Ibanez Gio GRG121DX - Walnut Flat Reviews

When I received this guitar and put some 9's on it I actually thought that I had scammed Ibanez. What kind of wizardry was used to create this at the price of $?

CONS:
- It's too good for the price
- String on fret contact surface is too rough and will require sanding upon the next string change
PROS:
- The setup was basically perfect out of the box
- The pickups project a clear and full sound, even on my tiny 10W Blackstar amp
- The maple neck + mahogany body ring like a bell, even while playing unplugged
- The satin-finished mahogany body becomes more impressive the closer you look at it
OTHER:
- The fingerboard looks and feels a bit dry, which could benefit from a non-destructive wood polishing wax
- 2/5 of pickup positions feature an ambient buzz, but I think this is expected of a dual humbucker configuration
- The nut, white binding, pearl sharktooth inlays, pickup frames, and the input jack are made with a decent plastic/synthetic material
- The backplate guts are shielded with a black paint

I've been playing for over 30 years. I play mostly high end Jackson, Ibanez, and Fender instruments. I bought this guitar to have something that I wouldn't be too upset about losing if it were stolen or damaged when I travel to a friend's place or on vacation. I chose this guitar because I've had very good experience with inexpensive Ibanez models in the past. I was NOT disappointed!

The guitar arrived, well set up with 10 gauge strings, which I replaced with 9s for ease of playing with beginners and for fun. I did some truss rod adjustments and raised the pickups a bit for better gain. The guitar holds the 9 gauge strings at a better tension than some of my high end guitars of the same scale. It plays very well and I am very surprised at how good it sounds through my rigs.

My only criticism would be that the pickups don't produce the tonal harmonics (not squeals, which it does just fine) that I'm use to with an instrument that handles as well as this one does. I am tempted to replace the pickups with some DiMarzio Evolutions.

All said, this guitar is very playable and I would recommend it to beginners or experienced players looking for something to experiment with and throw around as it is very light in weight.

Full disclosure, I had an endorsement deal with Ibanez (Hoshino Gakki) a long time ago. Though that pointed me in this direction I would not review positively if I thought they were slipping. Seriously great, inexpensive guitar!

It sounds good, light weight and the color. I just love it

Great action, perfectly intonated, light, stays in tune… it's better than an $800 guitar I have, this is a great starter guitar.

You won't find anything in this price range as nice as the GRG121DX. Out of the box this guitar had no sharp frets and was immaculate. The pickups are quiet and far exceed anything I expected. This would make a perfect starter guitar for just about anyone interested in learning electric guitar.

After playing Les Pauls for years this thing is light as a feather and my back and neck appreciate it.

This guitar is absolutely great if you want to get that metal/rock sound, if you are looking for something affordable, reliable, and sounds amazing, this is the guitar to go for. The people at sweet water were amazing to talk to when ordering, they care so much about your opinion and they care about if your order has been received in great working condition. Thank you for the wonderful help!

Mi guitarra es la WNF (la marrón de color madera)
Tengo una Strato Fender SQ de esa gama de precio y me quedo con la Ibanez.
Una de las diferencias más significativas es la de tener un diapasón mucho más recto.
Es impresionante la diferencia de usar un diapasón de 9,5" que es bastante curvo (la Stratocaster) a usar un diapasón de 15,75" (la SúperStratocaster) que es bastante plano.
Otra de las diferencias, es más evidente. Se trata de que la Ibanez tiene dos pastillas dobles. Un sonido más profundo, menos "limpio". Con su selector de 5 posiciones, se puede seleccionar varias combinaciones de hambucker o single-coil.

Esta diferencia, es más una diferencias de matices de sonido que una diferencia física (como la del diapasón que he comentado antes), pero no deja de ser algo que agrada, el poder disfrutar de más posibilidades que las que venía disfrutando con la Stratocaster.
Esta guitarra tiene una característica. La pastilla del mástil es muy potente. Es cojonudo pero tiene su lado "a considerar"

Resulta que cuando trabajas "en combinación con la otra pastilla", apenas oyes la pastilla del puente.
La pastilla del mástil, eclipsa a del puente.
Apenas se nota la diferencia entre la posición 1 y 3 y entre las posiciones 2 y 4.
Es como si solo tuviese 3 posiciones (la 1, la 2 y la 5)

Por tanto toca ajustar las pastillas.
Hay que bajar un poco la posición de la del mástil y subir la posición de la pastilla del puente (con los tornillos de ajuste que trae para ese fin)

Al bajar (alejar de las cuerdas) la pastilla, se consigue una menor fuerza, pero un mayor sustain.

Con esta sencilla operación, se consigue una variedad de sonidos brutal. Se consigues que por fin, la pastilla del puente se oiga sin que sea eclipsada por la del mástil.

Obtienes la potencia, el cuerpo y el grosor que dan las humbucker en las posiciones 1, 3 y 5 con una clara diferencia entre cada una de las posiciones y por otra parte, tienes la nitidez y la brillantez que dan las pastillas singles en las posiciones 2 y 4 disfrutando de poder sentir la pastilla del puente en la posición 4.
Por último, decir que la otra gran diferencia, también es física. Se trata del número de trastes y de la forma de los mismos.
La SúperStratocaster tiene 24 trastes Jumbo frente a los 21 trastes medium que tiene la Stratocaster.
En definitiva, la diferencia entre las dos guitarras se resume en que una tiene un diapasón bastante curvo, 21 trastes y 3 pastillas simples, (y palanca de trémolo) y la otra tiene un diapasón muy recto, 24 trastes y dos pastillas dobles (Humbucker) haciendo funcionar las pastillas en single cool en dos de las posiciones del selector.
El diapasón es de Pinus Radiata que tiene un color madera muy desigual, muy natural. Es precioso

I bought this as a practice guitar that I keep in my office. I use a USB interface so I can hear my playing. This guitar is perfect for my needs. There was not a single sharp fret edge and upon arrival I tuned it then checked intonation and the action and both were spot on. The only thing I didn"t like were the strings, but everybody changes the strings on a guitar. I would buy this over a Strat.
If you"ve never bought from Sweetwater, do so without reservation. These guys are the best.

This is such high quality for this price. Just holding it you can feel the great build quality. My one small complaint is that the appearance of the wood finish on the body doesn't look quite as good in person as it does in the marketing photos. That could just be the one that I got, or it could be the way they all look. In person, it appears darker and the wood grain is not very visible unless you look very closely. But overall, this is a great guitar in my opinion.

Quality: I needed a cheaper guitar being fairly broke recently and have wanted to try out Ibanez for a long time. I also didn't care for having a guitar with a tremelo at this price range. This guitar arrived and is of an amazingly perfect quality from it's construction! I have found no flaws and have no complaints what so ever. From the tuners to it's mahogany body the quality at this price is unreal. They also use IBZ6 pickups which are actually ceramic pickups made by DiMarzio, far superior to cheaper Ibanez with korean made power sound pickups. You're simply not going to have higher quality components at this price I have searched a lot.

Playing: The thinner neck on these types of Ibanez guitars just feels refreshingly comfortable to play on. To be more specific the flatter back side of the neck keeps my hand from sticking to it as much in long performances. Sometimes playing somewhere hot where you might be sweaty, it's a lot easier to glide up and down the neck. The cutaway area near the end of the neck allows easy access to those high frets. After adjusting intonation and action I'd have to say the guitar is an absolute joy to play every time I pick it up.

Sound: Since this guitar has string through body for the bridge, as well as, it being mahogany and not basswood, the sustain on this is noticeably better than your cheap guitar. As for the pickups they have extremely nice clarity. Pickups are more of a personal thing and you may not care for ceramics if you want to play some blues with low gain. However I play a lot of metal and even some pop punk type of stuff. So if you want more clarity but you hate the way active pickups sound too sterile, this is perfectly in the middle I'd say. Your distorted sound is not so garbage sounding on these since they are ceramics and have higher magnetism reducing 'muddiness'. So any type of music played with distortion, this will give you, in my opinion, a perfect balance of clarity without sacrificing all of your warm tone.

The only possible caveat to the sound is the neck pickup also being the same type and ceramic may not give quite the sound you may be looking for though it would be close and is not bad at all. Specifically in an instance where you want a warmer bluesy tone. I would have to say though since I play metal and I have since changed to thicker gauge strings that I definitely am now getting the tone from the neck pickup that I wanted. Even in regular tuning with regular strings the unwound top 3 strings sound great with tapping and fast picking with the neck pickup, it's really when you want a more metallic, meatier, funky sound on the lower strings. (I mean you still get the sound you're aiming for but don't expect it to sound like the neck pickup on an American telecaster or something.)

Bottom Line: I bought a guitar for $200 and every time I pick it up I feel like I'm playing a $400 guitar. There is no one that could be disappointed in buying one of these. And I am not an Ibanez fan boy, this is my first one. I've played many fenders and B.C. Rich guitars that are more expensive. I am not saying this is a great guitar at this price, I'm saying flat out that this is a great guitar in general. I totally recommend it.

This guitar is made well. The cost-savings are largely in the electronics and materials, but the construction quality is excellent, the action out of the box was perfect. I would have given this 5 stars for being a great value, except for one design flaw - The volume and pup switch is in a really inconvenient spot that is easy to accidentally bump/change while playing. If you look at other guitar designs these knobs are usually lower to avoid this issue. Great guitar to learn on, but you will be thinking about upgrading after some progression.

I've been playing guitar for 2 years now and I've been using rhe same guitar I got from a $90 starter pack since I started.

I got this guitar about 2 months ago and I love it. good tuning stability, good tone,
And surprisingly versatile. I've used this guitar nonstop since I got it and I'm happy to have it.