Ibanez GIO GRG121SP | The best Super Strat around for under $300? Review & Demo

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This is the Ibanez GIO GRG121SP in Black Night – an extremely affordable take on the Ibanez RG Superstrat style of electric guitar.

At Thomann:
At Sweetwater:

Coming in at around $299/€299, the GRG121SP is certainly priced towards players on a budget and beginner guitarists – but its features and specs suggest it actually has the potential to be a great quality guitar for any level of player.

Underneath that sparkly black finish (you can also get this guitar in the amazing Blue Metal Chameleon colorway, which twinkles blue and purple under different lighting conditions and at different angles) you have a poplar body, which is bolted to a roasted maple neck with a jatoba fingerboard.

The neck is a joy to play: it’s got a sleek, satin finish and a slim (but not too slim!) C-shaped profile. The scale length is 25.5”, the fretboard radius is a super flat 16”, and you have 24 medium frets to play with.

The hardware is all Ibanez, so you get Ibanez tuners and a hardtail bridge – great for tuning stability on an affordable guitar – alongside a pair of Ibanez’s Classic Elite humbuckers (and the five-way switch lets you do a few clever coil split things as well).

Now, I’ve been a huge Ibanez convert this past couple of years. I’ve loved the AZES models, which are more like traditional Strat style guitars, and I still love my Artcore AS73FM… so how does the GRG121SP stack up against those instruments? That’s what we’re going to find out here! In the video, I test the guitar in as many different musical styles as I can, from country, folk and indie, to pop, rock, blues, punk, metal and more.

Here are some links to the various playing samples and info bits:

00:00 Hello!
00:16 Introduction to the GRG121SP
01:34 Specs and info
05:48 Today’s rig and plan

Clean Sounds
06:29 Clean tone reference chords on all pickups
06:57 Poppy barre chords
07:13 Ringing open indie pop chords
07:26 Indie pop arpeggios
07:44 Funky rhythm chords
07:58 Country strummed chords
08:16 Country ballad arpeggios
08:29 Blues progression
08:40 Atmospheric droning indie chords
08:59 Ascending indie chords
09:12 Cowboy chords with tone control test
10:12 Strummed folk pop chords

Indie Rock Sounds
10:28 Upbeat barre chords
10:34 Indie octave chords riff
10:49 Indie rock barre chords
11:13 Volume control roll-off test
11:35 Choppy barre chords
11:44 Southern rock arpeggios
11:55 Fat indie rhythm chords
12:11 Indie rock octaves
12:35 Garage rock riff
12:51 Edgy indie rock chords
13:05 Kings Of Leon inspired riff

Classic Rock Sounds
13:19 Classic rock riff
13:35 AC/DC inspired classic rock riff
13:50 Hendrix inspired classic rock riff
14:06 Groovy classic rock riff
14:21 Funky rock riff
14:30 Airbourne inspired rock riff

Heavy Overdrive Sounds
14:43 Classic hard rock riff
15:00 Glam rock riff
15:16 Glam metal rhythm sound
15:36 Hard rock melodic lead
15:59 Hard rock riff
16:26 Alternative rock riff
16:40 Chunky alt rock chords
16:53 Foo Fighters inspired modern rock riff
17:10 Green Day inspired punk rock riff
17:23 Pop punk melodic lead riff
17:39 Pop punk riff
17:52 Sum 41 inspired punk riff
18:09 Modern rock palm-muted power chords (Drop D)
18:33 Progressive rock riff (Drop D tuning)
18:48 Rage Against The Machine inspired groovy riff (Drop D )

Metal sounds (all in Drop D)
19:05 Metal chugging riff
19:22 Mastodon inspired metal riff with country twang
19:34 Heavy metal lead sound
19:50 Hardcore punk riff
20:02 Thrash metal riff
20:12 Rammstein inspired industrial metal riff
20:26 Classic metal/sludge riff

21:00 My thoughts
21:49 First impressions
22:46 Weight
23:03 Build quality
23:53 Playability and the neck
24:28 Sounds discussion
27:50 Why you should buy the GRG121SP
28:19 It’s not just a beginner guitar!
28:36 What competition is out there? Try the AZES range
29:35 My conclusions and goodbye

My setup was as follows: I ran the GRG121SP into my Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 head, also using my Revv G3 for heavy distortion sounds. The amp went from the Red Box DI straight into my Focusrite Scarlett 2i4, which went into Logic Pro X. That's it. No post-processing on the sounds was done.

Here’s some links to those bits of gear:

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H&K Black Spirit 200 head:
Revv G3:
Focusrite 4i4 (this is the newer equivalent of my 2i4, which they don’t make any more!):
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Enjoy!


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Backing music from the YouTube Audio Library: Duck In The Alley – TrackTribe.

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@IbanezOfficial