[Atomic_gerbil]

Originally Posted by Stitch

Oh, shut up. The Xiphos is boring? The new ZR is boring? What exactly do you want? Holographic guitars?

He has a point stitch, no need to get all Ibanez protective. (Oh wait, I'm talking to Stitch here....I'm )

Its a boring guitar. Basswood? Ibby pups? Black? I doesn't exactly make me GAS...

IMO, Ibby's best release for this year was the XPT707FX.

I love me some RG2610Z though...

[8string]

What the hell is wrong with basswood?

[FortePenance]

People criticize it because it's a soft wood and is found often on cheap guitars. Tonewise, nothing is wrong with it.

[Atomic_gerbil]

Originally Posted by 8string

What the hell is wrong with basswood?

Read below.

Originally Posted by FortePenance

People criticize it because it's a soft wood and is found often on cheap guitars. Tonewise, nothing is wrong with it.

People like me criticize it because I've owned several basswood body guitars. It sounds dull, it barely resonates, and I still don't understand why Ibanez uses it on their prestige models. The RG1570 was an excellent guitar, it played great, but it sure as hell didn't sound great. My buddy has his with some Dimarzio Evo's in them, and it does them no justice. He also tried to build his own guitar, and guess how much a slab of basswood the size of a normal RG cost him? 16$. Price of most RG Prestiges: 1200$~

The best Ibanez model I have by far EVER owned was an RGT42FX, the mahogany bodied neck-through RG with stock pickups. The thing sounded great, and it was the guitar that got me into mahogany, which I still use (Hellraiser)

[FortePenance]

Dull, maybe but I could equally argue that maple sounds icepicky and mahogany sounds muddy. People can get great bright tones from basswood though- Van Halen for example. Resonating? Well, that could have been Ibanez's flaw in manufacturing design. Would you believe that high end Suhrs or Tom Andersons made of basswood would have little to no resonance?

[Atomic_gerbil]

You have a valid point, but in my opinion, it is a shame to use such a wood in a beautiful guitar. I'd like to have a combination of woods if I were spending big bucks on a custom axe, myself.

Does anyone know if there are any types of basswood? (For example, we have african mahogany, nato, and american mahogany)

[FortePenance]

Yeah, but Ibanez ain't no custom haha. I've said it before, but I reckon the States get shortsticked compared to asia for Ibbies. Really popular here, and that's cuz they're reasonably cheaper. For example, the RGT6EXFX. 700 over here, 850 over there. @_@

As for basswood yeah, there's like american basswood or something. Ibanez advertised one of the later JEMs or JSes as "american basswood".

[Atomic_gerbil]

Originally Posted by FortePenance

Yeah, but Ibanez ain't no custom haha. I've said it before, but I reckon the States get shortsticked compared to asia for Ibbies. Really popular here, and that's cuz they're reasonably cheaper. For example, the RGT6EXFX. 700 over here, 850 over there. @_@

As for basswood yeah, there's like american basswood or something. Ibanez advertised one of the later JEMs or JSes as "american basswood".

Yeah, sometimes we get good deals, some other times we get boned.

[Metal Ken]

Originally Posted by FortePenance

Dull, maybe but I could equally argue that maple sounds icepicky and mahogany sounds muddy.

I'd argue you need to change your amp settings. Compare a basswood guitar to an ash, mahogany, alder, whatever guitar unplugged. The basswood sounds flat and without resonance. Yeah, there's been some great tones achieved using that wood, but god damn, why would you want to have to go through all that extra eq'ing just to get to the point where other guitars are lready at soundwise?

The main thing that made me sel my UV was that after playing through my mesa and my band's singer's JCm2000, my 320$ Conklin with stock pickups and my C7 Hellraiser owned my UV. Why did my 300$ guitar sound better after i spent all that time tweaking the dial to get the UV to sound great? with no further tweaks?
Even then, i'd compare my HR to my UV, and the HR was just so snappy and resonant compared to the UV. Even my loomis is (both having trems, are on more equal ground for comparison).

[Celiak]

American basswood is a specific species so it is the only type they would be referring to but there are other species of basswood. I live where a lot of it grows, it dries really quickly and burns fairly good too, we used it as firewood when I was a child .

Economically it's a good wood to use, it grows fast and large, it's easy to carve and work with, it's consistent, and it's cheap. The only problem is like you said it sounds mediocre in most cases, it's not the worst but it's down there on the list.

Ibanez makes a good guitar, I just think they do need to make more models like the Xiphos where the combination of woods is of higher quality in regards to tone.