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Ibanez S520EX Electric Guitar Black
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The Ibanez S520EX is called the Extreme Metal model - and for good reason. While Ibanez S series guitars have always been able to hang in there with the hardest, heaviest metal, Ibanez decided to build an S series guitar that looked as heavy as it ...
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Searched Ibanez S520EX Electric Guitar Black in Reviews
There's better and there's worse!
| Sound |
I used it with stock pickups, I'm not keen on Ibanez stock pickups- but the guitar did give relatively good sounds- despite the THIN body.
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| Action, Fit, & Finish |
Ibanez neck, enough said. Played excellently, after I'd set it up to my taste. The ZR tremolo takes some getting used to, it can be too loose as it only has 2 springs (for my personal taste) but I love the idea of a ball bearing tremolo!
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| Reliability & Durability |
VERY RELIABLE, I doubt anything would go wrong with this for a while!
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| Customer Support |
Never dealt with Ibanez.
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| Liked about it |
I liked:
-Thin body is great for live,
-Very comfortable to play
-Looks very cool and modern.
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| Didn't like |
I disliked:
-Body too thin for Active pickup batteries without modification,
-Very light guitar, so it can be thrown about easily if your going for it (jumping about) onstage,
That's it! A great guitar!
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| Overall satisfaction: |
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4.0 |
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Not just For Metal
| Sound |
I got this in a gear trade 2nd hand after wanting an S for a while. Mine is a 2006 Korean made. Black with rosewood Fingerboard and the 12th fret inlay. Bound Neck and headstock. INF 1 and 2 pickups.
First thing that struck me was the finish. Even though the one I had had a few dings in the body, the binding on the neck and headstock is very nice. The tuners are nice and chunky and the bridge, with the ZPS system feels very solid. The system itself is very intruiging.
I'm not a massive trem user so I find the backstop system fantastic. It makes string and tuning changes a breeze and the string stiffness wheel means that I can make it feel like a hardtail without blocking the trem and whilst still being able to raise an lower the pitch when I want to. The only thing I worry about is the longevity of the hardware as there reports of the arm holder wearing out easily, though mine seems fine, is something worth thinking about. I think this trem should be used accross the whole Ibanez range as I said before its versatility and smooth ease of use is something that they should be proud of.
As with all S series guitars this balances very well and the access to the higher jumbo frets is good and playing fast is a joy.
I have noticed that the Wizard II is slightly thicker than the Wizard II on my RG. Not much but just enough and it fits my hand superbly.
Mine is the gloss finish with the covered INF1 and INF2 Pickups. I will come to those shortly.
I've been playing it through a few different setups. Line 6 POD, Boss ME-5 multi effects and a Hughes and Kettner half valve Combo. With the standard pickups I found the sound to be a little too dark and muddy The bite I was expecting from something designed for a metal guitar was just missing and with high gain it seemed a little lacklustre. I expected some EQ'ing and really noticed the difference when recording using it and that made me swap them out.
The standard pickups are something I find such a let down on the mid range Ibanez products. However I can't help thinking that this is a concious efford, so that they don't shadow the Prestige range. I was lucky, in another cheaper, less frequently played guitar I have I have the Seymuour Duncan Hotrodded humbucker set which includes the Jazz in the neck and the mighty JB in the bridge. The JB is a pickup that divides opinion. I find that its a rich bright, harmonic pickup that also cleans up very well.
I put this in the s520 and WOW what a difference it made.
Suddenly on the bridge the muddyness had gone, string attack is clear, with plenty of gain the guitar growled as I'd expect a guitar of its type to do. A little bit more gain and the mids boosted with just a tiny bit of delay it nailed an 80's metal tone, scoop the mids and you have a chunky chug metalcore type tone and played on a line 6 clean setting, the best thing POD's do IMHO, it rang really nicely with a nice shimmer to it too. Its easy to tame the highs on the JB with a tweak of the tone knob also.
The Jazz in the neck was exacly as you'd expect from a mahogony bodied guitar, smooth sounding and nice and clear.
Overall I'd say the guitar itself unplugged was excellent. It plays well accoustically once setup, and is not bad plugged in. I would suggest a pickup change though. The choice of pickups would however depend on the style you currently play.
Overall I would say a great guitar except for the Standard electronics again. This is the 3rd Ibanez with blanmd unintersting Pickups and find it such a shame.
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| Reliability & Durability |
The body and hardware do seem very strong and well put together. Even most of the workings of the bridge seem solid except for the chrome style parts which actually make it look fragile when it doesn't feel it. The Trem Arm Holder is something I won't comment on yet as I havn't had any issues yet.
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| Customer Support |
I have dealt with the UK arm of teh Ibanez ditributors once and they weren't the most helpful, just pointed me to a dealer who were very good. That was only for a piece of Floyd Rose hardware I lost. The dealer was very good however.
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| Liked about it |
The Shape (and weight):-
Its thin. Very thin compared to a Tele or a Les Paul. This one I have however isn't as light as some other s series I've played but its Heavy ina good way.
The Neck:- The usual Wizrd II neck but with a bit more thickness. Really nice in your hand and easy to use for long periods.
The Look:- I love it looks very metal, but the think twin cut means it doesn't mean its only for Brutalz!
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| Didn't like |
The Big and only real thing I didn't like about this was those bland muddy pickups. I just wish Ibanez would match pickups better. These and the horrible Powersounds I had in an old RG and the standards from My SZ320 were also pretty poor too.
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| Overall satisfaction: |
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4.0 |
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Better than RG price equivalent
| Sound |
The sound of this guitar is okay, the pickups are thin sounding and a little muddy, it still does metal and has a wide range of abilities, but it just can't perfect any certain tones.
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| Action, Fit, & Finish |
The action is set very low and it was set up in tune at the store while still in the box from the factory, all the parts were correctly placed and the knobs and switch were smooth.
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| Liked about it |
The ZR trem is much better than the edge 3, which is on RGs in the same price range, so the value is much better.
The finish looks great and the whole feel of the guitar is great for the money.
The ZPS system is a nice touch and I don't see why people complain about it, seeing as it is removable.
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| Didn't like |
Cheap pickups.
Inlay is only there for appearance, and it doesn't really grab my attention.
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| Overall satisfaction: |
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4.0 |
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Excellent if you use (and swap out the stock) pass
| Sound |
I used the stock pickups of this through a Peavey Valveking, and through a Boss ME-50.
It sounded great for Ibanez stock pickups, guitar played VERY WELL! Mahogany body had its character even with the super thin body! It also balanced very well (didn't dive at the headstock like some gibsons/epiphones do).
Could get low action with correct truss rod adjustments, and tremolo is ok- if you like the tremolo fairly solid then this guitar is a no go, you can only get 2 springs on it! I was into instrumental guitar (Joe Satriani etc) at the time I had this guitar.
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| Action, Fit, & Finish |
The place I got this from set it up for me, so I can't tell you how well set up it arrived sorry!
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| Reliability & Durability |
I would and have used this without a backup, it is reliable to put it simply.
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| Customer Support |
No experience with Ibanez, never needed to contact them which is a GOOD THING!
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| Liked about it |
Top 3 Positives:
-Played very well, very light and comfortable.
-Ibanez neck- great for many genres.
-ZR Tremolo- no more knife edge worries!
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| Didn't like |
Top 3 Negatives:
-Tremolo was almost fixed at one set 'stiffness'; I like the whammy bar to be fairly stiff to move (helps keep in tune for double stops etc) and I couldn't achieve this with this guitar, the zero point system I had experience with gave resistance in one direction whilst in the other direction the whammy bar was easier (very easy) to move. Maybe the guys where I got it from set it up wrong for what I wanted.
-CANNOT INSTALL ACTIVE PICKUPS WITHOUT REROUTING FOR BATTERY(IES). I swapped the guitar for an SZ520 (and put EMG's in the SZ without rerouting) because of this. I wanted a guitar with actives for use in heavy metal band.
-Ibanez stock pickups aren't great in my opinion, maybe these were used just to help with the price tag.
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| Overall satisfaction: |
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4.0 |
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internal use: spec98 spec484 spec552
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