|
|
Failed to execute CGI : Win32 Error Code = 3 |
| Free from a music retailer near you. |
 |
Ibanez SZ-520 Electric Guitar |
Ibanez SZ-520 Electric Guitar
It is with great joy that I get to review this awesome guitar from 'Ibanez', the SZ-520. As many of you might know, I am a huge 'Ibanez' fan and have built up quite a collection of them over the years. As far as this 'SZ' model goes, I played it about a year ago, and was so impressed, I bought one straight away.
I have played this guitar for a long time now, and have even recorded a few songs with it on my last album, so I feel qualified to give you an in-depth review of this fantastic guitar.
The 'SZ' is a descendent of the ground breaking 'Ibanez-S' model. While they all share a similar shape and mahogany body, the 'S' and 'SZ' are really very different guitars designed for very different kinds of players. The 'SZ' is the first 'S' derived design to feature a 'set-in' neck, a feature that provides greater sustain and easier upper-fret access. The 'SZ' guitars feature a 25.1" scale,
22-fret neck, that is a little bit thicker and has a very different feel than the 'S's' 25.5" scale, 24-fret neck. In addition, the 'SZ' is also much meatier in thickness than its sleek and slender 'S' ancestor for an incredibly full mahogany tone with a wide range of overtones and sustain which you can clearly hear. The 'SZ' series also features string posts with uneven heights, which insures proper tension balance.
The first impression you will get from this guitar are the very smooth lines and the flawless beautiful finish. The 'SZ' has a set-in and painted mahogany neck with a cool looking flame style logo inset on the fretboard at the 12th fret. The attention to detail in this set-in neck makes for a beautiful join with the smoothness and look of being a 'neck-thru' construction. The painted neck felt smooth and was easy to get used to. No problems here with upper fret access at all.
The body is solid mahogany and the strings are run through the body in a staggered format over the 'Gibralter-III' bridge. (The 'Gibralter-III' bridge offers fixed bridge simplicity and great sustain, smooth with no sharp edges for longer string life and playing comfort). This whole 'thru-body' and staggered stringing set up compensates for different string gauges and provides superior tonal balance, feel, articulation and sustain at any level.
It has a very attractive and distinctive 'Ibanez' headstock with three die cast tuners per side and it had no problems keeping in tune even after some pretty heavy bending. The nut was cut well and the action of the guitar straight out of the box was perfect and very low. The frets are medium sized and seated well with no sharp or overhanging edges and the fret board radius is very flat.
The 'SZ' has two 'Ibanez' designed high output humbucker pickups. These pickups have a very fat, warm tone, with heaps of harmonics coming from the bridge pickup. (Well it wouldn't be hard considering the 'SZ's'solid mahogany body). They have individual pole pieces for any further adjustment you might require, but straight from the box, the set up was excellent. Each pickup has it's own volume control and there is a single master tone control. The pickups are switched via a 3-way toggle switch, with the standard selection of neck, neck and bridge or just bridge. I found all the controls to be in the right position for me, so let's get down to playing this beast.
Playing whilst standing, the 'SZ' felt very comfortable and well balanced, although slightly heavier than my other solid bodied 'Ibanez-RG' series guitars, (don't you just love that mahogany?). It would still be very easy to play a long gig without having a sore shoulder. I played this guitar through my 'Marshall' JCM-600 and quadbox and also through an 'Ashton' Viper-30 combo at different levels, clean and dirty. I found that when playing clean, this guitar has a beautiful tone of it's own. You could make it sound very crisp and clear, but then warm as well. Switch the toggle to the middle position and there is a really nice quality for playing rhythm, and that sustain!
Switch to dirty, and this is where I think this guitar really excels. The 'Ibanez' pickups have been well matched and I had awesome harmonics and squeals coming from almost anywhere on the neck from both amps. Wind the volume control back a touch and when strumming full chords, they sounded powerful where you can hear clearly every note ringing. This guitar is a perfect set up with a great tone and a real full-bodied distortion sound that could be used for both lead and rhythm playing. Great tone for recording.
For those of you who really love your guitar specs, here they are - Scale length is 638mm / 25.1" with 22 medium frets, Width at the nut is 43mm, Width at the last fret is 57mm, Thickness at the 1st fret is 21mm, Thickness at the 12th fret is 23mm, Fretboard radius is 305.
In conclusion, I found the 'Ibanez SZ-520' to be an awesome sounding; comfortable and easy to play instrument. It had an excellent finish, with a beautiful smooth body shape and the exact tone I was after for my style of music. With a retail price tag of $1,195.00 make this professional series guitar really stand out as a great choice of instrument for any musician to add to his or her collection.