Ibanez RG5440C Prestige Unsponsored Review | Full Mix Demo | The state of Ibanez Prestige Guitars
9Ibanez RG5440C unsponsored review by High Z Productions. This review covers the pluses and minuses of this instrument, the defect why I'm not keeping it, and the current state of Ibanez Prestige-level guitars.
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00:00 Introducing the RG5440C
00:08 Timestamps in description
00:16 Quick verdict
Full Mix Demo
00:31 Bridge thrash intro
00:42 Bridge tremolo riff
00:47 Bridge downpicking palm mutes
00:58 Neck cleans
01:03 Bridge chords on top of neck cleans, neck + mid background cleans
01:08 Bridge palm muting breakdown
01:19 Bridge palm mute lead over breakdown
01:30 Bridge arpeggio transition
01:40 Bridge guitar solo
02:02 Bridge harmonized leads
02:07 Neck + middle clean chords
02:18 Bridge distorted reprise
02:29 Bridge outro + lead harmonies
Pros
02:42 Prestige delivers expected playability
02:55 Mahogany body and EMGs
03:07 Comfortable neck and forearm cut on body
03:18 Smooth neck materials, stainless steel frets, high fret access
03:29 Lo Pro tuning stability - blocked and unblocked
03:43 Good body balance
03:54 Quality materials
03:59 Controls layout
04:08 Tuners and fine tuners
04:22 Overall feel is solid, required at pricepoint
Cons
04:50 Providing helpful information in reviews
05:10 Recently Ibanez QA has been hit or miss
05:18 Bridge routed too far to the treble side
05:51 This should not happen at this price point
06:08 Comparing to other RG Prestiges
07:16 EMGs sound dated compared to modern ones (subjective)
07:53 EMG SAs aren’t doing it for me (subjective)
Overall Recommendation
08:46 Can’t recommend based on the bridge routing error at this price point, other Prestiges have flaws
09:17 Cheaper brands are a more cost-effective choice
09:57 Perfect if you find a good one
10:20 Like comment subscribe outro
10:35 Cat
This is a frustrating guitar because it's so close to being good but it has a huge flaw. While not fatal, it is shocking to find on a guitar of this level and price point. The RG line of guitars are made for fast and technical playing, so something that is as much of a hindrance as misaligned strings is unacceptable to find on the highest tier of the Prestige level guitars.
The materials themselves are high quality. The wood is resonant, the neck is nicely finished and highly playable, the frets are level, and the fingerboard is smooth. The bridge holds its tuning. Everything works as expected.
Tonally my ears have moved on from the EMG sound and have become more acclimated to more modern sounds. I’ve been using more modern sounding pickups to great effect in my mixes. For more traditional passive pickups, I have alternate presets I’ve made to make those sound good too. So now EMG pickups to me are in this weird middle where they’re not modern and clear sounding like Fishmans are, and they are not as reactive to playing and dynamic as passives. They’re certainly usable and there are many examples of good tones with them given how long they’ve been around, but for my uses they’re now out of place.
Overall if you’re looking for an EMG loaded shred machine with good tone, and you can ensure that you’ll find a good one, this guitar is perfect. All the prestiges in this price point are going to be excellent and will beat out other guitars that cost twice to three times as much. However given the track record of Prestige guitars I’ve bought, you will need to make sure you won’t be getting one with any defects.
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