What else can I say when the neck, the body, the construction, and the bridge are not cheap or short on quality, yet the combination sounds bland. What else can I say when designs descending from the Saber yield more tone for less $ - yes, I am talking about the SA series and even more so about the SC.
What else can I say when I've cut my teeth on a 1990 Japanese S540 and every time I picked up another S it had that same kind of thin tone but also not enough cut. I know mine wasn't just a singled out dud, cause how many times in a row can you pick a dud with exactly the same issue? 3 times is improbable, 5 almost makes a rule.
You'd be tempted to guess that mahogany in general doesn't work for me but I didn't mind it in SGs, nor in Les Pauls, nor in a Dean V, nor in a couple of Schecters, nor in a BC Rich superstrat, nor another one by Ran and not even in some other Ibanez guitars.
What else can I say when a flatsawn maple neck that was almost a clone of my 540 in its dimensions and feel gave decent results paired with a 2-piece full-size flat top superstrat body and a 1000-series Floyd. That particular Rich wasn't really anything that much out of ordinary but tuned down it purred like a mahogany body should, while the S stays tight no matter what. Too tight is uptight; my ear says: give my tone some color!
So is it the body carve? Well, my first encounters with a KC series Washburn and a Jackson Stealth have left me impressed. These two haven't been cherry picked, just more or less random. Both have been turned into a state of disrepair by their half-witted previous owners (destructive dexterity conversion and a "fantastic" paint job are the names of their sins). Yet both guitars rang clear as a bell and a lot like each other. Their manufacturers decided on using alder for the body and the carve is not too deep.
On the other hand, the Saber's plastic riser necessary to fit the blade switch screams "overdone". It's just one more reason to convince me that the Saber's body is too thin around the edges.
I can't blame the tremolo alone when I've been blown away by what basically is an Edge-loaded strat, its incredible harmonics and touch sensitivity. That guitar sounds bright but not brittle, thin or plinky, and even despite its pronounced bite, it doesn't lack low end, and sustains just fine. But it doesn't work like that in the Saber, whose wooden parts are not very sensitive to staying excited at those particular frequencies. I haven't tried a LoPro Edge in years but I doubt it sounds significantly different to its taller brother when their parts are very similar or exactly the same. Having tried practically every decent floyd in existence and swapped them around a fair bit, I guess that a Graphtech LB63 or a Gotoh 1996T would be a better match for the S. Isn't that what you've armed yours with, kramersteen?
Then, there's nothing I like about the "wonderful" ZR. It can't be evaluated like a floyd because it is not interchangeable with other units. But for being a trem dedicated exclusively for the S-series, perhaps they could do a better job designing it with tone in mind.
Well, I think I'm done explaining why I feel the Saber is blunt. I guess I could have STFU and keep my honest opinion to myself but that's what chickens do. I've fallen out of love with the S a long time ago. I've found plenty of reasons to dislike it and not one to change my mind again. You're free to lol in disagreement as much as you want, you die-hard fans.
:beerchug: