Got my new Ibanez..need some advice/help please

[JeffB]

My new Ibanez S470 DX showed up last night. Played it for a couple of hours.

Good points

1) Love that Wiz II neck. Wow. I was flyin all over the place

2) Fit and Finish is very good considering the cost.

3) Darn thing is pretty heavy. heavier than I thought it would be. Should produce some great tones with better pickups.

4) ZR trem is great..you can really do alot without it coming out of tune and it's very smooth compared to the Floyds/copies I used to have.


Bad points:

1) Pickups. While not as horrid as I thought they would be, they certainly are not Duncans. I do believe the guitar would sound better if not for#s 2 & 3 below. Clean sounds were pretty darn good.

2) While the action is SUPA low, it also has ALOT of fret buzz on every string all over the neck. I'm no guitar tech but the neck relief looks pretty decent, as do the frets.

3) I've got a "dead" spot. When I I bend the high E string at the 12th fret, it totally farts out. But bends on the 11th or 13th fret are OK (still some buzz, but not dead) This happens unplugged and plugged in. I lowered the middle single coil (which was a bit higher than the bridge pickup) and it still occured.

I have a 45 day return policy on this guitar.
Do y'all think I should try to raise the action a bit to help the buzz and the dead spot first?

Take it to a tech and see what he/she thinks (I can't have it worked on and then be able to send it back to the vendor)

Or just send it back for a replacement?

Thank you in advance !

[MattPete]

Re: Got my new Ibanez..need some advice/help please

Raise the action to minimize the buzzing. After you do that, take a hard look at the frets around the 12th near the high-E. It sounds like one fret might be slightly higher than another. If so, you'll need to make the decision as to whether to fix it or send it back.

[jeremy]

Re: Got my new Ibanez..need some advice/help please

that sounds about right. if you are buzzing, your acton is too low. raising it should get rid of the buzzing and get a fuller sound. when you choke out on a guitar that has that flat a radius, its probably a high fret.
follow mp's advice

[JeffB]

Re: Got my new Ibanez..need some advice/help please

Thank you all for the advice.

I've got my questions in to a local tech to see if filing the fret down in combo with the charges for new pickups/installation would outweigh the hassle of returning the guitar and waiting for a replacement. Apparently this fellow is really good The Guitar Specialist.

[big_black]

Re: Got my new Ibanez..need some advice/help please

Ditch the Ibeenhad and get a Schecter.

[B2D]

Re: Got my new Ibanez..need some advice/help please

Get a good tech to do a setup for you (if you don't know how to yourself) and that'll help loads right there. New guitars never come from the factory with "your" setup in mind anyway so i usually don't judge on that until I've tweaked it.

[tone4days]

Re: Got my new Ibanez..need some advice/help please

+1 to what B2D said ... and DON'T file the frets until a REALLY REALLY REALLY qualified tech tells you it needs it ... i cannot believe that a brand new guitar needs frets cut down ... i guess this is one of the unfortunate things about buying a new guitar to be delivered instead of playing it in the shop before you buy ... i'd think that most good shops would give you a setup of a new guitar included in the price

good luck
t4d

[JeffB]

Re: Got my new Ibanez..need some advice/help please

Thank You all again for the advice. This is the first Floyd Rose equipped guitar I've had in 10 years and was a bit nervous about fooling around with it myself after such a long time.

Luckily, I have taken care of the problem by adjusting the action. Didn't take a whole lot. I raised both sides an equal amount a bit at a time, until the vast majority of buzzing was gone, and then lowered the high e string side a teeny bit at time until I got the dead note again, and then raised back up til it was gone. The action still is pretty low, but not nearly as low as it was out the box. I still will probably tweak the low e string side a tad as I think I can go a bit lower still with no buzzing.

At any rate the guitar sounds much better and no buzz/dead note. Even the pickups don't sound too bad now (though I definitely will be changing them, they aren't that good either ).