Hatsubai « Nice top on this »
Published on 09/06/11 at 13:23This is an S series that Ibanez released with the new Zero Resistance tremolo that they made. It's a pretty cool tremolo, and it's been used ever since on the S series. The guitar features a mahogany body with a figured top, a maple neck with a rosewood fretboard, 22 extra jumbo frets, 12th fret dot inlays, an Ibanez floyd rose, HSH configuration, one volume, one tone and a five way switch.
UTILIZATION
The guitar is super thin. If you're not a fan of thin guitars, you'll want to stay away from this. It's not something for the feint of heart. That said, it's great for those who want a very light and resonant guitar for live usage. I tend to have issues with my back, and these lighter guitars are great for that. The bridge on this is super cool, and it works so much better without the stupid stopper thing installed. Once that's removed, you can get a really cool warble going on when you start smacking the trem bar. The fretwork on this is top notch, so no issues there. The guitar felt great in pretty much every way.
SOUNDS
The guitar sounded pretty good. It was nice and resonant overall. However, the pickups in this were like dumbed down DiMarzios or something. They were IBZ pickups, and they really weren't that great. The bridge lacked the clarity that I tend to go for, and it lacked the nice bass that some of the other Ibanez guitars can sometimes have. The neck was fairly nice and clear, but it didn't seem to be nearly as organic or 3d sounding as certain other pickups tend to be. I recommend a pickup swap if you're going to keep this guitar.
OVERALL OPINION
The first thing I'd do would be to rip out the electronics and replace them with something higher quality. Once you do that, you'll have one amazing guitar that'll destroy quite a few of other, more expensive guitars out there. The neck is great, the new bridge is cool and the overall guitar just feels super slick. I recommend checking it out if you get the chance.
UTILIZATION
The guitar is super thin. If you're not a fan of thin guitars, you'll want to stay away from this. It's not something for the feint of heart. That said, it's great for those who want a very light and resonant guitar for live usage. I tend to have issues with my back, and these lighter guitars are great for that. The bridge on this is super cool, and it works so much better without the stupid stopper thing installed. Once that's removed, you can get a really cool warble going on when you start smacking the trem bar. The fretwork on this is top notch, so no issues there. The guitar felt great in pretty much every way.
SOUNDS
The guitar sounded pretty good. It was nice and resonant overall. However, the pickups in this were like dumbed down DiMarzios or something. They were IBZ pickups, and they really weren't that great. The bridge lacked the clarity that I tend to go for, and it lacked the nice bass that some of the other Ibanez guitars can sometimes have. The neck was fairly nice and clear, but it didn't seem to be nearly as organic or 3d sounding as certain other pickups tend to be. I recommend a pickup swap if you're going to keep this guitar.
OVERALL OPINION
The first thing I'd do would be to rip out the electronics and replace them with something higher quality. Once you do that, you'll have one amazing guitar that'll destroy quite a few of other, more expensive guitars out there. The neck is great, the new bridge is cool and the overall guitar just feels super slick. I recommend checking it out if you get the chance.