Marc M.

Be warned... that $3,000.00 Ibanez J Custom RG8570CST-NT you ordered is likely full of factory defects like you see here: neck pocket cracks, major finish flaws, dings in the body, and others unseen such as bad necks, non-functioning truss rods that won't hold setup, stripped wood at the nut, mismatched screws, improperly installed bridge posts that are too shallow and won't allow action to be lowered, and uneven, grinding and sticking frets. I experienced all of the above on 5 guitars in a row of the same model; the last of which Ibanez refused to fix and is due for a refund by the dealer. Unfortunately, it wasn't just 5 defective guitars but a total of 11 defective guitars in the past few months. And these are their premium, Japanese made guitar lines: Prestige and J Custom.

I have notified a manager at Hoshino USA in Pennsylvania, the parent company who owns Ibanez, and he admitted they are having major quality issues with Fujigen, the factory in Japan where all of these are manufactured. After reporting multiple defective guitars, I was advised to stop buying their guitars, at least until they are caught up on production, because they are not focused on fixing these issues. And I have spoken to six dealers who are refusing or returning large numbers of their guitars.

Axe Palace refused and returned 19 defective guitars in one week alone. And Sweetwater had a meeting with Ibanez about the quality issues and nothing has changed. Apparently, Ibanez feels it is okay to fleece consumers out of their hard earned money buy shipping them junk with $2,000.00, $2,200.00 and $3,000.00 price tags. The fact I have had 11 defective guitars in less than four months time and yet Ibanez has done nothing to rectify the issue for me, or their dealers, speaks volumes. Since they have turned a deaf ear to these issues, do yourself a favor and buy anything else.