Origins

The Ibanez E-Gen was introduced in 2008 as Herman Li’s

Herman Li

Herman Li is a British Chinese musician, best known as a guitarist for the power metal band DragonForce.-Playing style:Li draws influences from rock, all sub-genres of metal as well as video game music and often mimics sounds from popular retro games from the late 80s, early-90s arcade, and PC games...

 signature model. It is derived from the Ibanez S prestige

Ibanez S

The Ibanez S Series is a guitar series produced by Hoshino Gakki. Introduced in the late 1980s, the S Series is notable for being a streamlined mahogany bodied guitar with a maple neck that plays comfortably while retaining the resonance of mahogany...

 models.

Features

The E-Gen is a solid body electric guitar

Electric guitar

An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...

 made of mahogany

Mahogany

The name mahogany is used when referring to numerous varieties of dark-colored hardwood. It is a native American word originally used for the wood of the species Swietenia mahagoni, known as West Indian or Cuban mahogany....

 with a flame maple top. The neck is a five piece maple/walnut configuration. It features jumbo frets, a rosewood fingerboard and an abalone oval inlay. It features the Edge Zero

Ibanez Edge

The Ibanez Edge Tremolo is a double locking tremolo system for the electric guitar very similar in design to the original Floyd Rose. It first appeared in the Ibanez product line as of the 1986 model year, however, they have appeared on guitars with 1985 serial numbers...

 bridge as well. The pickups are custom designed by DiMarzio

DiMarzio

DiMarzio, Inc. is an United States manufacturer best known for its revolutionary direct-replacement guitar pickups. The company also produces miscellaneous guitar accessories, such as cables, straps and hardware.DiMarzio became known for its Super Distortion model, which was the first after...

.It features a bolt on wizard one neck, and is an arch top guitar. The hardware has a gold finish and the body has a transparent violet flat finish. In addition, frets 21-24 are scalloped and the routings on the upper horn of the guitar form a grip handle, alluding to the "monkey"-shaped grip handle of the Ibanez Jem

Ibanez JEM

Ibanez JEM is an electric guitar manufactured by Ibanez and first produced in 1987. The guitar's most notable user is its co-designer, Steve Vai. As of 2010, there have been five sub-models of the JEM: the JEM7, JEM77, JEM777, JEM555 and the JEM333...

 series. On May 9, Herman announced on his Facebook

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...

page that he received an Ibanez E-Gen 7 String. The details of the guitar are unknown except that its a seven string and that whether or not it will be a mass or limited production guitar for his signature guitar series. In January 2011, Herman announced the E-Gen 7 string guitar would be in Blue/White or Red/Orange.