Better Guitar Playing

It’s hard to believe now, but once upon a time, people doubted that Japanese guitar makers could produce instruments of sufficient quality to qualify as professional-level instruments. How times have changed! Guitar companies such as Ibanez have proven that Japanese craftsmanship is truly first-rate. Would someone like Steve Vai or Joe Satriani play a guitar made by a company with poor craftsmanship?

While their top-end models are still produced in Japan, Ibanez in recent years has outsourced some of the lower-end models to South Korea, and the results have been excellent on the whole. One of their most popular models is the shred-friendly RG350DX. Let’s take a look at what makes this guitar so popular.

When you first start to play an RG350DX, you’ll immediately be comfortable with the neck, assuming you’ve played an Ibanez before. Ibanez simply has some of the fasted “shredder-friendly” necks around, and the RG350DX is no exception. The 3-piece Wizard II neck is thin and ready to shred.

Sweep arpeggios and fast runs flow with ease. Outfitted with 24 jumbo frets, you’ll be exploring vast sonic territory at superhuman speeds in no time.

We were equally impressed with the sonic variety available in the instrument. It features three pickups (two humbuckers and a single coil). While the RG350DX is obviously wired for shred, the pickups make it a very versatile guitar as well.

The guitar also sports an Ibanez Edge III vibrato system that allows you to turn the strings to butter and still return to pitch-perfect tune. Like any Floyd Rose licensed tremolo, the adjustments can be a pain, but as long as you keep it in standard tuning, you should be fine.

The guitar has an attractive white finish on a basswood body. We didn’t find any significant deficiencies in the finish, though we certainly tried hard to find them. In typical Ibanez fashion, the fretboard is outfitted with sharktooth inlays and black hardware.

We hesitate to call the RG350DX a “budget” guitar because we don’t want anyone to question its quality. Ibanez would be justified in charging twice what they do for this guitar. Buy one before they decide to do just that!

Want the absolute cheapest price on a used or new Ibanez RG350DX? Then you need to visit Ray’s Guitar Shop, which offers the lowest prices on all new and used guitars (both electric and acoustic). It doesn’t matter if you’re looking for a PRS Custom 22, an Ibanez JS1000, or an Epiphone Les Paul Ultra, Ray’s Guitar Shop has the best guitars at the best prices!