Hi Ethan,
Hope this helps. First off, I'll give you my impression of Bare Knuckle Pickups....Totally freakin' awesome!!! I have two sets, the Nailbomb Alnico 5 set and a Holy Diver 7 string set. Ibanez tends to use Aftermaths for the most part, which are tight tracking, focused pickups with a feel and tone a lot like active EMG's. I spoke to Tim Mills, the Managing Director and that is what he recommended if I wanted to have a passive in his range that fits closer to actives, but more organic sounding. They are really versatile, but lean towards hard rock and metal as far as the Aftermath set is concerned.
Ibanez, as few have stated, are great guitars all around. Their build leans more heavily towards rock, metal and progressive music, but they can do a lot. They tend to build with Alder, Basswood and Nyatoh for body woods lately and their necks are quite thin with a kind of 'C' shape but not quite. The Wizard neck is among thinnest, with the Wizard II and III being thicker, fuller but still shredder necks. The fingerboard radius is flat, typically 400-403mm (13-14") which favors fast playing, low action and overall speed. I have seen the guitar you picked; it's nice! I know that Ibanez is really behind in terms of stock deliveries to their dealers, after talking to my Sales Engineer at Sweetwater here in the US. A lot of Ibanez guitars have Floyd Rose style tremolo units that can be really challenging to look after and use if you aren't familiar with them. I prefer their hard tails anyways, haha.
I have big hands, personally. So, even my Schecter 7 string, which is in my photo here, is a bit too thin for me and it's neck is thicker, on paper, than any Ibanez neck by a couple of millimeters at least. To me, thin necks can be really uncomfortable to play coupled with a really flat fingerboard radius. I find that a fuller neck with more of a curved fretboard is so much more comfortable for me and I never go above a 12" radius unless it's a compound radius fretboard. Ibanez doesn't do compound radius as far as I have ever seen unless it's a custom model. If you like fuller necks, I'd recommend looking at a guitar with a Wizard II or III profile.
Ibanez is known to have good quality control and consistent builds across the board. Still, you want to check the guitars, even in the $500-$700 range, especially on the frets. The floating trems they use on the less expensive models aren't as nice as the more expensive models and can be a headache. I always recommend having an experienced tech to a new setup and inspection of a new guitar unless you know it's been looked at by the store. I use Sweetwater here and they do that for you. Like any guitar, I'd recommend you check out the guitar if at all possible or get one from an online retailer with a good return policy. Ibanez can be polarizing as far as feel goes, but they are wonderful instruments. The RG, RGA/RGD and S series are all their more shredder-friendly builds with the thinner necks being more common. The Ibanez built pickups on the cheaper models tend to be lackluster at best, so having BKP's on it is a plus. The Premium range is a great range of instruments and are well built. Good luck! Ibanez are their own beast and are great all-around guitars that can cover a lot of ground. Best of luck!
