I've never really been a fan of Ibanez until they released the X series two years ago. Now I'm a huge fan. I've been playing since I was a kid in the 60's and I've seen a lot of different styles and fads come and go in music gear. I've also worked in the musical instrument retail business buying and selling gear. To me these guitars are exactly what I've been looking for for a very long time. Well made, awesome body style, fast playing thru neck and pickups that can scorch the paint off the wall or give you a vintage tone depending on your mood. Would I change anything about this guitar? Well, I thought a reverse headstock like the other Xiphoses would be pretty cool, but I think now that it might be aesthetically unbalanced. I chose this guitar because of it's uniqueness and to add to my growing collection of XPT700's.

Sound
The Dimarzio D Activators are a hot ceramic pickup designed to have the high end bite and midrange punch of an active pickup while still maintaining the organic feel of a passive pickup, maintaining all of those rich harmonics without sounding muddy. They do that perfectly. Match that to a 5 piece maple/walnut thru neck and mahogany body wings and you've got the perfect platform for these incredible pickups. The maple/walnut neck adds high end definition and the mahogany adds warmth. Put it all together and you have a rich, full sound at any level of distortion. As an added bonus it sounds good clean as well.… read more I can't get a bad sound out of this thing on any of my amps. Some people may mourn the lack of a D Activator in the neck position like the other XPT's, but Ibanez couldn't fit one into the space alotted by having a 27 fret(!) neck, so the Air Norton (still a railed humbucker the size of a single coil) was a nice choice. It's medium output with a bit of bite. I did have to adjust it's height to get it to keep up with the D Activator.

Features
A 27 fret(!) metal killing machine with real Dimarzios and a locking trem with a slippery fast thru body neck (sharktooth inlays) and homocidal body shape? Yeah, I think the features deserve a 10... Oh, and with 27 frets(!)you get a full three octaves of Em pentatonic/blues scale 2nd position, just in case you really want to make peoples ears bleed.

Ease of Use
If you know what you're doing with a locking trem it's a 10 as far as ease of use goes. If you don't know what you're doing with a locking trem then FIND OUT how to get it set up and tuned properly or pay someone to do it for you! If all else fails, stay with a fixed bridge guitar (like the XPT700FX). There's quite a bit of futzing around to get these things to the point where the bridge is stable, the action is set and the guitar is tuned. However, once you're there, it'll stay tuned forever, or until you decide to change string gauge/tunings, whichever comes first, at which point you're back to square one and it's time to get out the allen wrenches and the offset screwdriver. I just solved that problem by getting several other XPT's and set them up for specific dedicated tunings, but that's a rather expensive option. As a result I've learned to enjoy eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for most of my meals these days :)

Quality
On this specific guitar the quality is excellent. This is my fourth Xiphos and all except the first one are exceptionally made. The first one had the pickup selector switch installed backwards and there was a large glob of polyurethane finish coating dripping off of one of the wings. These guitars are made in Indonesia. Don't let that scare you away though. They're very well built with quality materials and hardware. Just be careful, because the shape of this guitar leaves it prone to chipping/breaking the pointy ends. Get the Ibanez case and you should be okay

Value
Well, if I didn't already own three other Xiphoses I'd say it's a great value, but since I already do I'll say that at $200 more just for the extra three frets I would say that it's not quite as good a value, but we're talking in relative terms here. Either way for $900 it's still a lot of guitar for the money

Manufacturer Support
I've dealt with Ibanez in the past and they're always willing to help. The folks at zZounds are great too. They want you to be happy with your purchase.

The Wow Factor
"Sex Appeal"? Well it sure is sexy in an evil sort of way. Its understated flat green finish and black hardware definitely make it look sinister. The pseudo single coil in the neck position along with the extended fretboard certainly give it a unique vibe. NOTE: Ibanez redesigned the body this year (2009) of all Xiphoses. They've beveled the sides much deeper, giving them a much sleeker look. They've also repositioned the back strap button so the guitar doesn't nosedive when standing, an awkward and sometimes extremely tragic shortcoming of the previous body style.

Musical Background:
Hobbyist

Musical Style:
Anything Metal! read less