up to my fender deluxe plus telecaster usa , just lacks a little on the overdrive front.
I wish it had a non-locking bridge, which I am going to get.
Great guitar.

I have a black left handed Ibanez 550 custom. Originally bought as Ibanez RG560 in 1991 in London. I had it customised with a humbucker in the neck position and a scratchplate built, so I believe it qualifies. It may well be one of the first batch shipped over to the UK. It's pretty much perfect as a rock guitar and has served me extremely well over the years. Sure the pickups aren't as responsive as Evolutions, but they're very powerful and produce that unmistakable Jem-like sound. Nothing has ever stopped working.. the Floyd Rose licenced whammy has never lost pitch.
My only reservation with these guitars is that they're so closely associated with Steve Vai (which was the idea at the time!) that they take something away from your own presence on stage.
Nowadays there's far more choice if you want a precision built rock guitar, but the 550's hold their own with some of the best mid price axes out there.
But if money was no object, you might want an Ernie Ball MusicMan, or one of todays Fender Delux Strats. I think the 550 is a young man's instrument. I'm 34 mow and since I bought my Delux Strat in 2003, I hardly play my 550. Nevertheless, it's a fine instrument and I cherish it.

Bought 2nd hand so I cannae be sure how old it is, though the guy who sold it to me said he'd had it about 10 years from new. Everything standard, Floyd Rose Tremelo, locking nut, etc. Body and headstock in royal blue and in good order - no scratches apart from a couple of knocks around the cutaway underneath, nothing off putting unless it's going to be decorative instead of fun. Maple neck with interesting grain patterns. Given 8 'cos I don't really use the tremelo too much, though everything else is superb.

Sounds great. Bright and crisp through bridge pickup, can thrash the hell out of it without losing any sound clarity. Lovely soft tones through the other pickups Good bluesey stomp with the tone and volume low through the neck pickup.

When bought it hadn't seen any attention for ages (from the look and feel of it) and the bridge had jacked itself up too high. After I'd changed the strings, used a little fast-fret and set the tremelo springs up it felt very comfortable. I also have a Fender Tele and the action is as good. The finish is excellent apart from the previously mentioned blemishes. Tuning stability is good and when I do use the wammy bar (not too often and only to piss off the missus) it holds its tune well. In fact I last tuned it 2 weeks ago and I play it every day, so not bad.

Never been gigged but it've never had to retune whilst playing it, even when practicing string bendy solo's for ages. The pickup selector was a bit unpredictable when set to the bridge pickup but some cleaning soon sorted that out.

Never had anything to do with them.

Been playing 8 yours and this is the best guitar I've played. I've also got the tele and an Ibanez SA160. They're both quality guitars too but this one for the age, price and quility is wicked. If stolen I'd consider getting another, though as I don't use the trem I might use the insurance money for that Epiphone Les Paul Standard I've had my eye on. Maybe that's just greedy?

Mine is from 1987-1988 production, made in japan. has a basswood body, V1(NECK) , S1 (MIDDLE) AND V2 *BRIDGE) PUP. IBANEZ EDGE BRIDGE, Orange finish (the original finish is PINK but it had changed onto orange ), Black hardware (GOTOH TUNER) and pickguard, matching painted headtsock. wizard neck (17mm). because i got it only spend 100USD then i give "10" to this rating =))

the souhd i heard from this guitar is more warm than the usual RG because maybe its maple fretboard or the V1-V2 PUP. i dunno exactly. and i've allready changed the pickup with seymour duncan distortion neck-bridge (SH6-TB6) . the sound is still warm but more muscular especially in mid and more bass.

i did some re-action to match it with my hand and playing. then the guitar is very comfortable. low action and still no buzzing.

i think the ibanez RG (esp. japan RG) is the very reliable guitar. 17years after used it still looks very "gentleman" and more "mature" because of its age . =))

my country has an ibanez distributor, but i think that ibanez costumer service is OK. very friendly with the costumer :)

i've benn playing guitar for almost 10years. i had a fender 70's strat which i already changed the pickup with seymour hotrails and dimarzio chopper.
my suggests for u all :
if u want the very comfortable guitar for playing shred, just buy IBANEZ RG-JAPAN

Rosewood fingeboard, maple neck, 24 fret, basswood body. Strat-ish.
All black finish, exept for neck (natural)
Floyd-Rose licenced trem.
97' Japan model.
Pickups as fitted, V7,S1,V8, neck-to-bridge, (for now).
5 way selector switch.
Came complete with new alligator hardcase and hex keys.
Only one volume ant tone control. For me this limits it's usefullness.

I use it for metal, rock, and plenty loud with distortion. Use thru pod at home, and pod/marshall gigs, with Digitec multi-fx.

The bridge pickup is a bit muddy and undefined at the low end, sort of 'wooly', and lacks real sparkle at the top end. You can't really use this for drop tunings, it sounds a bit too floppy. Palm muting is tricky, and not terribly satisfactory. Probably the V8 is not the best match for the basswood body. Which is a shame, cos' it looks like you should be playing it like that. I am hoping that putting an Di-Marzio Evoloution in the bridge will tighten this up.
The other pups are not too bad, and you can get quite a reasonable range of sounds, but as with the bridge pup, used clean they lack charachter, and with lots of distortion they 'muddy-up' a bit. But I don't use the other pups much anyhow, maybe I would if they were nicer. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that they are terrible, just not really quite there.
Having said all that, they are very quiet. Even with a lot of gain, the only noticable hum I get is when using the middle single coil pup, which is kind of expected. I think that the way the pickup swithing is arranged, for the 'mixed' switch positions (2 & 4) uses a single coil out of one of the humbuckers in a hum-bucking arrangement with the single coil, so not much hum there either. When using the bridge or neck pup I really have to get very close to hum sources before it gets nasty. It's a pity that the sound of the pups lets it down a bit.

Dunno about factory setup I bought it second-hand, but it was in very good nick when I got it. In fact it still had the plastic peel-off film on the scratchplate. (Mind you even with the case 'thrown-in', at the asking price, it would have to be pretty near perfect.)
I certainly can't say that I could find any obvious flaws at the time, and still haven't spotted any in two years. The action is as low as I can get it allowing for tremelo travel, and I get no annoying fret buzz, anywhere. The frets appear to be very well 'dressed', smooth and even all the way.
If that's the way they all leave the factory, then I have to say very good indeed good. I'd give it 10 if it was a fancy figured lump of wood, but it's jus plain black. (Shiny tho')


Overall I think the build quality is very good, only it's let down by that pesky trem.

Depends what you do with it. Drop it on its head, you willprobably crack the neck. That will happen with all wooden necked guitars.

Maybe the previous owner did'nt play it much, I don't know, but I still can't find any chips or scratches in the finish after playing it nearly every day for two years now. (And I do wear a buckle on my belt!)

The rosewood fingerboard might suffer a bit if you continually drip sweat all over it, but if you look after it, I can't see any particular problem there.
The finish seems to be tough enough. Like I said I can't see any marks on it, although right now it could probably do with a good polish.
The strap buttons are bigger than most. In fact I have had to cut extra slack into the leather of the new strap I got before I could get it on. Even now it can be hard work getting it on and off. I don't see that it is going to fall off in a hurry.
I would use it without a backup if a had to, but because of the floating trem, I would make sure I put new strings on it first. otherwise, I don't think it is likley to break under normal gigging conditions.

Never tried. I have had to replace the trem arm bushes a couple of times, but I can get those at my local music shop. (GAK in Brighton.) (The bushes I mean, make your own mind up about the shop.)
I got this guitar second hand from a shop in Crawley, so I only got the shops guarantee.

I've been playing for some 20 years or so now, and have owned quite a bit of stuff in that time and, this is one of the better guitars I have owned, or used in that time. Currently I have a Gibson Nighthawk, and a couple of Fenders, but I have in the past owned a couple of Les Pauls (not at the same time), the last one of which got stolen, and some other stuff (Rickenbacker, Sheregold etc.)

I dont like the snap-in trem-arm. It sits in a plastic socket, and after a short period of use becomes very slack. This is after renewing the little plastic bushes twice. I like the trem to stay where I left it, not swinging about. What's more, this makes it 'knock' when you waggle it, or gargle the trem, which at high gains is quite audible. I have resorted do wrapping a couple of turns of dental floss under the bushes to keep them snug. I would have preferred a locknut on the trem to alow this to be adjusted.

Also I would have liked more knobs to fiddle with, it would be useful to be able to set the level of the two 'buckers separatley.

I think the pickups let also lety it down a bit. Now that's really a matter of taste, someone else may think that they really rock. But I find that they don't have enough 'character' to use clean, and haven't got the tight 'punchiness' to use heavily overdriven. They're not quite one thing nor t'other. They're not the hottest pickup I've come accross either. (But what the hey, just turn the gain up!) On a different guitar they might just decide what they want to be, but not this one. I am going to try fitting an 'Evo' into the bridge position to see what happens, just as soon as they can get me a purple one. (Hey, it needs something to set-off all that black!) I think that one of these might do the rest of the instrument justice, we shall see. If it does, then the neck pup might get changed-out too.

I would be tempted to give this an overall 7 the price tho, and given the exellent condition, setup, and finish (Ok shiny black isn't particularily hard.)I will go that one more than that.

Well,this guitar was made in Japan.Has 24 frets(Jumbo frets)
It has a volume and a tone and a 5-way selector.pickups r cool: H/S/H they are Ibanez V8/S1/V7 passive pickups
Body is made of Basswood.Dont know what the neck is made of!!
It is a Start.The bridg rocks i:its a liscenced Floyd Rose bridge.
I got this guitar used and it came with a case.

I play thrash and Death metal.This guitar is good for these styles but not the best!I dont have an amp but I use it with a Zoom 707 II.
The guitar aint noisy in fact I use it with lots of gain and boost and has no noise!The sound of Ibanez is a uniqe sound especially the Rg series because they are very versatile.somewhat rich but not very bright.It gives a good palm mute(not a great one because I like Jackson more!)But generallt i like the sound.

My guitar was a used one and didnt have any problems!

The hardware seems everlasting!The finish is good and lasting.The general thing is good but I wont use it with a gigbag!!

didnt have trouble!

I have been playing for 3 years and I owned an awfully stupid guitar.But if this one is stolen I would definitly go for a Jackson or ESP.I love the bridge it really rocks.I compared this to a Jackson Rhandy Roads and Rg370.The Jackson whad great pickups but 22 frets and Rg370 simply SUX!I wish it had EMG or Seymour Duncan pickups.

I have two of these guitars. You know all of the features. The two things that make this guitar THE SHIT are the maple Wizard neck and Edge trem. The first one is a 1989 Desert Sun Neon Yellow, the second is a 1990 in off white. Both are identical except for the pickups. Both have 100% stock pickups, but the 1989 550 has slightly different text printed on the pickups. The '89 reads IBZ V2, IBZ v1 and IBZ S1. The 1990 doesn't have the "IBZ" on them, just V1, V2 and S1. That's the only difference. I'm sure they just did this to mark the change over to a new decade in 1990. They're still the same pickups, just with a newer look. These pickups aren't the greatest, but they're fine if you're playing through a lot of effects. I'm purposely keeping everything stock on both of these. These were considered decent pickups back in the day, and I'm sure quite a few good shred guitar records were recorded with this guitar back then, stock pickups and all. I have EMG'S and Dimarzios on my other guitars. I want these 550's to remain completely un-fucked-with 100%. They were both made 15 years ago, and they still destroy all of the shit that's on the market today. I'm keeping them "frozen in time" so to speak.

Like I said, the stock pickups are still on both. I would compare the sound of these original pickups to today's "Duncan Designed" pickups. They're both in the same boat. They won't blow your mind with the greatest sounds on Earth, but they're definitely not total shit. I only play these 550's at home in the practice room, I currently use an ESP LTD Horizon with an EMG 81 with my metal band Enforsaken (www.Enforsaken.com shameless plug :),at home I play the 550's through an old Crate practice amp and a Boss ME 30 processor. Sounds good too me. I don't gig with the 550's, so I can definitely live with the sounds I get out of the stock pickups. After 15 years, the electronics/pots etc are still tip top. No scratching, dropouts, excessive noise etc. Compare that to the crappy out of the box "made in India" Jackson's you'll find in the stores today. They're fucked before you even get them home. If you want to define crappy stock pickups, get a new mid price model BC Rich or Jackson. Schecter too. Some use the Duncan Designed, but the ones with "BC RICH" Or "JACKSON" stamped on them are PURE SHIT. 2 conductor cheapness. The stock rg550 pu's are much better. I heard they're based on Dimarzio's anyways, so I'm cool with them.

My Yellow one is a little beat up, so I will base this review on my white 1990 model. The action is super low. Nothing compares to the nect on these guitars. Beautiful. It's got 11-49 guage strings on it, tuned to E flat. Very little fret buzz. The action is ultra low. Ridiculously low, actually. That's the only way the action should be on these. Having High or medium action on these defeats the purpose of this guitar. If you don't know how to properly set up a guitar yourself, try to find an experienced guitar repair shop that will set it up for you. You'll be happy you did. Both of these are used, i'm not the original owner. All of the hardware/electronics has held up just fine over the years. Well built in every way....except the paint. I do agree with the people that say it chips easy. Very thin coat on both. Not really Ibanez's fault...I'm the one who scraped up against a wall with it. It wouldn't of chipped off by iteself.

Solid as hell when set up correctly. I would play them live without a backup any day. I never play live with a backup anyway. Always fly by the seat of my pants. I just make sure to have new strings on my guitar before a live show. Haven't ever had a problem. Too lazy to be carrying around tons of guitars becuase I'm insecure of my main guitar. That's no way to live. ;-) If you break a string playing a Creed cover at the same dive bar you've been playing for the past 10 years, maybe it's a sign? Maybe you should take that broken string and just hang yourself with it. Haha!

Never had the need.

I can honestly say that I HAVE HAD THIS GUITAR STOLEN. I got a Desert yellow 550 off a friend in 1999 or 2000. I was trying to get him to sell it since 1995. He wouldn't do it...until he was broke one day. I can't remember what I paid or traded him for it, but I was happier than a pig in shit the day I finally got it from him. The first thing I did was take all of the hardware and neck off to repaint it. I was repainting it in a locked storage room at my dad's apartment complex. I would go in, put a coat on. then come back in 15 minutes tops. I always kept an eye on the door to make sure nobody went in and stole it. I went into my dad's apartment (25 feet away from the storage room) to take a leak before the 4th coat of paint was applied. Upon my return to the storage room, I found that my fucking RG 550 body was long gone. I was gone for two fucking minutes. I know who did it, but was never able to prove it. This was a locked storage room that nobody could get into without a key. Nobody ever went in there. A perfect place for a painting project if you live in an apartment. FUCK WAS I PISSED! I tried to get that guitar off my friend for 5 years, then not two days after I get it it's gone. I eneded up selling the neck and edge trem on ebay...So anyways, since that day I haven't had a 550. I've recently bought two new ones. I missed the low action, even though I'm not a fan of Floyd Rose's. One in desert yellow just like the one that was stolen, and a super mint white one. these two aren't leaving the house. They won't be stolen this time. I'm older and a little wiser than I used to be. Smart enough not to leave a guitar out in a storage room even for 1 minute unattended. Shit, I probably would have stolen it too back then myself. This guitar is worth the jail time.

I've got a laste eighties model(Japanese), left handed... I'm not sure what colour it used to be, but someone refinished it and did a horrible job, so it will soon be purple. the pickboard is black. I have to say the thign looks horrible, but that is due to the previous owner, so I'm not going to dock anything for it. The action was great!!

I've only got one of the original pickups in it, the Ibanez V1 right underneath the neck. I've got a fender single coil and an emg to fill in the other spaces. The EMG is greta for distortion, and the V1 plays great for clean, So I'm really happy with the sound.

Wow. when I first bought the instrument, it had first come into the store and one of the pickups didn't work. I brought it back and the owner of the shop put a new one in for me (the EMG) and replaced the singlecoil too, since that was apparently also not working. The action is fantastic, And everything else on it is good except one of the knobs fell off:)

Hah. If it lasted through the last person that owned it, it will ast through anything.

I <3 this guitar, my other one was bought new and I'm fairly afraid to bump it, so its nice to have one that I can smash up without being scared of hurting. Awesome guitar overall, I'm glad to have it :)