Ibanez RG550MXX-RFR 20th Anniversary

Serial numbers are F0712604 (headstock) and 071099 (plate).

Did I say I love neon colors? My friends called me crazy when I bought the "desert yellow" RG550MXX-DY last year, and I am curious what they will call me when they see this: Another 20th Anniversary RG, this time in "road flare red" - even more vibrant and eye-soring than the yellow one. Love it or hate it - there is nothing in between, I guess.

But hey - these are definitely among the best sounding RGs you can get. And they combine the flashy 80's looks with modern high-tech features of guitar production. And most of all: Ibanez has eliminated the drawbacks of the original Wizard neck profile design. Here, with today's multi-strip neck construction and the new top-mount locking nut, they could go extremely thin (17mm at the nut) without compromising stability. The old locking nut needs two large holes through the neck. This weakens the headstock and is prune to the infamous W-shaped cracks. Also the new neck construction has no scarf joint, but three strips of maple with two strips of walnut in between for increased strength and less chance for twist. Thus, warped Wizard necks (that caused Jennifer Batten to quit her Ibanez endorsement) are history. Also, the overlapping fretboard is gone! The neck tenon is now as long as the fretboard and thus the contact area is much larger than the original neck pocket and heel that were compatible to Fender dimensions.

So much for the differences compared to the original release back in 1987. But everything else is pure Ibanez culture that stands the test of time, such as the pointy pickguard, the 5-way pickup switch, the original EDGE vibrato system (but without the "Licensed by Floyd Rose" cast text) or the Fujigen-made HSH pickups V1/S1/V2.

(I just realized that I pretty much repeated what I already wrote for the yellow one. :) Sorry for the redundancy.)

Thanks to Mathias from Innsbruck, Tyrolia (Austria) for this beautiful axe and the excellent packing and shipping efforts.

Update 2009-11-30: I replaced the stock bridge pickup by a DiMarzio Steve's Special because I thought the V2 didn't have enough "guts" and output and the red one would stand in the shade of the yellow one (soundwise, that is)...

Pickups	Neck	Ibanez V1
	Middle	IBZ S1
	Bridge	DiMarzio Steve's Special F-spaced (replaced the Ibanez V2)
Strings		d'Addario .010-.046