Ibanez Xiphos XP300FX review

Dark And Bold. The design itself defines the guitar. Whenever you look at it, aggression or heavy sounding is definitely will be on your mind. Indeed it is. The Ibanez Xiphos XP300FX is the lowest or shall I say the cheapest from the Xiphos series. However, being the cheapest isn't an obstacle to match with other metal guitar brands.



Besides the shape of this guitar, nothing is ..fancy. Its bridge is a non-attractive looking fixed bridge. The pickups on these guitars are made by Ibanez which I found it quite okay. The sound of this thing is certainly heavy. You can get great tones with this guitar. I played metal riffs for this guitar and I'm happy with it. It gives you that crunchy heavy rhythm tone. Moreover, it totally stands out in crowd. Nice quick neck that allows me to play fast riffs is amazing. I have nothing to complain about the frets. Large frets ease the action.

There are a few concerns about this guitar for me though. First, the shape. Yeah, I know it seems ridiculous to complain about the shape now since most of you guys out there and I like the shape very much. That shape would cost you extra money to yourself a guitar case that can fit it. Another one is, the positioning of your right hand is quite different when you play this guitar. You will find your right hand slightly in front as the bridge of this guitar is positioned. It will take a while to
get used to it. Think again,these problems are also found on the Explorer shaped guitars or "X" - shaped guitars. Please note, the Gibson/Epiphone Explorers are quite different in every term.

Final say from me is, if you like it, just get it. If you dont, just dont think about getting one because you'll get sick of it in the end. For a guitar that is below RM1500 it's great. Just great.

the specs:

neck type 3pc Wizard Il Maple neck
body Mahogany body
fret Jumbo frets
bridge Fixed bridge
neck pu INF3 (H) neck pu
bridge pu INF4 (H) bridge pu
hardware color Cosmo Black

ESP LTD Jeff Hanneman(Slayer) signature series. JH-200

I would be lying if I hate this guitar. This is an LTD guitar. I've played this guitar just for a few minutes and I would just say that it ''Slayed'' me. This guitar is Jeff Hanneman's signature series. It is the lowest line of his series.

However, it produce awesome sounds. It's a beast! It produces great heavy sounding and Slayer-ish sound. That characteristics just blew my ears off(in a good way). Other than that, the guitar does not use a normal floyd rose bridge. Instead it use Kahler tremolo bridge. This is the first time I use that kind of bridge. Surprisingly, it is waaaaayy better than those cheap-ass floyd rose. It stays in tune way better and great controls too!
This Kahler tremolo doesn't work like a usual tremolo. I takes time for me to get used to it. What I'm gonna say is, this guitar is a must for any Slayer fans to get their sound or it just suits heavy metal and thrash metal. Against all odds, this guitar has nice clean sound on the clean channel too!!

In conclusion, with a price tag of RM2999, it will make you think for quite a while. However, I think it is worth buying if you are searching for a great metal metal guitar. Here's the spec:

Bolt-On Construction
25.5” Scale
Basswood Body
Maple Neck
Rosewood Fingerboard
41mm Locking Nut
Extra Thin U Neck Contour
24 XJ Frets
Black Nickel Hardware
ESP Tuners
Kahler X-Trem Bridge
ESP LH-301 (B & N) p.u.
Finish: BLK, Digi-Camo Graphic

Sham Kamikaze's Squier

I've tried this guitar last year. I don't really remember how it sounds like. However, what I can say is, I'm proud that Sham Kamikaze got his own signature series. He is the first Malaysian guitarist to have signature series.

I will tell you what I can remember about this guitar. First of all, it is a stratocaster. I'm not realy a fan of single-coils setting. Let's put that aside, it sounds really good. Great for blues, jazz and neo-classical stuff. The bridge pickup is really unique. The position of the pickup is reversed(Hendrix style). For me, it gives a great sharp tone for lower strings.
Besides that, I really love the neck. It has great feel and the neck has skunk stripes on it(my favourite).

Sorry guys, this is all I can remember about the guitar. I wish I could give you more info about this guitar

Ibanez GARTS70

I am quite surprised how this guitar turned out to be. Last month, I tried this guitar. This guitar exceeded my expectation. At first, I thought it would just be a normal Ibanez GIO. When I hold it, it feels really comfortable and quite light too. It has really awesome neck since the neck is SET-NECK. Despite its light body, it suited heavy playing. When I play this guitar, the sound is quite awesome. t'sI also suitable for metal, blues and rock. I am a metal player. Basically, this guitar delivers what I wanted. The best part of this guitar is that neck.The set-neck made guitar playing easier.Other than that, it also gives you more sustain.
On the other hand, this guitar has only 22 frets. I am used to 24 frets guitar even though I rarely use the frets there.
So, this makes it really weird. Overall, this guitar is quite affordable(RM 1098) i think. So yeah! It would make a great addition to your guitar collection too.

Here's the spec:

neck type =GART set-in neck
body =Basswood body
fret =Medium frets
bridge =Full Tune III bridge
neck pu =STD-C3 (H) neck pu
bridge pu =STD-C4 (H) bridge pu
hardware color =Cosmo Black

RG321ex

It's a beast!!!I went to bentley music @kota damansara with Tanaraj to test out a guitar with him. We should met at Rock Corner@curve at 2pm but he arrived at 3pm. I was like WTF!!.Then we went to Bentley music and met Andrew there..I was searching for a fixed bridge guitar and Andrew recommended me this Ibanez RG321EX.It's amazing! For me it's better than ESP LTD viper-50 I reviewed previously.It is more agressive and high action guitar.. When i first played the guitar I went whoa!!It also have heavy tone.. The guitar is made to rock... It suits most guitar player these days..Whether it's metal,blues,alt and more.Mainly?? METAL!!! The guitar equipped with EMG styled pickups..(reminder:not EMG).It does look good..The color of this guitar is only black with gloss finish.The price is not bad too!!Around RM1300.The specs=


neck type= 3pc Wizard II Maple neck
body= Basswood body
fret= Jumbo frets
bridge= Fixed bridge
neck pu= INF1 (H) neck pu
bridge pu= INF2 (H) bridge pu
hardware color= Black