Ibanez RG550 (MIJ Genesis Collection) – Iconic RG is Back

Hello there, and welcome back to another cool guitar review article for you! This time, we will be looking at one of the most legendary guitar designs ever, the Ibanez RG550! In this article, I will provide a short history of the Ibanez RG guitars and also a demo video of my Ibanez RG550 Purple Neon.

About Ibanez

As many of you know, Ibanez is a legendary Japanese manufacturer of musical instruments, primarily guitars and basses, as well as amplifiers and other accessories. Unlike many of us are aware, Ibanez has a long history in making musical instruments and is possibly a way longer-established company than many of us think. Ibanez‘s history can be easily traced back to 1908, when Hoshino Gakki, a Japanese musical instrument company, was founded. In their early days, they imported only Spanish guitars. But also had a long-term ambition in the guitar business. The Ibanez brand name was actually derived from the name of the actual Spanish luthier, Salvador Ibanez, who was building guitars for the company. The company first used the Ibanez Salvador name and later just branded itself under the Ibanez brand to honour the Spanish luthier.

As Ibanez was getting a lot of attention for their extremely valuable guitars (lawsuit era), Gibson brought suit against Ibanez due to their clone guitars. Hoshino Gakki did not really want to fight against it, as the company could be in the same situation, not just with Gibson but also with other guitar manufacturers. This era was the triggering moment for Ibanez to take a look at the company’s long-term ambition in the guitar business.

Update: Fortunately, Ibanez is still making these guitars and also adding more colour options for the buyers!

Desert Sun Yellow, Road Flare Red, Black, Purple Neon, Electric Blue

Through the 70s, Ibanez worked with various artists who featured Ibanez’s original designs, such as Paul Stanley, Steve Miller, George Benson and Bob Weir. However, moving forward with the 80s shredders era, they still had issues with their brand identity. Actually, what Ibanez wanted was someone like Eddie Van Halen and what he did for the Kramer brand. Ibanez had already worked with legendary guitar players such as Lee Ritenour, Joe Pass, Steve Lukather and Alan Holdsworth, but the company was missing a rockstar image that could boost the brand’s identity. After having long discussions and meetings, they decided to go to Steve Vai! Vai was already getting a lot of attention when he joined Frank Zappa at the age of 20 years old. Later, he replaced Yngwie Malmsteen in Alcatrazz and also released his debut album. Around 1985, he joined David Lee Roth’s band, taking giant steps into the rock music scene.

Vai was already cooperating with other guitar brands such as Kramer and Yamaha, but his customisation needs were usually neglected, and he ended up with pretty much the same standard models that these companies manufactured with some tweaks for him. Ibanez eventually managed to contact Steve Vai and got his attention and their cooperation, which changed the guitar designs profoundly. Legendary luthier, Mace Bailey at Ibanez, made prototypes for Steve Vai based on his input and came up with the JEM design, which would later give birth to the legendary RG series. This collaboration made Ibanez so successful and gained huge respect and following in the guitar community in the 80s until this day. Although the RG model was considered the edgy, modern and unusual guitar design back in the day, it’s accepted as a classic electric guitar design that has its own place next to Strats and Les Pauls. Today, Ibanez is still manufacturing dozens of models along with their classic line and is one of the most respected guitar brands ever known to us.

Interestingly, this was true for Ibanez until a much more recent era. Around the mid-60s, the Fujigen factory manufacturing guitars for Ibanez had grown rapidly; in 1965, the company built a new factory in Matsumoto. During the ’60s, it was one of the first guitar and musical instrument companies to make a significant impact in the USA and Europe with its clone guitars (this is called the lawsuit era). They eventually created guitar designs that are considered classics today.

Short History of Ibanez RG Guitars

As Gibson brought suit against Ibanez due to their clone guitars, Hoshino Gakki did not really want to fight against it, as the company could be in the same situation, not just with Gibson but also with other guitar manufacturers. This era was the triggering moment for Ibanez to take a look at the company’s long-term ambition in the guitar business. Through the 70s, Ibanez worked with various artists who featured Ibanez’s original designs, such as Paul Stanley, Steve Miller, George Benson and Bob Weir. However, moving forward with the 80s shredders era, they still had issues with their brand identity. What Ibanez wanted was someone like Eddie Van Halen, and what he did for the Kramer brand.

Ibanez had already worked with legendary guitar players such as Lee Ritenour, Joe Pass, Steve Lukather and Alan Holdsworth, but the company was missing a rockstar image that could boost the brand’s identity. After having long discussions and meetings, they decided to go to Steve Vai! Vai was already getting a lot of attention when he joined Frank Zappa at the age of 20 years old. Later, he replaced Yngwie Malmsteen in Alcatrazz and also released his debut album. Around 1985, he joined David Lee Roth’s band, taking giant steps into the rock music scene. Vai was already cooperating with other guitar brands such as Kramer and Yamaha, but his customisation needs were usually neglected, and he ended up with pretty much the same standard models that these companies manufactured with some tweaks for him.

Ibanez eventually managed to contact Steve Vai and got his attention and their cooperation, which changed the guitar designs profoundly just started! Legendary luthier, Mace Bailey at Ibanez, made prototypes for Steve Vai based on his input and came up with the JEM design, which would later give birth to the legendary RG series. When JEM design was first introduced to the masses at the NAMM show, it completely blew away the audience and got praised as the ultimate alternative guitar design to actually buying a custom-made guitar.  Due to excellent sales figures, Ibanez also came up with RG550, a JEM design but without the edgy aesthetics of the original Vai design.

Since then, RG design guitars have been released with additional variations throughout the years. As you can understand, one can easily trace RG’s roots back to these modern and edgy guitar designs that rocked the world. As a matter of fact, the Ibanez RG series is now considered one of the most distinct and unique guitar designs of all time and is praised as a classic series. Just like your Stratocasters, Les Pauls or Teles.

A Short History: Ibanez JEM & RG by 5 Watt World

If you want to know more about all these cool details and the history of Ibanez RG guitars, I definitely suggest you check out the “A Short History: Ibanez JEM & RG” video by 5 Watt World.  There are so many cool things you can learn from this channel!

Ibanez RG550

As I mentioned in the history section, Ibanez RG models have been around for quite some time with many variations. Even though the RG series is considered a classic model in the guitar world, they have also been modernised further with more progressive features that help adapt the design to modern guitarists. Fortunately, Ibanez releases their legendary RG models from time to time! I believe they decided to reissue the original RG series back in 2018 under the Genesis Collection. The Ibanez RG550 is the guitar that I used to dream about when I was a very young guitar player. Unfortunately, I was never able to buy one. But now, while almost approaching my 40s, I’m able to collect and hold more guitars in my collection!

From the very first moment I noticed this release, I wanted to get one for myself, and I finally received my order from Thomann! Since then, I spent my savings on different guitars and pieces of equipment; however, I finally got ready for it and went for it. I preferred the Purple Neon colour option as the other colours, which are Desert Sun Yellow and Road Flare Red, are too in your face in my opinion.

Before I share my thoughts on the Ibanez RG550 Genesis Collection, let’s have a quick look at the tech specs below.

Tech Specs

Review

As you can see from the tech specs, the Ibanez RG550 is a true reproduction of the original RG series that was released in the late 80s. It features one of the most distinct guitar body designs, the Ibanez RG! The one I got weighs 3.8kg, and I think this is pretty OK for an Ibanez RG body guitar.

Headstock

RG550 features the typical RG headstock. As I keep mentioning, this is my favourite Ibanez headstock. I really like what this reminds me of, the good old days of learning to play the electric guitar! As you can see, it has a matching headstock and features the same purple neon finish on the headstock, just like on the body.

Tuners

As with all Genesis series guitars, these come with standard Gotoh tuners. These tuners just work! Although you may not need to have the best or the most accurate tuners, as the strings are locked anyway, just know these tuners are top-quality, Japanese-made ones!

The only visual thing I don’t like about this guitar is the purple neon finish. See, from some angles and under certain lighting, it looks so great! Very sweet purple colour, just like I captured in the image below. Wish this guitar featured this exact purple all over it! 🙂

Superb Neck with Some Flaws

The neck is Ibanez’s Super Wizard neck, which is extremely comfortable and built for shredding. As you can imagine, back in the 80s, shred guitar was a thing, and the Ibanez RG550 was made to handle any shredder’s needs. This Super Wizard neck consists of 5 pieces of maple/walnut to provide better stability. You also have high-quality, made-in-Japan Gotoh tuners and jumbo frets with a supposedly featured Ibanez Prestige fret edge treatment. The reason I say supposedly is that I also purchased the Ibanez RG565 Laser Blue, and I think the fret edge treatment is not the same for these almost identical guitars coming from the same Genesis Collection. I can feel the sharp edges a bit more on my RG550 than on the RG565.

While RG565, coming from the same collection, has a flawless fret job, RG550 has some fret sprouts. This is actually at a very minimal phase, but it’s still concerning, as you would not expect this on a Japanese-made Ibanez.

Pickups

RG550 features a classic H/S/H pickup configuration. Even though you may think this is a pretty generic feature, Ibanez JEM and RG models were the pioneers in this pickup configuration with a 5-way pickup selector. This sought-after design actually offers a vast array of in-between guitar tones (especially 2nd and 4th positions) that are unique to the Ibanez RG design. Pickups are classic Ibanez V8 (Passive/Alnico) on the bridge, Ibanez V7 (Passive/Ceramic) on the neck and Ibanez S1 (Passive/Alnico) in the middle positions. There are many comments on the internet claiming that these pickups sound flat, but I think they are an excellent fit for this guitar. I think you can achieve any guitar tones with these pickups and the switching configurations. I don’t think I will consider a pickup upgrade in the future and will definitely keep my Ibanez RG550 in the original configuration.

Neck Joint

Just like any other “original” RG model, the neck joint is not the most modern one. Although it was a modern approach to go for a comfort cut, in comparison to what we have today, this is not even close. If you have average hands and finger length, the upper fret access will always be tough.

The Original Ibanez Edge Tremolo

The tremolo is also an outstanding Ibanez Edge model tremolo. To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of floating bridges, but they give you so many options concerning the amount of expressive control over your instrument. One thing I noticed about the Ibanez Edge tremolo is that the tremolo bar holder piece tends to turn easily, which makes you feel like the tremolo bar comes extremely loose all of a sudden, but then it grabs the walls again and becomes sturdy.

When I researched this issue, I found out that the hex screw head in the back of the guitar should be tightened accordingly. Again, this is different on my Ibanez RG565. On my Ibanez RG565, the tremolo bar is extremely tight, so you can not really grab and bring it to the position you want without changing the pitch.

I understand these are personal preferences and may be different for each player, but I would expect consistency among the same Genesis Collection instruments. There are a couple of inconsistencies I was able to spot between the two models. Don’t forget to check out this very insightful article below!

Check out my Ibanez RG550 vs Ibanez RG565 – The Costliest Article! here

Apart from these little issues and inconsistencies I was able to spot, the Ibanez RG550 is a true gem and an extremely beautiful instrument. As with any RG-style guitar, it is so much easier to play. It almost feels like you are cheating! Don’t get me wrong, these little details are very important if your expectations have been set by the idea that you are buying a Japanese-made Ibanez. However, I think we should take this series as a pretty generic, classic model that may also come with some flaws. To be brutally honest, the price tag of these guitars is too good to be true! RG550 retails from €888 at Thomann, which is crazy! Made in Japan, authentic, outstanding, and a pioneer in guitar design history, it is now a classic Ibanez RG at this price. You can not miss that opportunity! Check out all the Ibanez RG models under the Genesis Collection here.

Sound Demo (no talking)

In order to provide you with some of the endless sonic possibilities Ibanez RG550 offers, I prepared a demo video, no-talking style! I used my Ibanez RG550 Purple Neon, ENGL E570 all-tube preamp, ENGL Cabloader and Ibanez Tube Screamer Mini going directly into my RME Babyface PRO interface, recorded in Reaper with some room and chamber reverbs by Lexicon! Note that I am using the factory strings by D’Addario. I think these are some of the worst guitar strings ever! I used them for a long time when I was young, but no more! They immediately start getting corroded. I would definitely restring this guitar for long-term use.

As you can hear from the video, the Ibanez RG550 can deliver a huge array of guitar tones thanks to the edgy design with the unique H/S/H pickup combination and 5-way switch. These in-between positions are very unique, and I think they are known as classic Ibanez RG tones. One of the problems with this instrument is that the neck pickup sounds a bit too loud in comparison to other pickups. I mean, for sure, I adjusted the heights accordingly, but even though the neck pickup height is pretty low, it immediately jumps out at you when you switch to the neck position. Although this is not the best situation, I must say the neck pickup sounds amazing! So creamy and fluid takes the gain so well and sings!

Pricing & Availability

Luckily, Ibanez is still making the RG series guitar actively! Unlike RG565 models, they have never discontinued an option from the Genesis Collection RG550. Instead, they are now releasing more colour options. The feature set is still fixed, and you don’t have an option to go for rosewood boards. But at least, all the original colour options, as well as the new ones, are being produced and are widely available! As I mentioned in the comparison article and also here, I also decided to return the RG550 to Thomann due to the sharp fret ends. I think the amount of sharpness was at an acceptable level; however, I did not feel comfortable holding a brand-new instrument with this issue. This should not stop you from ordering one; you can always order your guitar from Thomann and ask for a check (I think they charge about €50).

Check out RG550 models on Thomann here

You can also check out your local marketplace on Facebook, eBay or any other local websites specific to your location for the used ones, as well as Reverb.com. RG550 is apparently a lot more popular and common among RG models; so, there will always be more used RG550 available than any other RG.

Check out RG550 models on Reverb here

I hope you find this review article honest and insightful! Thanks for visiting my blog and supporting me so far! I will hopefully see you in the next review here! Also, don’t forget to check out the costliest article on cigilovic.com, in which I compare RG550 and RG565 against each other with so many details here.

Check out my Ibanez RG550 vs Ibanez RG565 – The Costliest Article! here

I hope you find this review article honest and insightful! Thanks for visiting my blog and supporting me so far! I will hopefully see you in the next review here!