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Ibanez NDM2 Noodles

 

Review of the Ibanez Noodles by The Man in the Jar

Features of the Ibanez Noodles

Tuners - Six chrome mini-tuners sealed and unbranded, smooth and accurate.

Headstock - Three-a-side offset headstock in plain maple, the truss rod cover has the Noodles signature.

Nut - The black plastic nut abuts the fretboard and is nice and neat.

Neck - An Ibanez (as normal) gorgeously playable neck, bolt-on with a really nice contoured heel. A thing of slim and smooth maple loveliness. 

Fretboard - Medium brown chocolate rosewood with a good tight grain. Standard abalone dot markers.

Frets - Thinish medium frets which are highly polished make for excellent bend and riff playability. 

Action - Decent action from the box with room to tweak lower if preferred.

Body - The shape is like the evil-love-child of a Strat and a Tele. It has about the same body thickness as a standard Strat but the basswood construction makes it noticeably lighter. It's a straightforward slab body apart from the Stratoid comfort contours on the front and back. It sports a luxurious high-gloss finish. 

Bridge - Standard flat-plate fixed bridge with individual block saddles. The saddles give individual intonation adjustment and each one has two allen keys to adjust string height (action). Through-body stringing gives better tension over the bridge and assists in sustain (useful on a basswood body).

Pickups - Ibanez pickups in a H/S/H configuration. The humbuckers are black open-coil and the middle single-coil is a Strat-type with visible pole pieces.

Controls - Single volume and single tone. The volume control sits on the scratchplate just far away from the strings, much like on a Strat. The tone control sits on the pseudo-Tele horizontal chromed control plate. A five-way selector switch sits below the volume pot and gives the following combinations:
Position 1 - Bridge humbucker;
Position 2 - Bridge humbucker tapped and out-of-phase with the middle single-coil;
Position 3 - Middle single-coil;
Position 4 - Neck humbucker tapped and out-of-phase with the middle single-coil;
Position 5 - Neck humbucker.

Pickguard - Sexy black onyx pearloid finish with mirrored Noodles logo. 

Strap-buttons - Quite small buttons are found in the usual places. If you're gigging the guitar you might like to upgrade to larger buttons for the sake of safety.

Output Jack - Set in a Strat-like dish in the Tele-like control plate.

Finish - Excellent throughout.

 

Sound of the Ibanez 

The creative wiring of the five-way switch provides a wide choice of sounds. The brdge humbucker has a great, brash, rocking edge with considerable depth of tone in reserve. The out-of-phase positions give distinctive scooped sounds for funky chops and chords. The neck humbucker shares the same powerful, deep voice but with buckets more growl. 
But I was intrigued with the middle pickup running alone - surprisingly different from all other combinations with a great rock sound in its own right.      

 

Overall Impressions of the Ibanez Noodles

This is a cracking little electric guitar which provides a wide range of excellent voices. The look of the thing is superb and the Ibanez logo brings with it excellent playability guaranteed. The Noodles connection may turn you on or turn you off, either way there is no denying this is one spunky little guitar. 

Buy link the Ibanez NDM2 Noodles

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