whats the deal with ibanez?

[thetrooper9]

while ltd and jackson have name brand pickups in most of their guitars ibanez only puts name brand pickups in their weird shaped guitars like the iceman and the x. a weirder thing is that these models cost alot less than rgs that have all ibanez pickups. i dont get it. i wish they had a decently priced(>1500) rg with dimarzios.

[Cats-o-caster]

Name brand? as far as i know Ibanez has their pups on the most of their models

 

And what about Fender/Gibson? they have name brands on pups?

[maltomario]

funny you should mention that. I have an Ibanez Prestige RG2570Z that came with Dimarzio/IBZ pups that were really good. I'm just not a huge fan of ceramic magnets, so I swapped out for new set of Dimarzios (Tone Zone, True Velvet, Air Norton)

 

I spent around $580 for the guitar (new), and spent $160 on pickups, now I have a real players guitar for well under $800.

Actually, I am selling the old pups for ~ $100 so net cost will be under $700. not too shabby.

 

[thetrooper9]

i dont know about fender but gibson makes great pickups but the ibanez pickups get lots of bad reviews. the ibanez xiphos and iceman have dimarzios.

[Bedlum Bednarik]

I dnt care if they dont get big press like some pick ups did but these Ibby brand coils are bad ass.

 

[seven58]

I would bet hard earned money that if someone took Seymour Duncans or Dimarzios and put them in an Ibanez and told the player it was stock Ibanez pickups the player would say that he/she didn't like them and say they would change them to SD's or Dimarzios. You could take said guitar away from player and then bring it back to him/her and tell them that it had the pickups of their choice and they would say that they liked it now.

I have several Ibanez guitars and haven't changed the pickups in any of them.

[smorgdonkey]

ESP learned that from Kramer. It is one of the many things that Kramer did right (let's not talk about what they did wrong). ESP gained valuable experience from their involvement with Kramer and continued to go with high end components when they 'became' their own entity. Aside from big time marketing Kramer put all of the things on a guitar from the start that people used to customize...like Seymour Duncan pickups, Schaller tuning machines and hardware, Floyd Rose bridge. In effect they were an 'off the shelf' custom. Kramer was the first company to do it and ESP was the second.

 

Fender and Gibson were pioneers in the area of pickups so their brands are pretty much cornerstones. Most Ibanez pickups are in the 'hate bin' for me but Super '70s are pretty nice!

[cross.bones]

I think you may find that those 'name brand' pickups Ibanez has are either the dimarzio/ibz or Duncan/ibz and are nothing more than designed by said companies and produced under license by Ibanez. I love Ibanez guitars cos of the playability and when I first get them I love the pickups, but after a while I end up disliking them. I've replaced all of the ones in mine, bar the super 80's in my 79' artist, and for some reason I quite like the Powersound or whatever they are in my Millennium destroyer. Though I would quite like some actives in that now!

[maltomario]

 

I think you may find that those 'name brand' pickups Ibanez has are either the dimarzio/ibz or Duncan/ibz and are nothing more than designed by said companies and produced under license by Ibanez. I love Ibanez guitars cos of the playability and when I first get them I love the pickups, but after a while I end up disliking them. I've replaced all of the ones in mine, bar the super 80's in my 79' artist, and for some reason I quite like the Powersound or whatever they are in my Millennium destroyer. Though I would quite like some actives in that now!

 

 

the Dimarzio/IBZ pups are manufactured by Dimarzio in the USA. They are OEM models - built just for ibanez. Not necessarily low quality or cheap. In fact, since they're not available unless you buy a guitar with them installed, they are a bit of a hot commodity on the used market, similar to other OEM specific pickups.

[WildWill]

while ltd and jackson have name brand pickups in most of their guitars ibanez only puts name brand pickups in their weird shaped guitars like the iceman and the x. a weirder thing is that these models cost alot less than rgs that have all ibanez pickups. i dont get it. i wish they had a decently priced(>1500) rg with dimarzios.

 

Ibanez isn't a name brand pickup? Oh, you meant why doesn't Ibanez use AFTERMARKET pickups in other models. Gotcha.

 

 

I'm actually quite happy with the Super 58's that came in my AF125. And I know a couple of folks here in town quite happy with the stock pickups in their Ibanez guitars. One fellow has an Artcore with the ACH pickups that sounds good. Different than mine but still good.

[WildWill]

I would bet hard earned money that if someone took Seymour Duncans or Dimarzios and put them in an Ibanez and told the player it was stock Ibanez pickups the player would say that he/she didn't like them and say they would change them to SD's or Dimarzios. You could take said guitar away from player and then bring it back to him/her and tell them that it had the pickups of their choice and they would say that they liked it now. I have several Ibanez guitars and haven't changed the pickups in any of them.

 

I would NOT take that bet against you.

[Orange Jackson]

I would bet hard earned money that if someone took Seymour Duncans or Dimarzios and put them in an Ibanez and told the player it was stock Ibanez pickups the player would say that he/she didn't like them and say they would change them to SD's or Dimarzios. You could take said guitar away from player and then bring it back to him/her and tell them that it had the pickups of their choice and they would say that they liked it now. I have several Ibanez guitars and haven't changed the pickups in any of them.

 

 

But, what it you had two of the same guitars, set up the same way, all of that.

In one you have stock ibanez pups and the other you put in Seymour Duncans or Dimarzios. Tell 20 guys that can play that one is stock and one is got Duncans or Dimarzios, and ask them to figure out which is which.

 

I bet one red paper clip that most of them would figure it out.

[BG76]

Ibanez makes really nice guitars and has been doing so for a long time. I would think their pickups would be very good.

[LaXu]

My experience with Ibanez is that their own brand pickups, including the DiMarzio/Ibanez and Duncan/Ibanez pickups, are only average at best. I can't believe they're still stuffing RGs with the V-series pickups because I'm so glad I got rid of those. My old RG550 sounds amazing with Seymour Duncans.

 

The Ibanez Super 58s and other older designs are actually pretty good though. Somewhere along the line they must've replaced the pickup designer with someone who has {censored} for ears.

[angry again2]

 

I would bet hard earned money that if someone took Seymour Duncans or Dimarzios and put them in an Ibanez and told the player it was stock Ibanez pickups the player would say that he/she didn't like them and say they would change them to SD's or Dimarzios. You could take said guitar away from player and then bring it back to him/her and tell them that it had the pickups of their choice and they would say that they liked it now. I have several Ibanez guitars and haven't changed the pickups in any of them.

 

 

I disagree. The v7/v8 and infinity pickups are ok, but nothing special. I replaced mine with Duncans and there was a pretty substantial improvement. Clarity , note definition, was a lot better. Never played one with the dimarzio/Ibanez pups.

[thetrooper9]

i know that some pickups that they use are dimarzio ibz but only the weird shaped (and signature models of course) guitars get after market pickups.

 

http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Ibanez-XPT700-Electric-Guitar?sku=

and

http://www.zzounds.com/item--IBAICT700

 

so can anyone answer the second part of my question?

why do the weird guitars get dimarzios while many more expensive guitars get dimarzio ibz?

 

in my experience i had a rg that came with emg ibz pups and i switched them for duncans. i did have improvement in clarity and tone.

 

i also have an ibanez hollow body with the stock super 58s still in it. i think the sound good.

[crashclc]

 

i know that some pickups that they use are dimarzio ibz but only the weird shaped (and signature models of course) guitars get after market pickups. http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Ibanez-XPT700-Electric-Guitar?sku= and http://www.zzounds.com/item--IBAICT700 so can anyone answer the second part of my question? why do the weird guitars get dimarzios while many more expensive guitars get dimarzio ibz?

 

 

Um.... how recently or thoroughly have you looked at www.ibanez.com? The top half of the Prestige RG's all come with genuine DiMarzios. I own one myself (see my gp). All of the artist signature models come with whatever that particular artist prefers (e.g. the Jems all have DiMarzios). All of the Artcore Customs come with Super 58s or Custom 58s (the same thing as the Super 58 as near as I can tell - I own a few of them too). So basically, most high-end Ibanez guitars DO come with appropriate high end pickups. There is also a smattering of EMGs among the lesser models. So your basic theory is wrong unless you're counting the Prestige, Signature and Artcore Custom models as "weird".

 

But aside from that, how many of these allegedly {censored}ty standard ibz pups do you own or have played? The IBZ DiMarzios ARE DiMarzios. Made by DiMarzio for Ibanez. They certainly don't suck. They actually sound pretty decent. The Duncan/Ibanez in the midrange solid bodies are Duncans. They are pretty hot too. I've currently got 7 or 8 Ibanez guitars and they all sound pretty good. Less expensive guitars by and large get less expensive pickups. They might not be as good as a $150+ after market pickup, but they are usually a pretty decent match for the particular guitar and that's a major reason why the whole guitar is affordable.

[vetmxer]

My RS1000 has super 58's. Only thing that detracts from them sounding great is the string spacing on the bridge and bridge pup are not a good match which makes the bridge pup sound a bit muffled.

[Steadfastly]

I would bet hard earned money that if someone took Seymour Duncans or Dimarzios and put them in an Ibanez and told the player it was stock Ibanez pickups the player would say that he/she didn't like them and say they would change them to SD's or Dimarzios. You could take said guitar away from player and then bring it back to him/her and tell them that it had the pickups of their choice and they would say that they liked it now. I have several Ibanez guitars and haven't changed the pickups in any of them.

 

I would not take your bet because you would end up taking my money.

[thetrooper9]

oh i havent seen many of the prestige models

cool

thanks

[GodBlessTexas]

The problem is that it wouldn't matter any way because there is no "magic bullet" pickup combination that appeals to all people. Do you know why there are so many slightly used JB/Jazz combos on the aftermarket? Because they're a commonly used stock pickup set for ESP/LTD and Jackson, and while they work for some people in certain setups, a lot of people like other things.

 

I own many guitars, and I've replaced pickups in about half of them, and have a box full of pickups from SD, DiMarzio, EMG, and even a couple of boutique companies. But the thing is, I don't have the same pickups in each guitar. I have an S540 with stock pickups, and an S540 with a JB/Quarter Pound/Jazz set. I have an S440 with EMG 89/SA/SA. Or an RG with 85/SV/S, an RG with Blackouts, an RG with an Air Norton and Tone Zone.

 

The only thing putting in "name brand" pickups would be possibly higher resale value for those who replace their pickups, but Duncan/IBZ, DiMarzio/IBZ, and even V7/V8's come close to what DiMarzios and Duncans go for used. I have a box full of them that were all purchased from Ebay by people who wanted something else than what came in their guitar.