Congleton, United Kingdom
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👻 RG-EEK: DAY FOUR 👻🎸 Stray Of The Day 🎸🐉 Meet Smaug! 🔥Ibanez RGA42FM • 2020 • Dragon Eye Burst FlatThere are guitars that look vaguely dragon-ish if you squint.And then there is an Ibanez that is literally finished in Dragon Eye Burst.We really didn’t have a choice.🏷️ Adoption Fee: £325 🏷️Welcome to RG-eek Day Four, and today we’re going on an unexpected journey.Thankfully, this one doesn’t require thirteen dwarves, a burglar or an extremely questionable amount of walking.Smaug is a 2020 Ibanez RGA42FM, built in Indonesia and finished in the frankly spectacular Dragon Eye Burst Flat. Beneath that finish sits a flamed maple top over a meranti body, with the figuring glowing gold and amber through the centre before disappearing into those dark, smoky edges.He looks less like somebody painted him and more like somebody found him underneath the Lonely Mountain.The RGA takes the familiar RG formula and gives it a rather dramatic makeover. Instead of the flatter, sharper-edged RG body, Smaug is deeply sculpted and contoured, with those enormous sweeping horns and beautifully carved edges revealing the binding as they go.And unlike his namesake, he’s surprisingly comfortable when sitting on a large pile of treasure.Up top is Ibanez’s wonderfully quick Wizard III maple neck, paired with a jatoba fingerboard, understated offset dot inlays and 24 jumbo frets across the familiar 25.5” scale.It’s thin, fast and extremely difficult to blame when you miss a note.We tried.There was, however, one area where a previous keeper apparently decided the factory specification didn’t contain quite enough fire.Smaug originally left Ibanez with a pair of Quantum humbuckers. The Quantum remains in the neck, but the bridge pickup has been upgraded to a Seymour Duncan JB Model.Because apparently the dragon needed more output.The JB is a proper rock and metal institution: hot, punchy and wonderfully aggressive without simply turning everything into noise. Combined with the Quantum at the neck and the five-way switching, Smaug can do considerably more than breathe fire, although he is understandably rather good at that bit.And there is no floating tremolo.No locking nut. No balancing springs. No negotiations with the bridge because you dared to change string gauge.Instead, Smaug uses Ibanez’s F106 fixed bridge, giving him a solid, straightforward platform with individual saddle adjustment and excellent tuning stability.One does not simply walk into Mordor.One can, however, simply change Smaug’s strings.Wrong book, we know.We regret nothing.When Smaug arrived at The Stray Chord, he was already in good overall condition, but being a perfectly serviceable guitar has never saved anybody from Jordan and his tools.He’s been stripped down and thoroughly cleaned, his hardware and electronics checked over, and his frets have received our usual level, crown and polish, with the fret ends attended to before everything was put back together and given a complete professional setup.The result is an RGA that plays every bit as quickly as it looks.There are a handful of small cosmetic signs that Smaug has previously ventured beyond Erebor, but nothing remotely significant and nothing that takes away from that absolutely glorious flamed top.And yes, it is even better in person.We spent quite a long time turning him under the lights.For research purposes.Obviously.Smaug would make a particularly good companion for somebody wanting the speed and ergonomics of an RG without a floating trem, anyone looking for a modern rock or metal guitar with a genuinely useful pickup upgrade, or anybody who believes their current collection contains an entirely unacceptable shortage of dragons.And unlike the original Smaug, £325 is all the gold we’re asking for.No Arkenstone required.🔥 Smaug is fully rehabilitated, professionally set up and ready for adoption. 🔥He has been awakened.We strongly recommend you don’t mention anything about the missing scale on his left breast.🐾 Rescue • Restore • Rehome 🐾Every guitar deserves another song.Even the particularly specially greedy, strong and wicked worms. 🐉🔥
Price£325
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