Ibanez Xiphos

thehootman

Hi all,

This guitar recently caught my eye - http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Guitar/product/Ibanez/XPT700/10/1

I'm looking for a shredding/soloing axe and the dimarzio pickups, neck-thru design and the delicious colour all made me think about this, the Xiphos XPT700, rather than the RGT42DX, which is also neck through but RG shape and with lame IBZ pickups.

What are your opinions?

Thanks

Manitou

They are alike in some ways, but very different in others.

The biggest choice has to be in those pickups though. The RG I think will be tamer and more versatile, and much better for a Classic Rock sound. Those INF-1 and INF-2 pickups are not the High output variety, and won't be as sonic.
If you want the Vai style, or Gilbert sound, you'll need the hotter IBZ. (I love my V1 and V2)
The INF are an Alnico magnet.

Those DiMarzio D Activator are an active pickup, and require batteries. That is their version of those High Output EMG's. Those D Activator pickups are full blown down and dirty pickups...I don't know how versatile they would be. You'd have to play them to know if they are more forgiving than the hot EMG's. They will be much more sonic!...at the expense of softer and clean.
The bridge pickup is 25% louder than the neck pickup...and they are a Ceramic magnet.

As far as body style...that is a personal preference mainly.
The paint jobs...yeah...I agree the XPT has a very cool paint job. It reflects different colors from different angles....very cool.

In a nut shell.
The RG is more versatile...and more classic rock sound.
The X is all metal... no survivors....IMO. :P

shredd

Looks like a good metal/thrash git'r, but I agree with 'tou, does't seem very versatile. Ibanez is known for putting cruddy pups on their cheaper git'rs, but I don't think this ax falls in that category.
It does have things I value highly, like a neck-through design, 24 frets, and the paint job sounds cool.
However, the shape screams \"cocktail frank, get it here\".... :shock:

Cobaltblooz

\shredd\ wrote:

However, the shape screams \"cocktail frank, get it here\".... :shock:

Ummm....oh nevermind....

thehootman

Thanks for the replies
8)

\Manitou\ wrote:

Those DiMarzio D Activator are an active pickup, and require batteries.

Thats actually the great thing about them, they are passive pickups which sound like active ones and dont require batteries (check the dimarzio website).

Once again the great Australian problem of distance comes in; there is no shop nearby stocking this so its unlikely I could ever play it before I ordered it in...[/b]

partch

Hey Hootman I'm sure you'll love it for what you do!! I mean that is your style Shred Metal etc.. right? As far as not playin it before you buy it?? I've had 2 Ibanez guitars now & did not play either one before it showed up on my porch. I seriously doubt you will not like this guitar!! I mean you have played Ibanez before & like them I'm sure you will this one as well!! I saw a video a while ago on it & it looked & sounded fantastic IMOP I'm just not into the pointy guitars. Keep us posted 8)

Manitou

Hootman...thanks for straightening that out. :oops: :P
I didn't find what you were talking about on the DiMarzio site, which is where I misread about the pickup.
I dug this up off and ad in an online store...

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The D Activator™ bridge has an enriched harmonic quality and the notes want to sing. Both the D Activator™ neck and bridge pickups were designed to eliminate the sterile edginess commonly associated with active pickups. The D Activators™ use coils tuned to different frequencies. The idea is to shift the resonant point of the pickup to the frequencies of the harmonics that you want to accentuate from the guitar.The D Activator™ bridge pickup is about 25% louder than the D Activator™ neck. Since DiMarzio were developing both pickups from the ground up as a set, they adjusted the volume levels on the pickups so they are balanced. That way when you switch from the neck to the bridge, you don't hear a drop in volume, another common problem with active pickups.

Recommended For: Bridge, Neck

Tech Talk: An interesting fact about the most popular active bridge pickups is that they aren't incredibly loud. Instead, they have a strong, focused attack that hits the amp very hard and makes them 'feel' more powerful than they actually spec out to be. This is an important characteristic that they needed to capture with the D Activator™ bridge pickup. They also wanted to avoid the limiting effect that can occur with active pickups when they are played hard. DiMarzio's pickup is passive with a lot of headroom, and it responds quickly and accurately to changes in pick attack. A hard pick attack doesn't cause the signal to flatten out, and picking more softly or rolling the volume control down lets the sound clean up naturally. Like all passive pickups, D Activators™ require controls with a minimum value of 250Kohms. 500K is the standard all around value, and DiMarzio's 1Megohm tone control is best for long cable runs.

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After checking out these pickups more...they are quite impressive.
If I were choosing between the two guitars...I'd pick the Xiphos.
I think you will have a really sweet Axe.

thehootman

8) 8)

Thanks

The other alternative is to replace the pickups in the RG with evolutions... but that's more expensive overall. :?

RGMetal

See if you can't find one to try out. I really like the shape of the Xiphos, but I used to own a Jackson Kelly, and that upper horn was always in the way playing up high on the fretboard. The lower horn on my RGs never gets in the way.

Considering who designed the Xiphos(Necrophagist), I can't see the guitar being anything less than killer, though.