Ibanez K7APEX2

I know that my camera sucks, sorry about that.

Looks The guitar is in green shadow flat, and it is flat. There is no shine on it at all. All of the hardware is a grey finish, almost like a aluminum oxide blast finish on stainless. The head stock has a grey Ibanez logo. The fret board is VERY CLEAN looking. The wood is just beautiful, the frets have been hand filed and fitted, I tell you how I know later. The Apex logo at the twelve fret is nice and no marker dots just add to the Clean "plain jane" look.
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Notes as a Machinist All of the routing is done TIGHT. the they put a small radius on the pickup cavities and slot for the switch instead of the normal Ibanez .020-.030 45 deg. chamfer. Also the routed cavity for the bridge is the same with no front to back slop. The holes are crisp, no indentation from the drill shoulder that I see on my 7321 for the hardware screws or plugs for the string holes. It almost looks like they took some time to tool and set up a mill for the body profile.
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Controls Just a volume pot and a 3 way switch. I have already wired it the way I like with the switch being bridge-kill-neck. The Grotoh tuners are great. There is no slop going tuning up or down and the are locked in with a threaded bushing instead of a nut on a threaded shaft like most factory tuners. The Input jack is by the rear strap button and goes in down. It's diffrent but works great and keeps it out of the way.


Sound and Playability The guitar is nice and easy to play. The neck, like the body is flat, both front and back (=) its shaped like that but the flats are level with the ends of the radius. The DiMarzio PAF-7's sound great, but are too middy for me, but are well balanced for all seven strings switching from a 7321 to the apex takes no time. palm mutes are easy with the tune-o-matic bridge. The sustain is unreal. You strike a note and it will last for ever. I have played it as hard as I can and it stays in tune.

Over all A lot of people say the APEX2 is just a warmed over 7321 but it is not. It is well made and some more time is put into its construction. When I got it there was a small mark on the neck binding by the 5th fret marker from what looks like a fret crowning file. Also there is a thumb print in green on the back of the head stock. It feels great and is well worth the money I paid for it. I would buy another and recommend it to someone else.

I ordered a blaze bridge for it, that is about the only thing I plan to change, plus the dulop straploks for it.
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