Over the past few weeks, we’ve had the opportunity to get to close grips with Ibanez’s slender RGA42 FM fixed bridge guitar offering, and have been putting it through its paces at home and on stage. Here’s how it lines up.

The solid mahogany body with stained flame maple top of the RGA42 is extremely light, and available in Transparent Grey Burst, Bright Blue Burst or Transparent Red Burst. It features a Superstrat style body with Ibanez’s trademark sharper and deeper cutaways for edgier looks and improved access to the higher frets.

Hardware consists of “Cosmos Black” Gibraltar Standard through-body strung bridge, one volume control, pickup rings, strap buttons and machine heads. All of these are accompanied by an active EQ switch which acts as a switch to cut out mids, and a 3-way selector switch to flick between the pair of LZ3 humbuckers, or a blend of both.

Ibanez’s 3-piece Wizard II bolt on neck is finished with a bound rosewood fret board, pearl dot fret markers and 24 jumbo frets.

Out of the box, the guitar is reasonably well setup, with pickup height requiring little adjustment. The neck needed no truss rod adjustment, and in all received action adjustment to suit, and minor intonation adjustments.

The Wizard II neck lends itself to budding new guitarists and experts alike, plus everyone in between. It has a comfortable and thin profile allowing it to fit superbly in hand, whether you’re practising chord shapes and scales, or shredding a tight sweep picking solo.

The hardware is a very solid set, and kept tuning well, even when tuning down to lower tunings. The sustain through the body, bridge and the active pickups is fantastic; and the LZ3s produce little to no noise at high gain – just very crunching overdrive, while the neck pickup is perfect for blues-inspired playing, or for warmer lead lines. Between both humbuckers and the EQ switch, the pickup configuration provides a very wide range of sounds.

SUMMARY: Whether you’re walking through light blues rock, strumming some good ol’ fashioned rock and roll, or shredding heavy metal, this guitar is able to handle it all effortlessly, and comes back for more.

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