Well, FWIW, Ibanez seems to be one of those manufacturers that has a fairly wide range of models with a fairly wide range of price points (unlike Gibsons, say, which are all expensive). I think the lefty Ibanez they had at my semi-local was around $500 (roughly the same as a Mexican Strat or Epiphone Les Paul), which is sort of the high end of the low end price-wise. A step down from there you have the Squiers (ca. $200), which are a little uneven. Both of the ones I have here (my J-bass and my mom's Mustang) seem to be nailed together correctly, but one hears occasional horror stories.

Those are new prices, too; you can get some pretty good deals if you go used.

>>>it wouldn't surprise me if Yui had accidentally
>>>memorized a Kung Fu form or two by marathon-watching too many martial
>>>art movies with Nodoka one rainy summer

Heh, speaking of Nodoka, a Hirasawa, and kung fu...

I do kind of like the implied notion that Yui and Ui both have the old Marvel Super Heroes RPG power "Photographic Reflexes", though, and that's why, for instance, Yui learned the riff from "Brush Pen Ballpoint Pen" after watching Azusa play it once, and Ui hit a home run after seeing some dude demonstrate proper batting technique to his little brother in the next batting cage over. :)

>Her skillset may be less balanced than Ui's, but strikes
>me as no less potent. Just...haphazadly applied.

You can picture a more experienced player looking over Yui's character sheet like, "Ten points of Perform (Guitar), nothing in General Academics, and two points of Cthulhu Mythos?!"

>Commentary on part 8 to follow sometime tonight.

Yay!

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
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