Nyx! - Ibanez RG921WBB Premium | Transparent Grey Flat | Buckeye Burl

Apparently Ibanez decided that ordinary pieces of wood are for cowards.

Because Nyx appears to have been made from the haunted cross-section of an ancient tree.

Nyx is an Ibanez RG921WBB, a wonderfully unusual member of the Indonesian Premium range produced between 2015 and 2017, and a model that seems to appear considerably less often than many of its Premium RG relatives.

The reason for that alphabet soup at the end of the model number becomes fairly obvious when you look at her.

WBB. Buckeye Burl.

And what a piece of Buckeye Burl.

Beneath the smoky Transparent Grey Flat finish, the top is covered in eyes, knots, swirls and strange eruptions of figuring. Depending on the angle and lighting, it shifts through charcoal grey, brown, bronze and almost black. The closer you look, the more things seem to appear.

We’ve stared at it for quite some time.

We’re no longer entirely convinced it isn’t staring back.

The Buckeye Burl top sits over an American Basswood body, framed by beautiful multi-ply binding with darker tortoiseshell-like detailing visible around the sides. Even the back retains a wonderfully natural appearance, allowing the timber grain to remain visible beneath the dark finish.

Then we get to the neck.

And Ibanez continued being ridiculous.

Nyx has a five-piece Wenge and Bubinga Wizard neck, one of the exotic-wood constructions found on this generation of Premium instruments. Dark, beautifully grained and exceptionally slim, it measures approximately 18mm at the first fret and 20mm at the twelfth, combined with the familiar flat 400mm RG fingerboard radius.

In other words, it is essentially a very attractive collection of exotic hardwoods designed to facilitate poor decisions at high speed.

On top sits a Wenge fingerboard with offset mother-of-pearl dot inlays and 24 jumbo frets, originally finished with Ibanez’s Premium fret-edge treatment.

Naturally, we’ve interfered with those too.

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

Because Premium fret-edge treatment is very nice.

But Jordan has tools.

Electronics come courtesy of a pair of DiMarzio/Ibanez passive ceramic humbuckers, controlled by master volume, master tone and a five-way selector.

And that five-way is considerably cleverer than you might expect from a guitar carrying only two humbuckers.

Rather than simply offering the obvious bridge, both and neck choices, the switching provides additional coil combinations alongside the full humbucker sounds. The result is considerably more tonal range than Nyx’s dark and slightly threatening appearance might suggest, moving from thick, aggressive RG territory into brighter and cleaner sounds without covering the guitar in additional switches.

At the other end sits one of our favourite features of this particular generation of RG: the Tight-End R fixed bridge.

No Floyd.

No locking nut.

No springs.

No Allen key pilgrimage.

No changing strings on Tuesday because you’ve got something important planned for Thursday.

Just six individually adjustable saddles sitting in a substantial, low-profile fixed bridge that’s exceptionally comfortable beneath the picking hand.

Sometimes peace is an option.

The whole instrument is finished with Cosmo Black hardware, and against the grey Buckeye Burl, dark Wenge fingerboard, multi-ply binding and enormous expanse of dark timber running along the neck, it is frankly obscene.

She’s elegant.

She’s sinister.

She’s beautifully made.

And she looks rather like somebody asked Ibanez to build an RG for a woodland deity who had recently discovered progressive metal.

So, naturally, we named her Nyx, after the primordial Greek goddess of night.

Because Dave didn’t seem to capture it.

Nyx is a discontinued Ibanez Premium RG921WBB wearing one of the most spectacular Buckeye Burl tops we’ve had through the workshop, professionally rehabilitated, set up and ready for her next chapter.

Although we would advise against staring into the burl for too long.

We’re fairly certain one of the knots just blinked.

Rescue • Restore • Rehome