Ibanez RG3120 with Wizard Prestige Neck
January 16, 2007 by Jo Minor
In 2004 I bought the Ibanez RG3120 after saving up for almost a year. I had the guts to buy it off Music123 the online retailer, and it arrived in Malaysia in excellent condition.
The Ibanez RG 3120 is primarily a metal guitar. In fact, Ibanez electric guitars have just about become synonymous with metal and rock music. The Ibanez RG 3120 is made of an excellent wood combination, with a mahogany body with figured maple top, finished in transparent blue or red. The mahogany has excellent resonance, while the maple top adds brightness and lightens up the heavy warm tone of the mahogany.
Ibanez musical instruments have been around for many years. The name is Spanish, but the company actually has its roots in Japan. Salvador Ibanez was a Spanish luthier who was creating guitars and other stringed instruments as far back as the late 1800’s. The Hoshino Shoten company began importing those guitars from Spain, and eventually began producing their own. Because the Ibanez workshop in Spain was destroyed in the Spanish Civil War in the ’30s, the Hoshino company was able to buy rights to the name Ibanez, which was already well known among musicians.
Ibanez was not too well known in mainstream America until the early seventies, when it was discovered that they had some high-quality imitation Fenders and Gibsons in production. People began to buy Ibanez guitars instead of the more expensive American versions. The whole mess ended with a lawsuit against Ibanez. After settling out of court, they realized they could create their own designs of high quality electric and acoustic guitars.
The RG series of Ibanez electric guitars, which are the most numerous of all their models, dates back to 1987. Steve Vai had already worked with Ibanez in designing the JEM and the Universe Ibanez guitars. The RG’s were an offshoot from these other two types. There are several different types of the RG (which must stand for “regular”) series. The RGA guitars, for instance, have an arched top.
The Ibanez RG 3120 is a professional level axe that retails for just under $2000. Unfortunately, it is no longer in production by Ibanez, but you can still find it for sale on eBay and other used instrument dealers. If you are looking for a hot rocking electric guitar, it will certainly fill your needs.
Advantages: The Ibanez RG 3120 has a Wizard Prestige neck. The Ibanez Wizard neck design is one of the fastest around, being thin and flat. It is very thin, yet surprisingly stable and tough.
The bridge humbucker gives really good crunch, while you get a nice tone from the neck humbucking pickup. The mahogany body with maple top will give you lots of warmth in the mid tones. Maple on mahogany is a combination of woods that are used in some of the most expensive electric guitars you can buy, because of the excellent tone and resonance these woods produce.
The Ibanez RG 3120 is a really good looking guitar that is sure to get you noticed, both with its looks and its great metal tone. It is perfect for shredding.
Disadvantages: Some think the Ibanez RG 3120 electric guitar would look better with a truss rod cover. Some people don’t like the bridge and tremolo system. In addition to being hard to keep in tune, it has a reputation for the finish coming off, so that the metal gets some rust on it.
Specs:
- Mahogany body with figured AAA maple overlay
- Natural binding on body
- 3-piece maple neck
- Neck dimensions: 17 mm. at the first fret
- 20.0 mm. at the twelfth fret
- Grip Wizard heel style all access neck joint system
- RG shaped headstock
- Angle/joint 14 degree tilt
- No neck binding or purfling
- Rosewood fingerboard
- 43 mm. wide at the nut
- 56 mm. wide at the 21st fret
- 430 mm. Fretboard radius
- 25.5 inch (648 mm.) scale length
- 24 jumbo frets
- Abalone off-center dot inlays
- Cosmo Black hardware
- Gotoh SG-38 die cast tuning machines
- Locking nut
- Edge Pro bridge with tremolo
- Gotoh strap buttons
- No pickguard
- No truss rod cover
- Two humbucking pickups
- DiMarzio PAF-Pro pickup at the neck
- DiMarzio Tone Zone pickup at the bridge
- Black barrel control knobs
- One volume control knob
- One tone control knob
- Black knob pickup selector switch
- Transparent blue or red color
Related sites for the Ibanez RG 3120:
- Here is the Wikipedia article describing the Ibanez RG guitars.
- For a news article about the metal music trends in Ibanez guitars, check out this link.
- For an in depth review or the RGT3120, go to this page at the website, Jemsite. In fact, if you like Ibanez guitars and everything to do with them, you probably should get familiar with the whole site.
Comments
2 Responses to “Ibanez RG3120 with Wizard Prestige Neck”
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This guitar is great, but as with any Ibanez you only get the metal sound
Gobala doesn’t know what he is talking about! Try playing it clean on neck pickup, you’d be pleasantly surprise! It does jazz very well. Well, that’s if you even have an Ibanez to start off with…loser