Ibanez RG421AHM - Blue Moon Burst

I play mostly heavy music with distorted tones and my god this guitar is perfect for that.As for playability, it's an extremely comfortable guitar to play. I've always found the RG series to be comfortable to play. This is the third RG I've owned. It's also VERY well balanced at a 45 degree angle when using a strap.As for tone, couldn't be much happier. It's rather bright but it doesn't sound thin even in the slightest. It sounds very full and heavy as hell. It seems like the pickups have a lot of output but it doesn't sound noisy or overly-bassy either. It also seems to have a lot of harmonic response when chugging without even choking up too hard. Basically, it djents hard as hell without even trying but can also purr nicely with the palm halfway on the bridge. You can get very good lead and rhythm tones on this guitar for heavier music. I haven't played with clean tones much so I can't say how that sounds.As for finish and craftsmanship, everything is spot on. I tend to notice minor details and this guitar is practically flawless.Something worth mentioning is, my guitar didn't come with pickup rings. I'm not sure if this was intentional or not. They were never installed and didn't have screw holes. I actually prefer this because I think the pickup rings are kinda ugly but just know, you may not get them with pickup rings like in the picture.As for tuning stability, I'm still not sure how stable it is since the strings and the nut aren't broken in yet and I haven't stretched the strings. It seems to be getting more stable as I play it though.There are a couple cons I've found. The high E string is getting stuck on the nut pretty badly but that can easily be fixed. Also I don't like how close the volume knob is to the strings. It can be bumped if you're going ham on strumming.

As much as I would love to give this guitar a 5 star rating I just can't. First of all when I ordered this and received it I found the finish had been damaged in shipping. I don't fault Ibanez directly for this but it may have been prevented if they packaged their guitars with more padding in the box. I will give credit to Amazon for handling this.....I had a replacement literally within a few days. They were on top of it. The second guitar arrived and all appeared ok. All the features worked as designed, but as I began playing it the ends of the frets started scuffing the skin on my hands due to the fact that they were not filed down in the factory. The strings were also buzzing on a couple of high spots. I had to buy a fret file and a sanding block to address the issues. I also found the intonation had not been correctly set in the factory, so I was very surprised Ibanez let this one out the door like this. Their quality control is usually much better than this. I will say this.........now that these issues have been corrected this guitar plays AWESOME!!! It sounds great and is an absolute beast! I am hoping that my experience with this is isolated and yours may be completely different. I still like the Ibanez product and would not discourage you from buying one. Just keep in mind that quality control may not be what it used to be and you may have to address the details that they should have taken care of.

Good for beginners and intermediates alike. Good quality guitar for the price point. Came set up very well, the fixed bridge holds tune really well compared to the similar model with the tremolo bridge (RG470AHM). Tones are nice and neck is fast.Edit: after spending some time with this guitar I really can’t sing it’s praises enough. Especially after picking up an older cheaper guitar after using the RH421AHM the difference is huge. Highly recommend!

Guitar neck is bent. Tried to fix it with anchor, anchor is tighten 100%. Even removed strings - still same result. Unfortunately I live in country Georgia and returning this guitar will cost me a fortune. Now I have to change neck. Very disappointed. Can't recommend this shop. Defective neck from factory. Bent on top of neck. Frets 8-12

Very nice color. The neck is fairly thin, but unfinished. The fret board needs to be conditioned, but other than that it seems to be a great guitar. I had been looking for a guitar with maple neck and blue body and this seem to fit the bill. I have another Ibanez and the pups I always change. I'm dropping an EVH Frankenstein pup in bridge position. After changing the pup, this guitar will probably be my main player. I enjoy looking at it on guitar stand. It really has a pretty finish that you can see the wood grain. Nice addition to my collection.

Nice guitar. Comes set up well right out of the box.

This is a beautiful guitar and fun to play. I still love my Schecter but for my first electric Ibanez this thing is amazing. It feels great and produces warm sounds.

It is okay. There are a lot of finish blemishes and wood quality is kn the lower end. I would say buy this of the looks and small issues wont bother you. The neck has some issues with finishing and colors of the woods not matching. You get what you pay for but I wish it was a little more quality. Pickups are okay. Imbprobably going to replace them with demarzios or Seymour Duncan's but will do the job. I still love Ibanez over most guitar brands even Gibson and fender. Inwouldbho with an artcore but that's just me.