Mystique! - Ibanez RG631ALF Axion Label | Blue Chameleon

There are guitars which look slightly different when the light catches them.

And then there’s Mystique, who appears to have several entirely separate identities and absolutely no intention of telling you which one is real.

Meet Mystique, our Ibanez RG631ALF from the Axion Label range, finished in the frankly ridiculous Blue Chameleon.

Straight on, she’s a shimmering metallic turquoise.

Move slightly and she’s blue.

Move again and she’s purple.

Walk around the back and apparently we’re green now.

We spent an unreasonable amount of time walking around this guitar going, “OOOH, LOOK AT IT NOW.”

But underneath the spectacular paintwork is a very serious RG.

The Nyatoh body is paired with Ibanez’s incredibly slim Nitro Wizard neck, built from five pieces of Panga Panga and Walnut and bolted on using their sculpted All Access Neck Joint. That gives you the sort of upper-fret access you’d expect from something specifically designed to encourage poor decisions above the 12th fret.

And that neck is lovely.

The Macassar ebony fingerboard carries 24 jumbo Sub Zero treated frets, white offset dot inlays and luminescent side dots, because apparently being able to see where you’re going in the dark is useful when you’ve bought a guitar that changes colour every six inches.

The Ibanez logo glows too.

Obviously.

At the business end, Mystique carries a pair of Fishman Fluence Modern active humbuckers, with an Alnico pickup in the neck and a Ceramic in the bridge.

These are not pickups known for being shy.

But they’re considerably more versatile than “VERY LOUD METAL NOISE” might suggest. Alongside the three-way pickup selector, there’s a dedicated coil-tap switch, while the push/pull volume control accesses the alternative Fluence voicing.

So she’ll happily deliver enormous, tight high-gain sounds, but there are far more textures hiding in here than her pointy little face would have you believe.

And because Ibanez apparently reached the hardware section of the specification sheet and decided restraint was for other people, she’s also fitted with a Gibraltar Standard II fixed bridge, Gotoh MG-T locking machine heads and Schaller S-Lock strap buttons.

No Floyd Rose.

No tremolo.

No tiny springs launching themselves into another postcode.

Just six strings straight through the body, excellent tuning stability and absolutely no negotiations required after changing strings.

As always, Mystique went through our workshop for the full Stray treatment, including a thorough clean, fretwork where required, fret polishing and a complete setup, ensuring she was ready for her next chapter.

Cosmetically, she was in good condition. She arrived with two small chips which were carefully colour-matched and repaired, and aside from those repaired areas she presented beautifully.

Admittedly, colour matching a finish which can’t decide whether it’s green, turquoise, blue or purple was an entertaining afternoon.

And that finish is genuinely difficult to capture properly in photographs. Every time you think you’ve worked out what colour she is, she changes her mind.

Which feels appropriate, really.

She is fast.

She is extremely pretty.

She contains enough Fishman Fluence to frighten the neighbours.

And we’re still not entirely sure what colour she is.

Perfect.

Mystique has now been adopted and is making music in her forever home.

Although this particular Stray is no longer available, you can explore our current collection of rescued and restored guitars to see who might be waiting for you.

The Stray Chord

Rescue • Restore • Rehome