Ibanez RG

Series of electric guitars produced by Hoshino Gakki

The Ibanez RG is a series of electric guitars produced by Hoshino Gakki. The first model in the series, the RG550, was originally released in 1987 and advertised as part of the Roadstar series. That series was renamed "RG" in 1992 and all models since are simply known as RGs. It rose in popularity throughout the 1980s and had the features that musicians in the rising shred and thrash metal movements of that time were looking for: a "fast" neck, comfortable body, powerful pickups, and a reliable tremolo system. The RG series has the most subtypes of any Ibanez model and is the most popular series of Ibanez electric guitars produced by Hoshino Gakki. The RG's deep cutaway, flatter fingerboard and extended fret range (24 frets as standard) has made it one of the most popular guitars for rock and heavy metal music.

The Ibanez RG was originally designed in 1987, the same year as Steve Vai's signature guitar, the Ibanez JEM. It was created as a successor to the company's previous Roadstar and Roadstar II series guitars produced from 1979 to 1986. The name is an abbreviation of "Roadstar Guitar".

The RG Series features a neck that is very thin in cross section, with a fretboard that is flatter (430mm/16.9in or 400mm/15.75in radius of curvature), wider, and longer (24 fret double octave) than most. Flatter radius on a fretboards facilitate wider bends and lower string action at the expense of comfort in playing chords. For the virtuosic "shred" style of guitar playing or fast, aggressive thrash/speed metal rhythm, this type of neck is often preferred. Necks are typically made from maple, while fretboards are usually made of maple, rosewood or jatoba.

The body of the RG Series features sleek, offset pointed double cutaways giving better access to the upper frets. Typically the body is made of basswood, poplar, or mahogany, with some exception such as swamp ash (RGT220A) or alder (select J Custom RGs). Some models such as the RG550 came with a pickguard while others usually feature back routed controls.

RG pickups options include humbucker and single coil models, with humbucker single–single (HSS), humbucker–single humbucker (HSH), or dual humbucker (HH) configurations available. Options available include Seymour Duncan, DiMarzio, or EMG models in addition to Ibanez custom models. All RGs of the 550 series and higher have the Ibanez Edge vibrato unit, either the original or low profile version. The Edge tremolo incorporated several manufacturing changes when compared to the original Floyd Rose, including increased mass, relocated fine tuners and improved locking posts. The locking posts are no longer used as of the 2003 model year along with the introduction of the Edge Pro. While most models of the RG series use variations of Ibanez Edge tremolo, there are fixed bridge models available, which are equipped with either a Hipshot style bridge or a Gibraltar standard bridge. Fixed bridge versions of the Edge bridge are also available on a few select signature models.

Since the release of RG7620 and 7621 in 1998, RGs are famous for being the basis of particularly easy to play seven string guitars. Also, in 2007, Ibanez produced its first commercially available 8 string guitar, the RG2228. Ibanez introduced their first commercial nine string models, the RG9QM and RG90BKP, for 2014.