Ibanez GIO Series GRX70QA - Transparent Red 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.

I owned an Ibanez GIO back in the early 2010s and always thought it was a decent guitar. So, after several years hiatus and wanting to get back into playing, I found this GIO GRX70 on sale at the Amazon Ibanez store. The big selling point for me: the HSH pickup configuration...a nice setup for the dollar. So the guitar arrives. I unbox and find a beautiful piece of craftsmanship! The finish on the body is stellar! The fretboard is smooth with perfect fret height across the fingerboard and no protruding fret ends. The knobs have a smooth glide indicating higher quality; not too loose or too stiff. You get a volume and tone knob that serves each switch position. The switch is a standard 5-position rotater, nothing special. This will let you switch to the following pickup sets: bridge, bridge-middle, middle, middle-neck, neck. The tremolo is an Ibanez branded generic 2-point tremolo that I will most likely seldom use. Out of the box, the action is a bit high for my taste, but not bad, and intonation seems really good. I will nonetheless trip to Guitar Center for a full setup and new strings. The sound of this guitar, pumped thru my Orange Crush 20 Combo is beyond expectations! Each switch position gives a truly unique sound experience, from mellow acoustic-ish to brassy and warm like a clean Tele to hard metal crunch a-la Strat. I find the HSH pickup config to offer more versatility than the typical Strat HHS, which in my opinion is geared toward more high-octane rock only. The neck has a nice arch, thinner than most and very playable for my short, stumpy fingers. And the guitar is very lightweight, yet has an incredibly solid feel. To sum it up, I would consider this GRX70 to be the Subaru of guitars: stylish, rugged, well equipped, versatile, and a lot of bang for your buck. You would have no shame taking this on stage at any skill level, be you a garage band or signed. And a newbie wanting to start your journey down the six-string highway would be so lucky to have this piece of hardware. Needless to say, I HIGHLY recommend this.

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.

Guitar shipped 2 days earlier than expected. A little nervous with the packaging originally. Once I opened it and saw that the guitar was adequately packaged. The guitar looks great out of the box. It does need some setup (as do all guitars). Overall, playability is fantastic for a $200 guitar. It's fast and action is good. Will be making some upgrades but this is personal preference. Pickups are good, himbuckers are fine, not great, but for $200 they are good. The single coil not the greatest, should be upgraded but easy to play around it with a decent amp. Overall, this is a good bang for your buck and have no issues with the guitar. I would recommend this for beginners or intermediate players as it has a great feel but will need some upgrades to bump it to the next level.