# NGD: Ibanez RGAIX7FMOMGWTFBBQSAUCE



## BillCosby (Feb 16, 2016)

So, I got this beauty a bit earlier than anticipated. AMS was saying the earliest they would get these was 2/29, but this still showed up today.

I'm guessing they got one in early to take stock photos with, and packed it back up and sent it to me. The serial looks to be the same as the stock pics on the site, and the grain looks like a close match. I could be wrong, though.

Anyway, on to the guitar. I didn't take a ton of pictures, because I just have a camera on my phone, I suck at pictures, and I'm lazy. Plus, I was busy playing it. It is beautiful in person, though. The satin finish feels really nice to the touch, too.

The neck feels great, pretty similar to my RG7421xl, albeit 25.5" instead of 27" scale. The guitar is very comfortable, and feels solid. The ebony and the mahogany grain look pretty, too. The Gotoh locking tuners work great and hold tune very well.

The guitar had a slightly bowed neck and high action when it arroved, so I spent time setting it up before playing. That was kind of expected, though. I was able to get the action as low as I prefer it to be without any adverse buzzing (i.e. bad/high frets).

The Fusion Edge pickups are decent. I kind of figured they would be just like New 7s from the 7620s, and they pretty much are. They sound a bit better than I remember the New 7s sounding, and I actually like the neck pickup a lot. However, I really prefer the Nazgul in my RG7421xl.

I made a short comparison recording and uploaded it to soundcloud. The description explains what is what. I didn't record any bass, so it doesn't affect how you hear the guitars.

www.soundcloud.com/scarangella/ibanez-rgaix7fm-tone-comparison

I'll give more impressions on it after I am able to use it at band practice this weekend.


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## Iamatlas (Feb 16, 2016)

HNGD Dude! Great looking axe. Actually might be the first Ibanez I would consider buying in a number of years!


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## AkiraSpectrum (Feb 16, 2016)

Looks wicked!
Thanks for the sound clip comparison, nice to get an idea of how the Fusion Edge's compare to another pickup.
Looking forward to your in-depth review once you've had some more time with it.


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## Alex Kenivel (Feb 16, 2016)

Clean


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## A-Branger (Feb 17, 2016)

niiiiiiice


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## rewihendrix (Feb 17, 2016)

Nice, I really like those.

Without knowing what your EQ settings are, I have a sneaking suspicion the fusion edge is just tone zone and air norton (in a 7 string model). Particularly that bridge pickup has that lack of highs that I'm trying to deal with on my new prestige. The neck pickup and split positions are great though.


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## BillCosby (Feb 17, 2016)

I have a feeling you may be right. The neck pickup definitely has an Air Norton vibe. I've never had a tone zone before, so I wouldn't know. Probably gonna change it out for a Nazgul, but the routes are DiMarzio sized. So, maybe a Titan, or Illuminator.


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## blckrnblckt (Feb 17, 2016)

Please more pictures!


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## BillCosby (Feb 17, 2016)

I'll take some more tomorrow when there is better light.


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## OmegaSlayer (Feb 17, 2016)

HNGD!!!
I'm very jelly here


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## Santuzzo (Feb 17, 2016)

awesome!
Congrats! this is one of the new models that interests me the most (this, and that blue RG Prestige with the maple fretboard).


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## Ordacleaphobia (Feb 17, 2016)

Well that was fast.
Interesting to hear about the pickups, I've been pretty excited to hear how the Fusion Edge sounds, since all the demos so far sounded pretty solid.


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## Fierce_Swe (Feb 17, 2016)

HNGD! The RGA archtop looks really great. They (Ibanez) should do an set neck or a neck through version of this.


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## ibanice (Feb 17, 2016)

HNGD dude!

This is the first Ibanez that has come from a new catalog that I MUST HAVE! As soon as I've got the cash I'm gonna pull the trigger on this guitar! I've always loved the RGA shape and it actually suits my body better than the RG shape does. So I'm so excited to get the cash to buy one!

Besides that. It just looks awesome!


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## ibanice (Feb 17, 2016)

EDIT: Just ordered one... couldn't wait! Now the waiting game begins!!!


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## Ordacleaphobia (Feb 17, 2016)

ibanice said:


> EDIT: Just ordered one... couldn't wait! Now the waiting game begins!!!



Its like you just divided by zero.


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## ibanice (Feb 17, 2016)

Ordacleaphobia said:


> Its like you just divided by zero.



Pretty much...


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## Keirosen (Feb 17, 2016)

Congrats dude! She looks great and sounds even better! I can't wait till mine comes in!


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## BillCosby (Feb 17, 2016)

More pics for you guys. 
















2 of my cats started begging for food in the middle of picture-taking.




Started restringing/swapping pickup, so I got a shot of the ebony board.




Pretty clean wiring.




So, I had no idea DiMarzio had quick connect pickups.


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## accidental (Feb 17, 2016)

Niiice. It's actually the first RGA I've liked. Also, I've never seen dimarzios with quick connects like that. Makes me want to take the tone zone and air norton out of my new iron label s just to check.


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## Keirosen (Feb 17, 2016)

You're makin' me drool even harder over here, man. Haha


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## MattThePenguin (Feb 17, 2016)

That is the cleanest Iron Label I've ever seen.


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## kevdes93 (Feb 17, 2016)

Oh man, I might need to grab one of these when they start popping up used. Looks real slick


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## weirdoku (Feb 17, 2016)

Goddamn it I don't need any more guitars! This is real tidy looking!


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## BillCosby (Feb 17, 2016)

Thank you Ibanez for making the pickup routes deep enough for Duncans. Just had to clip the tabs a little, but the Nazgul fit great.





As opposed to my RG7421xl, I had to flatten the tabs, cut them, drill new holes, then route the pickup cavity to fit the screws that stick out the bottom side of the Nazgul.


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## Edika (Feb 17, 2016)

I'm gassing for one of these pretty hard. I'm just being cautious as these are Iron Labels and their track record (as a line) hasn't been stellar. Yours looks great and from the sound of it plays great too.

I think the quick connect is anew feature, mainly for the Fusion pickups as Dimarzio is building them for Ibanez exclusively. All their other pickups should be standard solder joined. Also is this conductive paint for noise reduction in the cavity?


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## Santuzzo (Feb 17, 2016)

Thanks for all those pics, they don't really help the GAS, though.
Very, very nice guitar !!!


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## kootenay (Feb 17, 2016)

I am so torn between this and the new RGD.... one of them will be mine in a few months.

Nice guitar btw, congrats!


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## StrmRidr (Feb 17, 2016)

Damn these are nice. I'm not going to go out of my way to order one, but if I ever walk in my local store and they have one of these bad boys in stock, my wallet better run and hide


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## possumkiller (Feb 18, 2016)

Wow so Dimarzio just mounted their pickup on a big computer chip thing? That's crazy! What does it do? Mine just have metal plates on bottom with holes for screws.


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## A-Branger (Feb 18, 2016)

possumkiller said:


> Wow so Dimarzio just mounted their pickup on a big computer chip thing? That's crazy! What does it do? Mine just have metal plates on bottom with holes for screws.



I think it has to do with the quick disconnect/ solderless connection pin.

Maybe its a new thing they would start implementing from here on on every pup?. I hope so, it would make changing pups way more easy for everyone. One of the reasons I chose EMG pups for my LTD was for the quick solderless pups/volume/eq 

would be a good move for dimarzio to do something similar


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## Keirosen (Feb 18, 2016)

Ibanez just pushed back the arrival date on AMS again to March 10th. THE AGONYYY


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## BillCosby (Feb 18, 2016)

Keirosen said:


> Ibanez just pushed back the arrival date on AMS again to March 10th. THE AGONYYY



Dude, that sucks. The more I play this guitar, the more I love it. Hopefully they get some sooner than that, man. I'm sure the wait is agonizing.


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## powderedtoastman (Feb 18, 2016)

The quick connect is kind of a cool idea, but I wonder how reliable it's going to be in the long run. But the automotive industry uses a lot of those kinds of connectors so I'm sure it can work out if done right.
For the end customer it only really makes sense if they start making other pickups that way so we can swap them out easily.. for the guitar factory it might make sense because I imagine it potentially makes the soldering easier to do in batches with less human labor?


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## BrailleDecibel (Feb 19, 2016)

That guitar looks like it would be so comfortable to play...it's quite easy on the eyes as well! Happy NGD!


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## BillCosby (Feb 19, 2016)

It is very comfortable. From the shape of the neck and the sculpted cutaway, to the body contours and the Gibraltar II bridge, it was definitely designed with comfort in mind.

Also, I ended up putting the bridge fusion edge in to my rg7321, and it actually sounds much tighter. It definitely sounds better, to me, in basswood than mahogany.


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## TheRileyOBrien (Feb 19, 2016)

BillCosby said:


> It is very comfortable. From the shape of the neck and the sculpted cutaway, to the body contours and the Gibraltar II bridge, it was definitely designed with comfort in mind.
> 
> Also, I ended up putting the bridge fusion edge in to my rg7321, and it actually sounds much tighter. It definitely sounds better, to me, in basswood than mahogany.




The RGA shape is super comfortable for sure.


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## austink (Feb 19, 2016)

Killer score. I definitely want to try one of these. I was ready to pull the trigger but some bills came up....


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## BillCosby (Feb 21, 2016)

So, I've had a lot of play time with it, and I can definitely say that this guitar is a keeper.

Everyone in my band loves the look, and my other guitarist lives the neck, too. 

Unfortunately, it did not get very much play time at practice, because of some uncontrollable feedback coming from the guitar. However, I found the cause.

The Nazgul I put in the guitar is microphonic, like, really bad. It sucks because it isn't noticeable through my POD at home, but as soon as you plug it in to an amp and you just touch a string, it blares out of control.

You can actually talk in to the pickup, and it comes through the amp, that's how bad. 

So, I ordered a DiMarzio Titan 7 for it and I contacted Duncan to see if they can fix it.


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## Sang-Drax (Feb 22, 2016)

This is my favorite Ibanez model ever!


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## BusinessMan (Feb 22, 2016)

Sweet guitar deed. It's just the whole mismatched back to front finish kills it for me.


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## Spicypickles (Feb 22, 2016)

Damn that's extremely limiting! So its either solid paint or no go huh?


Apart from the odd duck (m8m, etc), I feel like most guitars that show off the grain on top will not match on the back.


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## BusinessMan (Feb 22, 2016)

Spicypickles said:


> Damn that's extremely limiting! So its either solid paint or no go huh?
> 
> 
> Apart from the odd duck (m8m, etc), I feel like most guitars that show off the grain on top will not match on the back.




To each his own. It's just an aesthetic Preference I have. I do like guitars that are all natural 

I'm the same way when a headstock paint doesn't math the body paint. It just looks off to me.


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## Randy (Feb 22, 2016)

Do you have any other Ibanii? I've always been curious if the headstock angle on scarf jointed necks is the same on necks without a joint.


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## BillCosby (Feb 22, 2016)

Randy said:


> Do you have any other Ibanii? I've always been curious if the headstock angle on scarf jointed necks is the same on necks without a joint.



Yeah, I've got an 01 rg7421xl, an 01 rg7421 and an 05 rg7321.

The headstock angle looks to be exactly the same to me.


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## BillCosby (Feb 25, 2016)

So, since the Nazgul I had was microphonic, I ordered a DiMarzio Titan 7 for the RGA. I just got it today and put it in, and this guitar growls even more now.

I love this pickup in this guitar. I've always been partial to the Nazgul, but the Titan is kind of killing it right now. The cleans sound incredible now, as well. 

I highly recommend the Titan if you get this guitar. It goes great with the mahogany body.

Oh, and the Titan did not have the EMG style wiring like the stock Fusion Edge did. Was kind of hoping it did.


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## Iamatlas (Feb 25, 2016)

Wow, do SD seem to be outputting some questionable quality pickups of late???

The first bunch of Nazgul's that shipped in the Schecter KM7's were dodgy as well (Including mine). 

May just be a one off, but it seems to be a more common occurrence of late.


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## BillCosby (Feb 25, 2016)

Iamatlas said:


> Wow, do SD seem to be outputting some questionable quality pickups of late???
> 
> The first bunch of Nazgul's that shipped in the Schecter KM7's were dodgy as well (Including mine).
> 
> May just be a one off, but it seems to be a more common occurrence of late.



The other Nazgul I have is from back when they first came out. And it works great. This one just had uncontrollable feedback that you could hear in between fast palm mute chugging, which was ridiculous. It didn't do it through my headphones, so I thought it was fine. As soon as I plugged in to an amp and went to the dirty channel, it was unplayable.


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## Iamatlas (Feb 25, 2016)

BillCosby said:


> The other Nazgul I have is from back when they first came out. And it works great. This one just had uncontrollable feedback that you could hear in between fast palm mute chugging, which was ridiculous. It didn't do it through my headphones, so I thought it was fine. As soon as I plugged in to an amp and went to the dirty channel, it was unplayable.



Yeah man, same issue I had with mine. Something about them not being potted correctly. SD will send you a replacement for free if you contact them about it.


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## kevdes93 (Feb 25, 2016)

Nice, I've been enjoying the titan 7 in my jbm quite a bit


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## BillCosby (Feb 25, 2016)

Iamatlas said:


> Yeah man, same issue I had with mine. Something about them not being potted correctly. SD will send you a replacement for free if you contact them about it.



I tried contacting them, but I suspect I may have emailed the wrong address, since I haven't heard from them after 5 days.

I'm going to try finding a different email address.


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## Petar Bogdanov (Feb 26, 2016)

BillCosby said:


> I tried contacting them, but I suspect I may have emailed the wrong address, since I haven't heard from them after 5 days.
> 
> I'm going to try finding a different email address.



FWIW, they took 6 days to reply to my email last year.


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## Blackhole33 (Sep 13, 2016)

Wow these pics make me drool...  one question did the Nazgul have the feedback issue also before you put it into the RGAIX or did it occur after? I have an SGR with Nazgul/Sentient (without feedback) and I'm soon getting the RGAIX and was wondering about this issue before I swap the pups.

Many Thanks


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## Leviathus (Sep 13, 2016)




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## Black_Sheep (Sep 13, 2016)

HNGD! looks great! 

Care to comment on the Iron Label quality? It's the only reason why im not super sold on this guitar.


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## Andromalia (Sep 13, 2016)

Randy said:


> Do you have any other *Ibanii*?



That's a new one.


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## BillCosby (Sep 13, 2016)

Blackhole33 said:


> Wow these pics make me drool...  one question did the Nazgul have the feedback issue also before you put it into the RGAIX or did it occur after? I have an SGR with Nazgul/Sentient (without feedback) and I'm soon getting the RGAIX and was wondering about this issue before I swap the pups.
> 
> Many Thanks



It was a brand new pickup. I never ended up hearing from Seymour Duncan, so I said f them and bought a Titan for the guitar. Sold the nazgul to a friend that wanted to practice wax potting.


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## BillCosby (Sep 13, 2016)

Black_Sheep said:


> HNGD! looks great!
> 
> Care to comment on the Iron Label quality? It's the only reason why im not super sold on this guitar.



Guitar played great. Especially at first, but after a while more issues popped up. Literally. A fret started coming up a little and causing a seriously annoying fret buzz. The fret ends also started getting to me. They were ok at first, but I guess it was just the honeymoon phase making me overlook it. If I played just that guitar, I'd be very happy, but if I picked up my RG7421xl and then that guitar, it felt like garbage in comparison. Most guitars do, though.


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