IbanezGRGM 6 String Solid-Body Electric Guitar, Right, Candy Apple (GRGM21MCA)

I bought this for fun and to replace a Squier Mini-Strat I gave away. I was very impressed with the quality of this little guitar! First, the body appears to be one solid piece of poplar. No visible seam. Very cool. The neck is one piece of maple with a maple fretboard, which is not something you see on cheap guitars. I have a more expensive full-size guitar which has a scarfed neck! The fretboard appears to have about a 12" radius, fairly flat and set up for shredding. The frets edges are smooth and the fit and finish are excellent; what you'd expect from a guitar costing about $100 more. The humbuckers(!) are not as great, but not terrible. You can get HUGE sounds from this thing. The nut is 41mm, like a full-size. However, if you have big hands, remember that the distance between frets is less and you have to cram fingers in there. I have slender hands. The electronics are pretty good; the tone pot actually works well, which is something I can't say about some guitars I've owned. All controls are smooth and responsive. It was intonated and set up right out of the box. Your experience may vary.The ONLY thing I found with this guitar is the frets are rough. Like VERY rough. I have a dressing stone and will take care of it next time I change strings. This was probably a QC issue at the plant which slipped through.If you are deciding between the Squier and this one for a 3/4 guitar, buy this one. It's head and shoulders above the Squier.

Came to me today with the strings in a way I like. In tune with each other, but about a half step off. This means somebody took the time to set it up, and tuned it, and while shipping it lost half a step. So the strings were 10's surpringly. I think D'Addario. And I had no reason to change them. it's usually the first thing I do. So instead I stretched them good, then turned them up. And it sounds amazing. Like my old RG550. The finish is perfect. It feels great. It works really well with Marshally things. I played it with a Xotic SL Drive cranked into a Sonicake IR Cab set to the 6 cab (4x12 V30's) into a Behringer 302USB and had the most amazing Anthrax guitar sound. All the screams. All the squeals. This is THE guitar to buy for your home recording setup to do Metal/Rock/80's/90's. And honestly, it's every bit as well made as my squire mustangs. Which is high praise because the squire mustangs are probably the best buy in a guitar right now. This was the second to last guitar and I'm done. It fills the metal gap so perfect it's criminal. Easy to play. I can not believe how low the action was out of the box, with no buzz. I guess it's just easier to get away with that kind of precision at 22.5 scale.

Guys, I loved this guitar. I got it for my 7 year old daughter. I've been playing guitar on and off for 20 years and wanted her to have a decent, kid sized guitar. This thing does not disapoint. I even played it side by side with my Epiphone Les Paul Studio, and surprisingly this little guy kept up with it in the 1 and 3 positions on the Ibanez pickup switch. (I should note that I use heavy effects so I'm not taking about the clean sound by itself. Adding in gain, delay, reverb). But what my LP couldn't do well, was tone down all the power and humbucker-ness that this Ibanez could do in the 2 and 4 positions. I liked it so much I want to put a 5 way switch on my LP lol. The LP still sounded better and the harmonics were better while playing chords, but this little Ibanez was a pleasent surprise and still sounded great. I also enjoyed the stablility of the string tuning. I could tell as soon as i began tuning that I wasnt going to have any issues there. The string action and relief were great right out of the box. Didn't measure it, but it certainly felt good to play. Overall, solid guitar for a beginner. Heck i'd feel comfortable playing it live if it wasn't smaller and purple... lol. Think i might be a new Ibanez fan.

Okay, I gave the Ibanez Mikro a 4-star rating because it's a pretty good value. But before pushing the 'Buy' button on this solid-bodied mini axe, you'll need to do some setup on it after it arrives. Otherwise, you may be very disappointed.Before I talk about setup, I'll give my opinion about several of the guitar features:* The body finish is okay. It hasn't chipped or come off in some surprise way. And the color looks pretty good. Mine is the Jewel Blue. At this price, I expect to be playing the guitar, not collecting it anyway.* The Infinity R humbuckers sound decent enough. I've played both rock and metal on them. The pickups will push out dirt and chug. Just tweak your pedals and amp until you get the tone you want. Just like any guitar.* The electronics work. I haven't opened the pickguard, yet, but I wouldn't expect to find anything great inside. But the electronics do the job. The same goes for the selector switch. And I'm not hearing any humming or grounding issues.* The small body is lightweight and easy to hold. And the neck is super easy to play. This guitar really is a good match for smaller players. Instead of wrestling with a larger 25.5" scale guitar, this one will allow you to focus on learning technique and playing. Build your confidence, not your frustration.* And even though the body is lightweight, the headstock doesn't drop. Another big plus.So if you're going to buy this guitar, you'll need to do some setup. If you're a complete beginner, this may be a challenge unless you take the guitar into a luthier shop. I've listed setup considerations below:Setup Musts:* Immediately replace the stock tuning heads. The stock heads are terrible and will lose tune after just a few minutes of picking or strumming. I bought some Kluson MK6LN replacement tuners and they work great. $22 bucks + shipping. Problem solved.* And here's one other note about replacement tuners. Many aftermarket tuners won't fit the Mikro headstock. It's not the 10mm peg hole that's the problem. It's the length of the tuning posts, many coming up short. So be selective.* Immediately replace the stock strings. This is a short scale guitar and the stock strings don't provide enough tension. Again, you won't hold tune well or the pitch will sound off or tone will be muddy or whatever until they are replaced. Yuck. I bought 11ga nickel wound. $11 bucks. Problem solved.* And one other note about replacement strings. You could use 12ga replacements but the nut slots will have to be filed. 11ga provided good tension and tone for me. They're a little snug in the nut slot, but not too bad. 12ga weren't worth the extra effort.Other Setup Considerations:* I replaced the stock string trees with a Graph Tech brand. This probably wasn't necessary but the Graph Techs do have good hold and I trust that they won't lose shape or break like the cheaper stock trees.* If you don't like the plastic stock nut, you could replace it. The stock nut is pretty narrow, so you'll be filing/sanding down a replacement to get it to fit. I've not had any issues with the stock nut. So it may not be worth the trouble to replace it unless you plan on using 12ga + replacement strings.* The stock hardtail bridge works fine. I thought about putting in a higher end replacement but its really not needed. I can adjust string height and intonation just fine with the stock tailpiece.* No need to replace the pickups unless that really is your thing. But if you keep the stock pickups, do consider lowering them. Mine had been set too high and I kept getting pitch changes until they were lowered.So I hope my review helps you make a better decision. While this guitar is labeled as an axe for a beginner, it isn't ready to play right out of the box. So if you are a beginner, expect to spend a few hundred dollars more at a luthier to get the Ibanez Gio Mikro playing right. But even so, you'll make up for the additional cost by saving a lot of time lost to frustration with a larger scale guitar.