2024 Ibanez RG vs Epiphone Les Paul | In-depth tone comparison | Which is the best guitar for you?!

Today we’re comparing two of the most iconic guitar models out there – it’s the Ibanez RG up against the Epiphone Les Paul!

Get the Ibanez RG421S at Thomann: https://thmn.to/thoprod/582063?offid=...
At Sweetwater: https://sweetwater.sjv.io/0ZKXZL

Get a similar Epiphone Les Paul at Thomann: https://thmn.to/thoprod/482229?offid=...
At Sweetwater: https://sweetwater.sjv.io/LXqdY0

In this case, we’re using the 2024 Ibanez RG421S and my trusty 2014 Epiphone Les Paul Traditional Pro as our test subjects. Both affordable guitars with dual humbuckers, they’re excellent takes on the RG and Les Paul models, and both are top choices if you’re in the market for a new guitar – or possibly even your first ever electric guitar.

The Sea Shore Matte RG421S is a sweet stripped down take on the RG. Coming in at around $379/€429 as of February 2024, it’s a great way to get started with RGs without being too blingy, but it’s full of solid Ibanez hardware and some cool wood choices.

You get a meranti body and Ibanez's legendary slim Wizard III neck (in maple). The neck is the RG standard: 24 jumbo frets, 25.5" scale length, and a super flat 15.75" fingerboard radius. You also get a pair of Ibanez's own Quantum humbuckers and a 5-way switch, which gives you the usual humbucking tone plus some nice coil split options.

The Epiphone I’ve had since new, and it cost me €330 (with a decent hard case!) back in 2014. This guitar’s got all the classic Les Paul specs you could want: mahogany body with flamed maple top, mahogany neck with rosewood board, and a roaring pair of Epiphone zebra humbuckers – with coil splits for both.

The neck’s got a 16” fingerboard radius and a 24.75” scale length, but it’s way chunkier than the RG’s neck.

But which of these guitars is going to be best for you? Which sounds better? Which plays better? And which is best value for money? That’s what we’re going to find out today, so join me as I test them in as many different musical styles as I can, from country, folk and indie, to pop, rock, blues, punk, metal and more. Let me know which guitar you think is best in the comments!

Here are some links to the various playing samples and info bits:

00:00 Hello!
00:20 Introduction and what we’re doing today
02:09 Ibanez RG421S-SEM specs and info
05:12 Epiphone Les Paul specs and info
08:21 Today’s rig and plan

Clean Sounds
09:20 Clean tone reference chords on all pickup settings
10:16 Funk rhythms
10:30 Poppy barre chords
11:00 Ringing open indie pop chords
11:27 Country ballad arpeggios
11:40 Blues progression
12:02 Ascending droning indie chords

Overdriven Sounds
12:16 Kings Of Leon inspired riff
12:28 Indie octave chords
12:54 Choppy barre chords
13:12 Fat indie rock rhythm chords
13:42 Southern rock picked arpeggios
14:02 Upbeat indie barre chords
14:26 Garage rock riff
14:43 AC/DC inspired riff
14:58 Driving rock riff
15:12 Quacky rock riff
15:22 Airbourne inspired rock riff
15:39 Hendrix inspired riff
15:57 Groovy classic rock riff

Higher gain drive sounds
16:24 80s rock riff
16:44 Van Halen inspired rock riff
17:03 Classic hard rock riff
17:20 Melodic hard rock lead
17:41 Hard rock riff
18:08 Alternative rock riff
18:32 Pop punk riff
18:58 Pop punk melodic lead riff
19:15 Punk rock power chords
19:27 Progressive rock riff (Drop D tuning)
19:44 Modern rock palm-muted chords (Drop D)
20:09 Rage Against The Machine inspired groovy riff (Drop D)

Heavy Distortion sounds (all in Drop D)
20:26 Metal chugging riff
20:43 Mastodon inspired metal riff with country twang
21:07 Heavy metal lead sound
21:24 Hardcore punk riff
21:39 Rammstein inspired industrial metal riff
21:53 Hardcore punk breakdown
22:05 Classic heavy metal/sludge riff

22:45 My thoughts
23:17 Looks
24:28 Price
25:01 Build quality and hardware
26:41 Weight
27:19 Playability and necks
28:31 Sounds and pickups discussion
31:08 Which guitar is better, and which should you buy?
32:47 Which of the two guitars would I buy?

My setup was as follows: I ran the two guitars into my Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 head, also using my Greer Lightspeed and my Revv G3 pedals for overdrive and heavy distortion sounds. The amp went from the Red Box DI straight into my Focusrite Scarlett 2i4, which went into Logic Pro X. No post-processing on the sounds was done.

---
Get all of this gear at Thomann: https://thmn.to/thocf/jkhog8l06m
Get all of this gear at Sweetwater: https://sweetwater.sjv.io/LXqdE0
---

Backing music from the YouTube Audio Library: Duck In The Alley – TrackTribe.

#Ibanez #IbanezGuitars #IbanezRG #Epiphone #EpiphoneLesPaul #LesPaul

Note: certain links in the description are affiliate links. If you click said links and purchase anything as a result, I will receive a small commission. This doesn’t cost you anything extra, but it does help to support the channel. So, if you do that, thank you very much!

‪@IbanezOfficial‬
‪@IbanezGermany‬
‪@OfficialEpiphone‬