The RGA line of guitars have been of unchallenged standard in the line of hard and heavy rock guitars. In the following review, we will see about the Ibanez RGA 121H Electric Guitar which sports a 24- fret thin flat and fast Wizard Prestige neck, Ibanez pickups, and a Gibraltar Plus bridge. Read on, as we discuss each of these features in detail.

Body and Finishing:

The Ibanez RGA121H 24-fret Electric Guitar has super strat style body that provides it a reassuring weight on the strap as it is made from quite a thick slab of mahogany. The rear of the guitar is quite flat apart from some contouring; however, the top has been carved away from the middle, taking away the width of the mahogany from 45mm to about 35mm. you will find that the lower horn is sharp, but the upper horn had been blunted enough in order to accommodate the strap buttons in its traditional location for this kind of a body shape. Even better, you get to access the back loaded components from the rear where you will find one removable plate that is covering the jack socket. The finishing, as you can see in the image is a purpleish pink with a very sparkly finishing and the guitar is also available in olive green sparkly finish. The RGA121H is manufactured in Japan by Team J.Craft and is been consecutively given an excellent finishing throughout.

Ibanez RGA121H Prestige Electric Guitar

Controls, Strap and Accessories:

On the front of controls, Ibanez has provided us with a master tone control; master volume control and each of these controls have been topped with a knurled knob finishing in gun metal grey. In front of all of these, you will find a five way selector that provides the combinations of Bridge humbucker; Bridge humbucker tapped to single-coil; Both humbuckers tapped to single-coil; Neck humbucker tapped to single-coil; and Neck humbucker. The Ibanez RGA121H guitar has been fitted with a two large gun metal strap buttons, with one on the base of the body and other on one end of the upper horn. The output jack has been inset in the bottom edge of the body without mouting the plate. As far as accessories are concerned, the RGA121H comes with its own fitted oblong hardshell guitar casing.

Neck:

The wizard neck of Ibanez has been specified as a five piece neck sculpted from Walnut and Maple. In fact, you will find that the Walnut forms two very thin decorative brown strips in between the three pieces of maple that makes up for the major real estate of the neck. Yet another astonishingly thin profile that Ibanez has managed to create is the Bolt-on Wizard. This creation gives the guitar’s fretboard the feeling of additional width caused by the slimness of the depth. Once you play it in for a while, you will get used to it and even offers you with quite a comfortable experience of playing. Additionally, the whole experience is accentuated by the clean and clear satin finishing.

Headstock:

Headstock is one part of the guitar that adds to the aesthetic beauties of a guitar next to the main body itself. The headstock on the RGA121H posses Ibanez’s trademark six in one side scalpel shaped faced in black and has the mandatory Ibanez logo along with the Prestige legend in subtle abalone inlay.

Tuners:

Tuners, without any doubts are one of the most important parts of an electric guitar. The sealed mini tuners have been given gun metal finishing and the tuning knobs are small and cute. The tuners can be said to possess smooth and accurate operation.

Fretboard:

The black plastic nuts that abut the fretboard have a very tidy finishing. As we had mentioned in the introduction, the frets are 24 jumbo ones that possess a full rounded profile and are well polished too. Moving on to the fretboard itself, it sports an even mid-brown coloured finishing and a tight grain. We found the fret markers to be tiny inlaid dots mirrored down to the player’s side of the neck. You must also keep in mind the fact that the guitar has no binding.

Pickups:

Moving to the all important pickups, this electric guitar possesses an Ibanez V8 humbucker in the bridge position and an Ibanez V7 humbucker in the neck position. Both of these humbuckers are found to be of the open coil type and sit in their routing sans any mounting plates.

Ibanez RGA121H Guitar Colours

Sound and Action:

The action on the Ibanez RGA121H Prestige Electric Guitar is very low, which in turn gives the instrument a great deal of playability right up to the high registers. Sound wise, the guitar is given a great degree of flexibility by the coil-tapping selector switch. If you are classic and heavy rocker, opt the bridge humbucker on its own and for metal and darker tones run the neck ‘bucker alone. On the other side, if you adore lighter, funkier and cleaner tones experiment with the three available single-coil options.

Warranty:

The Ibanez RGA121H Electric Guitar comes with one year manufacturer’s warranty for parts and labour.

Verdict:

Not only does the Ibanez RGA121H Electric Guitar have the curves, but has the all important playability too. It is an extremely easy guitar to play and its neck is a shredder’s paradise. The pickups and their placement offer this electric guitar the hard edged cutting tone that is required for heavy rocking. When it comes to live performance, it provides the performer more freedom to move on stage and its arched top also allows the players to knock down the heavy riffs and power chords without having to hit the guitar body. You will have to live without the ability to play both humbuckers together, but we believe the additional single-coil options more than make up for this. Curved beauty and fantastic performance have been carefully combined in the RGA. Overall, it is a simple but versatile super start package with a glamorous sparkling finishing.

Ibanez RGA121H Electric Guitar – Technical Specification Table

Manufacturer Ibanez
Series RGA
Model Name Ibanez RGA121H
Finish Purplish pink and Olive Green
Body Ibanez RGA121H
Fingerboard Rosewood
Controls master tone control
master volume control
Inlay Pearl Dot Inlay
Bridge Gibraltar Plus
Tuners Sealed mini tuners
Neck Five piece neck sculpted from Walnut and Maple
Strings Six
Frets 24/Jumbo frets
Pickup switching 5 Position Blade
Bridge/Bridge and Middle/Middle/Middle and Neck / Neck
Hardware Chrome
Warranty 1 year

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