Ibanez Xiphos XPT700: A Metalhead's Dream Come True
Written: Aug 24 '08 (Updated Aug 24 '08)
Product Rating:
Pros: Great sound, looks and price for metal guys
Cons: Metal guys only
The Bottom Line: The Ibanez Xiphos XPT700 is a terrific mid-range priced guitar for the metal market. It looks and sounds great and is an excellent value.
buffoonery's Full Review: Ibanez Xpt700 Xiphos Electric Guitar
The Ibanez Xiphos XPT700 guitar was designed from the ground-up to appeal to the needs of modern metal players. These needs extend to both sound and looks: Sound, because you need metal sounds to play metal music; Looks, because a metal player has to have a guitar that makes him look like he’s a metal player. (Hence, we see that vanity extends its glorious tentacles to the metal as well as the fashion world.)
The Xiphos delivers in spades. It’s sound is a vicious metal monster, with highly articulated, punchy notes and excellent sustain. Needless to say, it’s also incredibly fast up and down the neck. Lookswise, the guitar screams metal, with a lightweight reverse-X body that won’t throw you off balance when you’re spinning your head or jumping to avoid switchblades and broken bottles thrown from the crowd.
So what does the thing have? Ibanez provided a mahogany body and neck-through Wizard II design for extra sustain and deeper bass notes. The offset-X body looks clumsy but is well balanced and very comfortable for performance but it is the opinion of this long-time Strat player that it is not designed for practice. The extended point on the lower body allows for excellent access to all frets.
All of the accouterments are designed for speed. The bound rosewood fretboard and thin 25 ˝” neck allow for very fast runs over the 24 jumbo frets. The bridge is set close to the body, allowing for low action and faster speed. The double-lock tremolo will let you dive bomb to your heart’s content.
A highlight is the Xiphos’s specially designed DiMarzio D Activator humbuckers, one in the neck and one in the bridge. These are passive pickups intended to sound like active pickups but without the sterility sometimes associated with actives. They use coils tuned to different frequencies and respond quickly to different pick attack. The bridge pickup is about 25% louder than the neck but the volumes are adjusted to balance them out and there won’t be a drop off in volume when you switch from the bridge to the neck.
In sum, this guitar looks, feels and screams metal. I’m not a metal guy, but if I was going to buy a moderately priced ($700 street) metal guitar, this would be it. Besides the speed and easy of play, through a Mesa amp this guitar delivers great thumping bottoms and crisp highs. You’ll get some OK clean sounds if you dial back on the amp and guitar volume but that’s not why you’re buying this guitar. It responds wonderfully to changes in pick attack. Articulation is superb. It’s fun to play and sounds terrific. And the price is right.
So who should buy this guitar? Metal players looking for a metal guitar under $1000 that they need for performance. It’s got the looks and the sound. It’s really unsuitable to other types of play. I don’t much care for it as a practice instrument, either, but opinions may vary.
The Xiphos is a mass market, moderately priced instrument so don’t expect much in the area of collectible value, unless Ibanez suddenly cancels the line.
By the way, a "xiphos" is a double-edged sword used by ancient Greek hoplites as a secondary weapon to the spear. I looked it up on Wikipedia so it must be true.
Neck: 5pc Wizard II thru-neck
Neck Type: Wizard II (neck-thru)
Body: Mahogany body
Frets: Jumbo frets
Fingerboard: Bound Rosewood
Inlay: Reversed Sharktooth inlay
Bridge: Edge III bridge
NeckPU: DiMarzioŽ D Activator™ neck pu
BridgePU: DiMarzioŽ D Activator™ bridge pu
HW Color: CK
The Ibanez XPT700 is a neck-thru constructed guitar that just screams metal from the first moment you see it. With a deep double-cutaways, 4-fin body ...More at Musician's Friend
Fantastic prices with ease & c...(Stock status: N/A)
One of the most wicked-looking Ibanez guitars ever made. The Ibanez XPT700 is a neck-thru constructed guitar that just screams metal from the first mo...More at Amazon Marketplace
Fantastic prices with ease & c...(Stock status: N/A)
One of the most wicked-looking Ibanez guitars ever made. The Ibanez XPT700 is a neck-thru constructed guitar that just screams metal from the first mo...More at Amazon Marketplace
The Ibanez XPT700 is a neck-thru constructed guitar that just screams metal from the first moment you see it. With a deep double-cutaways, 4-fin body ...More at Musician's Friend
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