IYV-IRK-300 Semi Hollow Electric Guitar 3T Sunburst (IYV)

I’m actually impressed! I have a friend who I recently got started with guitars. He really admired my FireGlo Rickenbacker 330, which is easy to understand since it is a stunningly beautiful guitar. So for Xmas I decided I would get him this relatively inexpensive guitar. My main thought was that it would be a great piece of wall art for his office and an incentive to keep learning to play. I had actually watched several videos on this guitar and all of them indicated that while the bridge pickup was pretty decent, the neck pickup always sounded totally dull, muted and low output. But I have to say that in the last week that I’ve been “testing” and setting up my friend’s new guitar, I am actually pretty impressed! Both pickups sound pretty decent and have an appropriate sound for each location. Now I’m not saying that this guitar sounds anything like my Rickenbacker, nor does it match any of my Strats, Les Paul’s or others. But I will say that it does have decent sound in all 3 switch settings and sounds like a pretty decent guitar. Which for the price is somewhat amazing! Overall the fit and finish is really pretty danged good! It is a nice looking and feeling guitar. Not just for a “cheap” guitar, but for any under $1000 guitar. Didn’t have any fret sprouts (which many reputable brands do have nowadays), the finish is well done and even the tuners are reasonable. And pretty inexpensive to swap out a great set of Gotoh Locking tuners if you plan on keeping and using this. I have to say that I was expecting a lot less. Been playing and collecting guitars for decades and this one is really fun to play! Obviously not going to replace my Ricky, but I’m sure my friend will really enjoy this! Assuming he keeps up his lessons! 😂

The bar is continually being raised on these cheap guitars from overseas. This IYV Rickenbacker copy is great and an unbelievable value at a buck sixty five. Cosmetically, the fire glow finish is beautiful and the matching paint job on the headstock & back of the neck is classy. The guitar came set up well. Intonation was almost perfect. I had to adjust the low E string a bit. Neck is straight. Frets are perfect. Guitar plays well up and down the neck. Neck is a little narrow. String spacing is a bit tight. Tuners are good. Guitar stays in tune even with aggressive playing. Nut is plastic but slots are cut to the proper height nice & low. The tailpiece and bridge design is quirky but functional. The tailpiece is floating and only attached by the strap button. It relies on the string tension to keep it straight. The bridge is a tune o matic style but it is not attached to the guitar at all. It sits atop a metal plate and relies on the sting pressure to keep it in place. When I took the crappy sounding strings off to change & oil the fretboard, the bridge came tumbling off onto the floor. The slots on the individual bridge saddles are cut shallow. If you bend aggressively the strings will probably occasionally slip out of the groove in the saddle. Out of the box, the neck pickup was considerably louder than the bridge which makes me think they use the same pickup for both positions. Both pickups come set low with a lot of space between the pickup & strings. I tried to raise the bridge pickup but the screws just loosened & the pickup height didn't change so I removed the pickup and discovered the pickups are screwed directly into the body (like a tele neck pickup). There is foam rubber glued to the bottom of the pickup which establishes the height so you can lower the pickups by screwing them down but loosening just makes the pickup all wobbly. I remedied this by putting a piece of foam in the pickup cavity and replacing the pickup so it sits higher. With the strings back on, I adjusted the height so the volume matched the neck. The pickups have a unique sound and I dig them. Real Rickenbacker pickups are single coil but I think these are humbuckers because they are very quiet. Bridge pickup is bright and sounds better with the tone rolled back a bit. Neck is warm and fatter. Guitar sounds best with both pickups on, using the neck volume like a tone knob to blend in more or less of the warmer neck tone. Pickups tone is nice & clear. Pummeling them with distortion yields a cool funky lo-fi kind of vocal growl with no squealing or feedback. If you want a guitar that looks and sounds different than most other electrics, this one is a good choice.

First one came a few days ago..but it seemed already well played .tuned it up..jangly vibrating strings and terrible buzz...so I sent it back and replaced it with one that came today..it also seems played or handled somewhat already ( 😂)and has the general surface blemishes but nothing too bad... overall, I love this one..the neck plays great .no string or fret buzz. I'm glad I took the chance. You should too..it a beautiful guitar that cleans and shines up nice. Action is perfect out of the box. This one's a keeper. If you order one ..hope they send you a good one!! It was worth the risk... especially since I don't really recommend anyone buying a guitar unless they've played it.

Bought on a whim when price came down. A friend's recently bought the IYV brand Acoustisonic-style guitar, and is happy with it as a budget guitar. I bought this IYV brand Rickenfaker as a modding platform, but am still enjoying the stock guitar. IYV has a reputation for "better than the price you pay" instruments, and I concur. It arrived well setup...it was 90% in tune, intonation was @ 98%, so close I haven't bothered with it yet. The action is a little high, but another easy fix by adjusting the bridge saddles, again, haven't bothered yet. Tuners seem good, but on the mod list, as well as swapping out the pots for CTS pots, and rewiring the harness, putting in better capacitor, maybe change the pickups, things I bought it to do. I didn't buy this guitar as a stage-player, but who knows when I get done modding. But!...this is a perfectly good guitar as-is. You can play it, enjoy it, not worry about a few dings. It does not replicate a true Rickenbacker sound, but it's $150.00! It separates itself from all the budget Strats, Teles, and such on appearance alone. I have bought and modded 8 or 9 budget guitars, and look forward to doing this one. Good for it...get one! Update April 11...so far I've done a few bolt-on mods. First, a set of Guyker locking tuners. I always do this first. Fact is the tuners I took off are very good and I will use them on some cigar box guitar builds. Second, I pulled the pickguard and a pickup off to inspect them and found the soldering to be good, the pots are dime-size pots and the wiring is adequate. Still going to upgrade the pots, switch, and wiring because I like to do that work. The pickup is a single coil/bar magnet, typical in many budget guitars. Because this guitar won't achieve that Rickenbacker "chime" without some significant pickups, I might install some humbuckers (my usual choice). Third, I tried a couple of tailpieces and ultimately used the Alnicov "R" tailpiece. It fits well, is a well-finished piece, is beefier and looks better (to me) than the stock tailpiece. I had to drill new holes for the Alnicov tailpiece, but it was a straightforward install, and covered the original holes. Lastly (so far), polished the frets, oiled the fretboard, and installed D'addario 10's. After playing this thing for a few weeks I'm still really happy I bought it. It's just a cool player. The neck and frets were really good out of the box, neck relief is still good. A beginner or an experienced player could use this guitar as delivered. Based on other reviews I think this is a common experience. The price seems to go up and down (it was $25 cheaper the week after I got mine @$150) . Today it's @ $175. Still a good deal for what you get. Get one!

This is a very good guitar for the price, is it perfect? No! There was a lot of work to do before it was right. Could you play it out of the box, Yes! Just tune it up and let the strings settle in and you could play it. Now first the height of the strings were way too high, and the saddle wasn’t set properly. The neck had way too much relief or back bow so the truss rod had to be adjusted also the nut wasn’t cut deep enough on several strings. Put locking turners on with new pure nickel strings, the old ones were stuck in the tailpiece hard to remove. The body has several flaws in it, however I don’t care bout that. The neck is straight with very little fret sprouts. Here Is the size of the guitar, overall length is 37an1/2” Body width 13an3/4” Horn to Horn is 11” the Waist is 9” the Body is 2” thick Now with this info it’s hard to find a perfect case to put it in, however some gig bags will work, and I did find that ChromaCast has a case that works but it is very snug and I mean VERY SNUG. On the setup, had to remove the bridge completely and counter sink the holes for the flat piece of metal to sit right on the guitar, it does have a ground wire to it. Had to adjust each saddle for proper intonation, cut the nut put new strings adjust truss rod tighten all the screws. The fretboard is dry so you will have to fix that too. Now remember this is Not a 2 Thousand Dollar guitar so if you want a Cool looking Rick copy that comes close with out breaking the bank, this is IT. Do the work and have fun. This thing plays fantastic and I use a pedal so I can get what ever sound I want. No hum at all in the pickups.

Great cheap electric guitar. Sounds good, jangly and easy to play. Stays in tune, no major flaws in the paint.

3 stars out of box. 5 stars after dressing frets/fretboard, bridge height and new set of D Addario 09’s, value/quality Ratio far exceeds that of any prior budget bargain guitar I’ve purchased. $145 Black Friday. There’s a Couple finish defects as others have stated. But very minor. A couple random cosmetic black specs under clear coat. Surprised that The tuners felt as nice and are perfectly fine. It easily holds tune after string stretch. Difficult to re string the treble side of trapeze. The string holes are tucked far under and is very difficult to run the string thru. Also, have to strum and pluck gently Or the string will skip off of bridge saddle.

I bought this to alter it. Turns out it's a perfect platform for the P-90 "dogear" ($35 amazon) I wanted this for with minor alts to the pick guard and truss nut cover (dremel) and speed knobs (cream). That's it as far as changes. Tuners are fine, bridge is fine, neck is lovely w 24 frets!. Balanced and light weight- finish is perfect, wood is beautiful. Electronics work perfectly well and moreover it's a joy to play. Highly recommend with the knowledge you will need to dial it in a bit. Immediately changed strings, smoothed and polished frets and nut, adjusted intonation and string height. All perfectly normal for the price. Absolute solid value- go for it!

decent quality, well worth the price, thanks brighton shop

What a great guitar plays awesome looks fantastic one great deal!!!

Steppenwolf and the Beatles have never sounded so good. A bit of fret sprout was easily fixed... I should have changed the strings, but I'm having too much fun with it out of the box.

In my experience, inconsistent QC is one of the things that go hand in hand with buying inexpensive guitars. One can be nearly perfect and the next one, not so much. What makes this guitar good value is less to do with price versus quality and more to do with the relative lack of options for a Rick-styled guitar. If this were a Strat or LP style guitar, at this price point there are lots of options and as a result, I'd be less forgiving of an imperfection in the finish or some fret sprout or a high fret but for a Rick-styled guitar, I do forgive those things. The finish on mine was perfect and it sounds great. It had a number of frets that weren't fully seated and after addressing that I ended up doing a full fret level, crown and polish. I swapped the tuners (and I usually don't unless they're really clunky). Also not a fan of these bridges but they're part of the vibe of guitars like this so it's fine. In conclusion, you may get a perfect one or you may not. Even if you get one that needs some TLC and don't feel comfortable doing the work yourself, it's probably worth it for this style of guitar (certainly you'll spend way less than you would for the guitar this is styled after).

Looks good , plays well, sound good too! BUT NO, IT IS NOT A RICK ! But hell needier is the price!