QX52-MGM. (Metallic Gray Matte). Electric guitar with gig bag, Ibanez Quest Headless.
The Q series is a series of completely newly developed headless instruments from Ibanez. Many will see them as a logical evolution of the successful EHB bass series and already when they were released in late 2019/early 2020 people started speculating about when the guitars would arrive. It's unusual that all those who speculated wildly on the internet about a new headless guitar series were absolutely right, the Q series was already under development then and now it's here.
Headless instruments are in themselves nothing new for Ibanez and they released such instruments back in the mid-80s and have since come and gone in different series and models. Despite these previous experiences, they chose to start from scratch with everything on the Q series. Everything was designed from scratch and optimized to perfection, everything on the Q series is new and developed specifically for the Q series.
Some things are of course always there, such as the obvious lack of a traditional guitar head with tuning screws and then the equally obvious that the tuning mechanism is on the body instead.
The wood in the body.
All models have very light and very ergonomic bodies of Nyatoh which is a wood that is between mahogany and linden in terms of tone and quite similar to mahogany in appearance but harder than mahogany and less prone to warping. The body is a very ergonomic design with very well balanced and strategically placed chamfers. Combined with the very light weight, this makes the guitars extremely comfortable to play both sitting and standing.
Wood in neck/fretboard.
Common to all models is that they have a very beautiful fingerboard of roasted birdseye maple and that the neck is a 3-part construction of roasted maple and bubinga (2 parts maple and 1 part bubinga). A both beautiful and incredibly stable neck construction. The seven-string model has a 5-part neck made of the same material, 3 parts maple and 2 parts bubinga. All the necks also have the truss rod adjustment on a wheel at the neck mount, really easy to adjust quickly and easily. So simple that you can easily do it between two songs on stage.
The truss rods in all models are also modern double-acting truss rods, which means that it spans in both directions.
Q58 humbuckers / R1 single coils.
Pickups specially designed for these headless guitars.
A little above medium hot with a clear, clear tone magical separation. You can clearly hear all notes in chords even with a lot of gain on the amplifier. Tight and well-defined low register with a fairly bright top that never becomes harsh or unpleasant.
The R1 single coil mics are frequency-wise well-balanced single coils with extremely low hum.
A singlecoil sound that can easily be colored in many different directions, whether you're playing clean or distorted.
Custom string cap and Mono Tune bridge.
The string lock is a one-piece construction that is very easy to work with when string breaks and which holds the string securely in place. Together with the Mono Tune stable, designed so that you use regular string sets and don't have to keep up with double ball end strings, you can calmly continue on the strings you've always used. The Mono Tune stave can be described most simply as each string has its own stave, they do not sit together but are like 6 or 7 staves sitting next to each other. It provides a very good transfer between the vibrations of the string and the body, which gives a natural and organic tone. The bridge also has a very wide intonation range so if you want to retune and use thicker/thinner strings it's no problem. It is easy to change strings, easy to tune and easy to adjust. A very well functioning stable.
dyna-MIX switch
dyna-MIX9 on HSS models and dyna-MIX10 on HH models.
This is a feature borrowed straight from the extremely successful AZ series and is simply a small switch that allows you to access many more useful mic connections far beyond just being able to split a humbucker mic. Extremely many really useful sounds you normally don't have access to on a guitar with the pickup configuration the guitar has.
As the name might reveal, you have 9 different sounds with the HSS version and 10 with the HH version.
The unique thing about the dyna-MIX switch is that you avoid the large volume drops you normally get when you play with switching the mics and this means that all the sounds are really usable.
Model-specific features on the QX are
Slanted frets.
Simply explained, it is that all bands are angled at an 8 degree angle, the bass side angled towards the pickups.
So it is not like fanned frets where there are different scales on the different strings, but it is the same 25.5 scale on all strings. What it does is make soloing higher up the neck easier and more ergonomically correct as the frets follow the natural angulation of your wrist, something that really makes a difference if you play a lot.
Parallel Wizard.
Parallel Wizard is a completely new neck profile for Ibanez and it is a neck that is the same thickness over the entire neck, i.e. to get thicker the further up the neck you go, as guitar necks traditionally are.
This means that it feels the same to play on 3 tapes as on 17 tapes.
The neck is 19mm thick over its entire length.
The fretboard on the QX model is also a little flatter than on the Q model.
QX is 508mmR and Q is 305mmR.
Model-specific features on the Q are.
Wizard C neck.
A neck with a round C profile that starts at 21mm thickness and goes up to 22mm.
It is therefore noticeably thicker than the necks of the QX models.
A very play friendly neck profile that feels extremely nice in the hand.
The fretboard on the Q model is also a bit rounder, less flat, than the QX model.
Q is 305mmR and QX is 508mmR.
Specs:
• Parallel Wizard 3 pc Roasted Maple/Bubinga neck.
• Nyatoh body.
• Roasted Birdseye Maple fretboard w/Mother of Pearl Step off-set dot inlay.
• Jumbo Stainless Steel frets.
• Ibanez Custom String Cover.
• Ibanez Mono Tune bridge.
• Ibanez Quantum 58 (H) neck pickup.
• Ibanez Quantum 58 (H) bridge pickup.
• dyna-MIX 10 switching system w/Alter switch.
• Cosmo Black hardware.
• Luminescent side dot inlay.
• Gig bag included.
The neck:
• 648mm/25.5" scale.
• Width at saddle: 42mm.
• Width at 24 bands: 57mm.
• Thickness at first strap: 19mm.
• Thickness at 12 bands: 19mm.
• Radius: 508mmR.