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Ibanez S470
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Sleek and thin korean made guitar with ZR-tremolo
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Searched Ibanez S470 in Reviews
Great Intermediate Level Guitar 
| Sound |
With the stock infinity pickups this guitar actually sounded pretty good. I think you would be hard-pressed to find a guitar in the same price range which sounds better. I actually prefer the infinity pickups to the V7/V8 and DiMarzio/Ibz pickups which ibanez use in their more expensive guitars. I thought they gave a nice clean tone and solid distortion, although they were lacking the edge of some of the more expensive pickups. I eventually replaced them with DiMarzios: an Evo2 in the bridge, an Air Norton mini humbucker in the middle and a PAF Pro in the neck, which gave a much nicer sound. If you're a beginner though, I doubt you'd be unhappy with the stock set.
I found the sustain to be pretty good, but not incredible. I think (as Ibanez claim) that the shape of the body really helps here; it has most of its mass centered around the pickups with thin sides so that you get the sustain without too much weight. I would love to see how a thru-neck S series guitar would sustain.
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| Action, Fit, & Finish |
I got this when I didn't know much about guitars (it was my first with a floating trem). I lowered the action but didn't adjust the truss rod, and its pretty much stayed that way since.
No real flaws in the build quality, but you do notice a difference between this and the prestige guitars, as you would expect. I still think that, for the money I paid, this guitar was built very well. The (black) finish on mine was flawless and after about 6 years still doesn't have a single chip.
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| Reliability & Durability |
The guitar feels very solid. The neck feels strong, despite being relatively thin, and as I've yet to chip the finish at all. You do get the little swirly scratches, but I think that's just the reality of gloss black guitars.
The only real concern is the (original) ZR bridge. I loved the idea of it - Ibanez use a roller joint rather than a knife-edge which means it will never wear out and, to me at least, makes great sense in theory. It also came with a stop-bar that you can add-in or remove which is supposed to make the bridge always return to the center, even if you snap a string. This is a lie - when you break a string, it still goes out of tune quite noticeably. I think this is due to using springs instead of a mode solid mechanism like the tremol-no (which is GREAT by the way). I have heard Ibanez have fixed this on later releases, but cannot comment first hand on that. The trem arm also comes loose quite quickly, but I think this happens quite often on guitars in this price point, just because they tend to use cheaper metal in the bridge. I should also mention that the cosmo black finish does wear off a bit with time, but this isn't a major problem for me anyway.
I've probably been a bit harsh on this bridge - it compares quite well to others in this price range, but you really find out what you've been missing when you get an edge-pro. Still, the ZR is a decent bridge.
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| Customer Support |
Never had to deal with them, the guitar is still going strong.
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| Liked about it |
The neck plays so much better than anything else I could find in the price range when I was shopping around. The bridge holds its tune very well, and its easy to adjust the spring tension due to the roller-thing at the back (you don't need a screwdriver). I love the shape of the body, it's very sleek... and I love that mine is signed by Paul Gilbert :)
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| Didn't like |
The bridge could have been better, thats really about all you can fault at this price range. I would have liked 24 frets (not 22) but Ibanez have fixed this with their new range (S420, S570 etc). The inlays could have been better (I like the oval ones that appeared for a short while) but they do grow on you and are a nice alternative to the boring dots
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| Overall satisfaction: |
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4.5 |
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Pretty good but not perfect.
| Sound |
The sound is ok with standard tuning, but since I use this guitar in B, I don't have much experience with it. Anyways. The pups are HSH, inf 1, infs 1 and inf 2. The variety of sounds I can get with this pup-setup is great. Too bad I can't say the same about the quality of the sounds. As said before, I use this guitar in B-standard, with .13-.56 string gauge. The pickups lack in clarity, definition and they sound really muddy with my tuning. I can get some "ok" cleans with these, but when I kick the distortion in, they plainly suck. As soon as I get some extra money I'll buy some DiMarzios or SDs for this. Sure, if you're beginner, they sound fine and should be good enough, but not for experienced players.
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| Action, Fit, & Finish |
I bought this guitar used from 3bay, so can't say how it was from factory. I can't see any manufacturing flaws in this guitar, it's as good as "cheap" guitar's get. The only thing I like to nag about is the cosmo black finish. It just wears off.
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| Reliability & Durability |
My guitar has some serious dings in it, but the paint hasn't come off and it seems to handle abusing quite well. I wouldn't bring this to gig without backup and there's a reason for it: the tremolo unit. Sure, it's the almighty Zero Resistance (the first model of those), but it does get slightly out of tune if you snap a string (I tried it) and the tremolo arm socket is really, really weak. I broke mine almost instantly, even though it was set up good, the nut under the socket was snug and all. Oh well, it was some kind of crappy pot metal, so that was expected to happen anyway.
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| Customer Support |
Haven't dealt with the company, so cannot say.
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| Liked about it |
ZR tremolo when setting up and stability after that. It was the easiest trem ever to set up, and it's really stabile. No tuning issues here.. Except when snapping a string, but hey, I can live with that.
Neck. Got to love these ibanez necks. Smooth as butter.
Shape and size. It's really light even though it's a mahogany bodied, and slimmer than a very slim thing (?).
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| Didn't like |
Cosmo black finish on hardware. Wears off quickly.
Fretboard inlays. Like what the heck? They look like pieces of spaghetti or earthworms. No biggy though, they're just inlays.
Stock pickups. I Hate them. Really. Hate. Them. They suck.
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| Overall satisfaction: |
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4.0 |
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Great Guitar, Very Cheap As Well
| Sound |
This guitar was one of my first guitars equipped with a floating tremolo. That being said, i was not happy with how it sounded after i used the trem for a bit...the ZR trem wont keep it in tune, which in my eyes defeats the purpose of even having the trem in the first place. That is honestly my only gripe with this particular guitar though. I think the inlays are unique, the body shape is fantastic, and overall i was very pleased with how this guitar sounded, especially for the money.
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| Reliability & Durability |
Very light guitar, i feel like i might snap it in 2 because the body is so thin!! If i were to gig with it, i would bring a backup as always, especially because of that darn ZR bridge.
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| Liked about it |
I liked the overall look of the guitar: Classy inlays, Gorgeous curvatures on the body, and a nice silver finish.
I had a kill switch installed, which only made a cool guitar even cooler :)
The infinity pups were pretty how with high gain.
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| Didn't like |
I could not use the trem without knocking the tuning way outta whack.
I wish the hardware was cosmo black instead of chrome, that would look better.
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| Overall satisfaction: |
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4.0 |
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internal use: spec98 spec484
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