GIO Series GRX70QA - Transparent Blue Burst

I just took delivery of the Ibanez GRX 6 guitar in transparent violet sunburst. This is my third venture into less expensive but highly rated guitar brands. I now own over 20 assorted. Most are upline and from Martin, Gretsch, Gibson, Fender, and Epiphone. This guitar plays and sounds as well as my Fender Telecaster. Delivery was two days earlier than promised. Box arrived in pristine condition. Set up was almost in tune. All strings tuned down 1/2 pitch from standard. Took about a minute to get it up and running. Finish is flawless, and it plays nice up and down all the frets. The HSH pickup setup is great. I get five distinct voices and all are great. I would recommend this to anyone who wants a real looker and player. Plays as well as any guitar costing $700 +. This was on sale and in stock just in time for the Holidays. The tuners are smooth as glass, and the OEM strings are even good. I will leave the OEM strings on for a month or so.

For an "entry level" guitar, this a surprisingly well rounded instrument. As is out of the box, it feels sturdy, not heavy. Plug it in and tune it up and it has really good response that works well for a beginner. The finish is quality, and the electronic hardware is solid for this price point. Another excellent outing for Ibanez. More advanced players would find an exceptionally solid base platform with minimal need for modification.

The Transparent Green version of this guitar is gorgeous. Everyone who comes to my place see this one and falls in love with it. Great build quality from Ibanez, everything feels and sounds wonderful. The fretboard was so dry when I took out of the box that my clean hands were leaving fingerprints which I've never seen before, but that's easy to fix and after a little lemon oil the life and color came right back. My only problem was that the guitar was shipped in the scariest packaging I have ever seen. a quarter of the box was missing from the top front with the wrapped headstock sticking out in the open, and there were big gouges all over the back and sides. I was sure the guitar would be in splinters when I removed it from the packaging, but it was perfect and the finish untouched. Whew.

Bought this guitar for something cheap to travel with so if it gets damaged or stolen I'm not out a grand for a more expensive one. I gotta say, for $200 this guitar is fantastic. I expected something I'd have to fix or change parts on right away. I'm impressed. It's stays in tune relatively well after stretching the strings and playing a bit. The pickups sound better than I expected. When it switches to the single coil settings it does lose a little gain but all in all good enough for a hotel room practice guitar. Sweetwater (Amazon seller) had set it up fairly close to what I like so no issues there. Packaging was good so no shipping damage. All in all a really great buy. Great job!

Some of the other reviews had me a bit worried about ordering this guitar, however, after getting my own I can say that this is a well made guitar for the price point. The color (on mine) was definitely more of a magenta than a true violet (not a deal breaker by any means) but I still love the instrument and it is quite beautiful, however this was the only reason I could think on not giving a 5 star review. The guitar was set up nicely right out of the box, all I had to do was tune the strings, but it is very playable and the intonation sounds good to me, and the neck relief was spot on, so, props to the luthier on a well made and properly setup guitar! It holds it's tune reasonably well. The frets are smooth and nothing sharp catches on my fingers; something I've seen happen on more expensive guitars and reputable brands... The nut is plastic, but there are no buzzing frets anywhere on the neck. The body is slender and stylish. The countours are very comfortable. It is weighty and feels solid. All of the pickups work well and the selector switch does fine, and I don't heard any crackling when I turn the knobs. Overall, it's a great guitar for intermediate players looking to get something a little nicer to practice with. The packaging was a little light, leaving something to be desired (especially with the tape job) but there was just enough foam to prevent it from being damaged in transit... Maybe I was just lucky, because sometimes the couriers can be a bit rough with package handling and I quite frequently get damaged boxes (and goods)... Coupled with some of the other reviews noting damage, this is a valid cause for concern. However, there wasn't a scratch on mine.

At this price point, you just can’t go wrong with an Ibanez guitar. It feels great, plays just fine for my own limited ability, and it looks fantastic. Perhaps a virtuoso could find faults with this guitar, but I cannot.

The guitar has a very youthful style, and the color is very beautiful and the sound quality is quite good. In short, I am very satisfied with this guitar.

In the category of who knew: Actually, I am sure a lot of you knew this, but it was totally new to me. I grew up in the era of acoustic guitars and simple chords. All well and good. But having never experimented much at all with electric guitars I never once considered owning one. Until now that is. The problem was this: I can only play so fast on my acoustic, and African lead patterns required a lot more speed than I could produce while tripping rapidly over strings and fingers up and down the neck. I tried hard to run that acoustic lead maze but after a while I wasn't able to get any faster, or any better sounding. So, I hopped into my virtual time machine just to see what one might expect from an electric guitar. Are they all about distortion and metal sounds, or could they be a useful tool for other styles as well - namely African music? Turns out that almost all African guitar players play electric guitars. It also turns out that the action on an electric can be so good as to allow the player to merely touch the string and it will sound a true note. No more bearing down hard on strings. Net result: I could not afford the guitar that seemed most promising. I had to settle for a $200.00 guitar. But what a guitar it is! I pictured days of setting up for such an inexpensive guitar just in order to make it playable and then I thought I still probably wouldn't like it very much. I couldn't have been more wrong! The setup right out of the box was close enough to perfect that I just left the setup as it was. I am already about a third faster on those African Guitar licks and the sound can be as clean and pristine as I might wish. I can also add a little delay or what not to make it really sing! I don't have a true amp yet, just software amp emulations. That's okay because I like the sound of it fine as it comes unfiltered through my modest bedroom stereo. My new guitar is scooped out in places on its solid body which allows for a very nice ergonomic fit while holding it close to my less than solid body. The guitar balances effortlessly with no noticeable head drop. Anyway, I am not one to go on an on about material things - much. But here is something affordable that is also very, very good! If you don't want to take my word for it then check out the reviews on the internet. Cheers!