Ibanez Gio GRG131DX - Black Flat Reviews

First off, thank you Michael for all your assistance with my purchase. Sweetwater has been great to work with. Glad I bought my guitar from them. I'm fairly new to playing guitar. Been serious about it for a little over a year. I get better every week so I decided I would reward myself with a better guitar as I move from a beginner to intermediate. I also upgraded my amp to a boss katana 50 mkii. Also purchased from sweetwater. Awsome amp!
I decided on the Ibanez gio grg131dx. Had good reviews and the possibility of gigging with it. Beautiful guitar! Sounds great! Plays like a much more expensive guitar. Came packaged great. I ordered a case with it so sweetwater put it inside the case and shipped it in another box. Received in Perfect condition. Tuned it and it played great without any setup. It's just fun as hell to play. It's light, well balanced and sounds great. I've been playing it everday for six weeks now. Meets all my expectations and more. Thanks sweetwater. Definitely going to keep doing business with your company!

This guitar is the absolute best strat at this price point. It produces both beautiful clean tones, and deep, heavy overdrive tones perfect for soloing and metal rythm. Set up nearly perfectly ordered stock, and holds a tune for quite some time. This guitar has matched, and maybe even exceeded the overall performance and quality of my Vai JEMJR and can easily keep up with my vintage Fender Stratocaster. If you're looking for a starter, a first electric, or even a backup gig guitar, this guitar will hold its own.

Honestly I bought this guitar for it's looks. However I am extremely pleased with how it plays and sounds. Fretwork is great, no sharp edges and the neck feels phenomenal for a guitar in this price range. Pickups sound great too running through Guitar Rig. For and finish is spot on, no blemishes or missed areas and the binding is flush and looks great. When it came, had to adjust neck relief a little, and the action was rediculously high. With the neck on this one I am able to achieve a great low action. Maybe I just got a good one, but this is honestly the best of my many 'random' purchases.

I'm happy to say that out of all the guitars I could've started with, I was lucky to blindly choose this one. Initially I chose this guitar, because it was in my two favorite colors and my friend who's been playing guitar for years told me if I wanted to do metal or hard rock, go with ibanez. Well, you probably saw the five stars I left. Though it's only a starter guitar and I've only had it for a year, I will have it for many years to come. This block of wood has a special place in my heart. Also, huge shout out to sweetwater and Cameron. They have been with me on my journey since I've started and have never let me down. These guys truly care about their players and the satisfaction of their customers.

Ibanez GIO 2021 are the biggest bang for your buck. I've been playing Ibanez for over 30 years of all tier levels and the GIO takes the cake. At just over $200 the quality has come a long way. You will not be disappointed. Looks good, sounds good and feels good. Thank you to Sweetwater and sales engineer, David Yanes for the time he took to assist me in my purchase. Sweetwater truly goes the extra mile for their customers. Go get a GIO. from Sweetwater today!

I have seen this guitar on you tube. All they can talk about is how great. hard rock guitar it is. This baby is a great Country Guitar. So if Ya looking for a Great Country Guitar. That will not break the bank. Buy one.

I picked up the guitar at the music store just to pass time, and i really enjoyed playing it. Loved the feel and the action, and the tones were excellent. Machine heads were smooth, 5 postion switch and the pots were smooth and placed nicely on the guitar. In passing i asked how much (not expecting to buy it,just asking for curiosty sake) and when he told me the price i nearly fell down.
I walked out of the store with it. Im very excited about the sound it gives me out of my set up. Its the cheapest guitar i have, but for now anyway, my favorite.

Don't be fooled by the price, this guitar sounds, feels and looks great! The fretwork is smooth as silk, way better than my RG350DX which felt like a saw blade out of the box.
Was planning on changing the pickups, but the stock ones sound really good, like a more expensive guitar. And the color scheme just looks evil, in a good way. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for a guitar on a budget.

I was so happy when I got this because I was finally able to play guitar again after such a long time. The guitar feels great and it looks fantastic. My only issue is the tuning stability, but that might just mean some bad strings on it - quite an easy fix. Everything else is spot on though. It sounds great it looks great and feels even better. Definitely recommend this to anybody thinking of buying a good looking not-break-the-bank guitar.

I have a few guitars from fender and Epiphone but this one I find most comfortable playing. the neck is very smooth and fast and it also sounds great with my line 6 amp.

I want to thank Chris for the great communication through email. This guitar is awesome right out of the box I couldn't be happier. back in the day they used to make a Green version I wish they had more colors to choose from. I was thinking I was going to change the pickup but it sounds awesome and the playability is second to none. I own many Ibanez guitars and this rates up there with the more expensive ones I can't believe the price point. I highly recommend this guitar thanks Sweetwater

Had a Squire given to me years ago that I played a bit and put in the case not to touch for years. Started again and wanted a cheap upgrade for a heavier sound. This thing out of the box after warming up sounded amazing. Finish is fairly easy to get dirty, but the thinner neck with wider string spacing fit my fingers perfect and eliminated a lot of the muting I was getting with the Fender. Pickups sound great as far as I know. Also the volume knob isn't right under my hand which bugs me with the Fender. About to get an Orange Micro Dark and 1x12 Celestion Vintage cab delivered and can not wait to hear that sound with this guitar. As always Sweetwater has the best customer service I have encountered in years!

I've been playing for over 36 years, and I wish they had this guitar in the mid 80's!! For the price and quality, you won't be disappointed!
The neck is super easy to play and the frets are even and consistent. The pickups are fine, but they might need to be swapped for a better pair. The tuners are stable and the nut was cut correctly. Overall, this guitar screams 80's metal...and its playability and build quality are on par with the "quality" 80's guitar inventory back then!

So here is the thing, I have had this guitar for about a week and half. I play 2 to 3 hours a day.
I want to write an honest review, there is way too much praise in other reviews and I want to keep peoples expectation realistic. I have played RG's many years.
This is NOT a guitar you will want to play professionally, on stage or any of that stuff others have said.

Goto the specifications and read the parts on this guitar, they are all entry level parts.

The build quality is great 5/5 stars
that is the best part of the guitar. All the parts are installed well, It feels nice in your hands and if you play Ibanez Rg's you will feel at home. The 24 fret access is nice and the neck feels smooth.
The matte finish was a nice surprise, I don't have any guitars with a matte finish and I really like the way it feels against my skin.
Now back to those parts, that is where it starts to lose stars.
I know, it is $ so I should lower my expectations
but so many reviews are too high and I want to keep it real there are many small issues with the parts.

The strings are JUNK! but for $ ok I get it.
strings 0/5 stars

The Bridge I am afraid is also junk, I have played it for 1 1/2 weeks to give the thing a fair breaking in period. The 1st and 2nd have already broke!! it is because the strings are junk but also because the bridge is not very smooth and damaged the strings, I picked up the guitar strummed a G chord and the high E snapped, I then barely touched the B and snap. so you will want to replace the bridge if you are going to use it often
Bridge 0/5 stars

The neck is smooth but the frets do buzz quite a bit and when bending, it frets out all over the place, anything beyond a 1/2 step bend you will lose sustain and hit a dead spot for sure. The fret edge treatment is ok but is clearly not my RG550. The red sharkstooth fret marking is kind of hard to see in darker lit rooms and the side dots are not much better.
Neck/frets 1/5 stars

The electronics are OK a bit noisy, The infinity P/U's are decent
the POTS are smooth and work well, you can roll the volume off and on
Electronics 3/5 stars

Nut 1/5 stars almost every 1st fret is close to dead, I am afraid the nut is going to wear out pretty quick

Tuners 4/5 stars, they held tune pretty well after the strings had broke in, they would hold tune over night.

I play a few hours a day and I am afraid this guitar isn't going to hold up for me, I am not interested in replacing string every week.

I have a 2018 RG 570 and a 2021 RG550 and have had no issue at all with any parts

I will put new strings (cleartones) on this GIO and give it another test run
but I honestly believe if you wanted to use this thing professionally
you will want to upgrade almost every important part Especially the Nut and Bridge

so you may as well buy the Ibanez Axion Label RG631ALF for $ and save the trouble

I was going to buy that one but I missed the boat and they went on backorder....

I wasn't sure if I wanted a hardtail, I have always had Floating Trems

And I love the hardtail, so it was worth the $ to find out

I am Happy about my purchase and Sweetwater was right on time with delivery like always

SO 5/5 to Sweetwater

But it is a $ guitar so expect a $ guitar

In honesty, I've never played any Ibanez guitar, let alone owned one. I'm a Les Paul and SG guy but I thought I'd try this one out, for something different. I don't care for the sound of it, which I could modify, but it's the feel of it. Just isn't my cup of tea. It looks nice, was set up decent, top notch service from Sweetwater, but I'll end up selling it since I won't play it