The guitar instantly became a cult classic amongst musical instruments guitars, partly because of its playability, and partly because of its low price point. But the low price was always very misleading, because this guitar certainly played and sounded like instruments priced at much, much higher rates.

Ibanez RG270dx: Features

This instrument featured a bolt-on neck, a rosewood fretboard, three electronic pickups in a humbucker-single-humbucker configuration, a 5-way toggle switch, a volume control knob, a tone control knob, a Floyd Rose full-floating “whammy bar” bridge with fine tuners, a locking tuner nut, a high gloss finish available in several colors and Ibanez’s classic headstock design.

How It Plays and Sounds

Make no mistake, this guitar is built for speed. The wide fretboard and thin neck, combined with Ibanez’s special finish process, makes this neck one of the fastest playing guitar necks ever produced. Flying down the fretboard is almost effortless, to the point that its easy to let your fingers get ahead of your brain as you’re playing.

For that reason, the Ibanez RG270dx became an instant classic amongst the shredders, who value finger speed and precision, combined with searing tone. And this instrument certainly provided plenty of juiced-up tone. All three pickups were wired for very high outputs, which sounded great heading into an overdriven tube amp or even a solid state amplifier pushed for distorted sounds. But the guitar also cleaned up very nicely and found plenty of uses in Jazz bands and even rock bands who relied on clean, appregiated and even finger-picking sounds.

Here’s a tip: if you’re looking for a very clean, sparkly tone, roll the volume knob back a touch. That will take the sting out of the pickups, and will really clean up the sound nicely.

Availability

Ibanez stopped producing the RG270dx several years ago, but its spirit lives on. It’s still a very popular guitar for the entire spectrum of guitarists, ranging from shredders to beginners (the guitar is so easy to play that it makes a perfect choice for beginners). The company made so many of these guitars that they are very easy to find, even to this day.

If you get the chance, it’s worth sitting down and strumming an Ibanez RG270dx.