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A surprise NUGD!


badpenguin

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I thought I was done with getting more guitars, having sold a few off, but I saw this and couldn't say no to it. It's an 2007 Ibanez Arondite ADD120. (Perfect for me since I.... Oooh... shiny thing!) Mahogany body and neck, based on the old Destroyer/Explorer design, 22 frets on a rosewood board, set neck, (of course) a 3 way switch, vol/tone, and the VK pickups.

 

First impressions after 3 days with it. First off, it's weighty. Close to 9 1/2 pounds! The neck shape is decided designed for rhythm players, it has none of that shredder Wizard profile, coming closer to a Paul feel. And is easy to fret complex chords on. VERY nice fret work, although the truss rod is VERY sensitive, still trying to find that perfect medium. Sits perfect on the lap, and balances well on a strap. It SUSTAINS! Massive sustain! Shredders need not look at this guitar. This is Robert Fripp kind of sustain. Go hit the string, go have a cig, chat up the drummers girlfriend, maybe grab a pizza, come back, and it's ringing still.

 

The pickups: There's some nice clarity on the neck, notes ring nice and true, with just enough brightness not to sound muddy. In the middle, both sound nice, not great, just nice. There's a balance there that fits, almost single coil-ish. The bridge pickup is bright, articulate, and distorts wonderfully, though clean it sounds a bit on the thin side. Both pickups have a radius to them, matching the radius of the fretboard. Nice touch. But.... Issue with the pickups are that 1) a non standard size, so replacing will require some skills, and 2) they don't go down into the body low enough. They are fine, but adjusting them lower may take some of the aforementioned skills. The tone and vol control are nice, smooth and function well, but the tone tends to cut the volume a bit too much for my taste. A few minutes with a soldering will fix that. (In theory.)

 

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Congratulations. Happy New Guitar Day. :thu: Definitely something different. A lower value cap will help with the tone control by moving the effect higher in frequency. Before you break out the router, check to see if there's anything under the pickups. My bass has pieces of foam there. Never seen that on a guitar but since we're talking about a strange beast ya never know... You might be able to lower them another couple mm.

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