In short, it's a very well built instrument and has some features that show Ibanez's attention to detail. There's also a pretty glaring omission, but I'll come back to that later on. I'll start with the good:
* great neck, very well done frets; very comfortable
* the 8th string tuning peg is a bit larger, so it can accomodate heavier gauge strings
* truss rod adjustment wheel at the base of the neck (where it meets the body); much easier to adjust and to reach
* mono-rail bridge, really comfortable for the right hand when muting
* great pickups, clear and defined sound; the factory wiring is also a plus: 5 way switch, with the standard 3 full humbucker positions (bridge, neck&bridge, neck), a neck wired in parallel position and a split coil position which selects the inner coils of the 'buckers (think strat position 2/4)
Apart from some minor adjustment issues from the factory (loose pot, pickup cable sticking out a bit), there is only one big flaw this guitar has, in my opinion: the bridge is not grounded, so any hum you get is not going to go away when touching the strings; I'm not sure why Ibanez missed this, perhaps due to the construction of the bridge. Because the monorail bridge consists of separate elements for each string, it has to be made sure that the elements are in contact with each other in order to properly ground all of the strings.
However, if you make sure your guitar amp is grounded (which you should do anyway!), then you will have no hum issues. The pickups are pretty quiet even at high gain.
All in all, this is pretty much the best choice for an 8-string if you're on a budget.
