Manufacturer Ibanez Body type Solid Body Basswood, Mahogany | Period 1987 — present Neck joint Bolt-on, Neck-thru | |
Neck 3pc and 5pc Wizard II Maple with Walnut | ||
The Ibanez RG Tremolo series is a series of guitars. They are made as a basic superstrat design, but are known for having much pointier horns then a standard superstrat. The series were introduced in 1987 with an RG Tremolo model known as RG570DX and sold well. It is available in double locking tremolotypes.
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The RG Tremolo series features the RG370DX, which is Ibanez' best selling guitar ever made. There are regular RGs and RGs with neck-thru design known as RGT. There have been a lot of models in this series, but there are only 7 "official" RG Tremolo models today.
Origins
The original guitar was an RG550 with a version of Floyd Rose tremolo known as the Edge which came out in 1987. The original RG550 series featured 2 piece maple necks which were very susceptible to warping and as a result a Bubinga reinforcement stripe was added to the later RG5xx series guitars. The guitar featured a thin flat neck called a wizard which was ideal for both chording and shredding. Pro musicians like Paul Gilbert started using Ibanez for its look, sound and neck. The RG550 is manufactured less than before, but there are other guitars in the series which have been popular in the hard rock world. The RG Tremolos' quality placement is the standard range, below the premium RG Prestige series and above the budget range GRG/GRX. series. Due to the price, many think the quality is surprisingly good. Bands like Evanescence, The Offspring and solo artist Andy Martin use RG Tremolo series live and in studio. Some have customized RG Tremolos though.
All RG Tremolo guitars before 2010 feature the Ibanez Edge III tremolo, Developed exclusively by Ibanez; RG tremolo guitars made after 2010 feature the Edge-Zero II tremolo. There are another variant of the RG with fixed bridges which are named RG Fixed series; they are the same guitars as the RG Tremolo, but feature a fixed bridge instead of a double-locking floating bridge.
The RG series is well known for having unique designs on the guitars. An example of this is the RG320PG P3 model, which features the "bloody skulls" design.