Jackson SLAT3-7 vs Ibanez RG1527Z-BK

11508 Views 41 Replies 16 Participants Last post by Drew, May 12, 2010

JonSick

Discussion Starter · May 9, 2010

Has anyone had a chance with either of these new axes yet? I'm considering one, but can't find anyone with stock to check em out.

I just got done recording all my guide tracks with my RG7321. Great axe, but looking for something proper to record the real tracks with.

21 - 40 of 42 Posts

JonSick

Discussion Starter · #21 · May 9, 2010

Whoa, easy gentlemen.

TBH, the guitar's neck is way more important to me than the pickups as those are interchangable all day long.

I have an RG7321 with an Evolution, which is so so in terms of sound. But I do remember the RG1527 with its stocks sounding awful.

Gearwhore20

· #22 · May 9, 2010

I love arguing about personal preference, fucking rules!!!!

Ryan

· #23 · May 9, 2010

TGE's tone was fizzy trash. Imo of course. :lol:

budda

· #24 · May 10, 2010

On to bigger and better things, can you try out either guitar? It's about neck profile preferences - pickups can be swapped.

kmanick

· #25 · May 10, 2010

I tried an SLAT-3 a few weeks back and surprisingly really liked it.
I'm a Jackson/Charvel guy going way back , but I wasn't prepared to be impressed by one of their imports.
I'm not much of an EMG fan myself but in the one I tried they sounded really very good.
great trem, nicely shaped neck, great fret work, nice piece of rosewood on the fret board. I've nwver owned a 1527 but I have owned several 7620's (still do) and I will be selling my current 7620 to put towards a SLAT-7 as soon as I get my BRJ 7.
I'm completely turned off to Basswood now, no more Basswood 7's for me.:nono:

Ryan

· #26 · May 10, 2010

*sigh*

Anyway, I love the finishes on the SLAT-7. That green swirl is the sex for sure.

JonSick

Discussion Starter · #27 · May 10, 2010

It'll have to be next month, but I've decided it's going to be a SLAT-7. Cheers for the replies, all!

noodles

· #28 · May 11, 2010

JonSick said:
Whoa, easy gentlemen.

TBH, the guitar's neck is way more important to me than the pickups as those are interchangable all day long.

I have an RG7321 with an Evolution, which is so so in terms of sound. But I do remember the RG1527 with its stocks sounding awful.

Unfortunately, EMG makes switching either limited or problematic. Those routes just suck.

Having said that, I vastly prefer the Jackson neck profile. It is a soft C shape, and somewhere in between Schecter thick and Ibby thin. Very comfortable in your hand. Meanwhile, that hard shoulder D that Ibanez has moved to proves to be cramp-inducing, at least for me. More than anything else, that is a deal-breaker for me.

I would by the Jackson, buy some of the 7-string covers (do a search here, can't remember the site), snip the tabs off a set of passives, and velcro the pickups into the covers. Every year that goes by, I care for EMG less and less, especially since I have started using the Wolfetones.

stealthtastic

· #29 · May 11, 2010

^ Too true, especially for the S series Ibanez's. My hand just kept cramping up when I tried any of them out

Emperoff

· #30 · May 11, 2010

Mehtab said:
^ Too true, especially for the S series Ibanez's. My hand just kept cramping up when I tried any of them out

True. That's the reson why I'm selling mine.

Harry

· #31 · May 11, 2010

kmanick said:
I tried an SLAT-3 a few weeks back and surprisingly really liked it.
I'm a Jackson/Charvel guy going way back , but I wasn't prepared to be impressed by one of their imports.
I'm not much of an EMG fan myself but in the one I tried they sounded really very good.
great trem, nicely shaped neck, great fret work, nice piece of rosewood on the fret board. I've nwver owned a 1527 but I have owned several 7620's (still do) and I will be selling my current 7620 to put towards a SLAT-7 as soon as I get my BRJ 7.
I'm completely turned off to Basswood now, no more Basswood 7's for me.:nono:

Some of their current Japanese imports are AMAZING, seriously.
A friend of mine has a DK2S (2006 model) and the playability is crazy fucking good

Drew

· #32 · May 11, 2010

Harry said:
People can bash on EMGs all they like, but there's a reason why they are such a popular studio option and it's because they just track so well because of their tightness and controlled bottom end.

Whereas I HATE how they sound in a mix - there's this thin, annoying "shink" sort of sound to the pick attack unless you absolutely overload your signal with gain. This is personal preference, of course, and if you want that super-saturated sound then maybe they're worth a look, but for me I'd take almost any bridge humbucker over an EMG, hands down.

I still haven't gotten a chance to play one of the Jacksons, and I'm curious to. Unlike Dave I happen to really like the 1527 neck profile, but I'm an Ibanez guy from way back so it's what I'm used to. Provided you budget in a new set of pickups with the Ibanez (and possibly with the Jackson as well, depending on how you get on with EMGs and how they work for your personal style and taste in tone), I suspect you'll be happy with either guitar.

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noodles

· #33 · May 11, 2010

Drew said:
Whereas I HATE how they sound in a mix - there's this thin, annoying "shink" sort of sound to the pick attack unless you absolutely overload your signal with gain. This is personal preference, of course, and if you want that super-saturated sound then maybe they're worth a look, but for me I'd take almost any bridge humbucker over an EMG, hands down.

I never heard it explained like that, but that is a very apt description. There really is a harshness to the attack that is problematic to dial out. I was an EMG user for a long time, right up until I changed my right hand technique. I closed my hand, moved up to heavier picks, and started backing down the gain. That was it for EMG.

eleven59

· #34 · May 11, 2010

Yeah, EMGs thin out like crazy when you back down the gain.

People talk about how EMGs clean up when you roll down the volume knob without losing top-end like passives, but you know what? I like the way passives warm up when you roll back the volume. EMGs just sound thin and annoying when you roll back the volume, and while they fill out at full volume, they feel like they need a volume knob that goes to 12 or 13 to continue that thickening to a place where they sound good.

Drew

· #35 · May 11, 2010

:agreed: Unless you're using a huge amount of preamp gain, an EMG sounds an awful lot like a singlecoil - very bright, mostly focused in the highs and upper mids, with little low mids and bass. The amount of low end thickness that can make extremely high gain settings muddy with humbuckers is sort of necessary to get a good sound out of them, as it compresses the super-bright pick attack and fills out the lower registers.

Kim

· #36 · May 11, 2010

I guess my experience with EMG's would characterise them as sterile at all levels. If I needed a guitar track for a techno or dance song I'd use them

Harry

· #37 · May 11, 2010

FWIW I'm not a fan of the EMG 81/81-7 for cleans at all.
I think in general, even for high gain stuff, the 85/707 just sounds WAY better anyway.
Thicker and meatier and less of that annoying harsh attack and none of that annoying shrill high end/upper mids.
I do like quite gainy sounds though. Something about anything less than saturated gain levels just sounds wrong on palm mutes for me.
There seems to be a point where adding anymore gain doesn't add anymore sustain, so I don't use anymore than that.
Anymore than that overly compresses the sound and just adds noise, so I certainly don't use as much gain as 14 year old kids.
I should also mention I'm more a Blackouts guy than EMGs anyway. The Blackouts SLAY EMGs IMO.
Quieter and simply just better tone in both clean (FAR BETTER cleans actually), moderate gain and high gain

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Harry

· #38 · May 11, 2010

Drew said:
I still haven't gotten a chance to play one of the Jacksons, and I'm curious to. Unlike Dave I happen to really like the 1527 neck profile, but I'm an Ibanez guy from way back so it's what I'm used to. Provided you budget in a new set of pickups with the Ibanez (and possibly with the Jackson as well, depending on how you get on with EMGs and how they work for your personal style and taste in tone), I suspect you'll be happy with either guitar.

I've got both an RG 7421 and RG 1527. Both have different neck profiles but honestly I jive equally well with both :shrug:
Even though I'm an "Ibanez guy" as such, I still think the OP is way better off with a Jackson.
Jackson are still making impressive instruments (The USA Jackson Soloists in particular are pretty much some of the most amazing 6 string guitars I've ever had the chance to play), but Ibanez has been dead to me ever since they killed off the Edge Pro in the majority of their guitars.
Hell, I'd go even further back and say that Ibanez hasn't really been awesome since the late 90s/early 00s when you could still buy the RG 74xx/76xx guitars.
The 7421 and 7621 are so much better than the 7321 that it's hilarious

Daniel

· #39 · May 11, 2010

Personally I'd go with the Jackson from what everyone said in this thread.

Drew

· #40 · May 11, 2010

Harry said:
I do like quite gainy sounds though. Something about anything less than saturated gain levels just sounds wrong on palm mutes for me.

Don't take this the wrong way, but that probably has rather a lot to do with your use of EMGs.

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