The Best Electric Guitars of the IBANEZ brand

If you’re just starting out then this is a great choice. It of course doesn’t cost a lot of money which you can also notice by the quality of the guitar but like I said it’s a cheap guitar, you can’t expect it to be perfect.
It sounds great but the playability might be the most noticeable downside to this guitar. The frets are sharp around the edges and kind of rough on the surface (annoying during bends for example).
All things considered, a great guitar if you don’t want to spend a whole lot of money. Would I recommend it? Yes, but don’t forget about the cons like fret buzz, knobs that don’t turn smoothly or the cheap electronics.
So I discussed a lot of downsides of this guitar because, let’s be honest, that is why you’re reading the reviews but I really do think that it is a great guitar for the money.

This guitar is very impressive for its price. It is built well with a smooth and solid feeling neck, very good fretwork with nothing sticking out and all metal volume and tone controls. The guitar stays in tune well and the floating trem is also very good. The guitar also looks much better in person than in pictures. I reccomend this guitar for anyone playing rock and metal, it’s great for rhythm and lead alike.

In photos you see the old version. When it will come, you will receive the newest version of that guitar. It will have written "Ibanez" on pickups. And what is very important: humbuckers work and as singles!!! That is an extremely big plus, because it can be perfect for both metal and jazz/blues. Also this version comes with new potentiometers caps

pros:
-Super impressive design. Among guitarists it is called "The Batman Guitar"
-Super nice matte finish. I have that guitar for more than one year, and the matte finish is like totally new!!
-Very decent quality
-Best option in that price category. To be honest, before buying it, i was thinking of having 3-4 guitars. But after I bought it, I do not want another guitars. For me, the design is the best I ever seen. Maybe after 4-5 years I will buy a Ibanez guitar in exchange of this "Ibanez Gio"

cons:
-The only problem I faced with is the fact that I had to colour the bolts from pickups, because they came a little bit discolored. But that is not a very big problem.

Good guitar for the Price. the only disappointing me is the picture shown on the Thomann website is a different serial number than the actual guitar. On the website, the serial number starts with the letter I and no made in china written. but in the actual, the serial number starts with the letter G and made in china. That is the dishonesty part I don’t like and make me think this Ibanez guitar is FAKE and different in the Picture above. The finishes are good. The hardware is good. good guitar for the ENTRY LEVEL. I hope Thomann will update the pictures and details above because that is extremely dishonesty to your customer.

Guitar arrived perfectly packed. The unboxing was with great anticipation! Amazingly lightweight, just 2370 grams! Ok it is neck heavy but not like the EssssGeeeees, you easily play both sitting and standing.
The guitar has a sustained sound played unlugged, you will be surprised to stick your ear to the back and play a barre chord, sustains like a keyboard! So much for the heavy-body-long-sustain myth we ‘buy’ for so long!!! Neck is good, thin, and the frets well taken care of. The pots were stiff, I used some contact spray. Wiring was ok but I did some extra grounding of the 5way switch. The natural color looks elegant and I think nothing beats a natural guitar! The sound of the pups is balanced and ‘correct’ although I would like hotter pickups. The 5way switch gives nice combinations (apart from the classic 3 options, you get neck pup parallel and both pups split). Tuners work correctly. The bridge saddle screws bothered me and I used lower ones from Start set, I think.
Once again Mr Robin Nunn ,head in guitar dept was extremely helpful and pro, I give him a 20 in the scale from 1 to 10 !!!! Same goes to the Greek person in charge of Greek orders, Mr Stamatis Koutouzis! Always helpful and professional!
The guitar is a great choice for all. The big ‘C’ that makes them ( c-o-r… factory) makes good instruments for less money and this is good! Please note I owned USA Gibsons, USA Fender Strat, 2 Mexicans etc., I also made 3 handmade superstrats to a good luthier here in Greece, I also own USA Washburn Les Paul type, among others. I think I have a wide sample and my judgement of this S521 is not so biased, the guitar is really a pleasant surprise!
Totally pleased with this S521 !

I bought this guitar approximately 1 year ago, before writing a review I wanted firstly to get know the instrument. So this is what I can say about this S521:

firs of all, the guitar is really light waited, bit neck heavy, but that does not make a big difference to me, haha. the neck is thin which makes it easier to play (in my opinion), in comparison to other guitars I tried before buying this one. The total feel of the guitar in the arms are really pleasant, it is like holding a baby, Haha!
The actual sound of the guitar unplugged is pretty decent, and when plugged even better, then I expected. The tuning holds really well, even in low tuning (I mostly play in D-standard or Drop-C).
The only issues I manage to find are that the backside of the guitar body is quite soft and because of that it received some use marks from clothing and that the neck picks up (or how it is called, the one near the neck) get loose overtime when played and gives buzzing sound, but also it is quite easy to tighten it up so that’s ain’t a problem (i do it even with a pic).

I mainly play heavier music on this instrument, such as Black metal, Metal in general, Stoner rock, etc., and do not have any complaints about usability.

Furthermore, when other guitarists checked this guitar (the ones who play guitars for quite a long time), they were pleasantly surprised, as they expressed themselves. also, some of them hated thin neck or lightweight but is it personal preference.

Overall, this guitar is a real bargain in accordance with the price and quality ratio! Realy good as a first guitar, easy playability out of the box, strived me to learn how to play the guitar quite quickly (at least basics, writing riffs, low-level solos, recording). So, personally, I really recommend to spare some more money and buy this guitar.

And for those still doubting about learning guitar or another instrument: If I did it, You can do it Too!

A great guitar for the beginner looking for a light and good looking guitar, with a fast and easy to play neck.

Let’s start this review at the top:

The headstock is quite small. It does however have enough left over space for a clip tuner, and maybe a fret wrap. But don’t expect to have enough space to also store your capo on the headstock. The tuning pegs however are positioned far enough from each other to make turning them easy without hitting the other pegs.

The tuners themselves are ok for home use, but don’t hold tune very well. If I where to use this guitar for more than just practise, and maybe some lessons, I would upgrade them immediately.

The nut is ok, but on the guitar I received it needed to be filed down a little bit, since it was set up way to high. The nut itself is quite ok though. It isn’t anything special, but with a bit of lubrication it does what it should do. This guitar does suffer from a bit of harmonic by noises coming from the strings between the tuning pegs and the nut. A fret wrap however is a great way to dampen these noises.

The neck is simply lovely, as is with any Ibanez. It feels comfortable to hold, and the playability is amazing. A real neck to shred your heart out.
The fretboard itself is smooth to the touch, and the radius makes for a great shred machine. Chords on the upper frets however are a bit less comfortable due to the flatness of the fretboard.

The fret work was as good as can be expected on a guitar in this price range. I was however pleasantly surprised that on my guitar there weren’t any sharp fret ends. The frets did need a polish though to make the frets comfortable to play.

The pick ups are simply meh… They sound very clinical, with a lot of sharpness in the mids and highs while the lows are very undefined. They are however very quiet when it comes to unwanted noise, which is a rarity in this price range.

The electronics however are by far and away the biggest issue with this guitar. On the guitar I received all the knobs where noisy when used, and the tone knob stopped working all together after a couple of months. I replaced the entire electronics for some left over parts, and this made a massive difference, both in the quietness when operating the knobs, as the sound of the guitar when it is amplified. (If you are looking for a great blanc canvas to modify, I would highly recommend this guitar after I got such great results with just left over parts)

The great thing about natural finishes, is that the manufacturer can’t hide imperfections, or glue lines as easily as they can on painted guitars. On this particular guitars I can only identify 3 pieces of wood that make up the body. Which in this price range s simply amazing.

The body itself has a nice shape, with the bellycut making it comfy when the guitar sits on your lap. There isn’t any real bevels or extra cut aways near the upper frets. However upper fret access is very good.

The strap buttons on this guitar aren’t very good. Even a new strap slides easily on and off the knobs, so I replaced hem with strap locks, even though I don’t use this guitar live.

A very good guitar for the price. Unlike the previous one, it is very convenient due to the lack of floyd rose. The color is just gorgeous! The build of the guitar is very good, nothing wobbles, it was packed well!
Very good for newbies and Intermediate lvl gyes.

I tried a Jem at the store when I ordered this one to compare the Jr to the much pricy Jem and I found no difference. Probably long term the floyd rose quality difference will become evident, but I felt no difference in the neck and pickups. If you want a Steve Vai experience and you can’t afford the other models this is your Jem.

It is totally a great value for money!
The neck is comfortable and gives you a lot of flexibility.
It also makes your life easier since it always stays in tune (but you maybe need new strings when it comes.(not necessarily))
It has all the features of an original jem and the electronics make a great sound. The painting is also very good everywhere except a little bit on the screws.(only a little). The only thing you need to think about is if you can avoid becoming paranoid about it’s cleaning since it is white and every little thing that sits on it might anoy you.(or maybe it’s just me.)

neck is very good))body is amazing)),but screw of saddles very long ,the threshold of 0 fret is made very high, you need to bore

Im not an expert on guitars but in the three years i had it i never had any problems. I never properly got into guitar playing but i really liked this guitar in terms of looks, build quality and sound. I sold it to a friend who has been happy with the guitar since.

I am a beginner level player and bought this guitar a year ago for metal.
Pros:
-Looks great
-Very light
-Quality metallic parts
-Well set up and easy to play out of the box
-Intonates well with heavier gauge strings
Cons:
-Small manufacturing defects. Small bump in the body’s white outline, headstock’s face wood got unglued at a corner, nut came loose, but no big deal for me
-Very easy to damage the body because of its light build
-Flat high gain sounds. Not sure if it’s because of the light wood used in the crafting of the guitar or because of the pickups. I will replace the bridge pickup with a Black Winter and update if possible.
-385 euro is a bit expensive for what it offers, at least for my needs. It’s probably fine if all you want is clean or low gain sounds, but then again I never use it that way.

Comment:

Really good quality. Feels great and intimate. Arrived in great condition and well set up.
Pros:
Great sound
Feels awesome
Really light weight and thin body
Beautiful design
Simplistic interaction
Tuners feel good
Neck plays fast and smooth

Cons:
(for some) light weight and thin body
The Mahogany body is really soft so can easily be dented or scratched. The bottom strap button screw go worn out when I screwed it back in after wanting to swap it out.
Tone might feel flat to some folks.

For the price this guitar is awesome as an upgrade developing past intermediate ability as a player.