Ouch. Guessing it isn't taking to the summer weather too well? You going with stainless or nickel frets for it? Hopefully it gets brought back to great shape and that it's the last issue you have with it under your ownership!
Synner Official Website
I bought it online and it came with these issues. I've held off on having it fixed for a year or so. I went with standard medium-jumbo nickel frets, but there's a part of me that wants to call them back and go stainless. Six of my 10 electrics are stainless, and I'll never go back, but I'm not sure I'll play this one enough for the fretwire to matter. Stainless are an extra hundred bucks.
I knew I'd fix it eventually, and that was the guitar that needed new pickups the most! Installing pickups is not, in itself, a super difficult job. I'm not especially good at soldering, though, and I usually burn something.
Ah alright. I'd stick with the nickel if it isn't one of your go to players. Besides, it isn't like the nickel frets won't hold up for a while anyway. Did you buy it used and weren't able to return it? Seems like if it came with that list of issues straight out of the gate that'd qualify for one immediate return to Sweetwater/Guitar Center.
I bought it online and honestly, it was about a year and a half ago. I had some of the issues, but for a long time I felt like I really just needed to give it some TLC to get it playing right. Once I tried to do that and found I couldn't get the action low enough without bottoming out in that area, I knew there was a larger issue. If I'd spotted it for sure earlier I probably could have.
That said, I still dig it and I want it playing good, so....
That said, I still dig it and I want it playing good, so....
Glad to hear you still dig it even with the issues. Hopefully it's fixed up and back in your hands soon enough.
Who knows? Maybe it will be a new favorite.
Could be. What model is it by the way. I don't think I've seen it on here or on your Instagram page.
It's an RG9 something. Here's a vid I did with it on IG.
Very nice! When I read RG9 I was thinking you got yourself a 9 string haha. Never would've guessed you'd get one of those monsters. RG921. That's a bit more your style. I love the top on that! The blue perfectly suits the quilted maple on that. The guitar sounds great too! I can certainly see why you dig it haha.
They are impressive, as I expected them to be. I really can't wait to have this guitar in tip-top form. It's being setup to Eb Standard with 10-48 Ernies so it will feel great. There's still the part of me wanting to throw the extra C note at it for stainless. I love the FEEL and tonality of stainless too.
UPDATE: Sent the tech an email confirming I *do* want medium-jumbo stainless steel frets.
UPDATE: Sent the tech an email confirming I *do* want medium-jumbo stainless steel frets.
Yes there are .08 string sets. They're not especially popular. Unless you have an issue with your fingers or arthritis or something, 9's are probably about as low as one should go, IMO, and not for tone reasons.
Those stainless steel frets are going to feel like butter on that Ibanez! I don't have a ton of experience with stainless steel frets but I do love them on my Schecter E-1 FR S. They still feel very smooth even after 3 string cycles worth of heavy playing. I don't know if I could pick out the difference tonally speaking but when working on my bends and vibrato it's noticeably easier with stainless.
Like Ed said, they do make .08 sets but they aren't all that common. I know ZZ Top guitarist/vocalist Billy Gibbons uses 8's. I think Jimmy Page used those as well way back in the day. I prefer a heavier gauge set when playing compared to lighter but that's probably because I swap tunings often and having a heavier gauge that doesn't feel like playing with a wet ramen noodle for a low d is a lot more appealing to me haha.
@Donovan I can definitely feel the difference. 6 (soon to be 7) of my 10 electrics have stainless, and I vowed that I wouldn't buy a guitar with nickel frets again. Not sure why I hemmed on replacing these with stainless. Especially since I wanted to test this shop on the stainless fret job before the PRS was due for it. I do NOT want half-assed fretwork on a $4k anniversary edition core PRS!