Calypso! - Ibanez RGDIX6MPB Iron Label | 2018 | Surreal Blue Burst

Some guitars have a nice top.

Calypso appears to contain an entire ocean.

Built in Indonesia in 2018, Calypso is an Ibanez RGDIX6MPB Iron Label finished in the wonderfully named Surreal Blue Burst. And frankly, the name is accurate.

That extraordinary top is poplar burl, stained in shifting shades of turquoise, blue and green and laid over a layered swamp ash body. The natural timber remains exposed around those enormous sculpted RGD bevels, meaning the guitar seems to change depending on the angle and the light.

Underneath all that burl, however, is one of Ibanez’s more serious metal machines.

The RGD takes the familiar RG formula and stretches its scale from 25.5 inches to 26.5 inches, giving lower tunings additional tension and definition. Ibanez designed this model for D-standard tuning from the factory, so Calypso was quite literally born to misbehave.

The extended-scale body is paired with Ibanez’s remarkably thin Nitro Wizard RGD neck, constructed on this 2018 model from three pieces of maple and purpleheart. Turn her over and the purpleheart stripe runs visibly through the centre of the neck, because apparently the front wasn’t showing off enough.

Then there’s the fingerboard.

It’s birdseye maple, with beautiful natural figuring running beneath 24 jumbo frets. Luminescent side dots help with navigation on darker stages, while Gotoh MG-T locking machine heads keep things secure at the other end.

Calypso carries a pair of DiMarzio Fusion Edge passive ceramic humbuckers, developed collaboratively by DiMarzio and Ibanez for high-gain instruments where clarity and definition matter, particularly when playing low, fast or both.

The controls are gloriously uncomplicated.

One master volume. One three-way pickup selector.

That’s it.

There isn’t even a tone control.

Ibanez clearly decided that anybody buying a 26.5-inch-scale Iron Label RGD with a pair of DiMarzios had probably already made their intentions reasonably clear.

At the bridge is an Ibanez Gibraltar Standard II fixed bridge, providing a solid and comfortable platform without introducing a floating tremolo into proceedings.

No Floyd Rose. No locking nut. No collection of tiny springs.

No changing one string and accidentally beginning a four-hour engineering project.

Just tune it down and get on with frightening people.

Despite looking like something designed exclusively to produce noises audible from neighbouring counties, Calypso is remarkably comfortable. Those exaggerated RGD contours aren’t simply there to make the guitar look aggressive. They remove considerable bulk and allow the body to sit comfortably against the player.

Calypso has been through our full rehabilitation process at The Stray Chord, including inspection, deep cleaning, fret levelling, crowning and polishing, fret-end attention, hardware and electronics checks and a complete professional setup.

The result is a discontinued Iron Label with an extended scale, proper DiMarzios, locking Gotoh hardware, an exceptionally playable neck and enough poplar burl to constitute a minor geological feature.

And after all of that, we’re still mostly staring at the top.

Because look at it.

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